Last Updated: March 14, 2023

The objective of the Social Media audit is to determine how a business is currently using social media and how it should be using social media to get the highest possible return on its investment.

The social media audit output should be a written, improved social media strategy with analytics data to back up the recommendations.

The checklist for conducting social media strategy audit includes getting answers to the following key questions:

1. What is the company trying to achieve through social media marketing?
2. How well is the company achieving its business objectives through social media campaigns on a scale of 1 to 10?
3. Does the company have any written social media strategy?
4. What has the company planned to achieve through its social media efforts, and how and why should it result in more sales and/or conversions on the website?
5. Which topics/areas are being covered through content, and do they align with the business goals?
6. In what form (blog posts, videos, webinars, podcasts, images, etc.) are the contents being distributed on social media? What is the rationale behind selecting a particular platform?
7. Where are the majority of the contents being published? Company’s blog/video channel, guest blogs, or somewhere else?
8. Who is developing the content? What are their credentials? Are they subject matter experts?
9. What is the content’s publishing frequency (daily, weekly, monthly)?
10. How and exactly when are the contents being promoted on different social channels? What does your content distribution schedule look like?
11. Who are your target audience, and what kind of response is the company expecting from them once the content is published on social media?
12. What is your monthly budget (if any) for running ads on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)?
13. What is the company trying to prioritize, and what is being prioritized through various social media campaigns?
14. How good is the company at targeting customers through social media?
15. How good is the company at building positive influence among customers?
16. Which social media tools are used by the company?
17. Is the company using social media as a broadcasting tool?
18. How much is the company involved in making social media efforts?
19. How frequently does the company uses social media tools?
20. How good is the company at engaging with the target audience?
21. How good is the company at amplifying its messages?

Q1. What is the company trying to achieve through social media marketing?

The cornerstone of any successful social media campaign is clearly defined business objectives. 

Therefore it is imperative to determine what the company is trying to achieve through social media marketing.

The business objectives include brand awareness, loyalty, raw traffic, sales, customer support, customer retention, etc.

Q2. How well is the company achieving its business objectives through social media campaigns on a scale of 1 to 10?

Running social media campaigns is the easy bit. 

Getting the desired outcomes is the real challenge.

Q3. Does the company have any written social media strategy?

When you write down your strategy, it forces you to clarify exactly what you want. A strategy which is not written down is just a bunch of random thoughts.

The majority of companies do not have any written social media strategy. 

Yes, they have been using Twitter and Facebook for years, but without any serious thought or planning.

So, if you get your hands on the document that explains the company’s social media strategy in great detail, then evaluate it.

Q4. What has the company planned to achieve through its social media efforts, and how and why should it result in more sales and/or conversions on the website?

Q5. Which topics/areas are being covered through content, and do they align with the business goals?

Contents which do not align with business goals will not positively impact the business bottomline. 

For example, I only blog on topics related to digital analytics, GA, and GTM because they align with my business goals. 

You won’t find me blogging about SEO or the stock market.

However, many companies do not understand that and develop and share content that has got nothing to do with the product/service they sell.

Q6. In what form (blog posts, videos, webinars, podcasts, images, etc.) are the contents being distributed on social media? What is the rationale behind selecting a particular platform?

FAQ: When to use blogging?

If you want a tremendous reach (reaching millions of people all over the world), then choose to blog. An article has the longest shelf life.

Once it is published, and as long as it is on the internet, it can potentially attract your target audience. 

It is like a 24/7 365 days advertisement of your brand.

The downside of blogging is that it is tough to ‘stand out’ and develop a personal connection with your target audience. 

Blogs are a dime a dozen. Everyone has got one. 

So the conversion rate tends not to be very high.

FAQ: When to use vlogging (video blogging)? 

Vlogging is a tremendously powerful marketing tool.

But vlogs work well only for certain types of niches, and, unlike blogging, your personality must appeal to your target audience. 

If they can’t connect with you, then your vlog won’t work.

FAQ: When to use webinars? 

Webinars are very effective in generating leads and closing sales, provided you have the right target audience (not the peers from your industry and your competitors).

You can instantly demonstrate your expertise and get feedback from your target audience. 

Since your audience can see and hear from you and ask questions, you can develop some level of personal connection with them.

The downside of a webinar is that it has a minimal reach and a short shelf life. As soon as a webinar is over, it is no longer available. 

Therefore, it won’t give you a 24/7 365 days advertisement of your brand for months/years after the webinar is over.

FAQ: When to use podcasts? 

Podcasts are a very powerful tool that can be used to develop deep personal connections with your target audience.

However, for podcasts to really work for your branding and marketing, you must be very good at interviewing people, and you must be able to secure interview spots with top industry experts on a consistent basis.

If the podcast always remains just about you, then it is unlikely to grow. 

Just like vlogs, podcasts don’t work well for many niches. Imagine a podcast on Google Tag Manager. Now, who would subscribe to that?

Like webinars, podcasts have a very limited reach (in most niches) and a short shelf life. 

The conversion rate of a podcast is also quite poor in many niches. Your target audience is most likely to be your peers and not really your customers.

FAQ: When to use images/photos? 

Producing and sharing images/photos can be a great way to develop brand awareness, retention, and sales, especially if you are in the fashion industry or if you are some kind of celebrity.

Photos also help to build a personal connection with your target audience. 

Some of the best platforms to share images are Instagram and Pinterest.

Q7. Where are the majority of the contents being published? Company’s blog/video channel, guest blogs, or somewhere else?

I rarely guest post. I believe all of my hard work should remain only on my blog. 

I avoid blogging even on social media platforms (like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.). They are here today, gone tomorrow.

The day they shut down (like Google+), they will take all of your content with them. This policy has helped me a lot in growing my blog.

If you spend most of your time in guest blogging, when will you get time to develop content for your own blog? 

However, allowing people to guest post on your blog is a good strategy. You get free content and traffic promotion from the guest author.

Q8. Who is developing the content? What are their credentials? Are they subject matter experts?

Pro-tip for hiring a content developer >> DON’T HIRE ONE. Hire a subject matter expert and then train them to become a content developer.

For example, the best person to write about wildlife photography is a professional wildlife photographer and not just any photographer.

And certainly not someone who writes about anything under the sun from ‘how to fix your cycle’ to ‘how to change your baby diapers’.

The best person to write about skateboarding is a professional skateboarder.

Similarly, the best person to write about SEO is a professional SEO.

These subject matter experts are going to cost you much more than professional content spinners.

But you get high-quality content because subject matter experts really know what they are talking about.

Always hire a subject matter expert, not just someone who is good with words and rephrasing but someone who knows what they are talking about.

If you hire a generalist, then it will negatively impact the quality of your content. 

Q9. What is the content’s publishing frequency (daily, weekly, monthly)?

Success in blogging/vlogging is directly proportional to publishing frequency.

The more you blog/vlog, the better. It doesn’t matter how good your content is. 

If you can’t maintain frequency, your blog/video channel will not grow. It is as simple as that. Consistency is the key here.

PewDiePie (the most subscribed YouTuber in the world) has published more than 5,000 videos so far. 

He wasn’t an overnight success. He has been publishing daily video posts for years.

Blogging/vlogging is not a sprint. There is no quick win here. It is an endless marathon. As long as you keep running, it is all well and good. The moment you stop, traffic drops.

Q10. How and exactly when are the contents being promoted on different social channels? What does your content distribution schedule look like?

Q11. Who are your target audience, and what kind of response is the company expecting from them once the content is published on social media?

As odd as it may sound, many companies have no idea who they should really be targeting via social media.

As a marketer, you must know the following attributes of your target audience:

1. Their age, gender, profession, household income, lifestyle, likings, buying behaviour, etc.
2. Where the majority of them live. 
3. You must know where they like to spend the majority of their time online.
4. Who are the best customer types in terms of revenue generation? 
5. You must know why they are your target audience in the first place.
6. Why should they buy from you? 
7. Why should they like your brand? 
8. Why should they engage with you? 

This ‘why’ is extremely important.

If you don’t know this ‘why’, you may engage more with random people on social media than your actual customers.

Q12. What is your monthly budget (if any) for running ads on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.)?

Q13. What is the company trying to prioritize, and what is being prioritized through various social media campaigns?

For example, 

A business may want to build strong engagement with its customers but spends most of its efforts/resources blatantly promoting itself on social media.

The business may not be very responsive to the target audience’s activity on social media but still hope to build strong user engagement.

You need to find such gaps between social media efforts and desired outcomes. 

Once you have identified the issues, you can create new strategies to fill such gaps.

Q14. How good is the company at targeting customers through social media?

Once you know your target audience, you can do a gap analysis to determine who the company is trying to target and who is actually being targeted through various social media campaigns.

For example, 

If your target audience lives in New York, and you are engaging mainly with people from London, then this type of engagement is not profitable for your business.

No matter how much you engage with Londoners, they will not buy your products because they are not your target audience. 

Your target audience lives in New York, and you are better off focusing your marketing efforts in that city only.

Because of this very reason, you should ignore all social media metrics in aggregate forms, such as the raw number of Twitter followers, the raw number of Facebook fans, Facebook likes, etc.

People can engage with your brand from all over the world. But just because they are engaged does not automatically mean that they will buy from you.

They may be engaged for all the wrong reasons.

Segment your social media data to determine how many Twitter followers or Facebook fans are from your target audience location.

Determine the volume of traffic and user engagement your website gets from your target audience location.

For example, 

In the case of Twitter, FollowerWonk is a good tool to get demographic and geographic data of the people who follow you on Twitter:

In the case of Facebook, the Meta Audience Insight is a good tool to get demographic and geographic data of the people who follow you on Facebook:

Make sure that your content marketing strategies align with your business goals so that you don’t end up engaging more with random people instead of your target audience.

WARNING: Do not develop and market content which has got nothing to do with the products/services you sell.

For example, let us suppose you sell jeans, but you created and promoted an infographic on ‘beer consumption in London.’ 

This infographic went viral, and as a result, you got a lot of engaged visits, Twitter followers, and Facebook fans.

But since this infographic has got nothing to do with what you sell, it won’t result in many/any orders. 

And at the end of the day, we are all here to sell.

Not only did you lose potential sales, but you also ended up engaging with the wrong people, the people who won’t promote your brand.

Q15. How good is the company at building positive influence among customers?

Conduct a quick reputation audit.

Search for [brand name] + reviews on Google and check out how positively or negatively a company’s brand has influenced people.

Needless to say, lots of customer complaints and bad reviews are not a good sign of positive influence among existing and potential customers.

Also, 

Do a quick search on social media platforms (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook) and determine what people are saying about the brand. 

Is it positive, negative or neutral?

If there are little to no leads, sales or conversions from social media efforts, then it means: 

a) You develop and promote contents that do not align with your business objectives and 

b) You are engaging more with random people than your customers.

Q16. Which social media tools are used by the company?

Ensure that the company uses all the popular social media tools relevant to its niche.

These tools can be blogs, forums, YouTube channels, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.

Competitive analysis is a good way to determine which social media tools can be used by your client to engage with the target audience.

Q17. Is the company using social media as a broadcasting tool?

The way a company uses social media tells a lot about its social media efforts.

While most companies use social media only as a broadcasting tool, you should encourage your customers to use social media both as a broadcasting and conversation tool to engage with their target audience.

Q18. How much is the company involved in making social media efforts?

1. Minimally involved
2. Somewhat involved
3. Moderately involved
4. Heavily involved

Success in social media is directly tied to the amount of your effort you put in. The more effort you put in, the bigger and better the results.

Q19. How frequently does the company uses social media tools?

1. Not at all
2. Sometimes
3. Weekly
4. Daily
5. Several times a day
6. Almost all the time.

There is no point in setting up social media accounts if you have no intention of using them.

Q20. How good is the company at engaging with the target audience?

I use the conversation rate metric to measure user engagement. 

The conversation rate is the average number of comments/replies you get per social contribution.

Through conversation rate, you can determine how well you are engaging with your target audience.

The higher the conversation rate, the higher your engagement with the target audience.

Higher user engagement can result in higher brand retention, and we all know that brand retention leads to brand loyalty, which in turn leads to more sales and higher customer lifetime value.

Q21. How good is the company at amplifying its messages?

I used the amplification rate metric to determine how good a company is at amplifying its messages.

The amplification rate is the average number of social shares per social contribution.

A social share can be in the form of re-tweets, Facebook shares, LinkedIn shares, etc.

You can determine the true reach of your social media efforts through the amplification rate. 

The higher the amplification rate, the higher your social reach and the higher your probability of reaching out to people who don’t follow you yet.

A high amplification rate can quickly make any content go viral. 

Therefore you should always aim to increase the amplification rate of your social media campaigns.

Ask your client/boss to be as comprehensive as possible while answering your questions. Document all the answers for future reference.

How to improve the conversation rate?

Following are the five methods to improve conversation rate:

Method #1: Be responsive on social media

If somebody asks you a question, reply to them ASAP. 

Reply to each and every comment you get on your blog, Facebook, etc. Avoid people feeling like they are talking to a brick wall. 

Method #2: Analyse what you post

If nobody is replying to you, then go back and find out what you said in the past that resulted in a high conversation rate. 

Method #3: Look for ways to converse with your target audience

• Ask open-ended questions.
• Ask for opinions.
• Conduct webinars and meetups.
• Try to interact with your target audience in person if possible. Nothing beats face-to-face interactions.

Method #4: Build Authority

Build authority by becoming a top-notch contributor in your niche. 

By doing this, people will pay more attention to your words.

Method #5: Develop user engagement features

Develop user engagement features like blogs, forums, recognition systems, etc., on your website. 

It is the key to improving your conversation rate.

Note: I use the True Social Metrics tool to measure the conversation rate. More about this tool later.

How to improve the amplification rate?

Following are the five methods to improve the ‘Amplification Rate:

Method #1: Become an influencer in your niche

If you want people, especially other influencers, to pay more attention to what you say, you have to become one of the top authorities in your niche.

Method #2: Connect with other influencers to increase your social reach

Each influencer comes with its own amplification rate, which can exponentially increase your social reach when combined with your amplification rate. 

Influencers can also introduce you to other influencers and thus increase your social reach even more.

Method #3: Determine the activities which resulted in a high amplification rate

Determine the social sharing efforts that resulted in a high amplification rate and the ones which resulted in a low amplification rate. 

Do more of what brings high amplification and less of what brings low amplification. 

It is not rocket science.

Method #4: Make your social messages reach people in different time zones

If your target audience is spread around the globe, you need to ensure that your social messages reach people in different time zones.

That means you must share your messages several times at different times of the day. 

However, doing all this manually is not the best use of your time. What if you need to post at 3 am?

I use a tool called Social Pilot to schedule my posts on various social media platforms. 

A cheaper alternative to this tool is Buffer.

Method #5: Leverage different social media channels

Don’t rely on just one social channel to forward your messages. 

For example, if you use only Twitter for marketing, consider also using Facebook and LinkedIn. 

I use the True Social Metrics tool to measure the amplification rate:

All you need to do to use this tool is sign up and then connect it with your social media accounts and Google Analytics account. 

This tool can easily calculate the conversation and amplification rates in a given time period.

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