Social media audits are uber-important for anyone who has an existing brand; whether it’s a cafe or a much bigger business, you need social media auditing. It’s a really good way to recalibrate your social strategy and to gauge what’s working. It helps you figure out what other people are doing in the space to gain traction on social media.
In this article we will be discussing 9 steps on how to do a social media audit. So, let’s begin.
# Manage all the existing social media platforms of the brand with, the same goal
If your brand is on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Snapchat etc, track them simultaneously. This is important because when we talk about social strategies, we mean all of our social presence.
Having that consistency on all fronts will work really well for you because if your customer only knows your brand in-person, you would want him to be able to find you easily on any platform, so you can build that brand loyalty.
Keep the profile pictures on platforms similar so that the consumer doesn’t get confused. Also check the bios on each page; whether they try to convey the same message, same vibe about your brand or not.
# Color palette and the design
If you are mindlessly scrolling through any platform, you brand must stand out for someone to stop scrolling and take notice. Using a unique color palette and design for social posts, especially the promotional ones, is very important
# List out your competitors
You might want to start looking at trends and patterns your competitors follow. This will help you imbibe all that’s working for them, into your social media strategy.
# Content is king
Long form videos, short form videos, gifs, photos, Instagram stories etc. What works and what knows depends on the niche and the type of audience you are targeting. What you can do is keep an eye for it and then build on what’s clicking (pun intended).
# People engaging on each platform
More often than not, we see Twitter turn into a customer service platform, right? It could happen to Instagram as well for your brand. You have to make sure all of their concerns are addressed. You don’t want a scenario where people are just blowing up your Twitter and everybody can see their problems without you providing any solutions to it.
# Start going through the analytics
Each of the platforms you are on provides you with some pretty good analytics and you might want to look into it. What’s getting shared a lot? What’s getting liked a lot? What’s getting commented on a lot? That way you can tweak your content strategy as well.
# Account ownerships and password management
Each social account should be “owned” by one individual, or maybe a team, within your organization. That individual is responsible for ensuring the account is up-to-date, and performing well.
This individual will also be in charge of necessary permissions on the account, and will pave its strategic direction. They will decide who should have access to the account and what level of access each individual should have.
Rather than distributing the password to your social platforms to various team members, it’s important to centralize the passwords in one place. This means you don’t need to change the password every time a person leaves your team or shifts to a new role or a different department. It also helps preserve the integrity of your social accounts.
# Qualitative insights
Experiment more, explore more, expand your horizons. This one kind of joins all the above points together. Sure you might want to stick to what’s working at the moment. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right? While that does hold true, it will restrict your imagination. Every now and then, try something new. Who cares if results aren’t in your favour? At least you will know for sure what you need to avoid in the future. And if you come up with something that works better than what you were using, GREAT.
# Document everything
Every step you take, every progress you make, every setback you experience; whatever it is, jot everything down. It’s a good practice. Although it may seem a little tiresome to record each and every move, somewhere down the line, it will come in handy. At the end of the day, it’s a learning curve more than anything else and the more you learn, the more you earn.
Bottom line
So there you go then. Follow these steps to do a social media review of your brand and boost your rate of success by a large margin.
