Did you create a Tumblr account five years ago that you forgot about? Is there a neglected YouTube channel floating around with 15 subscribers and two videos? The word “audit” deserves more love than it gets.

The concern with social media is that things are always changing, news is always getting old, and latest fads will always disappear, which means it is more crucial now than ever to keep on top of our social media game.

Staying in the public eye and one-upping your competitors online is key to succeeding and social media is one of the best ways to communicate with your audience online. If you’re engaging with your customers, replying to online reviews, and keeping your customers informed, then you’re doing it right.

Don’t be the account that never replies to your audience, or ignores requests. Let us help you clear up your social media activity with these helpful tips:

Where Are You?

When it comes to a Social Media Audit, you need to figure out exactly what accounts you have lying around and decide what to do with them. Nothing looks worse than a Twitter account that hasn’t been posted on since September 2014 or an Instagram account with a photo from 34 weeks ago. #oldnews

The ‘big four’ social media channels involve Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. You need to be checking your presence on them and then decide if you will realistically be using them in the future on a regular basis. If not, then bin them.

You will find most well-known brands will be on all four and may be portraying different messages on each platform to resonate with their target audience.

Coca-cola

Coca-cola are very well known for their campaigns, and you can find them on all four main social media platforms but giving out very different messages. Where twitter is funny and talking about the drink using a selfie stick, LinkedIn is a lot more professional and speaking about partnerships.

Although this is very good coverage for them, we do not always recommend using all social media platforms to our clients. This is because sometimes it is simply just not suitable for them.  For example, we wouldn’t usually recommend Instagram to a financial service.

Who are your Audience?

The next thing to be thinking about is ‘who is your audience’? This is important to get right, down to age, location, gender and type of humour if any.

This is going to affect the type of posts you’ll be sharing, where you should be focusing your efforts and help you figure out why your posts aren’t performing as well as they could be. For example, it won’t be beneficial for you to be spending 2 hours + on Instagram if your target audience is those aged 60+.

However, saying that, as an agency we constantly hear “but my audience isn’t on social media”. Facebook has over 1.94 billion monthly active users and 56% of online seniors aged over 65+ are on Facebook. Most of the time, your audience will at least be on Facebook.

Knowing your audience and what works well with them is sure to improve your engagement, and you will be able to speak more on their level.

Why Outsource Your Audit?

Although it may be tempting to complete your own audit, do you truly know what to look out for and what to fix should you come across a problem? Knowing exactly what to be looking for is just the start of it. Sometimes it’s easier to just outsource to the experts for the following reasons:

Fresh Pair of Eyes

A fresh pair of eyes can offer a new perspective, offer alternative ideas and pick out things you may have otherwise over seen. Not only is this going to help the initial audit of your social media platforms, but having someone else look at your work opens up the channel for fresh ideas whilst avoiding “we’ve always done it like this” thinking.

Extensive level of Knowledge

As an agency who spends a large chunk of the day on social media, we are experts in the field and have a sharp eye for online mistakes.

There may be parts of your Facebook analytics that you don’t understand or know you have access to which is where we can come in and help.

You Can Trust Us

Sometimes it is a lot easier to trust someone who has been working in the industry for years rather than a member of staff who may not know much about the data that appears in social media advertising.

We offer a very transparent, jargon free service with detailed reports that we are more than happy to discuss with you.

Efficiency

Because this is our area of expertise and specialisation we can generally do this faster and better, giving you more time to get to using the audit to push forwards with your campaigns and grow your business all the faster.  That way you can spend that time more effectively on your own area of expertise – your business.

Let Us Help You

We understand that web marketing is an ever-changing industry and audits are just as crucial as a structured marketing plan. If you’re looking for some help with your social media or just want to be sent in the right direction, give us a call on 01285 50 55 50 to see how we can help you.