Earlier we explained why social media audits are key to a good social media strategy. So now, let’s talk about how to do a social media audit using social media audit tools.

Like a financial audit or an SEO audit, a social media audit simply takes stock of your current social media efforts. A good social media audit will capture your brand’s social media presence in one centralized location.

Capturing that presence, though, is much easier said than done. Social media is such a massive landscape that launching a social media audit without the proper guidance can feel impossible. We’ll get you on the right track and show you how to do a social media audit the right way in four steps.

How to Run Your Audit Using Social Media Audit Tools

Performing a social media audit is essential for optimizing your online presence, and developing internal social media audit tools can streamline the process. Start by reviewing your profiles’ performance metrics, including engagement rates and follower growth, to identify strengths and areas for improvement. Analyze your content strategy and posting frequency across platforms to ensure consistency and relevance.

Record all your findings in a well-organized spreadsheet and you will have a new social media audit tool where you can gather valuable insights into audience demographics, content effectiveness, and competitor analysis. With this social media audit tool at your disposal, you can make informed decisions to noticeably enhance your social media strategy. Let’s discuss the steps in detail.

Step 1: List the Social Media Profiles You Currently Use

Before you worry about engagement rates or post performance, begin your social media audit with a simple list of your social media platforms. The best social media audit tool you can develop for this is a dedicated spreadsheet, with the first tab titled “Accounts.”  Keep this spreadsheet handy throughout your audit–it’s where all your data is going to live.  In this “Accounts” tab, columns  to:

• Each platform you are on
• The handle you use on that platform,
• The bio you use for that handle
• A column that simply says “Active Y/N”

If any profiles are attributed to your brand or organization that you didn’t authorize, be sure to report them.

Though this might seem too basic, starting this way immediately gives you a sense of your brand presence and how consistent your social media branding is. As you review your platforms, be sure to track the answers to these questions in your social media audit spreadsheet:

• Are all of your profile handles of a similar variety, or are they wildly inconsistent?
• Does the bio on your X/Twitter account align with the bio on your Instagram profile? Or do they contradict each other?
• Are you using the same profile picture across platforms?

This first step will quickly answer these questions and give you a quick sense of your brand’s presence on social media.

Perhaps most important is noting your inactive platforms. This allows you to prioritize certain channels throughout your audit. You wouldn’t want to waste time diving deep into your dormant Pinterest account when you could instead analyze the Facebook profile you update every day.

Furthermore, you can take this time to decide whether to keep certain dormant accounts or let them go. If you notice you were neglecting a certain platform because you didn’t have the bandwidth for it or because your audience simply didn’t engage in it, it might be best to scrap that platform and focus on more engaging accounts.

Step 2: Record Performance Metrics Across Each Platform

To quote the once-great Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker: “This is where the fun begins.” The second step of a social media audit is to see what is working and where!

If you’re not the social media administrator for your accounts you might have no idea how to even figure that out–but luckily almost every social media platform has robust analytic tools built in that allow you to view your profile’s performance with ease. You’ll want to make sure you’re auditing enough of your posts to gather good data–auditing the last month of posts may not be all that helpful, but looking at the past quarter or even the last year might offer some great insights.

With the social media audit tools included on each platform, you should be able to sort by specific metrics: comments, likes, reach, shares, clicks, followers gained, etc. What you classify as “top performing” is really up to you and what you want out of your social media strategy. If you want your social presence to boost your brand awareness, you likely want to sort your posts by reach while also keeping a keen eye on likes. If the goal of your social strategy is to build more trust with your audience, then sorting by comments and shares is likely the best way to determine your top performers.

When it’s time to record your findings in your auditing spreadsheet, you’ll want to start a new tab called “Performance.” Depending on how wide the time frame your audit is covering, you may even use multiple “Performance” tabs broken down by month. In each “Performance” tab, it’s best to have the top row feature the following columns:

• Post type
• Date/time
• Link to post
• Likes
• Comments
• Reach
• Shares
• Click-through rate (if applicable)

Then, decide what metrics are most important to you, and sort accordingly!

Step 3: Identify the Content That Fuels the Best Performance

Now that you’ve pulled all the numbers, collated all your posts, and sorted them by the metrics you care most about, it’s time to figure out what it all means.

Here’s where noting the type of post in your spreadsheet comes in handy–it allows you to track what type of post garners what kind of results. When you make note of the type of post, don’t be too generic or too specific. Grouping posts as “photo” posts isn’t going to help when most of your posts have photos. That will skew your data. On the other hand, grouping posts by “Tuesday morning posts with 37 seconds of video ending with a call for comments” is a little too specific, and probably won’t teach you much.

Instead, group your posts by intent or by content. For example, you might have one post that features a picture of volunteers delivering meals whereas another features video of volunteers, but both are posts celebrating your volunteers. You might group those together as “volunteer appreciation posts” and then analyze the general success of those posts accordingly. Maybe you regularly post informative articles from your blog or websites relevant to your work, both intending to provide resources for your followers. Those posts could be grouped as “resource sharing” posts.

After you’ve grouped your posts by the content they share, look at how each group performs. Is there one type of post that gets shared like crazy? Are certain posts met with crickets? Be vigilant and analyze these posts and see what you can find.

Once you have findings you’re satisfied with, make a new tab in your audit spreadsheet called “Analysis.” Create the following columns in the top row:

• Type of post
• Average reach
• Average likes
• Average comments
• Average shares
• Notes

Average the metrics for each column and then fill each in accordingly for each type of post group. In the notes section, share any observations or analysis you uncovered. Maybe the averages for a group of posts are low, but you noticed that posts in that category that go live in the early morning perform well. That is the perfect type of information to put in the notes section.

Step 4: Use Your Findings to Set New Goals

You’re almost at the finish line of your social media audit–and this is where it all pays off. It’s time to take what you’ve uncovered and craft new goals for your next strategy!

When creating these goals make sure they are S.M.A.R.T.: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. “Grow our social media presence” is not a good goal. “Increase our followers on LinkedIn by 20% before Q3” is a good goal. Lean heavily on the audit you worked so hard on to formulate achievable goals.

Let’s take the volunteer appreciation posts example from before. Those posts on Instagram may get a ton of likes, high reach numbers, and a fair amount of comments. You even gain a couple of followers every time you celebrate your volunteers. Your audit also revealed that you’re struggling to gain traction on LinkedIn.

You can then create a goal of “repurpose volunteer appreciation posts from Instagram for our LinkedIn audience to increase our average monthly likes by 5% in Q1.” That is a textbook S.M.A.R.T. goal. Try to develop around five to seven of these goals to kickstart your new social strategy, and keep them top of mind as you develop content and review metrics during the month.

Auditing your social media doesn’t have to be so daunting. Remember to follow our four steps:

1. List the social media platforms you are active on. Note the usernames, bios, and profile pictures you use for each. If you’re inactive on a platform, now’s the time to decide if it is worth keeping!
2. Record your performance on each platform, gathering the metrics available to each post like “comments,” “reach,” and “likes.”
3. Group your posts by similar type and average the metrics for each post type. Then, use those averages to determine which type of posts perform best–and which don’t.
4. Using your new data, develop S.M.A.R.T. goals to fuel your next social media strategy!

With this guide in hand, you should be confident in using social media audit tools to run your own social media audit. Still, have some questions about social media strategy? Drop us a line or give us a call and let us help.