A social media audit is defined as the process of evaluating one’s social media health, from a business standpoint, before finding ways to improve it. Not only does this process help business owners understand what they’re doing well on social media but areas where they should focus their efforts moving forward. Social media audits are among the most common services that social media marketing agencies provide, improving the social media wellness of their clients moving forward. Furthermore, there are numerous steps that should be taken to ensure that audits are run well. With this in mind, here are 6 ways to run a successful social media audit.
Make note of all social media accounts your business uses. One of the ways to run a successful social media audit is by noting the various social media accounts associated with your business. Keep in mind that this goes far beyond the accounts that your business may use on a regular basis, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram included. There may be other social media profiles that you created in the past but left by the wayside. It’s also worth noting the possibility of accounts under your business name that you don’t own, which is where intervention on your part will be needed. If you’re a business owner in the New York area, a Long Island advertising agency can help with claiming ownership of accounts with your business name attached to them.
Keep branding in mind with your social media accounts. Next, be sure that your company’s branding lines up with the various social media accounts you own. Branding is nothing short of a layered process and it’s another area where a seasoned online marketing agency can assist. Keep in mind that branding includes everything from written copy to visual media such as graphics and videos. These elements come together to create branding that helps the general public better identify a company. Include such details as a cover image, well-written bio, and relevant links for each account to run a better social media audit.
Consider your top-performing social media content. If you’re running a content strategy on your social media platforms, there’s a good chance that some pieces of content will perform better than others. This information will go a long way in helping you run a better social media audit. Many factors determine how well a piece of content performs. Such factors include, but aren’t limited to, the number of impressions or views a piece of content receives, not to mention the number of likes and comments that users leave. Use this data for more refined social media marketing efforts moving forward.
Assess each social media platform’s performance. Now it’s time to look at each social media platform’s individual performance. It’s important to note that each platform should be evaluated differently, meaning that no one set of criteria is going to apply across the board. For instance, you may not see the same level of user engagement on Instagram as you would on Twitter. Furthermore, your key performance indicators, or KPIs, may be different from one platform to another, which makes this process all the more granular. By gauging performance across different platforms, you’ll be better able to conduct a social media audit.
Know your audience for each social media platform. Another area in which social media platforms vary is the audience that each attracts. Whether in regard to age, gender, or geography, just to name a few variables, it’s important to know demographics across said platforms. While it may seem difficult to pinpoint what kind of audiences your social media accounts attract, rest easy knowing that there are online resources to help you along the way. Analytics tools are especially useful in this regard, so keep these in mind when running your first or next social media audit.
Plan regular social media audits over time. Not unlike any other marketing strategy, such as search engine optimization or content creation, social media audits are meant to be conducted on a regular basis. Otherwise, you’ll be less efficient at gauging your company’s social media performance, meaning that you’ll be unable to make adjustments when needed or, conversely, make adjustments that weren’t needed to begin with. While there’s no set rule as to how often a social media audit should be run, doing so on a quarterly or biannual basis would be best.
About fishbat: fishbat is a full-service NYC digtal marketing agency that takes a holistic business approach to their clients’ digital marketing programs. The fishbat team understands the importance of business principles just as well as the nuances of the latest digital technologies. fishbat offers every digital marketing service available from digital marketing research and planning to brand development to website and asset creation through social media management and search engine optimization programs – all custom calibrated for both B2B and B2C businesses.
