How to Conduct a Social Media Audit
If you’ve been posting on social media for your business for a while, (and chances are you have because – well social media has been around a while now), you might be wondering how effective your efforts really are.
- Are you reaching the right people?
- Are you sharing the right content?
- Are you getting any return on the time and resources you’re putting in?
This is where a social media audit comes in handy.
A social media audit helps you assess the current state of your social media presence and identify areas for improvement, making sure that what you are doing is aligned with your marketing and/or social media goals.
So, to help you be awesome at your social media, here are some steps on how to conduct a social media audit, and help you understand how it can help your business grow.
What Is a Social Media Audit?
A social media audit is a detailed review of your social media platforms.
It’s about looking at your data, content, engagement, and overall strategy to see what’s working, what’s not, and where you can improve.
Conducting a social media audit is a really important step in making sure your social media aligns with your business goals, and that you’re getting a return on your investment, whether that be time or money.
Why Conduct a Social Media Audit?
Before we get into the how, let’s talk about why conducting a social media audit is important.
If you’re running a business, chances are you’re already strapped for time. So it’s important to understand why you should invest time in an audit?
Here are some really good reasons:
- Understand what's working (and what isn't): A social media audit gives you clear data on which posts and platforms are getting the most engagement and which aren’t. That means you can focus on what’s working and stop wasting time on things that don’t deliver the results you’re looking for.
- Identify trends: Over time, your ideal clients preferences might shift. An audit helps you stay on top of any trends, so you’re not using outdated approaches.
- Track progress: Whether you're just starting out or have been doing social media for years, an audit shows you how far you've come. Plus it can help you identify where you need to go next.
Now that we’ve covered why an audit is important, let’s look at what’s involved in conducting a social media audit.
Steps to Conduct a Social Media Audit
1. Gather Information on Your Social Media Profiles
Start by making a list of all your active (and inactive) social media profiles. It’s common for businesses to have old accounts they no longer use, and an audit is a great opportunity to clean those up.
Create a spreadsheet where you track the following for each platform:
- Profile URL
- Handle/username
- Number of followers
- Posting frequency
- Engagement rate (likes, comments, shares)
- Any key statistics (click-through rate, traffic from social media, etc.)
This gives you a snapshot of where each platform stands. Don’t worry if it’s not all looking perfect: this is about gathering information and data so you can improve it later.
2. Check for Consistency Across All Platforms
One thing that often gets overlooked in social media is brand consistency. You want your social media profiles to reflect your business in a unified way, regardless of the platform.
Check for the following:
- Profile images and cover photos: Are they the same or similar across platforms? Is your logo clear and recognisable?
- Bios/descriptions: Are you using the same tone of voice and style in your bios? Is your messaging consistent?
- Links: Are you linking to the correct website or landing pages?
- Handles: Ideally, your handles should be the same across all platforms. If they’re not, this is something to consider adjusting to make it easier for people to find you.
Consistency helps build brand recognition, making it easier for your ideal clients to identify and engage with you.
3. Evaluate Your Content Performance
Now it’s time to look at the content you’re posting. What types of posts are getting the most engagement? What’s falling flat?
What to review:
- Post types: Are videos performing better than photos? Are you using carousels or stories? Analyse which formats are generating the most interest.
- Engagement rates: Look at the likes, shares, comments, and saves on each post. Engagement is often a stronger indicator of success than follower count.
Note: I have a lot of conversations about engagement with clients who think that their socials have low engagement. However, compare your business’s engagement with the average global engagement – more often than not you’ll actually be doing well.
As an example, in August 2024, Facebook’s global average public engagement rate was 0.03% and the average private engagement rate was 0.93% (Source: Social Status). Explaining the difference between public and private engagement is for another day – however if your engagement rate is over 1-2% then you can consider you’re doing pretty well. - Best-performing content: Identify the top 10 posts on each platform. What do they have in common? Are they informative, funny, or inspiring? This will help you understand what resonates with your ideal clients.
- Underperforming content: It’s just as important to look at what didn’t work. Which posts got the least engagement, and why? Were they poorly timed, off-brand, or irrelevant to your ideal clients?
4. Assess your ideal client demographics
Understanding who your ideal clients are is probably the most important thing you can do to make sure your content connects with the right people.
All social media platforms provide insights, so make sure you look at your analytics on each one to know:
- Who is engaging with your content: What are their age groups, locations, genders, and interests?
- Are you reaching your ideal clients: Compare this data to your target demographic. If there’s a disconnect, you may need to adjust your content strategy.
This step helps you ensure that your social media marketing aligns with your overall business goals.
Don’t forget to consider the psychographics of your ideal clients too, when reviewing the above.
5. Analyse Competitor Activity
A social media audit isn’t just about looking at your own profiles. It’s also worth looking at what your competitors are doing. This can give you insights into industry trends and opportunities for improvement.
Take note of the following for your top competitors:
- Which platforms they’re using: Are they on platforms you’re not? Should you be there too? Tip: only if your ideal clients are on there too.
- How often they post: Are they posting more or less frequently than you?
- Types of content: What kind of content are they sharing, and what seems to be working for them?
- Engagement levels: Are their posts getting more or less engagement than yours?
Competitor analysis can highlight gaps in your own strategy and give you ideas for new approaches. But don’t copy – that’s just icky. Use them for inspiration, yes! Copy, it’s a hard no – people know when you copy someone else. And that does not make you look good.
6. Review Your Goals
So, once you’ve gathered all the above info, it’s time to compare it to your social media goals. Is everything you’re doing aligned with the objectives you set out to achieve? For example:
- Are you driving enough traffic from social media to your website?
- Is your ideal client base growing steadily?
- Are you increasing your brand awareness and engagement?
If you don’t have specific goals in place, then you need to set some. If you don’t have goals, how do you know when something is working well (or not) or if you’re actually succeeding!
Use all the information from your audit to help you set up measurable objectives for the future.
7. Create an Action Plan
Once you’ve completed your social media audit, it’s time to act on it.
Now, this could be as simple as tweaking your existing content strategy, increasing your posting frequency, or even dropping platforms that aren’t delivering results. Or you might need to start at the beginning and understand who your ideal clients are and develop an overarching strategy.
However, in the spirit of keeping it simple, here’s how to create an action plan from your audit:
- Set goals: Based on your audit, set clear, measurable goals for each platform.
- Implement changes: Adjust your content, posting schedule, and platform focus based on what you’ve learned.
- Monitor progress: Regularly track your analytics to see if your changes are having the desired effect.
A well-done audit can significantly boost your social media results, but it’s important to revisit this process every few months to stay on top of changing trends and algorithms.
Choosing a Social Media Auditor
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the idea of conducting your own social media audit, you can always enlist the help of a professional, like me!
A social media auditor will not only help you gather the data but also provide expert insights and recommendations on how to optimise your social media presence.
Look for someone with a proven track record of success, who understands both the technical and creative aspects of social media marketing (aka starfish marketing).
Take Charge of Your Social Media
A social media audit might sound like a lot of work, but the insights you gain are worth it.
Whether you’re looking to improve engagement, drive more traffic to your website, or better connect with your ideal clients, an audit is the first step toward a more effective social media strategy.
And if you're feeling stuck, outsource to starfish marketing: I can help guide you through the process and keep you on track or complete the process for you.
