How to Do a Social Media Audit for a Client
There are more than three billion active users of various social media outlets worldwide. That is an enormous number of the population on earth, which makes for an excellent opportunity for your clients to reach a broad audience. So if you own a digital marketing company, your clients are most likely involved in content creation.
You will need to do a social media audit of their account on the social media they are present before providing them with a social media strategy. You have to make sure that you check everything thoroughly to present your client with an effective social media strategy. The amount of work when you hear the word audit can seem like a daunting task.
However, it is one of the most effective tools to grow your presence. Still, before you perform one, you may wonder how to do a social media audit for a client? We are here to ease the process and guide you through it step by step, so read on, and soon enough, you will be a pro at conducting social media audit for a client.
What Is a Social Media Audit?
Simply hearing the word audit can send cold shivers up people’s spines. Images of tax investigators can be heavy in the hearts. However, when talking about social media audits, we speak of entirely different kinds of search. This one can help you broaden your audience.
Thankfully, a social media audit has nothing to do with intimidating men in suits. A social media audit instead entails collecting important information from your client’s social media profiles in one place.
With the aid of a social media audit, you will be able to get a complete picture of the state of your client’s presence on the social media platforms they have a profile on. You will be able to see what kind of feedback they are getting. This will show you the areas that need more effort and how to improve their overall presence.
When you complete your social media audit, you will have one document with all the crucial information, which will help you devise an excellent social media strategy to present to your client. You will be able to give them the key points where they can improve and how to do so.
Related: How to Manage Social Media for Small Businesses
How to Do a Social Media Audit for a Client
Social media audits are not the most fun part of digital marketing. Most of those involved in social marketing find them boring. They are spreadsheets of all the client’s information to improve their audience levels. So, it involves a lot of data mining with the help of analytics tools.
However, no matter how menial it may seem, it is one of the most critical aspects of creating a successful social media strategy. The results can often be crucial to the success of your client’s business. A successful social media strategy can bring in many people to the client.
A social media audit is needed because someone has to check the stats and analytics to see if the client is successful. It also helps to find the areas in which they lack and unearth where the missed opportunities lie.
By doing a social media audit, you will be allowed to measure your prepared strategy against the audit results, allowing you to figure out what you need to present to your client to grow their business. You can conduct your audit step by step.
Audit Level
There are a variety of audit depths you can do. It can be a quick overview of your client’s social media or a deep dive. For example, you can do a simple overview with your client via a Zoom call and tell them about the areas in which they can improve or change some aspects of their approach.
You can also provide them with a presentation on PowerPoint, or perhaps put your findings in a Google document with outlined suggestions on how to improve. You can even make a video tour to better explain things to the clients.
The Outline of the Social Media Audit
When you go through your client’s social media, make sure that you know what to pay attention to. Some of the most important things in the audit are:
- Bios: Check if it is descriptive enough and whether it gives the potential customer a good picture of what the business is about and its service. Also, check if they have a link to their business’s official website.
- Profile Image: Make sure to see if the logo is well done or just a random photo that will not catch anyone’s attention. The profile image should be a logo connected to the business if your client wants to attract customers.
- Your Client’s Posts: You should check how often your client posts on their social media platforms. Is it in the right frequency, and if the content they post is attention-grabbing or boring?
- How they Post: Also, you need to see if the client is using the proper formatting for the specific social media platform when posting. Do they change the dimensions to fit the platform’s style, or are they just copying the same post across all social media platforms? Check if they are using hashtags for more multiple customer engagement.
- Measuring progress: Do not forget to see if the client is using any tool to measure their progress, like Google Analytics, and have outlined goals of what they expect from their social media outreach.
- Check the Competition: Male sure that you also check your client’s competitors and what they are posting on social media. See what parts of their customer engagement posts work.
Social Media Platforms
Before you dive into the audit, compile a complete list of all the social media platforms that your client has a profile on. You should also check if your client has created any forgotten profiles before contacting you for a social marketing strategy. You can start by searching on Google for the client’s company’s name.
You can check the results that will come upon the search engine to see what social media accounts pop up and if any are associated with your client. After you are done with the Google search, you can visit every social media network and search for your client’s brand on them to see if there are any accounts.
You can record those you deem essential and revisit them during your audit for a deeper inspection, and you can tell your client to have them deleted.
When checking your client’s Facebook profile, check if they have a cover photo and is it well designed. A good cover photo will give the potential customer and follower an idea of what the business is about and what it offers. See if it shows the brand’s logo, the cover photo should be well thought out.
Ensure that the About section is completed, and see if the writing is captivating. You should also see how often the client posts and how many of those posts are videos and photos. Are the posts helpful to the customers? See if the client is communicating with the comment and if there are any unanswered questions.
Instagram is a platform designed for sharing pictures, so this is where the brand’s image will shine through. You will need to check if your client’s photos are good quality and often posted. Also, another important aspect of sharing pictures on Instagram is the captions accompanying them.
The captions are what engage the clients to interact with the business. You should check if your client is using hashtags, as they have the potential to attract new customers. And see if the client is using Stories, Highlights, and IGTV. Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms globally, so your client should be taking advantage of all the tools provided.
LinkedInis a platform for working professionals and businesses, so the profile your client has on LinkedInmust be in top shape. You should check if your client’s profile has a captivating and informative banner. Also, go over their summary, check if it is descriptive enough, and whether it says enough about the brand’s services.
The summary should be packed with keywords relevant to the business. See if they are making new connections regularly if they are part of any groups. Furthermore, check if they have feedback from customers and other people in the same industry.
Pinterest is another excellent social media platform for businesses to promote their brands. It is important to post pictures as the platform rewards visual content with customer engagement. Plus, it has an excellent analytics page to help your client manage their profile better.
You should check if your client has a verified Business account and enough boards with pictures. Furthermore, see if the clients use engaging keywords for their board titles, pinning often enough, and using relevant hashtags.
Keep Track of Results Over Time
It can be challenging to get a proper evaluation by checking the social media platforms one time only, as follower engagement may fluctuate. This is why it is vital to compare results from the month you are conducting the audit with results from the previous month and even go as far back as a full year.
This will help you make your social marketing strategy more straightforward as it shows you how much the business has grown over time and what seems to be attracting the customers’ attention. Once the client knows what keeps their customers interested in their brand, they can post more related content.
Understand the Audience
As you make your audit, you will notice that customer engagement is different across social media platforms. It is essential to know which demographic uses which social platform to plan how to attract them to your client’s brand. So, if your client is using Snapchat, then the audience there is considerably younger than the one on Facebook.
In contrast, Linkedin tends to be frequented by working professionals, so you can expect them to have higher incomes. It is essential to have thorough information on the demographics that visit these sites. That way, you will be able to provide your client with the best advice on how to improve their social media presence.
Benefits of Knowing How to Do a Social Media Audit
A social media audit can help you figure out how to help your client with your social media strategy. It will uncover the highest-performing posts, critical insights, and the strongest social channels, as well as assist you in helping your client to set new goals. Such as improving engagement metrics, increasing follower count, or reaching a new audience or other social metrics.
A social media audit can aid you in advising your client on how to influence the essential online discussions about their company, like those that revolve around their brand or product on social media platforms.
A social media audit will also help you provide your client with defined criteria to apply across several social media platforms. Your client will be able to put guidelines in place any time a new platform emerges, ensuring that their social media presence is consistent and the brand is identifiable.
Conclusion
There you have it. Hopefully, we have been able to help you figure out how to do a social media audit for a client. As long as you follow the steps, you will provide your client with a social media strategy that will help them grow their brand. With the social media audit, you will also be able to help point out to your client the areas in which they need to improve.
Your client will know how to improve customer engagement and make better posts on social media to attract new customers to their business. All thanks to the social media audit you provide them with.
