How to Conduct a Social Media Audit for Your Small Business

By Raubi Perilli

      May 24, 2018     Solutions    

Many businesses are so caught up in social media posting, sharing, and responding that they forget to really look at their pages. The look at individual posts without looking at their pages as a whole.

This is a mistake. Because without careful monitoring and management, your social media presence could look out of place or covered in spam.

We recommend conducting a social media audit at least quarterly, if not monthly. This reduces the burden of work to clean up any wayward pages and it keeps your profiles looking professional, engagement, and up-to-date. To conduct your social media audit, follow this 15 step process.

#1) List Your Social Media Channels in One Place

The first step in the audit is to see how many social media channels are active for your brand. List all pages that you own, whether the social media channels are active or not, so you can thoroughly review your online presence.

#2) Check and Report Imposter Accounts

The research process is also helpful for identifying imposter accounts. Check to see if fans have created a page for you or another person is pretending to run your business. You can either report these accounts or reach out to the administrator to delete the pages directly.

#3) Update Your Description and Contact Information

Review any copy on your social media pages and your contact information to make sure it reflects the most relevant information for your brand. Facebook, in particular, likes to add new fields, so you may need to add information to complete your profile.

#4) Make Sure Your Photos Match the Profile Layout

Photos that look great one week can feel out of place the next when social channels update their profile dimensions. Sprout Social does a great job of posting the latest social media photo guidelines so you can check to make sure your photos are the right size.

#5) Unfollow Any Inactive or Inappropriate Accounts

You don’t want to waste your time following accounts that are inactive or post inappropriate content. You can quickly find inactive accounts using tools like Unfollowspy, but you may have to manually review the pages and accounts you follow to make sure they relate to your brand.

#6) Follow Relevant Pages for Your Brand

After you unfollow irrelevant pages, check to see if there are any relevant options you should follow on your pages. These might include other businesses in your community, public figures, and local organizations. You can start engaging with these brands to connect with members of the community and grow your footprint.  

#7) Block Any Inappropriate Followers

Once you have cleaned up the pages that you are following, turn to your followers. Twitter Audit is a tool that reports the percent of your followers who are real. If you block these followers then you can focus on connecting with real people, not your imaginary audiences.  

#8) Unlink Any Accounts That Don’t Need Access

If an employee leaves your company or you part ways with a social media agency or contractor, make sure they no longer have access to your small business social media channels. Revoke administrator authorization to protect your account and make sure no disgruntled worker is able to post inappropriate content.

#9) Change Your Passwords

Along with revoking access, update your passwords to protect your brand. Most companies choose weak passwords like “CompanyName123,” these are easy to guess for hackers who want to pose as your brand or steal customer information.

#10) Analyze Your Follow Growth Since Your Last Audit

You may have this step built into your existing reporting system, but if not, your social media audit is a great place to introduce it. Make note of the number of followers you had during your last audit and the number of followers you have now. You can use this to calculate your rate of growth. This helps you understand how your reach is increasing over time.    

#11) Identify Any Significant Changes in Demographics

Look at your new followers and make sure they are relevant to your brand. For example, if you are targeting women 45-65 who live in Tampa, then you probably don’t want 18-25 year old men following you or people outside of Florida and the United States. You can consider blocking these fans if you think they will be disruptive, or you can leave them, making note of the demographic shift and how it may affect your engagement.  

#12) Highlight the Top Performing Posts

Take screenshots of any notable social media content or comments during the social media audit period. What can you learn from these updates? How can you recreate your successes again in the future? Jot down a few actionable insights based on your content, even if they’re as simple as “share more photos.”

#13) Make Sure You Have a Process to Reply to Customers

Roughly 75% of customers say social media has empowered them to interact with brands, and 42% of customers will turn to social media first if they have a problem. Managing social media pages means brands need to be ready to respond immediately, or within a few hours. During your audit, review your process for addressing customer concerns to make sure someone is always available to help your audiences out.   

#14) Update Your Social Content Style Guide

As you review photo sizes, customer care, and content, update your style guide to reflect these changes. This might mean adjusting your policy on hashtag use or modifying how your company handles memes. This way anyone who starts running your social media channels can create content that matches your brand strategy.  

#15) Propose Changes to Your Social Media Strategy

The final step of the social media audit involves proposing actionable steps moving forward. What did you learn from this audit that you can use to improve your social efforts? Make sure your entire team is up to date on the latest changes for your online presence so they can adjust their behavior in-line with your overall goals.    

Improve Your Social Media Strategy

Some of these steps might take longer than others; however, your social media audit can be completed within an afternoon. A social media audit a great task for an intern or new employee who needs to learn the ropes, or a manager who wants to change the company’s social strategy.  

If you need help with your social media presence, contact MyArea Network today. We can set up a free consultation to review your social media goals and take steps to improve your plans for the future. 

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