Auditing Your Social Media Program
It’s Audit Time…
Social media. It’s likely become a mainstay of your marketing program today. You blog. You tweet. You post. You share. You advertise. But is it working?
Umm…
You heard me…is your social media working? Meaning, is it doing anything for you?
If you’re still not sure how to answer that question, then it’s way past time for you to conduct a thorough audit of your social program. After all, there’s no point to spend all this time and effort (and money) on something if it’s not producing the return you need.
Start with a Self Portrait
The first thing you need to do is collect a snapshot of where you are today. For every social platform you engage in—including your blog—you’ll want to identify the following key information:
- The number of fans, followers or subscribers.
- Types of content you post
- Frequency of posts, including the date of the most recent post
- The date your profile was last updated
- Nature and frequency of paid advertising
Having all of this information recorded in one place lets you assess not only one social site but your entire social presence.
Get a Group Picture
Your next step will be to collect the above information for your top competitors and industry thought leaders to the best of your ability. Seeing how you look is one thing but seeing you how look compared to others can be entirely different.
Check Your Metrics
The plethora of available metrics can be overwhelming. Focusing on a few key ones to start is a good way to go. Start with the number of
- Acts of engagement (shares, likes, retweets, comments, etc.)
- New followers each month
- Brand mentions
- Leads or sales
Checking the volume of web referral traffic is also important.
Put It All Together
Armed with all of this information, you should pretty quickly see where your efforts are paying off, where they need additional involvement and where they may not be well served. Making adjustments according to this data is important but equally as important is repeating this process regularly.
