What does spring cleaning mean for your business? Identifying and removing obsolete stock? A fresh coat of paint on your office walls? Sprucing up the design of your website? We also recommend performing an in-depth social media audit.
Social Media Audit – Not as Scary as It Sounds
Most entrepreneurs get chills when they hear the word audit because they imagine an army of accountants descending on their premises and looking at every payment document and bank statement. However, a social media audit is something very different. First of all, you are the one performing it, not someone from outside your company.
Secondly, it is in your best interest to perform a social media audit. It will show you where you are not paying sufficient attention in terms of account optimisation and engagement with your followers. It will reveal opportunities to invest your money in ads in a more effective manner. And it will show you where you are losing money with campaigns with a low conversion rate.
These being said, this is a simple and actionable template for an effective social media audit:
1. Identify, Secure, and Update Your Social Media Accounts
First of all, look at all the social media accounts you opened for your business. Do they offer accurate information in the About section? You would be surprised how many companies forget to update their new office address, telephone number, and email addresses on their social media profiles.
Secondly, look at who is managing these accounts. Do these persons still work for you and have the right to publish on your social media pages? If you have recently terminated an employee, it is a good idea to remove them as admins and change the passwords for the social media accounts of your business.
2. Gather and Analyse Analytical Data
This is where your work will get harder, but it is a critical step in your social media audit. You should collect all data pertaining to:
Traffic to your site from each social media platform;
Sales you can attribute to ad campaigns on each social media network;
Newsletter sign-ups, lead magnet downloads originating from each social network.
Next, determine the number of followers you have on each platform and the levels of engagement they have with your business. All these data will help you create a top of the best performing social media platforms for your business.
3. Review Your Posting Schedule
In the next step of your social media audit, review how frequently and at what times you share your posts. Looking at the best and least performing engagements level, determine the ideal posting schedule for your specific followership.
However, it is worth remembering that people interact in a different manner with social media platforms. It means that a great posting schedule for Facebook™ (1-3 posts per week) would be disastrous for Twitter (3-5 posts per day).
4. Perform a SWOT Analysis
This acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. These elements will become obvious as you review your social media accounts performances and the posting schedule for each of them and compare them to the social media audit results of last year.
For instance, if you notice a significant increase in revenues and engagement on a social media platform, you should consider giving it a more important role in your marketing and advertising strategy.
5. Decide What to Keep and What to Give Up
The last step is the most difficult, but also the most important. As much as you want to expose your brand to as many potential customers as possible, it is not feasible to keep social media accounts with very poor performance.
Besides time, it costs you money to continue keeping accounts and advertising on social media platforms where you cannot find an adequate number of potential clients. Instead of hanging in there, use the financial and time resources to improve your social presence and marketing campaigns on the best performing social media networks.