[Step-by-Step] How To Conduct a Successful Social Media Audit | Free Social Media Audit Template

In today's digital age, social media has become a powerful tool for businesses to connect with their target audience and promote their products or services. A lot of us are leveraging the power of social media to connect with our audience. So it's important to know that we are targeting the right audience to grow our brand presence right?

That’s where social media audit comes to play its crucial role.

So What is a social media audit?

A social media audit is a systematic evaluation and analysis of a business's social media presence across various platforms. It involves assessing the effectiveness of social media strategies, content, engagement, and overall performance. The purpose of a social media audit is to gain insights into how well a company is utilizing social media, identify areas for improvement, and develop a more targeted and effective social media strategy.

Here are a few key reasons why social media audits are important for businesses:

• Performance evaluation
• Brand Consistency
• Audience Insights
• Competitive Analytics
• ROI Assessment
• Optimization and Strategy Refinement

In short, a social media audit is essential for businesses to assess their social media performance, gain audience insights, stay competitive, and optimize their strategies allowing them to make data-driven decisions and achieve their social media goals effectively.

You won't need to worry about doing all the social media audits manually, simply you can use the power of Picmaker Social Analytics features to do the social audits for you.

Or simply download our Social audit checklist to measure your social performance.

Yay! You have got the idea of social media audit and its importance in business needs. Here comes the next step. How to perform a social media audit and what are the essential steps?

How to do a Social Media Audit?

Here is the six-step social media audit checklist for all your needs.

1. List your social media channels
2. Check/Optimize your social media channels according to your brand styles 
3. Analyse/Understand your social platforms 
4. Find the best-performing social content across each channel
5. Document your findings
6. Define new goals and kpis

To begin with, the first step is to assess and evaluate all your social profiles. Make a list of the social media platforms your business is active on. Include major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and any niche-specific platforms relevant to your industry. 

This step ensures that you don't overlook any important platforms in your audit. Make sure to add any new accounts that you are planning to add to this list, because it may give you an edge over your competitors. 

Also don't include any social media channels that you no longer use (if you need to restart the channel you may include them - subject to the users). 

Evaluate the profile information across all your social media accounts. Check if your branding elements, such as logos, cover photos, and profile descriptions, are consistent and aligned with your brand identity. Verify that contact details and website links are accurate and up to date.

Here are the few key items to consider when optimizing your social media channels

1. Profile and Cover Images 

Make Sure all your profile and cover images are updated in the specified social media size guides. Also, make sure that all profile and cover images reflect your brand styles. If you need assistance in maintaining the social media size guides check out the blog here(Social media image size guides).

As per the above image, you can see the profile images and banner images are well optimized which also resonates with the brand styles.

2. Profile/Bio contents

Profile or bio contents might be tricky because you have very limited space to make the impression. Make sure to create all your social bios which reflect your brand styles. 

You can see the profile and all the bio contents are properly optimized, the links redirect to the website and the images and posts resonate with the brand styles.

3. Links

Links are the pathways for the end users to connect with your website or brand. So it's highly important to ensure all your links are directed to your website or the required landing page.

4. User Names

Maintaining the same user name across all the social channels will help to maintain the brand identity and helps in product discovery as well.

Eg: @picmakerhq

A Sample image displaying the username and website link in the bio section.

5. Verifications

If you are not verified in the social media channels (Eg, Blue tick mark on Twitter), try to get verified, because it will help you gain your users' trust and provide brand identity.

Analyze the content you've shared on each platform. Examine the engagement metrics of your social media accounts.  Analyze the trends and patterns in audience engagement to understand what content and tactics are working well and what needs improvement.

Look at factors like follower count, reach, impressions, likes, comments, shares, and click-through rates. This data allows you to find each platform’s strengths and weaknesses for your business.

To make your work simpler we have made a free social media checklist document for you, which will help you to record the findings without any data points.

Or to make the process simpler use Picmaker’s social media analytics tool to automate your social analytics. 

The main purpose of conducting social media audits is to pinpoint the content that strongly connects with your audience and replicate such posts. Find out which types of posts are engaging well with your users like videos, reels, carousels and etc. If you need help in finding the engagement metrics for the social media channels read the detailed guide from us on how to find the engagement rates for your social media channels.

A Sample Image for Instagram Analytics

Comparing posts across various channels can pose a challenge due to the slight variations in metrics employed by different users. Simply you can use built-in analytics tools from each social media tool to find the best-performing content. 

However, pause for a moment: that process could be time-consuming and never-ending. Instead, simplify your life by utilizing Picmaker Social’s Analytics. With just a few clicks, you can conveniently discover the top posts for all your social accounts in a single location.

Record your observations, insights, and recommendations in a structured manner. Create a document or spreadsheet to compile all the data, metrics, and analysis. This documentation will serve as a reference point for future audits and help you track progress over time. 

Or simply download the social media audit template and start adding your numbers without breaking a sweat.

Click here to download the ultimate social media audit template

Based on your findings, you could have identified the areas where you can improve your social media presence and performance. Create a detailed action plan that outlines the steps you'll take to optimize your social media strategy. 

In other words, you can adopt the S.W.O.T model for defining your social media KPIs.

The model could help you in enhancing branding consistency, refining content strategy, increasing audience engagement, adopting successful tactics used by competitors and more. To achieve the above metrics assign responsibilities, set timelines, and allocate resources accordingly. Break down the plan into manageable tasks to ensure successful implementation. 

Once your goals are defined, it becomes easier to select the right key metrics that you need to keep in your social media goals. 

Kindly make sure to monitor the impact of your adjustments on key metrics and track the progress over time. Regularly review and update your social media strategies based on ongoing analysis and feedback. Or simply deploy a social media management tool to automate your social media audit reports at regular intervals, so that you don't need to rely on manual social analytics processes.

By following this step-by-step guide, you'll be able to conduct a comprehensive social media audit, gain valuable insights, and take proactive steps to optimize your social media presence for better business results.

Recommended Reads:

• How To Calculate Social Media Engagement Rates
• 10 Best Social Media Management Tools
• Best Time To Post On Social Media
• Best Time To Post On Pinterest
• Best Time To Post On Twitter