Whether you’re brand new to the social media marketing game or you’ve been at it for awhile, executing a successful social media audit is a great way to propel your online presence forward.  The goal is to assess what you need to help your brand grow and how to get there.  Putting an outline with an action plan in place is a great way to start. This is where the social media audit comes in.

Let’s start with a few basic steps.

Take inventory of all the social networks that you currently have for your business.  This includes making a list of each of them, including log in information, and who has access to each one.  Also include what details need updating for each one.
Search for your business.  Go onto Google and find as many other profiles representing your business online (that you don’t own) as you can.  Make a list of the URLs, Social Networks, and whether or not each on is one to take ownership of and edit or one to have shut down.
Make a list of what is missing. What social networks are you not currently on that you should be? What information do you want included for each?
Evaluate the goals for each of your social media profiles. What is your mission statement for each one? Maybe Instagram is for behind the scenes glances or perhaps Facebook is for sharing company culture, etc.  What do you hope to get out of each network? Each network is different, so consider them separately.
Finally, act on your audit. Once you have your lists, go through and create action items for each one. Now you know where your company already is, what edits need to be made to those pages, which pages need to be claimed or deleted, and what profiles you still need to create.

When you’ve successfully completed your social media audit, you are ready to a social media marketing plan moving forward.  Until you have all pieces accounted for, however, you don’t have an accurate scope of all the bases you are actually covering or need to cover.

How often do you think that social media managers should perform a social media audit? What do you think should make the list? Do you think they are valuable? Comment below!