Give Your Brand A Summer Social Audit In 4 Simple Steps

When you hear the word “audit” what is the first thing you think of? If you are like most people, your mind instantly goes to tax season and the dreaded IRS audit, right? Not all audits are created equal – and not all audits are a “bad” word.

The word audit could be used in different ways – such as a check-up or a tune-up. When you do your yearly doctor’s visit or visit the auto shop for your vehicle each year, you are essentially doing an audit of your health and the health of your vehicle. So why does the word audit create so much dread and anxiety? It doesn’t have to!

Much like you give yourself an audit of your own health or the health of your vehicle – your business properties, such as your social media accounts, need audits as well. You can learn a lot from regularly reviewing your social media properties.

These properties can quickly fall into disrepair when left unattended. And while social media management itself can be a full-time job – doing a quick audit can be made simple. If you’re dedicated to growing your online community, then this is a MUST.

A social media audit is a process of going through what’s working, what’s failing and what can be enhanced across the social media channels that you utilize.

Step 1. Get your Brand in check. 

Do your social media profile names align with your brand, business, and persona? Think about the searchability factor – if people are searching for something, will they find you? Your social media profiles and your brand need to be in harmony. If you can snag a handle name that speaks to your brand, the easier it will be for people to find you. Even BETTER if you can land the same handle name for ALL of your social channels. If someone finds you on one social channel, they may look for the same handle on other social channels as well.

If you want to stand out, you must distinguish yourself from your competition. With a strong persona and a great way to differentiate yourself, you are more likely to stand out when someone is searching for something related to your brand.

For example: Whether you try to find my website, my twitter, my pinterest, my linkedin, or my Instagram. All of my social channels are @chelseakrost  – relevant to the brand and easy to remember!

One more tip – even if you only use two platforms right now, such as Facebook and Twitter, it is still important to reserve your name or business name across new and old social media platforms. So, if you decide to engage across a different platform, you’ll be ready to go, and you can maintain your brand across all of them.

Step 2. Get your logo in check. 

Is your logo, brand name, website, signature hashtag, and bio up to date? Is it the same across all channels?  If not, it is time to tweak each channel so that you have a uniform brand presence across all platforms.

You look more professional and ready to earn the trust of consumers when you have a consistent look across every social media platform you choose to utilize. There are, of course, platform specific differences, but consider maintaining a similar overall aesthetic for each channel. For example – use the same use the same color scheme, logo, and general messaging across every social media platform, including your website. By doing this, people will be able to easily track you and your brand no matter the social media platform.                                                                                                             

Step 3. Get your content in check.       

Review the past few months of content that you have pushed out to your audience. Are you posting on a regular basis or are you going days/weeks/ OR months in between posts? The more consistent your post schedule is the more likely you are to scale your audience. It is extremely important to maintain a healthy level of activity on your main social media channels if you want to continue to grow these platforms.

Take note the content that has generated the most likes and engagement and DO MORE OF IT. Give your audience what they like and they will come back for more!

Engagement! It is a word that you constantly hear in the social media world. And although you might not know it – this is imperative to your brand to grow and maintain your social media channels. You might have 10k followers on a social channel, but no one is listening or watching. Why? You have not created a relationship with them – they have forgotten about you and your brand. By engaging your fan base when posting relevant content, you are nurturing your relationships with your fan base.

Step 4. Get your social tools in check.

Do you have social media analytics tools to track the growth, progress, and engagement of your community? If not, there are several user-friendly tools to explore that will help you track this information like Buffer or Hootsuite.

All social media platforms, whether you use one or many, are a crowded and competitive space. It is essential to track the results of your social efforts so that you can identify the most effective strategies for your brand. Otherwise, you are wasting a lot of time and effort with very little return.

Different tools will give you different capabilities for each platform you want to monitor and analyze data for. While it is never a bad thing to increase your Twitter following, Facebook likes, YouTube views, etc…, it is more important that you focus on the quality of those gained followers. Are they engaging with your brand? Are they likely to become customers or return customers? Detailed analytics will help you answer these and related questions.

Consider ongoing monitoring of your social channels. This really isn’t an audit but is an important part of your entire social media strategy. Brands should constantly be monitoring their social media properties using alerts and reports from various tools. Ongoing monitoring is helpful in responding to the real-time engagement of your consumers.

Whether business owners like it – or not – consumers often head straight to social media when they are looking for information on a specific business. They often trust the social media messages that they find more than advertising or news articles about a brand or business. This “electronic word-of-mouth” is viewed as dependable by consumers and significantly affects the perceived value of a brand or business.

Tracking the ROI of your social media properties can be a challenge. Doing an annual audit of each platform is the most efficient way to measure your brand’s social performance over the last year and plan how to improve it in the coming year.