Social media plays a vital role in today’s business landscape, and social media marketing can be a rewarding strategy for your business; improving your brand visibility, increasing web traffic, and converting your visitors into clients.
A social media audit is a regular analysis of social channels that represent your brand to ensure that each of your profiles are functioning properly, and that you’re using the platforms that make the most sense for your brand identify and to shut down any imposter or abandoned accounts.
Social Media Examiner put together these four social media audit steps to help you understand what’s working in your social media management and marketing efforts:
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Measure Overall Results
To evaluate your overall results, compile all of the social media metrics you can, such as:
- Number of followers
- Likes
- Shares
- Comments
- Clicks
- Video views
- Post reach
- Number of mentions (Twitter)
When analyzing these metrics, look at the details and how they compare on different types of posts. For instance, if you get more engagement from Facebook when you tag influencers than when you share blog posts, if your video views get more engagement on Instagram or Twitter, and if they’re steadily increasing over time.
Our assumptions may be wrong, so it’s essential to track this data, and the audit will tell you which platforms are most valuable to you and which actually send you the most (and best) traffic, what types of posts work best on each platform, and what the social media engagement between you and your audience is on each platform.
A third-party social analytics tool will let you create reports to show this information, including: Google Analytics, Sprout Social, Agorapulse, Hootsuite, Snaplytics, and Quintly.
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Analyze Audience Demographics and Interests
Compare your social media audiences, as your social media followings might be different for each platform, and look at factors like demographics and interests.
Most social media sites provide audience information, like Facebook’s Audience Insights or Pinterest’s Analytics, as well as some third-party analytics tools, such as Sprout Social.
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Check for Consistency and Quality Across All Platforms
Now that you know your target audience and how they interact with you on social media, take a closer look at how you’re using your social media platforms and monitor your presence for consistency and quality.
There are often discrepancies between platforms, and they could be difficult to notice, such as if you respond quickly to Facebook messages and emails, but not to Twitter direct messages; whether your branding is consistent across all platforms; or if your voice/message is the same across the platforms.
Also consider the types of content you share on your social platforms and if you have shifted from sharing mostly blog posts to publishing more user-generated content (UGC) updates.
Your profiles should match current best practices for formatting and include any new platform features. For example, ensure you’re using Pinterest’s relatively new Showcase feature, it’s a great way to show off what your brand is about in a few seconds.
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Review Your Budget and Calculate ROI
Finally, review your budget and calculate your total ROI from social media – it’s often overlooked and could be challenging, especially when you’re looking at purely social ROI instead of financial ROI.
Pull up all of your records and look at how much you’re spending on social media, such as:
- Ad spend
- Consultant or agency fees
- Third-party analytics and management tools
- Contest software
- Apps and tools to create images
- Employees who help with your social media efforts
- Tools to curate and display UGC on your site
- Professional photographers or equipment to take photos
Now compare the costs and results of this part of the audit. When analyzing third-party analytics, management, and social listening tools, consider both the costs and benefits you’ve received. Have these tools made you more efficient, and have they helped you generate better results from your content?
A social media audit will help you determine where you can improve, and who your audience is, and the results will help you create stronger social media calendars and campaigns moving forward.
As a digital marketing and social media company, RODA marketing’s commitment and efforts are focused on brand consistency and generating qualified traffic via well thought out campaigns that include social media, SEO, blogging, infographics and more.
Check out our portfolio and contact us to see how together we can take your business to higher levels of success with effective Internet marketing.