How to Perform a Quick 5-Point Social Media Audit

Steps to Complete Your Quick Social Media Audit:

1. Keep track of your social media profiles using a spreadsheet.

Using the spreadsheet template linked above, record the following information:

• Social media network (eg. Facebook, Instagram, etc.)
• URL (eg. facebook.com/yournamehere)
• Number of followers
• Date of last post
• Is this profile a business account or personal?

By keeping your profiles recorded in one tidy place, you’ll find it easier to make sure you’re only using the networks that contribute to your overall content and/or social media strategy. It will also make it easier to go back during your next audit to monitor growth or loss in followers and engagement.

If your social media profiles are personal (such as Facebook profile or personal Instagram profile), switch to business to take advantage of the analytics perks.

2. Optimize your profiles

For your social media profiles to perform at their best, your bios should be set up in a way that your prospects know exactly who you are, what your intent is, and how they will benefit from following/engaging with you.

Check each of your social media profiles for the following:

• Is your profile photo professional? Does it represent the brand you want to be known for?
• Do you have an appropriate background/header image uploaded? (where applicable)
• Does your bio write-up effectively describe what you do?
• Does your bio write-up contain keywords and/or relevant hashtags?
• Do the above items match from one social media profile to another?

You’ll want your visual branding to be consistent across all of your social media profiles, which helps prospects and new followers understand that they are connecting with the person or business they expect.

3. Analyze your performance

The type of posts you publish can make a difference in how well you connect with your audience, and it isn’t necessarily the same from profile to profile, or even from one business to the next. Your audience will tell you, through your social media analytics, what they are interested in. In this section we want to look for those key indicators so you can adjust what you post if you need to.

To find the information below, navigate to the Analytics or Insights section of your social media profiles.

Here’s how to find your analytics for Facebook and for Instagram.

Look at your latest posts (at least 2 months’ worth) and record:

• Which posts have more successful engagement?
  • Image posts
  • Video posts
  • Link posts
  • Text-based posts (text only, no images/video)
  • Specific topics
  • Content you write
  • Content you shared from someone else
• If you have a website with Google Analytics, record how much traffic you receive from social media (found under Acquisition > All Traffic > Channels)
• Do you receive more traffic from one social network over another?

4. Review your scheduling

How often you post is directly related to your rate of engagement and growth. That being said, your posts should also focus on quality over quantity. It’s best to post higher-value content less frequently than posting a lot of weak content often.

Record the following in your spreadsheet:

• How many times a week do you post?
• Do you post in real-time or do you schedule in advance?
• Do you use a scheduling tool such as Hootsuite to manage your accounts?

Using a social media scheduling tool can allow you to have more control over the time you spend creating and publishing posts. If you find yourself struggling to find time to create engaging posts, plan ahead instead. Set aside one day a week, every two weeks, or once a month to write and schedule all of your posts in advance. You might find it easier to come up with quality posts when you’re able to fully concentrate ahead of time.

5. Analyze your audience

Knowing who is following you will help you determine the type of content you should be posting. Always post content that benefits your audience in some way, offers value, and doesn’t oversell your product or service.

Take a look at your social media analytics and record the following:

• Compare follower count to last audit and record growth or loss.
• Do you have more male or female followers?
• What are their age groups?
• Do they live in your region or are they elsewhere?

Of course, these are super basic demographics, but they are a good start to determine if your audience fits the type of customers you sell your product or service to. You should also actively watch who is engaging with your posts on an ongoing basis to determine what type of content they like and don’t like.

Getting more out of your social media profiles

This quick social media audit scratches the surface of checking whether your profiles are meeting the needs of your audiences. Of course, it is important to ensure these basics are met before diving deeper into your social performance.

Once you’ve completed your audit, we have a few more ideas on how to get more out of your social media.