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Spring Cleaning: Audit Your Social Media Accounts Performing regular social media audits will help your brand minimize the gap between the current state of your social media profiles and your annual goals. An audit will help you determine areas where you are excelling and areas that have room for improvement. Regular audits gives your brand a competitive edge while providing valuable insight into your customers’ wants and needs. A social media audit helps ensure that your social media team is on the same page, driving better results from your social media efforts. After performing an audit, you’ll be able to identify areas to streamline your process and take on a more holistic approach in producing content that drives results.

In short, auditing your social media accounts and performance is just as important as auditing any other area of your business. In this guide, we’ll show you how to perform a comprehensive audit of your social networking accounts to help define and drive business objectives and give you insight into the real ROI of your social campaigns.

When Should You Audit?The social media audit process is important for any new business, any business that’s matured in their social media efforts and needs to discover the next steps, or any business looking to gain insight on what their competitors are doing. It’s useful for any business asking which social platforms they need, any business launching new products into the market, or any business working on their long-term strategic plans.

Businesses use the audit process to maintain their current business trajectory and measure their ROIs. It’s a great tool to discover what people are saying about their brand or their industry and for reputation management. Audits are a common process for managing marketing strategy, and the process helps show marketing managers how to build advocacy among a brand’s target audience.

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There are three primary steps for any audit:

1. Data collection/Inventory 2. Analysis of data 3. Findings and recommendation (the report)

Before you start the audit, pick the time frame you will be analyzing. This will help you focus your data collection and analysis as well as explaining your findings in the context of the time frame you decided to analyze. Anything outside of that time frame will be irrelevant to your analysis.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to take an inventory of your brand’s social media presence. We’ll talk about how to make sure your social media presence fits your brand’s messaging strategy, and how to analyze all the data to set up measureable Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that will help direct your strategy going forward. We’ve also created an easy-to use document that you can download to track your audit process.

What to AuditNetwork Inventory: The first thing you’ll need to do to perform a social media audit is to inventory all your social profiles and assets – where does your brand have a presence, and which social networks are you currently leveraging? Once you have a complete inventory, you’ll be ready to dive into the analytics that will help you determine how your social media presence measures up.

For each social network, determine the following information: Is my brand Active? Reactive? Inactive? What’s my URL? What’s my profile handle? Who has administrative access and what’s the login? Who has posting access/ownership? Does the profile use ads? Who is our ads administrator? What is the login?

We’ve provided a form to get you started – See Worksheet Section 1

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Keeping a running inventory of this information is important in ensuring you have the ability to collect all the data you need to perform your audit, and that you know where you’re currently focusing your efforts. This includes knowing who “owns” these social profiles at any time (who is responsible for posts on your Facebook Page, for example), and knowing who has what type of access to the accounts. You’ll also want to note whether or not you’re using paid or owned media, or both.

Policy: Next, you’ll want to determine whether or not you have a social media policy that’s applicable to your network presence. Your social media policy will include things like who creates the content to post and who posts that content. Your policy should outline guidelines for post topics or types based on your brand’s “voice” (photo, video, links or text) and guidelines for responses to users mentioning your brand. Your policy should also include web service level agreements for those networks – guidelines for monitoring metrics associated with that network, performance indicators and troubleshooting.

For example, if your brand focuses on having stellar customer service, you’ll want to determine whether or not your brand needs a dedicated customer service handle on Twitter. If so, you may need to ensure you have an appropriate policy to route customers to that handle for customer service issues. You’ll want to set goals for response rate and response time when users mention your brand. In addition, you should know how to handle different types of social posts regarding your brand – whether they’re positive or negative.

Note:In our most recent study of customer service on Twitter, we found that the demand for customer support through the social network has grown by 44% year-over-year.

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Profiles and Messaging: Look at each of your social media profiles and assess their status as part of your brand messaging. On each network, determine who is your target audience, and how your brand is portrayed. You’ll want to look at your brand’s overall messaging and targeting strategies in conjunction with your social profiles to ensure that each profile adheres to your brand’s image and guidelines. For example, answer the questions in Worksheet Section 2.

Note that we added an area for unofficial brand handles – this is very important because you want to make sure your brand has all the social networking accounts that could be affiliated with your brand. Any page that uses your brand handle and logo should be owned by your brand, as unofficial accounts can be confusing to customers and detract from your brand’s social networking performance.

Once you’ve audited all your profiles against your brand’s overall messaging guidelines, you’ll begin setting baselines for your social networking posts that adhere to that messaging.

Activity Baselines: At this point in the audit, you will want to set baselines for your posting activity on each network. Break this part of the audit down by network, and determine your current baselines for each network. When looking at your post activity, it’s helpful to know what data or information your post frequency is based on, in order to determine whether or not you’re using the right data to set goals.

Note this content in Section 3 of the Worksheet.

ContentNext, we’ll move on to content. What types of content does your brand push out on each channel and why? Who is responsible for generating that content? Are you using paid advertising on any of these channels, and who is responsible for that component of your social media strategy?

Here, take inventory on the types of content you produce, and where that content is used: Normal post - shared on which network – how often? Video - shared on which network – how often? Photo - shared on which network – how often? Link - shared on which network – how often? Paid or Promoted Content - shared on which network – how often? Comment - shared on which network – how often? Response - shared on which network – how often? Shares - used on which network – how often?

To note this, use Worksheet Section 4.

Keywords and Copy: One place targeting is immediately apparent is through the keywords you use in your content. You may be familiar with keywords as a part of search engine optimization (SEO). In SEO, keywords are targeted in web content, in your web page titles and in URLs, as a way to help gain visibility in search. They are related to your brand’s business goals and should be based on key terms your customers would use to search for you or your product on the web.

Now ask yourself: are you optimizing your social profiles as well (social media optimization, or SMO)? Many marketers forget to optimize their social profiles like they would optimize their website for search. This can be detrimental to your brand’s overall social media strategy though, since many users have much more exposure to brands’ social profiles through mobile applications than they have to a brand’s actual website.

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Why is it important to optimize for keywords in your social strategy? With the rise of mobile devices in internet usage, more people are accessing brands through social apps rather than via a web browser. Think of your phone or tablet – you probably have a Facebook app and it’s likely you have a Twitter app. If you have an Android smartphone, you’ve definitely got Google+ integration on your system, and being a business professional it’s not unlikely that you’re also using an app for LinkedIn.

Being able to easily find those profiles in a mobile setting means that those mobile profiles need to be optimized for search. It’s likely you have a list of keywords for your SEO efforts and you should use the major keywords related to your brand or industry in your social profiles.

Note:Mobile internet use is rising! Consumers are buying more mobile devices than ever – including smartphones and tablets, which they use to access social networks. In fact, nearly 40% of all internet use in 2013 was via mobile devices. Optimize the use of mobile advertising to access the most users.

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If you’re new to the idea of using keywords to optimize your profiles, you can create a keyword list by considering keywords your clients and customers might use to search for your product or brand. Using both specific and general terms will increase your visibility for a wider range of topics.

To do this, outline your audience by: who, what, why and how. Then identify major search terms and keywords that might come up based on this outline. Use Section 5 to note down this information.

Who are my customers? What are their needs? Why do they need my brand? How will they search for my brand?

Promoted or Paid ContentFacebook has recently rolled out updates to their Ads platform that are designed to make the paid/promoted posts process easier. In addition, Twitter allows for promoted Tweets that are targetable by several criteria. As these social platforms are updated to better serve end-users, businesses are seeing a true need for paid media as a way to help bolster their social campaign performance. This means that as a major brand, you’ll need to consider paid media in the audit process in order to audit your presence holistically.

In your overall social networking presence, look at which social network had the most leads, which had the highest quality leads, which leads cost the most and which leads cost the least. In doing this, you’ll get an overall feel of which ads best benefit your company. You can do this with the grid in Section 6 – noting that your conversion type may be a lead, a click, a purchase, a like, or any other action you want your customer to take.

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Note:Some of these channels may not have a paid media option, or you may be using an outside solution to drive conversion for these channels.

Having an inventory of these factors will help you determine which channels have the highest value for your brand in terms of paid media.

Creative ContentWhile you’re auditing your content strategy, ensure that the content you’re producing meets your brand’s marketing standards for style, quality, and voice. Use your brand’s messaging guidelines to ensure your content meets brand standards.

For example, if you’re promoting blog posts on Facebook, you’ll want to consider whether or not to feature an image, what your call to action should be, and whom you’re targeting with the content. Doing this for your content will help tailor that content to your audience’s needs. You may find it easiest to come up with a document outlining the recommended style and tone of your social media posts. Think about:

Who are we writing for? What is our relation to that audience? What tone of voice should we take with that audience?

Use Section 7 to answer these questions.

CampaignsNext, you’ll need to audit your campaign strategy – especially if you have product or content launches, major product updates, or just general advertising or awareness campaigns. Answer the questions on Section 8 to audit your campaign strategy.

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Outlining this information will give you KPIs to monitor the campaign process and measure your campaign performance on each network. In addition, consider your cross-channel promotion and how you’re maintaining a consistent message on all your networks. You’ll want to be strategic about how you promote campaigns across channels for maximum impact. You may find that promoting Facebook campaigns via Twitter lead to more likes, or that promoting campaigns on Pinterest using visually stunning graphics has the most desired effect.

Analysis and FindingsBy now, you’ve aggregated a massive amount of data that you’ll need to analyze. Using the above inventory items you should now be able to audit your performance.

Channels: While you’re looking at your presence across the major social networks, take note of which channels seem to perform well. You can confirm this through data analysis.

The Simply Measured Complete Social Media Snapshot, for example, will show you your metrics for engagement across all your social profiles to give you a quick look into which channels are the most successful. In the above report, we see that the brand’s most active channel is Twitter, but Instagram seems to do well in highest engagement per post, and has the most engagement as a percent of audience. This means that the brand may want to consider building more of a presence on Instagram.

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Channel by channel, you’ll want to go through the data you collected and analyze your community – from how many actions your posts drive, to the rate of engagement, to how quickly you respond to customers. Use Figure 9 to audit your channels using the following metrics:

Community Size: How large is your audience on the social network?

Community Growth: By what percent should your audience grow each reporting period?

Desired Action: What action are you trying to drive on that social network? Is it clicks? Likes? Shares?

Number of Actions: How many desired actions have come from the social network over the reporting period?

Action Value: What is your cost per action? If you don’t have a cost, consider ranking them on number scale, or using subjective values like high, medium, and low.

Engagement Rate: What percentage of your community engaged with your content (engaged users/total audience)?

Response Rate: What percentage of audience-generated posts do you respond to?

Response Time: How long on average does it take your brand to respond to audience-generated posts or requests?

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Brand Mentions: How many overall mentions and/or shares does your brand have? This could be retweets and @mentions on Twitter, shares on Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn, reblogs on Tumblr, etc.

Compare this data between reporting periods to find out how your brand is performing in each area. Then using that data you should be able to assess your performance by channel.

Keywords: On your social channels, take note of which keywords perform well in posts. The Simply Measured Conversation Driver Analysis report will tell you how keywords perform across all social networks so you can get an idea of how your SEO keywords work in a social networking environment.

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The top performing keywords for weekly Twitter chats in May 2012 are shown above. If a brand wanted to run its own social media Twitter chat, they would want to use these major keywords in their brand profile and in their promotions for the event to optimize for search.

Determine: Which keywords are used the most? How frequently are they used? Are my social networking profiles branded with these keywords?

List your keywords in Section10.

Content: Take note of what performs well among your audience – whether it’s video, photos, or text posts. You’ll want to compare this with your current social media strategy to make sure that your strategy aligns with what resonates with your fans and followers. Using the Simply Measured Facebook Page Insights report for example, you can drill down the data to find out what type of content resonates best with your audience, which days and what times your current audience is online, and more.

Here, we can see that the brand focuses on Twitter posts, but the engagement on those posts is relatively low compared to the engagement on photos on Facebook and Instagram. Examining how well different types of content perform across channels will give you insight into how you can adapt your content curation to drive more brand awareness.

Use Section11 to examine your content.

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Paid Media: When auditing your paid media options, you’ll want to look the cost and quality of your conversions. You may find that high quality conversions cost more, or that you’re not targeting a social network that has decent low-cost leads. You should be able to answer the questions on Section 12.

Social CampaignsEvaluate your social media campaign on a broad scale to get an overall look at how your campaigns perform. Looking at your campaigns as a function of both engagement, and engagement by post type will give you insight into how well certain types of campaigns perform on different channels. Do this using Section 13.

AudienceWhen we talked about auditing your keywords and content we mentioned your audience. Answering who, what, where and why will help your brand decide how to effectively target your social networking presence to a specific audience.

Using reporting tools in conjunction with your audience targeting will allow you to you glean extra information to make informed decisions about which audience segments have the most value. The Simply Measured Twitter Follower report, for example, tells you your audience breakdown by Tweet activity, by Klout score, by the keywords they use most and by their time zone. In addition, it will show you who your most influential followers are so you can engage the users that drive the most valuable content for your

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brand. If you’re a brand whose product is a tool to help users manage their social media post content, you’ll likely want users with high Klout scores similar to your own.

Here, Use The Audience Questions You Wrote Down To Answer The Following: Who are your target audience? How does your true audience differ? How are you targeting content towards your target audience? What keywords are you using to target them? What content is the most engaging? What social network provides the most engagement?

We’ve provided space under Section 14 to answer these questions.

CompetitorsOne of the basic tenets of market analysis is competitive analysis within your industry. As an industry leader, you’ll want to assess your competitors’ performance to identify areas of success and areas of improvement.

Use Section15 to track your competitors.

After taking a general look at your competitors, drill down your analysis and try to answer the following questions:

Branding: What is their overall image or theme? How do they portray themselves? How do they portray the brand or industry?

Engagement: What’s their engagement rate? Is it higher or lower than your brand’s?

Frequency: How often do they post? Do they use multiple channels?

Popularity: How many followers/likes does the brand or influencer have?

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Types of posts: What topics do they frequently discuss and how do the posts perform?

Running reports like the above Facebook Competitive Analysis report will give you an idea of how well your brand performs in your industry. The report will tell you what types of posts your competitors use most, how often they post per day, and what their average engagement is per post.

Outlining this information for your competitors gives you insight into how the industry is trending so that you can take advantage of social networks that perform well and discuss topics relevant to your industry. Taking this proactive approach will also allow you to easily adapt your strategy to audience segments and trends.

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Reporting Your FindingsHaving done your analysis you’ll now be able to report on the above bullet points and make recommendations based on that. You’ll be able identify areas for improvement and current successes. For reporting, we recommend a template laid out in the following way:

Introduction1. What are the goals of your audit and what are your recommendations?

2. What are the technical details of the audit – time period, networks, etc.

3. How is the audit organized?

a. Network Inventory

b. Content Inventory

c. Paid Media Inventory

4. Who should implement the recommendations?

Findings1. Introduce the concept you’ll discuss in your finding.

2. Introduce the importance of that finding.

a. How does that finding affect your business process?

b. What are your current benchmarks for this finding?

c. What are your goals for this finding?

3. Show specific examples of the finding.

a. Show specific examples of success.

b. Show specific examples of how to improve.

Recommendations1. Re-introduce the finding.

2. Make recommendations based on your areas for improvement.

3. Introduce KPIs for each finding.

4. Lay out the steps for achieving the KPIs.

5. Set a timeline for achieving the KPIs.

ConclusionAs you routinely take stock of your social accounts, highlight new or different key performance indicators (KPIs) that will help you measure and improve your social networking performance across each social network. For each one, rank your brand in each area to find out where you stand. Then, set goals with which to assess your future performance. From there, you will have a better understanding of which social networks are the most effective for your brand and how you should create and distribute your content.

A social media audit is a must for any business that’s looking to expand, to change, or to grow their social networking presence. It’s important to perform an audit at least yearly, if not quarterly, to find out how your brand is meeting KPIs. It will help you determine which social networks have the most benefit for your brand so you can focus on building social audiences on those networks. It can also help you determine where you should expand your reach and develop more targeted content.

Using tools like the Simply Measured social media analytics reports will make it easier perform a social media audit. The reports have the data to show you facts about your audience or your content that you may not have previously known, discover the KPIs you should meet, and monitor and track the success of your social media strategy.

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