Although you might be pouring hours into content production for TikTok or The ‘Gram, failing to conduct a social media audit risks it all being for nothing.
Between identifying the social media platform best suited to your business, diligently engaging with your fans and followers, meticulously adhering to your content calendar, and of course, creating the actual content, trying to find success on social media can be exhausting.
In an age where organic posts are getting drowned out by paid advertising – and the brands who have the marketing budget to do so – gaining traction as the little guy isn’t getting any easier. While it may seem like social media marketing is a never ending battle, failing to conduct a social media audit is a bit like going on a road trip somewhere new without a map to guide you.
Why Your Brand Needs A Social Media Audit
If you manage or run your own business, maintaining a presence on social media can often feel like a waste of your time. However, as our day to day lives increasingly shift online, it’s never been more important to stay relevant in the digital space as a means to craft a consistent message that matches the tone of your business.
Since more than four billion people around the world are using social media across everyday activities, it’s safe to say that this trend is here to stay. On top of that, these four billion users distribute their screen time across an average of 6.6 social media platforms or apps per month.
Despite the ease of access to a plethora of social media analytics, does it take more than this data to determine if you’re on the right track to connecting with at least a small percentage of these users? Yes, but all you need to do is conduct a social media audit – and it’s easier than you might think.
A social media audit is a process that describes a careful assessment of a brand’s many social media channels, compiling as much information as possible. From there, auditors usually check if they are operating on the best social media channel for the brand, and that the published content is performing as it should. In addition, a social media audit also allows brands to identify and ring-fence any old or unofficial social channels bearing their name.
However, opinions differ on the best way to conduct a social media audit. One option is to carry out a full-scale audit at the same time each year, while still monitoring social performance each month. Your annual review looks at all your accounts in detail, including an analysis of whether you should be on a platform at all.
In contrast, your monthly review simply looks at the analytics relating to the content you share each month, helping you decide which posts work versus those that are less successful. For businesses who have dabbled with influencer marketing, be sure to include the effectiveness of posts made on your behalf by influencers. In addition, your social media audit should identify –
- Your most effective platforms
- What your audience wants to see on each network
- Who your audience is (demographics and more)
- What type of content is helping to grow your audience
- How each platform contributes to your goals
- Which new ideas will help you grow
- Where to focus your attention next
The effectiveness of a social media audit is often linked to whether or not a brand or business has set parameters or particular goals that they would like to reach. For some, it’s about amassing as many followers as possible, while for others, they prefer to measure how many social media users clicked through to their website. Try not to cover too many vanity metrics in your social media audit and focus on tangible results that make a difference to your bottom line.
To start your social media audit, make a spreadsheet that has a category for each of your commercial social media accounts, and ensure that all of your digital branding lines up across the board. From there, dig into your social media analytics to determine and evaluate your best performing posts, and note what stands out to you about them, such as theme, content format, and even the hashtags used (if any) – you want to be able to spot any trends that you can potentially replicate.
Next, start assessing the demographics of your followers. Ideally, you want the people who follow you on social media to have the same demographics and psychographics as your target customers. For a business that sells stair lifts that help the elderly remain mobile in their home yet all of your followers are under twenty-five, you’ll need to put your detective hat on to see what’s going on.
Ultimately, different social media networks target different types of audiences. Some will match your demographics well and should be your priority. Others won’t match your demographics at all, and it will be wasteful to use resources on them. As an example, someone who uses Instagram to promote and sell children’s clothes may not find the same success over on LinkedIn. If you’re not sure where your brand fits, use your social media audit to help you.
If not actioned properly and without a well thought out plan of attack, marketing on social media can result in a lot of work with minimal results – even with an annual social media audit in place. If you lack the time, energy or resources to give this arena the proper attention that it deserves, it might be worth considering outsourcing to the professionals – but where do you find them?
The Key To Good Marketing Is Great Content
Here at Content Hive, producing top quality digital content is exactly what we do best. We have itemised a list of digital content services, and allocated credits next to each of these. This means that each month, you can use your credits with us to produce digital content such as blog articles, social media posts, videos and even animated Instagram stories. By using this model, we believe that it enables us to produce high quality content with faster delivery times.
If you aren’t quite sure where to start on your digital marketing journey and would like to speak to a professional, why not book in a free discovery call with us at Content Hive today to discuss how we can get your brand buzzing online.
