Conducting a social media audit is key to developing or updating an effective social media marketing plan.
In this article, I will guide you through the steps you can follow to complete a social media audit to identify outdated profiles, make sure your profiles and pages are aligned with your brand’s message, and to identify new opportunities to grow and engage your perfect ideal customer.
How to Conduct a Social Media Audit
STEP 1: Download this Audit Template (or Create Your Own)
To begin your audit, you need a place where you can keep track of all the information you’ll uncover along the way.
I’ve created a social media audit template that you can download to record links to your profiles key metrics, and audience data.
STEP 2: Search the Web
Google your company name to see what social media accounts come up in the SERP (search engine result pages).
Do some investigating to make sure no impostor pages have been set up by someone else not affiliated to your brand.
STEP 3: Search Social Networks
After your Google search, take a few moments to visit each of the main social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest) to search for your brand directly to see if you uncover any unexpected accounts.
STEP 4: Take Note of all Your Social Media Accounts and Links
List all the accounts you have set up for your business and then add the direct links to your pages and profiles your audit template.
STEP 5: Write Your Profile/Bio
Before you dive into reviewing your accounts, it’s best to pull up a Google Doc and write your profile/bio consistent with the messaging that you want to be shared across all platforms.
Preparing ahead of time will make it easy for you to copy and paste your information and ensure that your messaging is consistent.
STEP 6: Decide on a Call-to-Action
The next step is to decide on a call-to-action. Ask yourself, if someone were to land on your social media profile/page what action would you want them to take next? Do you want to send them to the home page of your website? Do you have a free resource that you can give away in exchange for the browser’s contact information so you can build your email marketing list? Or do you want them to visit your sales page or blog?
STEP 7: Review Your Account Info, Settings, and Setup
Once you’ve identified all of your accounts, prepared your bio, and are clear on the action you want your browser to take when they land on your profile/page take a few minutes to review each social media account for accuracy and consistency. You should be checking the following items:
- Profile and cover images. Make sure they incorporate your current logo and imagery that’s on-brand for your business.
- Profile/bio text. Make sure your bio is consistent across all platforms.
- Links. Make sure all of your links still work and lead browsers to the appropriate pages.
- Completed profiles/pages. Make sure all of the information is completed on your profiles. The more information your profile contains the easier it will be for browsers to get the information they are looking for.
- Include your CTA (call-to-action). Each social media platform offers you different opportunities to add CTA’s to your profiles/pages. Make sure you give your browser’s direction on what you’d like them to do next.
In Conclusion…
I would recommend that you put it on your schedule to conduct a complete audit on your account no less than once a year to make sure everything looks ok and is delivering correct information to your perfect ideal customer.
If you are making changes to your business regularly, then an audit might be necessary at the end of every quarter.
