When was the last time your organization performed a social media audit? Pre-pandemic? In 2020 when everyone needed a pandemic-strategy update? Perhaps you’ve got an entirely new person managing your social channels now. Nevertheless, it’s a good idea to audit your organization’s social presence on an annual basis in order to review what has been working and what hasn’t and make adjustments to your strategy accordingly. There are many ways to audit your social media, but it can be narrowed down to these primary functions:
- Measure Platforms
- Review Social Media Content Posted
- Overall Analysis
Measure Platforms
What channels are you currently active on? Of those channels, make a note of which ones have yielded the most impressions, website visits, and engagement - because all of that is more important than just likes or follows. Does your organization have social media channels that you don’t use anymore? Consider making a post on that account (that will be your most recent) letting your followers know where you are active these days. And while you’re at it, make sure you aren’t making any efforts to drive traffic to that network on your website, via email, etc. If you’ve never done a social media assessment of available/active social channels for your organization, check out our numbered guide to help you rank the overall importance of each channel for your goals as well as grade how well your organization is doing on each channel in terms of visual and informational content.
Review Social Media Content Posted
Once you have a good grasp on which networks are providing the most ROI, dig a little deeper to see which posts were the top-performing posts over the last year or two on each platform. Whether it’s long-form storytelling, informational graphics, real photos of your team—whatever it is, plan to do more of it in the next 12 months. Take note of recurring questions or topics that your audience is engaging with you about on your social channels. This will help you with your content strategy moving forward. For the social channels where you aren’t the strongest, this is an opportunity to brainstorm and try different content ideas. Poll your followers on that channel and ask them what they’d like to see more of from your organization’s social efforts. Stalk your top competitors, peer organizations, and even a few “role models” on brand social that will give you inspiration for content—and maybe even show you some things not to do.
Overall Analysis
As you go through the above activity, answering these questions as you go along will help you identify the actionable steps needed in order to better hit the mark or test out a new strategy as you move into the next 12-month cycle: Is your brand purpose and mission coming through clearly on your social media efforts? Are you hitting your identified target audiences? Is the content relevant and with the right frequency for your identified target audiences?
To assist in this process, you can use a social media analysis sheet like the sample below (that includes example answers from an audit) to help better determine areas where you are hitting the mark and areas where you need improvement:
If you'd like some help preparing to undertake your own social media audit or would like to learn more about Stamp's social media auditing, monitoring, management, and curation options, reach out to Susan to set up a call.
