Conducting a Social Media Audit

If you are using social media for your small business, you understand that having a strategy is important for your success. Unfortunately, many businesses tend to set aside their social media strategy for a later time and forget to return to it. Before jumping back into your social media, you should complete a comprehensive review of your platforms. The purpose of reviewing your social media accounts is to give you a complete understanding of their current performance. With that firm understanding, you can begin to develop short-term goals and long-term strategies. As with any aspect of your business, you need to review on a regular basis to determine if your goals and objectives are being reached. As most people do not know where to begin, conducting a social media audit is a great place to begin as you start to strategize.

What exactly is a social media audit?

In plain terms, a social media audit is when you collect all the information you have about your social media accounts in one place. This helps you keep track of all business social media accounts that you have on any given platform. Compiling all the information you have about your social media profiles will help you develop a big picture and greater understanding of your brand on social media. Through conducting an audit, you can identify the weaknesses you have on social media as well as the strengths. To jump-start your social media audit, here are the beginning steps you should be taking.

1.) Collect your existing profiles.

As you begin your social media audit, you first need to collect the existing profiles you have across all social media platforms. Aside from the obvious platforms like Facebook or Instagram, consider the other platforms that you may have been inactive on for the past couple of years. Do you have a Pinterest that you created and have not used recently? A quick Google search should tell you, but to be thorough you should search across all platforms. Knowing where your business has accounts and is active can help you uncover new opportunities moving forward.

2.) Evaluate the current status of each platform

After collecting an inventory of your social media platforms, you can evaluate the status of each platform. How active are you on each account? Are you posting multiple times a week or are you posting inconsistently? Understanding the frequency of your posting schedule will identify the strengths you have established as well as the areas in which you can improve. It is important to find a balance on your social media platforms. To find that correct balance requires planning. You should be posting content regularly, but not overwhelming your audience.

3.) Make sure your branding, promotions, and language are consistent

Along with the consistency of your posting schedule, take a look at the content you are posting. Is there a consistent message? Do you have consistent hashtags that you use across different accounts and platforms? Keeping your tone of voice and message cohesive across all social media accounts will help reinforce your brand. As you evaluate the status of each account, take note of the tone of voice, profile pictures, and branding you use across each account.

Along with the messaging, analyzing the visuals on your social media is important too. When posting a custom graphic are you using your brand colors? Is your logo on your custom images and graphics? All of this helps strengthen the brand of your business and elevates your social media presence. For brand recognition, it is important to keep your social media consistent across all your platforms. This means using the same colors, branding, and profile pictures on each account.

4.) Make a note of what is doing well

What social media posts have been performing the best on each account? For example, you may find that more informative posts have higher engagement on LinkedIn, but more personal content has a higher engagement on Facebook. Understanding what performs the best on each platform will provide you with the insight to customize your strategy for your social media. Some of the numbers you should be looking into include likes, comments, reach, shares, saves, and views. Keeping track of the engagement on your social media content will allow you to optimize your content for your audience. As you begin to implement your social media plan, you can now compare your new analytics to the analytics of when you first started.

5.) Discover your demographic

When posting on social media, do you know who is viewing your content? One way to begin understanding who makes up your target audience is to think of who your brand serves. Is it an older generation who spends more time on Facebook? Or is your demographic a younger crowd who enjoys videos on Instagram? Understanding your audience can help your brand communicate relevant content in the best way possible. When you collect your social media profiles across each platform, begin thinking about who is within your target audience? By identifying who you are communicating with on social media, you can begin building your plan. Knowing where you should be concentrating your efforts will help optimize your time while providing you with the best results. As you take the time to understand your target audience will help your brand build a relevant base with its following.

6.) Identify new opportunities

After reviewing all aspects of your social media, where do you see room for improvement? Are you posting content regularly? Is your tone of voice different depending on the day or what platform you are posting to? Looking into your social media with the lens of finding new opportunities will allow you to develop new goals for your social media that align with your business.

7.) Create new goals and objectives for your social media

One way to hold yourself accountable is by setting a goal that you can measure across a specific period of time. The reason you complete a social media audit is to capture the big picture of how your social media accounts are performing. With the new knowledge of your social media presence, you can make informed decisions about your goals. The goals you can establish for your social can be anything from growing your following, increasing your engagement, or simply posting regularly. Creating a custom goal for your brand will allow your business to thrive on social media.

Keeping up with your social media can be an overwhelming task. That is why the team here at Hyperchat Social works to be an extension of your brand. We take the time to understand you, your business, and your goals. We know that running your business's social media accounts requires strategy, content, dedicated time, and long-term commitment. Book a free consultation today to see how we can help your social media strategy go from good to great!