Are your social media efforts producing the results that you want? You may be utilizing your social media network for a certain purpose such as selling an idea or a product. But are you sure that the efforts that you spent this year were effective in achieving your desired results? If you’re not sure, you might not have undertaken a social media audit before the start of 2017. We are now at the cusp of 2018 so it is your most opportune time now to make a social media audit to start off next year on the right track. Here are the things that you need to consider.
What Is A Social Media Audit?
Before you undertake a social media audit, you need to know what this term really means. Basically, this term is used to describe an examination of the social media channels that you use in promoting your ideas or products. Included in this examination are the channels used by your competitors. It involves a systematic investigation of all social media data involved in your efforts so that your marketers or staff will be able to determine, evaluate and categorize all the social talk or contents about your brand, idea, or product. In effect, you will be able to see how your idea, product or brand is doing in the market and what your customers and competitors are saying about them.
Is It Really That Important?
A social media audit is important because it will show you if the profiles and methods you are using to promote your idea or brand are functioning optimally. In so doing, you will be able to discontinue ineffective accounts and ensure that only social channels that produce the best results are utilized. Possessing this knowledge about your brand is very important considering that consumers are now generating more than 25 percent of content that shows up in web searches for particular products and brand names.
And a majority of today’s consumers believe these social media messages more than they trust the advertising of those same brands or products. In fact, research studies have shown that the “word-of-mouth” messages conveyed in social media networks by consumers do have a major effect in the perceived value of a brand or a company. That is the reason why you need to undertake a social media audit for your brand or product.
What Steps Are Needed In A Social Media Audit?
You can undertake a social media audit in two ways. One is by asking the usual five W’s of who, what, where, when and why and answering them all objectively. The other is by simply following a step-by-step process in completing the audit.
- A) The Five W’s:
You need to direct your efforts when conducting a social media audit. The five W’s of who, what, where, when and why will show you the direction that you need to go. “Who” will help you see your consumers and your competitors. “Where” will show you the contents on social media channels and environments that you need to consider. “What” will show you the types of contents on these social media channels that you need to focus on. “When” will tell you the frequency by which these channels are coming out with such contents. And “Why” will show you the purposes by which these contents were published by these social media channels.
After gathering all this information, you need to determine if they present a problem or an opportunity to your social media efforts. Thus, you will be able to solve a problem and take advantage of the opportunity. As you can see, without a comprehensive knowledge of these five W’s, your effort in undertaking a social media audit might just be wasted. The results that you get might be questionable at best.
- B) Step-by-Step Process of Social Media Audit
You might also want to undertake this simple step-by-step process of social media audit.
- Create a spreadsheet for your social media audit. This spreadsheet must contain all the important elements of your social media efforts such as the social networks, your social network URLs, and owner.
- Determine which of the social media networks you are using are showing up on Google searches. This will show which platforms are effective and which are not. It will also show you if there are rogue accounts that are also using your brand.
- Decide on which platforms you need to keep and which accounts you need to let go.
- Examine your social media profiles if they are attracting the results that you want. If not, formulate a more effective one that will meet the standard, integrity, image and style of your brand.
