How to Run a Fast Social Media Audit? [+Free Template]

8 min readJan 4, 2023

Picture this: You go to the supermarket to buy some stuff, without having a look at what’s in your fridge before. Are you going to buy all the things that you need? Probably not.

That’s pretty much the same when you start investing in your social strategy without conducting a social media audit first. Social media audits can help you open your social media marketing “fridge” and see what’s already inside.

Basically, it’s the starter for better performance in social networks.

Let’s see together why and how to do a social media audit in only 6 easy-to-follow steps. Also, we have prepared a special social media audit template to guide you.

Shall we begin?

What is the Social Media Audit?

A social media audit is fundamentally a thorough review of all your social media profiles, accounts, and their performance. It helps you evaluate your social presence and identify opportunities for growth and weaknesses to work on.

This includes:

Step 1: List All of Your Social Media Accounts
Step 2: Define Your Social Media Audience
Step 3: Measure Your Social Media Performance
Step 4: Conduct Social Media Listening and Sentiment Analysis
Step 5: Perform SWOT Analysis
Step 6: Set New Goals or Adjust the Old Ones

Why Social Media Audit is Important?

Social media auditing is vital for your digital marketing strategy for many reasons.

First, a brand social media audit can help you, as a marketer, to see your audience’s perspective. You’ll understand what people like and dislike about your brand’s content. Also, it’ll give you new ideas for your strategy.

On the other hand, a personal social media audit can help you evaluate the status of your personal brand. For example, if you’re an influencer, it’ll give you actual proof of how well you perform on social. That proof, i.e. data and statistics, you can share with the agencies you associate with and get better offers.

However, to make the most out of this process, you should know how to do it right.

Social Media Audit Template

Now, are you wondering how to conduct a business social media audit without spending endless hours with inconclusive processes?

We come to the rescue! We have prepared an easy-to-use template you can download for free. It’s straightforward and suitable, even if you have no previous experience.

Download your Social Media Audit Template

How to do a Social Media Audit in 6 Easy Steps

An audit is a strong word. But conducting an audit for your social media is, in fact, pretty simple. Especially, when you have a well-defined process and a template to follow.

So, let’s explain the steps and get your audit started.

Step #1: List All of Your Social Media Accounts

First of all, start small with your audit. Make a list of all your social media accounts — even the forgotten ones.

A common case: You may have heard nothing about your company’s Pinterest account, but with a quick search, here it is! What should you do? Type your brand name on popular social media platforms. You’ll be surprised by what you’ll discover. Old test accounts, inactive ones, fake ones, pages from employees, old Facebook groups, and so on!

For a complete social media audit, you should list them all. Type into the template handle name, bio, channel admin, and verification status of each of your social media accounts.

Then, move forward to the juicy part. Note down the number of your followers, and the average engagement per post (likes, comments, shares). Don’t forget to pay attention to the hashtags used.

Step #2: Define Your Social Media Audience

Everything in marketing starts with the audience, even more, in social media content and messaging. So, the next step is to define your audience there.

Chances are that the target audience of your social media efforts may be the same as your target market in the real world.

Nevertheless, different audiences use different social media platforms. The audience demographics play a key role here.

For example, Gen-Z loves TikTok but late Millennials are still Facebook fans. So, if your brand appeals to women 16–40 years old, you should be on both social media, but your approach must be different. We’re talking about tailored content and posts that will speak to their hearts.

Other important factors to consider about your audience are ethnicity, gender, and education. You should take those social media insights into account, before posting on each channel.

Step #3: Measure Your Social Media Performance

This is a crucial stage of your audit. There are many key metrics to measure your social media performance. For a helicopter view, we recommend keeping track of the following.

Reach — how many people see your content;
Impressions — how many times people see your content;
Audience Growth Rate — how many new followers your accounts have within a certain period of time, like per month or quarter;
Engagement Rate — the number of reactions, comments, and shares your content gets as a percentage of your audience;
Video Views — how many users or how many times (depending on the channel) your videos have been viewed;
Click-through Rate (CTR) — how often users click a link in your post;
Cost-per-click (CPC) — the amount you pay for each individual click on a social media ad;
Social Sentiment — the feelings, positive or negative, behind people’s posts and comments on your brand.

Keep in mind that social sentiment is very important for the next step as well.

Step #4: Conduct Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis

At this point, you already have all the basic info for your audit. But this info means nothing without knowing what people think of your brand’s social media presence.

The reputation of your brand in social networks is of paramount importance. What if you have hundreds of social mentions but the majority of them are negative?

Social listening and sentiment analysis can help you with that.

However, tracking all your brand mentions manually and categorizing them is almost impossible. With Mentionlytics you can get all your social -and web- mentions easily in your dashboard. Plus, you can see a sentiment analysis of them automatically.

Step #5: Perform SWOT Analysis

Take a step back and look at the data collected in your template. Examine your results and start making conclusions.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

Now, with all this information available, you can recognize your strengths, e.g. in what channels your brand scores great. Also, you can be able to identify your weaknesses, meaning where there’s room for improvement.

Then, there are opportunities. For example, you may enter — and try to dominate — a new social medium before your competitors. And finally, threats. These are the areas where you should be careful and give much thought.

Some key takeaways of a SWOT analysis are:

New types of posts to be created for the target audience
New types of content to be included in your planning, e.g. videos, podcasts, etc.
New audience groups to expand the brand’s reach
Top performing posts so far per channel

…and more!

Step #6: Set New Goals or Adjust the Old Ones

At the end of your social media auditing, you should spend some time reviewing your old social media objectives and setting new ones, based on the outcomes of your audit.

Take into consideration your brand’s current performance and set achievable goals. Everybody wants to be the best, but it’s a long way to the top.

Our social media audit template can help you with that. You can write down your YoY Change (year over year) or, even better, MoM Change (month over month) of your current social media performance and set new goals based on that.

For example, if your brand had a 5% increase in engagement rate from October to November, then you can set the goal to >5% for the following months.

Pro Tip: Make your social media objectives SMART, i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound. That way, you can stay focused and be result-oriented.

How Often Should I do a Social Media Audit?

Some social marketers tend to audit social media content once every quarter. However, others use to conduct such audits only once per year. There’s no correct answer.

If you’re new to social media marketing, then we recommend auditing your social media once every 6 months. Thus, you can see the actual results of your efforts and gather new actionable data.

In the meantime, don’t forget to take a look at your social media analytics at least once per month, to make sure everything is on track!

Social Media Audit Checklist

To make things simple, here we sum up all the steps we analyzed above in a handy checklist:

Step 1: List All of Your Social Media Accounts
Step 2: Define Your Social Media Audience
Step 3: Measure Your Social Media Performance
Step 4: Conduct Social Listening and Sentiment Analysis
Step 5: Perform SWOT Analysis
Step 6: Set New Goals or Adjust the Old Ones

Start Auditing Your Social Media Now

You’re now all set to start your social media audit! Don’t be afraid to invest some time in it. Surely, it will give you a new perspective on your social media marketing strategy.

Stick to the checklist and take advantage of our free social media audit template.

Good luck!

FAQ

How Long Does an SM Audit take?

It depends on the number of your social media channels, the data, and your objective! But generally, it’s something around 15–30 minutes.

How Much Does a Social Media Audit Cost?

You can perform a free social media audit by yourself with our complimentary template. However, if it can’t fit into your schedule, you can always outsource it. The prices vary, depending on the service provider and your case.

What Should a Social Media Audit Include?

Briefly, it should include checking all your social media accounts, gathering as much data as you can, and analyzing it to arrive at specific conclusions and next steps.

Do I Need Tools to do a Social Media Audit?

For a complete and accurate audit, you can use a free SM audit template to guide you step-by-step. Also, it’ll save you much time to use a social listening tool, like Mentionlytics, to see all your social mentions in one report and perform sentiment analysis easily.

Originally posted on Mentionlytics: https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/social-media-audit