It’s time to do your regularly scheduled social media audit!
Why?
Are you absolutely sure that information has been updated? Does everything look and sound the same?
Sometimes little changes can fall through the cracks. We get busy!
To help, we created a social media audit template to make this whole process a lot easier! And who doesn’t love to fill in a spreadsheet? 🙋
➡Download our audit template here.⬅
How to Fill Out a Social Media Audit
Once you download the template – by opening it, clicking on “File” then clicking on “Save a Copy” – this is how you will fill out each column and row of the spreadsheet.
WHO? –
Who are you auditing? Always start by name names, even if it’s just your own business.
In this column, literally, start with the name of your business and any other offices or franchises of your business that might have their own social media profile.
To add another level to your sleuthing, include any competitors that you would like to gather this same information on. It really can help to compare yourself to the competition when it comes to social media.
You’ll end up with a list of business names. For each of these names, we’ll follow the row across for each column.
WHERE? –
Where is your business on social media? You might be surprised by what you find out!
In this column, put the URL of every social media profile the businesses listed in the 1st column use. Make sure the rows line up with the business… so this might mean leaving space under a business or repeating the business name.
This task is easier to do if you use a laptop or desktop computer. You will find the social media profile and copy and paste the URL in the web address bar.
WHAT? –
What information is being put out on these social media profiles? Now is the time to go back and refresh your memory.
For this column, take a look at each social media profile in the previous column, and list out what kinds of posts are being made. For example photos, links to a blog, events.
Do this for each platform, so Facebook will have its own line, Twitter will have its own line, and so on.
WHEN? –
How often is your business posting on Facebook? How about on Instagram?
Take a look at how often a new status is posted in a one week period for each of the social media profiles. This is also called your posting frequency.
Just count out a few weeks time and take the general number of posts.
WHY? –
Put your thinking cap on! Now we are asking you “why” your business is posting the types of content that it is.
Is it to sell new products or promote your events? Is it to show how involved in the community you are? You might not be able to list something for EVERY type of status, but you should see trends or similarities in subject matter.
HOW? –
This is your chance to make notes on what you can improve. Ask the question outright – how can I improve?
After you’ve looked at your profiles, content, posting frequency and why you are doing it, you probably have a good sense of what needs work. Be honest… that’s the best thing you can do for this audit process!
If you want to take things a little slower, we will be breaking down some of these columns in more detail in the coming weeks. We will all be learning the art of a social media audit together.