How To Run Social Media Audit For Your Business?
It’s not enough to have a social media profile and then disappear. You need to take social media as seriously as you do your tax returns if you want to use them as a tool to reach your audience and expand your business. We are, in fact, discussing social media audits.
Monthly calendars are a common tool used by social media marketers to keep their profiles and pages active. Many fail to conduct an audit of what does and does not work, such as the sentiment a post may generate, the types of images that do well, the formats of social media posts that generate the most engagement, etc., despite including content based on thorough research.
To begin, let’s define a social media audit
An audit of your social media efforts is a great way to see if your time and energy spent on these platforms has been worthwhile in terms of advancing your company’s goals and objectives. Examining how much time and energy was spent on social media, how well those efforts performed using established metrics, and where they could be improved is all part of this process.
A social media audit, in its simplest form, is an examination of your company’s presence on various social media platforms to determine which ones yield the best results for your particular business, as well as what kinds of content and campaigns are most effective in reaching and engaging your target audience and how they can be improved in comparison to those of similar accounts.
What components make up a complete social media audit?
We recommend including the following in your social media audit, though what you include may vary depending on your target audience, the nature of your business, and your ultimate objectives.
Your Username, URLs, and Posted Links on the Account
Quantity of interactions such as “likes,” “hearts,” “saves,” “shares,” “clicks,” “visits,” “reactions,” and “replies”
Statistical information about the audience, such as where they live, when they’re most active, what percentage of users are female, and so on.
How frequently do you update your social media profiles with new content?
Traffic from other websites or links promoted on other websites is known as “referral traffic.”
Target audience size, number of impressions, number of plays, and percentage of total video played
Sentiment analysis reveals how an audience feels about a brand and its content on a given social media platform.
When and how to perform a social media audit
If your company is active on more than two social media platforms, an audit can feel like an insurmountable task. We’ve interviewed top social media marketers and drawn on our own experience to compile a list of actionable steps that should help you save time and energy. Adapt them as needed to meet your business objectives.
Making a spreadsheet
A spreadsheet allows you to record information in a tabular form, making it simple to analyse and compare the data at different points in time. Since the metrics you’re looking to map will vary depending on the platform, you’ll want to organise this spreadsheet with separate tabs for each of the places you have a presence.
Study the Competition
In order to learn what does and does not work, without actually having to use these methods, competitor analysis is invaluable. Examining the social media profiles of leading rivals yields the following results:
Metrics for success, such as typical engagement with posts (in terms of likes, comments, and shares) and audience size (in terms of followers).
Weak spots for the consumer
Ideas for new content
What to stay away from on social media, specifically the posts that have received the most hate.
The third step in creating a successful social media campaign is to identify your goals.
You may have made a social media account in hopes of generating leads, but your goals should be narrower. It’s pointless to use social media if you don’t have any specific targets in mind. You can never be sure of your target.
Your approach may vary depending on your objectives. But if you want to expand your customer base and raise your company’s profile, you should start publishing more useful content.
Make a catalogue of all the social media accounts you have
Everyone has made multiple social media accounts that they have since forgotten about. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and similar channels remain at the forefront of our minds, while smaller platforms with shorter attention spans tend to be forgotten. Even if your team doesn’t use a particular platform, just having an account there will increase your visibility in search results and boost your social media standing.
Assess the brand’s reliability in its presentation
Your company will be more easily recognisable across all social media platforms if you maintain a consistent brand voice, content strategy, colour scheme, and visual identity. It’s the only way to stand out from the crowd, even on the busiest channels.
Consumers are more likely to buy from you and become repeat customers if your brand is consistently represented across all of your promotional efforts.
Do a sentiment analysis
What people are saying about your brand in social media can be gleaned through sentiment analysis or opinion mining. However, if people are tagging your brand in negative posts, the high number of mentions can backfire. Your sales and credibility will suffer as a result.
When conducting social media audits, a sentiment analysis can be used to determine how your target audience “feels” about the content you produce or the campaigns you launch.
A Few Closing Remarks
It’s not easy to stay on top of all the latest social media trends and marketing strategies. Therefore, many marketers avoid performing a thorough social media audit.
However, we believe that a social media audit is exactly what your company needs to standardise the time and energy spent on a channel and maximise the returns from those investments.