A social media audit is a series of steps taken to evaluate and optimize the company’s profiles on these channels and help optimize its strategy. Due to the relevance of online presence for businesses today, a study thus focused allows evaluating growth, opportunities and areas for improvement based on metrics that help to understand social presence better.
In practice, a social media audit helps the business reorient its social media marketing and better align it with its business goals. It is achieved by providing visibility on aspects related to performance, a key point of reference to decide on such relevant issues as what needs to change or what should be the priorities in the future.
What does a social media audit entail?
Conducting a social media audit helps develop or adjust a strategy for these channels and meets business goals in specific and achievable terms.
This study involves collecting and analyzing detailed data from all social media accounts. The metrics that can be used in the process include activity, results, audience and financial investments (including advertising investment). All aspects of social media marketing need to be audited to get a complete picture.
The step-by-step process for conducting a social media audit is:
- Step 1: Identify Marketing Goals. You need to know what is being measured, and these goals will act as a benchmark against which to measure the success of your networking campaigns.
- Step 2: compile all existing social media profiles. Focusing only on active networks, it is best to work with data for at least six months to a year. To do this, you have to define the KPIs with which you will follow up. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn have native analytics functions that allow you to choose a period and export that data to analyze it, for example, in a spreadsheet.
- Step 3: analyze the data. With the data compiled, it’s time to look at the types of posts and the platforms as a whole. Which platform contributed the best to the objectives? What kind of posts were made in line with the dreams? Based on this information, it is necessary to identify gaps where opportunities for improvement are appreciated and try to find out what content should be created on each platform based on the observed results. The idea is to measure the sentiment behind the posts and get an idea of how the audience reacts to the different things posted on social media.
- Step 4: identify the gaps. The purpose of the social media audit is to use the information to improve the strategy continually. Therefore, you have to see where the company is doing well and areas for improvement. First, you start by identifying the types of content that work best (find ways to create more content like that). Then, you would have to look at gaps in the strategy where the information gleaned from the audit could be capitalized on.
In short, it is about:
- Track all social media accounts.
- Make sure each account is complete and represents the brand.
- Identify the best posts.
- Evaluate the performance of each channel.
- Track results over time.
- Calculate the return on investment.
- Understand the audience of each network.
- Decide which channels are the most suitable.
Once the social media audit is complete, use the insights from the analysis to update the strategy. In practice, it is clear that the more that is published in this type of media, the more data points will be available to analyze and adapt the strategy.
Do you want to collect information about the preferences, interests and types of content of that audience with whom you want to interact? So please don’t put it off for later and run a social media audit. As you continue to improve your strategy and post more frequently, you will continue to get to know your audience and use that information to drive business growth.
Also Read: What Is Social Media Management?
