- 19 January 2023
- by Andrej Fedek
- Blog
- 0 Comments
Do you know if your social media strategy really meets its objectives?
To optimize the ROI of your presence on social networks, it is essential to regularly audit your strategy. Analyzing the impact remains the best way to improve, increase your community, optimize engagement and above all, convince new customers.
What is a social media audit?
It’s no secret that we live in a hyper-connected world in which social networks play a major role. Our social environment is constantly changing, as evidenced by the recurring modifications to the algorithms of social networks by their developers. Your social networks require constant strategic adaptation.
Carrying out a social media audit means summarizing all the statistical data collected by your accounts on social networks to analyze them and draw conclusions about their effectiveness.
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When we carry out an audit, we analyze the actions that work and those that do not work. We also study its audience, that is to say, the types of people who belong to your community (age group, places of residence, gender, etc.)
As you will have understood, carrying out a social media audit means drawing a clear picture of your efforts on social networks to take a step back from your actions and thus improve what can be improved.
Why carry out a social media audit?
Are you used to using your social networks to communicate with your targets or customers to inform them of your company’s news? We strongly advise you to carry out a social media audit to improve the impact of your actions and achieve your objectives.
Assess your business strengths on social media
Performing a social media audit is a good way for you to assess the strengths of your business. You must focus on your strengths so as not to waste time on actions that are not profitable.
To find out if your actions are effective, we advise you to measure the engagement rate of your content. It is calculated based on the total number of your subscribers compared to the engagement of your post (number of likes, shares, saves, comments).
By calculating the engagement rate of your posts, you will quickly realize which content appeals to your targets or, on the contrary, which does not work at all. Once you have identified your best posts, continue to create similar content.
Keep in mind that you must produce content for your targets and that they must be at the heart of your social media strategy.
A good starting point to improve your content strategy
Now that you have in mind the content that your targets like to consume on such or such social networks, you can adapt your content strategy according to the conclusions that you will have drawn from it.
The social media audit allows you to gain efficiency to offer content perfectly adapted to the expectations of your subscribers. By offering them relevant and quality content, you will succeed in building a solid community and creating strong links with them.
Discover new opportunities
The social media audit is also a good way to identify new opportunities for your business. You can use a tool like Alternatives to buffer.
By analyzing the audience that you manage to reach through your content, you may realize that your target is much larger than you thought. Or on the contrary, you need to focus on a particular core target to develop your business. This conclusion will therefore bring you a new business opportunity and a guideline to follow.
When you analyze all of your social networks through your audit, you might even be surprised at the reach of certain types of content. The key is to take the time to push your observations by measuring the impact of your actions.
How to audit social networks?
As you will have understood, it is essential to carry out a social media audit to stop wasting time on actions that do not work and thus optimize your content strategy. But, where do you start to audit social networks?
Start by analyzing the existing
The first step of your social media audit will be to develop a listing of all your social networks before analyzing their performance.
We invite you to create a table on Google Sheets to list all the useful data of your accounts (number of subscribers, number of publications, number of views of your videos, etc.). To do this, go to the settings of your accounts and then to the statistical data.
You will find valuable information about your targets: the best time of day to post content or the day of the week when your targets are most receptive. Enter this data into your table and start analyzing it.
Define your performance indicators
Depending on the objectives you have set, define your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). These figures will allow you to measure the impact of your social media strategy and analyze your progress.
For example, you can define the number of views of your posts as a key performance indicator to measure the effectiveness of your communication.
Measure your efforts by calculating your return on investment
We talked about it a little earlier, the objective of an audit is above all to measure the profitability of your actions by calculating your return on investment (ROI).
Your ROI is the value you generated for your business, minus what you spent (natural or paid).
This performance indicator gives you a clear and precise idea of the profitability of your social media strategy.
So that you can carry out your social media audit yourself, let’s review together the key steps to measure the effectiveness of your strategy!
1. Analyze performance indicators
To start your audit, take stock of the main performance indicators and their evolution since you have been on social networks. Among the key metrics, you should assess:
- The volume of the community
- The number of interactions per post (likes, comments, shares, etc.)
- Reach/impressions of publications
- The engagement rate
- The number of clicks on the call-to-action
- The views of your videos
- The number of mentions in your community’s posts
These data must be in constant progression; if you notice that an indicator is falling, it is essential to see when it started to fall.
Have you changed anything in your editorial line? This can be the deletion of a weekly appointment, the introduction of a new type of post, the reduction of a specific format, etc.
2. Control the profile of your subscribers
To find out if your social media strategy is efficient, analyze the profile of your subscribers.
On Facebook, you can find out more about your fans in the “Stats” section. Click on the “People” tab. You will know the gender, age, and place of residence of your fans.
Fairly thin information, but you can first check if it is consistent with the profile of your buyer’s persona.
You can access the same type of statistics on Instagram.
Twitter, on the other hand, is more generous when it comes to data. Go to “Statistics”, then “Audiences”. In addition to gender, the micro-blogging site displays your followers’ interests:
As for LinkedIn, true to its image as a B2B social network, it offers you professional data:
3. Assess your community’s favorite content
To optimize your editorial line, as well as your strategy, study the posts that your subscribers prefer. To do this, identify the posts that have had the highest interaction rate. Rate the entire post:
- Its format (video, photos, computer graphics, etc.)
- The colors of the visual
- The call-to-action in the publication
- The length of the status;
- The time and date of publication
- The information highlighted (product promotion, blog article, expert content, etc.)
- If it was sponsored: the target user and the budget
You will surely distinguish several points in common between them, which will help you to refine your future publications.
4. Calculate the ROI of your social media actions
Calculating the profitability of your social media strategy is not as easy as you think.
a) Start by calculating the budget for social networks. To do this, add up the costs:
- Sponsored campaigns and Social Media Ads
- The position of Community Manager (service provider or employee)
- Prizes for competitions
- Social media management tools
- Photo and video creation tools
b) Now you need to analyze the results. Admittedly, it is more difficult, but several elements can help you understand the impact of your strategy:
- Compare the turnover of the current year with that of the years when you were not present on social networks (month by month)
- Count the number of sales generated by coupons distributed on social networks
- In Google Analytics, check the “Acquisition” > “Social Media” > “Conversions” section
c) For more accurate results in the future, you must:
- Configure conversion goals on Google Analytics
- Install the retargeting pixel on Facebook
- Track all URLs posted on social networks
You will then be able to perfectly calculate the ROI of all your actions and, overall, of your social media strategy.
Our tip for carrying out an effective social media audit
The objective of a social media audit is to have a clear and precise vision of the functioning of your content strategy.
Also keep in mind that to ensure your success, you must regularly monitor your actions by keeping an eye on your performance indicators.
Do you need to call on a community manager or a social media manager to optimize your social media strategy?
Andrej Fedek is the creator and the one-person owner of two blogs: InterCool Studio and CareersMomentum. As an experienced marketer, he is driven by turning leads into customers with White Hat SEO techniques. Besides being a boss, he is a real team player with a great sense of equality.