How to Conduct a Social Media Audit in 8 Easy Steps

There’s absolutely no point in spending your time and money on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising if your own social media accounts are inconsistent, out of date and with links not working. Your advert might take people to a landing page, but generally most people will also check social media accounts and your main website before purchasing. Therefore, ensuring your social media profiles are up to date is essential.

Even if your social media profiles are current, conducting an audit will also help you understand more about your own brand – content that works on one platform might not necessarily work as well on others. 

Keep reading to discover my tips on how you can conduct your own social media audit.

What is a social media audit?

Firstly, it isn’t a long tedious process that will take hours of your time. This assumption by many businesses means they simply don’t conduct social media audits and are therefore missing out on valuable insights and data, in addition to ensuring general information is up to date.

A social media audit is a process where you regularly review and evaluate your social media pages, focusing on your profile, content, followers and engagement. We want to establish brand consistency across all platforms and look at what content is working and what isn’t with a view to increasing our social media presence.

This is particularly important when it comes to PPC advertising because you do need to establish what type of content your potential client likes, so the audit is great preparation for any PPC advertising. You can find out more information about PPC reporting metrics in this blog post.

The Process

It’s a good idea to create a template that you can use for future reference. In fact, if you google social media audit templates you will find many that are available for free.

  1. List all your social media channels, and make a note of follower counts, url's and posting frequency.
  2. Check tabs, bio’s and “About” sections have been completed and are up to date. Are your social media pages consistent across all channels or are banner headers and profile pictures different?
  3. You may notice that you haven’t used a particular social media profile for a long time. Why is that? If your target market isn’t using that social media platform, then delete the profile. Use your time wisely and focus on the platforms where your potential clients are.
  4. Make a list of your top three posts on each platform. Are there consistencies between these posts? What type of posts are they – video, case studies etc. We are tying to establish why this content resonates with your audience.
  5. Each platform has its own engagement metrics, and you will need to spend some time locating this information. But once you have done this you will know exactly where to look next time. And of course, if you are thinking about PPC advertising you will need to gain an understanding of these metrics anyway to know exactly how your ads are performing.
  6. On all the platforms you can review metrics by timeframe and it’s important to select the same timeframe for each platform. You also need to ensure that when you audit in the future you are using the same timeframe ie 2 months.
  7. The amount of data available to you can be a bit overwhelming, so picking the metrics that matter is key here. Look at engagement metrics (reactions, comments, shares), impressions and reach, audience demographics, referral traffic, hashtags and sentiment analysis.
  8. Once you have all your data for each platform it’s now time to look at what’s working well and what’s not. Are there patterns across all platforms? Do specific platforms have more engagement at specific times. Who is engaging? What content is performing better?

Using this information, you can then develop a few social media goals. Perhaps you wish to increase your posting frequency.  Do you want to drive more people to your website? Or perhaps you wish to boost brand engagement? Setting SMART goals means that you can track your progress and review it when it comes to your next audit.

Taking the time to create a template, work out what metrics to track, analysing your data and setting goals enables you to not only establish what is or isn’t working, but allows you to take control of your social media and achieve those goals.

Did you know that I offer a FREE PPC audit? I will look at different aspects of your PPC account to make sure everything is set up as it should be. And I also look at where you are wasting money and opportunities for improvements. Contact me to book your FREE PPC audit.

Stacey Pledge Google Ads Specialist

About Stacey Pledge

I'm a Google Ads Specialist helping clients across the UK, Europe and the US get the best from their Google Ads campaigns and reach their business goals.

Want the latest tips and news from the world of PPC and Me?

Hop onboard my mailing list to receive my latest tips, news and PPC blog posts.
Subscribe

Want the latest tips and news from the world of PPC?

Enter your details below to subscribe

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up. I hope you enjoy the content coming your way!

searchclosedownloadmap-markerchevron-leftlinkedin-squarephonefacebookenvelopelinkedininfoxingpaper-planepinterest-pwhatsappcommentingcrosschevron-downarrow-leftarrow-right linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram