The Benefits of Social Media Audits for your Small Business
Updated: Jun 1
If you’ve been following the same social media strategy for over 6 months now, it is time to check if it’s serving your business, and where you can make improvements for even better results. One way to do this is to conduct an audit of your social media accounts. A social media audit will show you if you’re using your channels to the best of their potential, and it points you in the right direction to get more eyes on your content. If you’re unfamiliar with audits, this article will help you understand what they are, why your business needs them, and the benefits they can bring to your overall marketing strategy.
List of contents:
Why does your small business need social media auditing?
The benefits of conducting social media audits:
2. Finding out what works and what needs improvement
3. Keeping up to date with platform changes and updates
4. Saving time and money by knowing what to focus on
5. Identifying opportunities for growth
How can you conduct a social media marketing audit?
- Professional Social Media Audits
What is a social media audit?
A social media audit, in simple terms, means reviewing the social media channels you use to promote your business. This may be your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn…or all of them! It involves analysing your profiles, your content, and what works best to drive reach and engagement. It’s like an MOT for your social media presence!
The aim for it is to see what’s working so you can double down on it, AND what isn’t, so you don’t waste your precious time with it. This way, you can make sure that your strategy is tailored to what works best for your business and audience.
Why does your small business need to audit the social media strategy?
Conducting a social media audit helps businesses of all sizes to get a deeper insight into the performance of their social media efforts. Without regular auditing, it’s like doing all of your content with a blindfold on.
For small businesses, this is even more important, because there aren’t special teams dedicated to collecting data, and analysing what works and what doesn’t work by default. If you’re a solopreneur or have a small team, there are things that can easily slip through the cracks as you implement your marketing strategy, which can make your social media content not work to its full potential. This is why setting time aside to do internal auditing regularly, as well as getting external audits conducted can be extremely helpful for your business. I will explain more about the benefits for your small business below.
What are the benefits of social media audits?
Now that you understand what a social media audit is, and why they are important for your small business, let’s look at the benefits they can bring to your overall marketing strategy and business:
1. Staying on brand
One way to stay top of mind for potential customers is to create an easily recognizable brand that can be recalled on any platform where you are active. A social media audit can help you with this and verify that your branding is consistent across different platforms. Through it, you can check that your brand messaging is aligned across all the different channels, including your brand’s voice, tone, visual identity, and messaging. Having a consistent brand presence will give more credibility to your business, and build trust with your audience.
A key thing to also keep in mind is that auditing your social media channels can help you identify any content or interactions that may harm your brand’s reputation. This includes identifying negative comments, inappropriate content, or spam, which will allow you to address them proactively and mitigate any potential damage.
2. Finding out what works and what needs improvement
Social media audits are a key part of seeing how well your strategy is working. Through them, you can analyse the statistics of your social media channels, and gain insights about what resonates with your ideal customers and what doesn’t. It can also help you find the aspects that may need changing to improve your performance.
For example, you may find out that video content receives more engagement than images, or that specific content types work better at certain times of the day. With this information in mind, you can adjust your content strategy to align with your audience’s preferences.
Besides analysing the content performance of each platform, you can go the extra mile and compare how different types of content perform on your various platforms, and which platform brings the best return on your investment. Going a step further, you can then analyse the role that social media as a channel plays in your overall marketing strategy, and if there’s anything that you could tweak to improve its performance.
3. Keeping up to date with platform changes and updates
Social media platforms are constantly changing and updating, with algorithm updates and new features being introduced frequently. If you’re on Instagram, or Twitter, this may especially be important for you right now, as these platforms have changed so much over the past few years! Auditing your social media profiles can help you understand if your strategy is keeping up with the latest trends and changes.
For example, Instagram updates may impact your timing, or the style of content you post. Similarly, new features and content types may need you to amend your content strategy or production to maximise these new opportunities.
As a small business, it may be difficult to stay on top of all of these updates and changes, which is why getting an expert to audit your social media profiles can help. As a digital marketer myself, I can tell you that it is a big part of our work to stay on top of the latest trends and updates, so you don’t have to spend hours on it yourself. Through a social media audit conducted by an expert, you can stay competitive, reach new audiences, and improve your engagement levels, because you’ll know exactly what to focus on and what to stop wasting time with.
4. Saving time and money by knowing what to focus on
As a small business owner, it’s only logical that you would like to optimise your resources and improve the efficiency of your social media strategy so you get a higher return on your investment, whether that is in time or money. This is where auditing your social media presence can come in handy.
When analysing your social media channels, you can identify which channels and tactics are delivering the best results when it comes to traffic, engagement and conversions. This information can help you make data-driven decisions about where to allocate your resources.
For example, you may decide to invest more time and money into your top performing channels, or to shift your focus to tactics that have worked very well in the past. You may also find that certain steps in your strategy are unnecessary, or could be replaced with automation software. Optimising your social media strategy this way can bring an increase in your ROI, and help you achieve better results with less effort.
5. Identifying opportunities for growth
We have already established that social media audits can help you stay on top of new updates and changes with social media platforms. But it doesn’t stop there, as they can also help you identify the topics and trends that your audience cares about. For example, you may notice that your audience is increasingly interested in a particular topic, such as sustainability, or motherhood. They may have started using a new social media platform that you haven’t thought about before, or are switching from one platform to another.
It’s important to notice these trends, because by adapting your strategy accordingly, you can stay relevant and continue to engage with your ideal customers on topics that are top of mind for them. You can also leverage new platforms or channels to reach new audiences and expand your reach.
How can you conduct a social media marketing audit?
Social media audits can come in different shapes and sizes. You can do it yourself on a smaller scale, using the valuable insights that you have in-house, or hire a specialist to look at the wider picture. With their help, you can make sure you are keeping up with the latest updates and developments in the industry.
- DYI Social Media Audits
You can absolutely conduct social media audits internally, and I recommend that you do this at least quarterly. Start by assessing your current social media presence, checking the platform analytics to see your engagement metrics, and identify what is working well and what could be done better. Additionally, make sure that your branding is consistent across all of your social media platforms. Then, analyse your content to find out which content types work best with your audience and what doesn’t resonate as much.
You can also go a step further by examining your competitors’ social media profiles to identify areas where you can enhance your strategy. Then, using all the insights you have fathered, develop a plan of action to enhance your social media strategy.
- Professional Social Media Audits
Although conducting a social media audit in-house can give you useful insights, hiring a professional can offer a more comprehensive and detailed analysis. A digital marketing or social media professional will have the expertise, experience and tools to identify areas for improvement that you may overlook. They can also provide valuable recommendations and action steps to optimise your social media strategy and boost your online presence.
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If you’d like a professional social media audit for your business, I can help! You can learn more about my social media audit services here, or book a free 30MIN consultation to discuss how I can best assist you.
I hope that this article gave you a good idea of what social media audits are, and how they can benefit your small business. If you have any questions or would like some guidance from me to conduct your own audit, please do get in touch at contact@alexandraasanache.com.
P.S: I am soon launching a Beta version of my Ethical Marketing Audit, which will focus on how ethical your current marketing strategy is, and where you can make improvements by analysing your website and social media platforms. Sign up to my newsletter to be the first to find out when this will become available!
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