Posted on: August 15, 2023
By Lara Beckius, Marshall Communications’ 2023 summer intern from Connecticut College
It’s 2023, and social media runs the world, right? Pretty much.
As of May 2023, an estimated 4.9 billion people actively use social media worldwide. That’s more than half the world’s population.
In the United States alone, 72.3% of the population is active on social media. The average American spends two hours and 24 minutes scrolling through brightly colored photos and entertaining videos each day. Since these platforms capture so much of the world’s attention, it only makes sense that marketers are devoting more and more attention to social media strategy.
It can be quite difficult, however, to keep up with the rapidly changing landscape of social media marketing. What’s working? What isn’t? Where are the best growth opportunities? Can “likes” be turned into profits?
That’s where a social media audit comes in. A social media audit is a complete review of a business’s or organization’s social media presence. It looks at analytics, market research, and competitor benchmarks and helps determine needed improvements and set achievable goals. A social media audit is an incredibly valuable way to check in, assess your current level of financial and time investment, track progress, and ensure that all facets of posting are optimized. You can undertake your own audit in-house or enlist an outside firm to provide an objective evaluation and advice on best practices.
A social media audit shouldn’t be a one-time undertaking. It is essential to conduct a periodic review of all social media accounts to determine the best path forward.
When should you do a social media audit?
There are several signs that it’s time for a social media audit. Whether it’s driven by a change in company policy or staffing, a desire for more engagement, frustration with how time-consuming social media can be, or curiosity about your online presence’s strengths and weaknesses, it is worthwhile to review how your social media accounts speak for your brand.
An audit is also useful when you need new content ideas, want to capture a wider audience, or are determining how much time and money you want to invest in overall production and maintenance. To ensure continued growth and maximum efficiency, a review of all social media accounts should be completed at least once a year.
This flowchart can help you decide if it’s time for your business to complete a social media audit:
What are the benefits of a social media audit?
A social media audit generates a comprehensive overview of all accounts and content and typically includes insights about engagement analytics and audience preferences. It also provides a deeper look at the latest industry trends and competing businesses’ posts. It is valuable to collect this data to track progress and measure overall reach, as well as to identify what is working and what needs improvement.
Some other benefits of completing a social media audit include:
- Identification of areas of inconsistency, such as usernames across platforms or caption voice, as well as places where content falls flat or fails to contribute to a cohesive brand story;
- A better understanding of the market audience and methods for capturing the attention of potential new customers;
- Discovery of the platforms and types of content that perform best and have the greatest potential for further investment and growth;
- Fine-tuning of overall social media goals.
How do I complete a social media audit?
The first step is conducting a complete review of every account seen by the public. Assemble data, such as the current number of followers, posting frequency, and engagement statistics such as average number of likes and comments. Additionally, it is important to investigate the success of recent content. Which posts have resulted in the most engagement since your last audit? Having a “business” account on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok allows you to see engagement and follower demographics directly in the app, and there are several websites available that can collect, organize, and track this data for you. Overall, this process provides insights into your current social media investments and practices, helping you know what you should post more or less of, which content is the most popular, and whether it’s time to switch things up.
Next, it’s beneficial to study general social media trends. For example, short-form video has grown into the most engaging form of content consumption, with 87% of marketers reporting that utilizing video has increased sales. Then, take a look into the top content in your specific industry to determine which posts typically garner the most engagement. Viewing the activity of accounts you admire can help with goal formation and the development of new content ideas.
Now it’s time to explore other avenues of growth. This could mean reaching out to influential accounts to form partnerships (56% of users have made a purchase based on an influencer post) or researching whether new platforms, such as Threads or TikTok, make sense for your company.
The final step of a social media audit is to create goals. Whether it’s gaining 100 new followers in three months or increasing post frequency to three times per week, goals help achieve desired growth in efficient and reasonable action steps. Make a plan, and begin to execute the strategies you identified via the audit.
Social media’s prevalence and timeliness make it impossible to ignore. And its influence is only expected to grow. No matter the size of your marketing team, it can be easy to lose track of content output and to lose sight of goals. A social media audit is an effective way to refocus your efforts. As you generate new leads and watch your audience grow, you’ll be thankful you took the time to perform “routine maintenance” on your social media presence.
