Finding Out About Social Media Audits

This definition is not an attempt at being simplistic, but the description follows upon the question that asks what is social media marketing; in other words, a social media audit is a look at all the social media that the company subscribes to and check thru personal analysis whether they are reaching the present goals fo the business. If they are, then reasons why they are following a given strategy, are met. If not reaching the goals, proper feedback on why they do not help achieve the goals.

Chart One: Steps to Media Audit

• Finding Social Media Profiles
• Analyze Your Present Profiles
• Finding Top Performing Posts
• Identifying Website Content Popularity
• All Branding Considerations
• Identify your followers
• Branching to new Social Media
• Summary Questions & New Objectives?

Focus on Profile

Before beginning to look at all of the work that has already been done and analyzing it from a social media platform, it is best to prepare for some surprises in what you find. Some businesses are surprised to find that who they thought were their most prominent followers were not and others who they thought were on the fringes of their social media platforms. Looking at the chart above, a person who wants to perform a social media audit must know what profiles they have created in the past. This is important if you recently changed professions or interests. In other words, many people have a set of criteria they use for a specific business profile, but after changing the kind of profile, they create now as compared to one 5-10 years previously. By focusing upon the profiles you have already created about yourself, you can then also gauge how much difference has accumulated over the years and how differently you approach your followers or customers.

Using NetBase Social Monitoring

NetBase has cultivated a massive following from small to large businesses. NetBase analyzes a companies media streams and returns actionable data points in the form of specific points that give company-specific data regarding a consumer sentiment for the company and its products as well as thousands of other pertinent big data that can be used to understand their customers better. The chart below shows some of the data points NetBase social media monitoring creates for the businesses it works with, like Coca-Cola®, Taco Bell®, and Lloyds of London.

NetBase Auditing Data Points

• Which way is sentiment growing?
• Is the Audience Moving in What Direction?
• What does the Audience Need?
• Is the Audience Trending? Where?
• Am I Prepared to Go where the Audience Goes?
• How has my brand handled Crisis?

Considering Your Branding

An essential part of social media auditing is considering what your branding means to your company and your followers. Finding out about what others think of your branding may take some effort. Many social listening tools are available to help discover what consumers are saying about brands, and these are very valuable for a brand. The bottom line you will need to repair the damage that ha been made by those who misunderstand your brand and support those who have grasped your brand correctly and are brand influencers. Sorting out the good and the negative is all the part of a social media audit.

New Questions? New Extensions

Lastly, after all of your profiles have been successfully looked at and filtered, your branding has been considered to where you want it to go and have retaken control of it, a successful audit will determine what new directions and growth have resulted from obtaining a new perspective on your business. Perhaps you will decide to go in a different direction or add new profiles with new social media tools.