The time has come: after months or years of building the social media presence of your business, you need to know how it stands. You need to find out if you are reaching out to the right people, if they are responding in an adequate manner, and if your brand image is what it should be on each social media platform. In other words, you need to conduct a social media audit.
You should not be scared of the word audit. We do not mean hiring a company which will fill your offices with experts and consultants and then deliver a staggering bill at the end. You will perform the social media audit, using the same tools you usually employ in automating and monitoring your social media activity.
There are a few clear steps you need to go through and, for your convenience, we have structured them in a checklist. Here they are:
- Check for the Consistency of Your Brand Image Across All Channels
Do your social media accounts send the same type of message to followers, according to your core values and brand image? Are you consistent with logo images, messages and tone of voice?
These are key elements of a brand identity and they should be exactly the same on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook™. The specifics of each social media network is not an impediment to building a consistent brand image – just look at top brands and how they manage to give a unified image on each social media platform they use.
- Check Your Audience and How They Fit to Your Customer Persona
Are you truly reaching out to the right people? Is your message tailored for them, or does it attract another customer group? This can be easily checked by using the analytics of your social media accounts (the most detailed are those offered by Facebook™ and LinkedIn) and compare them to your customer persona.
Do they have the same interests? Do they share the same demographic data? Are they looking out for solutions offered by your products or services? If there is a large discrepancy between your customer profile and your average social media follower, then you need to rethink your strategy.
- Compare Your Social Media Spending with the Results
There is no question about it – you need to spend money on ads and promoted posts, because organic reach is simply not enough anymore. When you build your social media marketing budget, you define certain goals and estimate amounts of money per channel per campaign.
Now it is time to draw the line and see how well that strategy worked. Are you spending too little or too much on social media ads? Does their return on investment match your predictions? Are there certain platforms where you get consistently better results compared to the others? All these details, which can be found in each advertising planning section of your social media accounts, will help you determine where you need to keep investing and where to start optimising your campaigns for better results.
- Check Your Posting Activity and the Response You Get from Followers
Do you have a good content mix for each social media channel? How do your followers respond to it? What are the posts with the highest engagement? By looking back on your history of posting you can identify lots of useful details: the times of day and week when your followers are most active, the type of content they enjoy seeing on your page, and the engagement level you get overall.
If you see little activity for a significant period of time, it means that you need to make a major change in the way you attempt to attract and interact with your potential customers.
- Decide What Social Media Channels Work Best for Your Business
The end of your social media audit should give you an idea of where you need to continue or intensify your engagement efforts. You do not have to be present on all the social media channels, only on those where you get the best response from followers and where you can build the most effective traffic and sales funnels.
The purpose of a social media audit is to give you indications of how to continue your social media marketing and work smarter, not harder, for better results.