CONDUCTING A SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT
Prepared By : Rafi Ullah Kaki Email : Rafiullahkaki@gmail.com
Digital Marketing Trainer KP Youth Employment Program – KPYEP
LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/rafiullahkaki
Facebook : facebook.com/rafiullah.kaki
Twitter : twitter.com/RU_KAKI

What is a social media audit?
 A social media audit is the process of reviewing what’s working, what’s
failing and what can be improved upon across your social media
channels.
 A social media audit is a regular examination of social channels that
represent your brand—including both your business’ owned profiles and
imposter accounts(Fake Accounts)

Purpose of social media audit
 The purpose is to ensure that each of your profiles are on brand and
functioning correctly, identify and shut down any rogue or abandoned
accounts, and ensure that you’re using the channels that make the most
sense for your brand.

6-step guide to conducting a social
media audit

Step 1: Create a social media audit
spreadsheet
 Your social media audit needs a home, which is why you need a
spreadsheet. As you go through these six steps, you’ll see that the
spreadsheet will start automatically adding new columns.
 To start, create a column for each social network, URL to your profile on
that social network, and owner. The “Owner” field may seem superfluous,
but it’s actually really important to keep track of this information—it
allows you to know who owns the password and who is in charge of
posting and engaging with followers on that social profile.

Step 2: Go on a search for your social
presence on Google
 Go to Google and search your company name to see which social media
profiles show up. This will allow you to see if there are any rogue
accounts or imposters using your company name. It also gives you the
opportunity to find out if the right social media profiles are appearing on
in search results.
 You can either create a separate spreadsheet to track the results of this
search, or add a new column—labelled “Shutdown Y/N”—in the original
spreadsheet. The purpose of this is to keep track of whether you need to
track down an imposter to tell them to shut down their account, or
contact the social network to ask them to intervene in the matter.

Step 3: Evaluate your social media
profiles
 This is an important part of your social media audit. As with your social
media marketing plan, you need to constantly be evaluating your social
media profiles.
 During the evaluation process, create a mission statement for each
profile. Make sure each profile aligns with your business goals and
objectives. This will help you decide whether being present on that social
network contributes to your overall strategy and whether or not it makes
sense for your business to keep that profile.

Step 4: Make sure your social media
profiles are on brand
 Now that you know which social media profiles you’re going to keep, it’s
time to check that each of these profiles meet your brand standards for
imagery, style, etc.
 This means making sure you have a proper profile photo, cover image,
icons, bios and descriptions, correct URL, etc.

Step 5: Centralize the ownership of
your passwords
 The process of doing a social media audit can help you make sure that all
your social media profiles are secure. One way to test this is by
centralizing the ownership of the passwords for each profile. For example:
you can have your IT department own the key to all the passwords for
the social media profiles. Then use a password managing tool
like LastPass to share access on a need-to-use basis.

Step 6: Create a process
 Once you’re done your social media audit, it’s time to take what you
learned and create an internal process when it comes to creating new
social profiles going forward. Create a criteria and take note of who will
approve the requests.
 For example, take note of:
 The requester
 Who the target audience is
 What type of content will be posted to this profile
 Who is responsible for posting and engagement

Social Media Audit Template
 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xap5QTGn2qm7fZp8zlt0P5-
04a6KIKEWfD69556MlkA/edit#gid=0

Another type of social media audit
using W Questions
 WHO
 WHERE
 WHAT
 WHEN
 AND WHY

Who
 Who categorizes data according to who is talking, whether that is the
company, consumers, or a competitor.

Where
 Where lists content by social media channel and environment. Channels
include outlets like YouTube, Facebook, or Pinterest, while environment
refers to the look and feel.

What
 What lists the type of content, such as article, photo, or video, plus the
sentiment of the post as positive, negative, or neutral.

When
 When quantifies the frequency of activity, like number of posts, comments,
views, or shares, per day, week, or month.

Why
 Why determines the purpose of the message from awareness and
promotion to complaint or praise. If applicable, key performance indicators
(KPIs) are included

 Conducting a social media audit using this template helps compel
companies to figure out each channel’s purpose and key performance
indicators. For example, “why does the organization have a Pinterest page
and how is success being measured?” Simply because the competitor has a
page is not a sound strategic reason
 Here’s an example of a social media audit template that’s already been
filled out:

Example Explained
1. Company
 In this simplified example, this company currently has a Twitter and Flickr
account.
 They are sharing text with links on Twitter and photos with links on Flickr
to drive traffic to their website. Ultimately they want more website traffic,
especially unique visits to increase conversions
 They currently have little engagement with these brand posts

Example Explained
2. Consumers
 Consumers are tweeting to the company by asking questions and seeking
help, but the brand has not been responsive. Consumers are not
discussing the brand on Flickr, however they discovered active photo
sharing around the brand on Instagram.

Example Explained
3. Competitor
 The company’s main competitor is on Twitter, but is sharing a lot of photos
and videos with their links, using hashtags and tweeting twice as much per
day. The competitor is also on Instagram where they are sharing photos,
text, and hashtags that are driving a lot of consumer engagement.

Example Explained
 In this example, Flickr is identified as a problem because it is not driving
traffic to the website and this company may consider shutting the account
down. Based on positive consumer brand activity on Instagram and the
competitor’s success, the company should consider opening an Instagram
account. Their Twitter presence could be improved by delivering more
visual content, and by becoming a channel where they actually respond to
user complaints. The company may also consider increasing the frequency
of their posts based on their consumer’s activity and the success of their
competitor

Example Explained
 Once negative customer issues have been resolved, and the brand is
creating more valuable content on more appropriate channels for the
target market, they should look for opportunities to increase and
encourage further brand discussion. The brand could think of hashtags,
apps, or contests to motivate additional brand sharing with user-generated
content and recommendations from insights gathered in the social media
audit.

Example Explained
 Social media marketing is not about completely giving up all control of the
brand, but changing methods to maintain influence in the new consumer-
controlled social media reality. The social media audit tool helps marketers
make sense of the many opportunities these platforms offer by allowing
marketers to see their brands from the perspective of the consumer