social mediaMost businesses have some form of social media, whether it’s a simple presence on LinkedIn or an Instagram account. Studies say 77% of small businesses in the U.S. use social media for sales, marketing, and customer service. And nearly half of them say social media is critical to their businesses’ survival. If you’re among those business owners who are posting regularly on your social media platforms, I have a question for you:

Is your social media meeting your objectives?

As business owners, department heads, or entrepreneurs, we know we should plan our marketing activities with intention and goals. Social media is often different. Someone in the company says, “We need to be on social media!” We hastily set up an account and start posting regularly.

So all is well, right?

It depends. Is your goal to just post regularly or do you have another reason for being on social media?

Main Reasons for Business Social Media

What are your company’s specific goals for your social media?

You should have an engagement goal in mind for every reason you can identify. Otherwise, how will you know if your initiative is successful?

On a recent video chat, Big Ideas Writing founder Karen Dix spoke with our social media manager, Nichole Meyer, about the importance of social media and setting goals. You can see the conversation here.

So, let’s consider why you’re on social media. My guess is it’s for the same reasons many of your competitors and peers are, like those listed below.

REASON ONE: To Build Brand Awareness and Reach

This is the main reason most businesses are on social media. If your product or service is B2C (business to consumer) or especially visual or personal (like coaching), social media is your best option for reaching out to a broader audience, showcasing your product or service, and promoting your brand identity.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:  What platforms are my prospective customers on and am I on those platforms? What are the demographics of the type of followers you’d like to reach? Male, female? Age? Interests? How many followers would you like to have? By when? Setting these metrics at the onset of your posting will help you determine later if you have succeeded.

REASON TWO: To Engage and Support Customers

Even without a social media audit, it’s very easy to monitor your success if you want to use your social media platforms to offer support to interact with customers, address concerns, and build relationships. You can readily see if your audience is engaging for that purpose and how successful your efforts are. However, you should still have goals.

THINK ABOUT: How many followers do you realistically think you can get? By when? Are you posting the best content to engage them? Are you sharing the customer experience in your posts? What is your goal for gaining followers every day/week/month?

REASON THREE: To Generate Leads and Sales

Everyone’s favorite! Most businesses expect their social media to generate leads and drive sales. Posts using videos about products and services can not only entertain but motivate prospective customers to convert. However, a social media audit will tell you if this is actually happening.

THINK ABOUT: What types of posts encourage engagement? Are we monitoring website traffic after a well-timed, juicy post? Are we learning from what we post? Are customers requesting sales calls through social media? What are our expectations for the day/week/month for sales requests through social media messaging?

REASON FOUR: To Monitor Online Reputation and Feedback

You may use your social media to monitor your online reputation and respond to customer feedback or address negative comments. The metric may be more subjective, but you should be able to detect if you are being responsive to dissatisfied customers.

THINK ABOUT: What is our response time when someone leaves a comment on social media? Can it be improved? What is our goal for responding to customers in a timely way?

REASON FIVE: To Increase Content Marketing and Brand Storytelling

Social media allows you to share the stories of your customers, employees, company, and community outreach efforts. Every organization has “behind the scenes” stories to share that can boost engagement. A social media audit will tell you what type of brand storytelling resonates most with your audience.

THINK ABOUT: Are your posts telling your organization’s story? Are they promoting your brand? What kind of content can you create to connect with your organization meaningfully? One of your goals could be to generate a certain number of brand stories per day, week, month, or year.

REASON SIX: To Advertising and Targeting

If you are on social media for the advertising potential, you are probably already monitoring your metrics. Businesses can reach specific demographics and tailor messaging to specific audiences through advertising.

THINK ABOUT: Are your advertisements converting? What is your goal for calls/orders/sales per daily/weekly/monthly advertising? What is the ROI you expect for your social media advertising program?

So, once you understand your reason for having social media and you’ve set your objectives, how do you know you’ve reached them?

That’s where the social media audit comes in.

What is a Social Media Audit?

A social media audit is a tool which strategically examines all your social media platforms, your posts, your engagement, and other metrics to give you an idea of who you are reaching and how. If you have goals set for your social media, you can assess your progress with a social media audit.

A social media is a multi-step process.

  1. IDENTIFY ALL ACCOUNTS. The social media consultant will identify all accounts you have and make sure they are current. Any duplicates will be deactivated.
  2. ANALYZE EACH PLATFORM. This step includes the following:
    • Check profile information (username, bio, branding, and links) for consistency.
    • Evaluate and tabulate performance metrics: likes, shares, comments, reach, and impressions.
    • Look at audience demographics to align with your target market and desired objectives.
  2. EVALUATE CONTENT STRATEGY. Your social media consultant will look at the type of content you are posting and evaluate it for effectiveness.
    • Assess the performance of campaigns or boosted posts.
    • Analyze post frequency, format (videos, images, text), and themes.
    • Assess the alignment of content with brand voice and goals.
    • Identify the highest and lowest performing content for insight
  1. AUDIT COMPETITORS. How does your social media stack up your competitors? This step of the audit will objectively evaluate your accounts against your competitors’ pages.
    • Compare your social media presence to competitors in your industry.
    • Look for strengths you can emulate or weaknesses you can exploit.
  2. EXAMINE TOOLS AND PROCESSES. Is your social media management tool or management process working?
    • Determine strengths and areas for improvement.
    • Recommend tools or process improvements.
    • Streamline workflows to improve efficiency.
  3. ASSESS ADVERTISING. Are you getting your money’s worth?
    • Review paid social media campaigns for effectiveness and ROI.
    • Review the method of tracking success and make recommendations if necessary.
    • Adjust targeting and creative content based on performance data.
  4. DOCUMENT KEY FINDINGS AND CREATE AN ACTION PLAN
    • Highlight strengths and weaknesses in all areas.
    • Identify actionable insights to inform recommendations.
    • Develop strategies to address gaps, improve performance, and achieve goals.
    • Make recommendations to improve overall social media performance based on customer’s objectives.

Once you’ve experienced a social media audit, you will see the many benefits of it come to fruition.

Benefits of a Social Media Audit

If you do a social media audit right, the results can be dramatic. Carefully converting your intelligence into powerful changes in your strategy can propel your social media to the next level, which means much more than just meeting your objectives.

  • IMPROVED STRATEGY: You will save time by posting only the kinds of posts that perform.
  • BETTER ROI. You will make better spending decisions.
  • AUDIENCE INSIGHT. You will understand your audience better.
  • COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE. You will discover how your social media stacks up to your closest competitors. The insight will spur content creativity and help you take the lead on your platforms.

One final word about social media audits: conduct them regularly (e.g., quarterly or annually) to keep strategies aligned with evolving goals and audience preferences.

Social media is far from a “set it and forget it” activity. It’s a moving, dynamic creature that needs tending! If you’re ready for a professional social media audit with expert guidance on your best content strategy and objectives, reach out to us today at karen@bigideaswriting.