How To Perform Your Own Social Media Audit in 4 Steps

As the 2nd quarter wraps up, we are busy reviewing the performance of our clients over the past 3 months. Looking at the successes and the opportunities to better have an impact on their digital marketing strategy. A key part of a well-rounded strategy is the execution of social media channels.

A social media audit is key to make sure that your brand and message is adding to your digital marketing efforts. Here are 4 things to makes sure you include when doing a social media audit.

Consider these 4 things when evaluating your social media performance:

1. Branding of social channel

Social media platforms are always changing. Just this past week, Facebook has rolled out some visual adjustments to business pages. Twitter last week has almost completed its new look for profiles. Now that we are reaching the mid-point of the year, it is a good time to look at your social media channels from the view of your audience. A big first impression is the visual aspect of your channels. Does the branding look consistent? We had to go through all of our channels to make sure the updated logo appeared to our brand guidelines. You want to make sure that no matter what social media profile a visitor sees, that it all looks like it comes from the same brand. Some common areas to review are:

• Profile Image
• Header Image
• About Section Information
• Website Link

Make sure that it is professional and clear that a visitor is on the right channel to connect with your brand.

2. Audience of social channel

You should always know your audience. Your social media presence can help in making it clear who is interested in your brand. For example, Facebook gives some great analytics of your profile. This information is key when strategizing on how to best use social channels as a way to get your brand's message to your audience. You have to listen to your audience and make sure your message is optimized for their attention.

Here is an example of just a part of the information you can get from your Facebook profile. This data is an example of people reached from one of our client's Facebook page. This information can be used to determine the best content to share on your Facebook profile, and how to best target interested people through paid social advertising. It is also important to note, that your audience won't be the same across all platforms. Your Twitter or Instagram audience might look different. That is why it is important to make sure you know your audience of your social channels.

3. Engagement of social channel

It is great if you are a brand that is posting on a regular basis, but is your audience engaged? Social media engagement is the measurement of how your audience is reacting or responding to your social posts. Data points are normally shares, likes, and comments. If your audience is sharing your content that is a big return on your investment. Multiple reports show that prospective leads are more likely to listen to the referrals of family, friends, and their network. If you are not getting likes, shares, or comments, it is a good sign that you aren't producing the content that gets your audience's attention. Looking at the analytics of your audience is one way to adjust your message. Another way to pivot in your use of social media as a marketing strategy is to post more dynamic content. Are you using video in your posts? Make sure that the images you are posting are impactful and well shot. Yes, you can get some good images with just the use of your smartphone.

Google Analytics can show you the impact of your social channels as a referral to your site. Referral Traffic is a data point that Google has identified as traffic to your website outside of a search engine. This sample referral report from Google Analytics shows how people got to your website through social channels. This report clearly identifies that Facebook is the leading source of traffic for this client's website. This helps show where the attention is from the audience of the website. If this client was focusing all of their attention on Twitter, we would be able to help pivot this client to Facebook. You have to go to where the attention is. This does not mean to ignore all other channels, just to have an understanding of your brand's audience behavior.

4. Budget of social channel

Sometimes you have to pay to play, especially with the amount of competition for your brand. It is a good time to review your paid social advertising budget. You can use data from your social media audit to better tailor your advertising demographic, and to focus in on a social media channel. Using the data above, Facebook would be a good place to start with a paid social advertising campaign. You can key into the audience your social channel reaches, and promote to more of that demographic. The payoffs can be huge for your overall impact of your website and quality of leads. Sometimes adjusting your budget can have an impactful ROI, if managed and strategized correctly. A social media audit can help facilitate that for your brand.