How to Run a Social Media Audit in 7 Simple Steps (+ Free Template)

Audit. Improve. Execute. Repeat.

Social media marketing should be a key part of your marketing strategy. You need to know how to conduct a social media audit.

But, many businesses aren’t willing to invest the time or money in a social audit.

They end up drowning in surplus money, time and labor over the long-term.

We have created a step-by–step guide to help you run a successful social media audit.

You will start with clients as an agency by auditing their social channels. If you are a company, then a social audit is required to improve your strategies.

Wait! Wait!

Let’s go.

What is a Social Media Assessment?

A social media audit, in simple terms, is a step by step process to evaluate, track, and compile all of your social media accounts.

You don’t need to be afraid of a tax audit. Instead, you can view it as a health checkup every quarter or year.

It is important to identify what works and what doesn’t with social media metrics. This will allow you to easily access new data-driven strategies.

Why is it important to run a social media audit?

You don’t want to spend the time to do a social media audit? Let me tell you why.

Choose the right channel. Just as your brand is unique from the person next to you, so are your target audience and their social media channels. An audit will help you determine which social media channels are best for you.

The real growth. A year-on-year, or QOQ, breakdown of all metrics from all social channels shows you the true picture of growth. You can also identify the true growth drivers with a thorough audit.

Align with Goals: The social media audit structure allows you to monitor and review KPIs that directly align with your marketing goals.

Find the imposters: We help you identify the fake accounts and other people who are blocking your access to your active profiles.

How to run a social media audit?

It doesn’t really matter what type of business you have or the clients that you work for; as long as your client has a social media presence then the audit process will work.

As you prepare to conduct your first audit, most likely you will follow the steps. Download our social media audit template to help you jot down all the information.

Step 1: Gather all your social profiles

Begin by gathering every social media account that is associated with your/client and putting it in the sheet.

It might seem trivial, but you do know your social media profiles. You do know all your social media profiles, but you still need to do this exercise so that you don’t forget about any inactive profiles.

You may also be shocked to discover unofficial accounts for your brand created by affiliates and imposters. Get them closed.

It is important to have a single list of all social profiles so that you can monitor and discover new opportunities on every channel.

Now, let’s get out there and search for your brand name on Google and all other social media networks. Every network is important, whether you are doing an Instagram audit or looking at your Facebook pages.

SocialPilot allows you to quickly schedule posts and connect social networks that are important in determining the growth of your clients or brand.

Step 2: Correct all Branding Inconsistencies

Once you have a list of all your social networks accounts, check to see if they are all consistent in branding.

Your audience will trust you and your brand consistently.

Make sure every social media channel is up to date and has the same look and voice as your creatives, promotions and campaigns.

Take a look at how consistent our social profiles are across all platforms.

These are some things to look out for when using social media channels.

• Cover and profile image
• Profil bio
• Profile description
• Pin it
• Destination URLs and landing Pages
• Use hashtags for your brand and campaigns
• Verification

Step 3: Determine Your Social Media Goals

Your audit without goals is just as bad as a car driving in the dark on a freeway with no headlights.

You will discover there are many insights in any social media channel if you dive into them right now.

Multiple social metrics.

Do you think each one is worth evaluating? You might be right.

This is where social goals are necessary.

It is easier to identify the right social media goals for each platform and then evaluate with your social media audit.

Remember that you can have different goals on different social media channels.

Is it growing your followers, converting more people, or creating a community of influencers?

Step 4: Define your KPIs

Once you have defined your goals, it is easier to identify the key metrics that you should keep in your social media audit.

Here are the metrics of an Instagram audit based on different goals.

Let’s suppose that one of your goals involves increasing engagement on Facebook. Then you will need to track KPIs such as engagement rate, comments and likes.

These are some common metrics that can be included in an audit.

• Information about your account
• Metrics of engagement
• Publishing metrics
• Audience demographics
• Referral traffic

You can find the KPIs table in our social media audit template. Simply enter the numbers.

Another thing!

Your first audit should be a snapshot of your current social media presence. This will serve as a baseline for future audits.

It is therefore crucial that your audit shows the month, quarter, or year-overyear percentage change of various metrics.

Why?

• Regular seasonal changes can be detected by timely tracking
• It shows you how time has affected growth.
• It helps to make timely changes

How to track social media analytics for agencies

Do you work for an agency and are you looking for a simple way to track the metrics of multiple clients.

SocialPilot has an amazing analytics feature which allows you to download PDF reports and get crucial insights from multiple social media channels.

Step 5: Identify the Top-Performing Social Content

Social media audit’s purpose is to produce content that adds value to customers and returns on your investments.

This is why it’s important to know what content types bring you the most glory, and then double your efforts.

What is your audience liking already? Are they the info-rich videos? The polls, questions and chats?

Another way is to say it: Which posts are helping your social media goals succeed?

Dig deep into your analytics to find out which social media posts are generating the most engagement, impressions, and reach.

Do you want a simpler route? SocialPilot’s analytics can show you which posts are the most popular and which hashtags are the most popular for multiple accounts.

You can also include the best time for posting on social media to each account.

This information will allow you to create a social media calendar that is successful and delivers high-quality content.

Step 6: Calculate your Social Media ROI

Calculate your social media return-on-investment (ROI) to get a true picture of the value that your social media marketing has brought to your business.

Simply put, social marketing ROI is how much you get from the time, money and effort you invest in social media marketing.

But not all social efforts can translate into money.

You will need to quantify the non-monetary metrics that are derived from your social goals in such instances.

Step 7: Understanding the Audit through SWOT Analysis

Your social media audit template should now be complete.

The main task now is to analyze the audit and develop a strategy for social media marketing.

This exercise is designed to help you understand your current situation and plan for the future.

You can assess the state of your social media efforts by simply looking at the percentage changes over time of your key metrics.

An overview of your social audit template will show you which thriving social networks are most important to your attention.

What’s next? With the help of SWOT analysis, you can create a new plan.

Yes, SWOT analysis can be used to identify strengths and weaknesses in order to create an actionable plan.

This is done by breaking down your analysis into four sections.

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats

To perform SWOT analysis easily, make sure you have a space that is well-organized in our audit template.

Social Media Audit Checklist for Future Audits

Let’s take a look at the checklist for social media that you can use to quickly audit future projects.

Create a list of all social media accounts to identify branding issues.

To identify valuable KPIs, you need to determine your social media goals

To create the best content, you need to research your audience

Find your most-performing content and make more

Calculate your engagement rate monthly, quarterly or yearly

To understand engagement patterns, monitor your posting frequency

Take down your referral traffic so you can identify the social media channels that drive the most traffic to the website.

To recognize current growth and to make a plan for the future, do a SWOT analysis

You can also ignore all this and simply use our social media audit template. This will allow you to quickly perform your social media assessment.

Get ready to audit!

Without a data-backed strategy, your social media presence and clients’ can’t thrive.

A social media audit is a deep dive into the data that affects social growth.

You can perform an audit of all your social media channels using the steps above to establish a winning social presence.

An audit is not something that should be done once and done. To find new opportunities or setbacks, it is important to keep an audit of your social performance.

Once you’re ready to deploy your audited plan to scale, use SocialPilot as a scheduling tool to help your business grow seamlessly.

SocialPilot is the most powerful social media management tool available. It offers unparalleled scheduling, collaboration and analytics as well as social inbox features.

You can try it for yourself! Get started today with a free trial, or schedule a demo phone call.

SocialPilot’s first post, How to Run a Social Media Audit In 7 Easy Steps (+ A Free Template), appeared first on SocialPilot.