Vital Steps to Conducting a Social Media Audit
Between the time-consuming tasks of content creation, post scheduling, and result measurement, it can often be easy to ignore the other social media aspects. The mere act of performing a social media audit goes beyond just analyzing the follower and traffic metrics. It is ideally one of the best ways to watch out for new improvement opportunities.
Usually, marketing teams tend to spend several hours ensuring their social media channels look well at the campaign's start. However, while the campaign is on, they never try to revisit and examine it regularly.
Moreover, social networking platforms change their content policies and news feed formats now and then. Thus, it is a good idea to perform a social media audit. It enables the marketers to update the posting policies for every brand, dig-in their best performing content, and simultaneously keep an eye on the competition.
Here, we have some tips to help the marketers perform a social media audit to ensure that whatever campaigns are launched, they reach their full potential.
Review the Workflow
If a marketing team handles several brands, it is vital to prepare an outline for all the brands. Write down – who will cater to the content? Who will schedule the posts once they are approved? Who is responsible for responding to the comments and questions?
Anushka, who offers java homework help for young students, says that outlining the responsibilities is vital to ensure that every member knows their responsibilities. Over time, newer members may join in, or the client's requirements might change throughout the year. Thus, it is vital to keep the workflow updated and accessible to the entire team to view.
Reviewing the Brand Voice
Another vital aspect of the social media strategy is the brand voice. Every person who comes in contact with social media users or the brand's customers must have a concise understanding of the brand voice. As a result of this, everyone on the team can handle both negative and positive interactions consistently.
Every social media network has different audiences, and all platforms need a different voice, says Natasha, an online math tutor. However, the brand voice still needs to be consistent enough to ensure that it is recognizable and brings forth its goals and values.
Every team member needs to consider the brand's voice guidelines while performing a social media audit. It also includes those who may be indirectly associated with the brand, such as the brand's support representatives.
A brand needs to spare adequate time to examine how the customer support and marketing teams reply to the questions and the comments on all social media channels. If you note any inconsistency, you can update your social media plans and policies.
Review the Description Pages
Your social media audit is incomplete without verifying the contact information and ensuring that the description and all the company information is updated.
Every social media marketing manager needs to have a detailed list of the URL of the social media page for the brand they are working on, regardless of whether the page is employed in the marketing strategy or not. There are tools, such as Namechk and Konwem, that can help you search for inactive or forgotten profiles.
With this list's help, marketers can ensure that every page is updated and has the requisite contact and company information. All the links in the description or the bio must also be clicked to assess if it redirects the visitors to the desired place. Lastly, you need to check the permissions on all the pages to ensure that only the members authorized to work on it have access.
Claim the Names
When performing a social media audit, you need to claim the brand's vanity URL or name or all the existing and emerging social media platforms, says Danish, who handles the social media for a platform that offers online digital painting courses. It is essential even if the marketers do not have an immediate plan to add a new social media platform to their content strategy.
You never know when a social media platform sees a boom. Thus, it always helps to be prepared because there is a possibility that this new platform might be a part of your social media marketing strategy only a few months or years down the lane. A lot of times, the new channels become a mainstream sensation overnight. Thus, it never hurts to be prepared. If you fail to do that, you will have to bear an outcome of inconsistent branding.
Review Competitor's Content
Even though getting accurate metrics of a competitor's social media strategy is not easy, as a marketer, it is your job to analyze the competition and compare their efforts with your time and again, suggests Kiara, a brand manager for TFTH.
Ideally, every social media marketer needs to identify and analyze three (or more, if possible) competitors and study:
- The different social media channels used by them
- The kind of content posted by them on every channel
- Frequency of the content
- Comparison between the frequency of original, curated, and promotional content
- The information listed on the bios and the descriptions
- The kind of content that is bringing more engagement for them
A detailed study of this will help you shed some light on your own social media marketing strategy and make changes favoring your business.