Social media auditing is about to become one of the most important tasks for brands in the near future. The reason for this is not difficult to seek. The World will see over 3 billion social media users by 2021. Brands are going to have this immense opportunity to reach out to one-third of the world’s population. But when you are trying to send out a message to attract customers, you have to keep track of all your efforts to see what’s working and what’s not.
You can seek a variety of insights from the sea of information available online! To evaluate the performance of your online marketing campaign, choose what to analyze. Initiate a social media audit using these metrics, and track your performance:
What Information to Expect from a Social Media Audit?
Social media auditing can dig up plenty of information. However, too much information can get things muddled up. Look for the metrics you need to track for your specific needs. Who is your target audience? Track demographic information if you are not quite aware of it.
Consider tracking some of the following metrics. They make up the basics of any social media auditing campaign.
Measure Social Media ROI
Measuring social media ROI is always on the mind of every marketer. One can’t possibly put a number to quantify how much or how little social media boosted their sales. However, measuring the impact of various marketing activities is different. You can estimate the reach, count the number of interactions and the type of interactions, and the overall sentiment, which lets you know if you’ve reached the target audience.
If the numbers aren’t satisfactory, it won’t reflect much on sales. And you’ll know it’s time to fix such inefficiencies.
Build a Better Social Media Strategy
When you study the performance data, you will notice obvious glitches. These insights help you zero in on the problems you are currently facing. Social media audit lets you know about the sentiment around a particular campaign you are conducting. Let’s say, you notice a sudden peak in negative sentiment. Your customers are worried about ordering from your store due to the “COVID19” pandemic. You know now what you need to fix and why people aren’t buying. You can act instantly and send out posts to reassure them your brand is taking necessary measures for their safety.
This is just one instance where social media auditing comes to the rescue. Social listening tools that offer social media auditing allow for real-time alerts which in turn help your team to respond effectively to customers. This further helps you to build stronger bonds and retain customers.
Knowing your Audience and Content Marketing
Even a novice could tell you the importance of segmentation and positioning. If you can’t find your target set of audience, you might as well try selling your product/service to a non-living object. When you perform social media auditing, you know who interacts with your content, and how they feel about it. When you have these insights, it assists in further processes like planning your content marketing strategy.
Competitor Benchmarking
Who doesn’t wish to stay ahead of their competitors? Make social media auditing tools your undercover spies. The competition analysis does a comparative study and highlights your strengths and weaknesses as compared to the competition. You can leverage your strengths and work on your weaknesses while also doing better on what you know to be your competitor’s weaknesses. Turn their customers into yours, by offering a better service.
Industry News
The growth of your brand isn’t completely in your hands. Some of it depends on how your industry, competition and environment are doing. And it is critical that you stay alert to danger signals. When there’s chatter online, a social media auditing tool picks up on the news and alerts you to the direction your industry is headed in. When you track the sentiment about your brand, product and the industry; you tend to understand customers’ preferences and their needs. You are getting an overview, the larger picture.
Influencer Marketing
If influencer marketing also forms a part of your marketing strategy, social media auditing can again be of help. One of the most common complaints marketers raise about influencer marketing is the difficulty of finding the right influencer. This complaint gets resolved easily when you rely on a social listening tool. These tools let you pick out the right person by zeroing in on the accounts of people who have a similar niche and a massive engagement rate.
Despite all these measures, you might notice some occasional dips and spikes. These changes are sometimes seasonal or dictated by an event. This makes it all the more important for you to be vigilant. If you can’t be online all the time, let these AI tools help you.