The Expert’s Guide to Doing a Social Media Audit

If you’ve found your way here after googling the word “social media audit”, chances are that you’re dealing with one (or maybe more) of these situations: 

👉 Your follower count or engagement rates have flatlined and you’re feeling a little lost, wondering why your social media growth seems to have stalled. 

👉 You’ve just launched something big — something you’re proud of — but now you’re unsure if your social media presence is truly reflecting the excitement and new changes. 

👉 Lately, your posts aren’t getting the love they used to. The likes, the comments, the shares — they’ve all taken a dip, and you’re left questioning where it all went wrong. 

👉You see your competitors getting more and more traction, and it’s starting to feel like you’re being left in the dust.  

👉 Or maybe, just maybe, you’re putting in the time, the effort, the heart—and yet, the social media ROI is nowhere near what you expected. That can be frustrating, to say the least. 

If any of these scenarios resonate with you, fret not; help is on its way. A basic social media audit is the first step to fixing all these issues and more. It unearths strategic insights about the gaps and improvement areas in your social media strategy, helping you demonstrate real business impact and prioritize high-impact campaigns for a quick return on your investment.  

If social media audit sounds too technical, we assure you it’s not.  In this simple, layman-friendly guide, you will find a step-by-step framework to help you get started with social media auditing. No fluff, no filler — just the essentials you really need to know to run a speedy, successful audit.  

And by success, we mean ROI through the roof and social engagement so insane that your competitors will be the ones running audits to catch up with you. We mean it! 

So, ready to get started? Let’s dive in and make this audit work for you. 

What is a social media audit? 

A social media audit is a thorough review and analysis of your brand’s social media presence and performance. It’s about seeing how well your social media marketing efforts are stacking up against your social media goals. Sure, it might sound a little technical and formal, but it’s just about pressing pause and taking a clear, sharp look at what’s working — and what’s not—on social. 

Why should you care? 

Let’s understand the concept with a practical example.  

Say you’re running a small coffee shop. You’ve been faithfully posting on Instagram and Facebook — beautiful pics of your lattes, promotions, the whole shebang you know. But somehow, the engagement is not as expected, so you decide to do a social media audit.  

And guess what?  

The social media audit throws up some startling insights. You find out that those BTS videos of your baristas creating latte art are getting way more engagement than your posts about new menu items, which are barely getting noticed. 

With this new understanding and insight, you shift gears and adjust your social media strategy, leaning into more BTS content because, clearly, that’s what your audience likes. Plus, you find fresh, more engaging ways to spotlight those new menu items. The result? Your social media engagement soars, giving you the right bang for your buck! The end result is an optimized social media plan that delivers on your social media objectives and yields a desirable social media ROI. 

What makes a social media audit so impactful? 

When done right, a social media audit helps: 

• Evaluate performance metrics: Assess how well your social media content is performing through engagement rates, reach, and conversions. 
• Identify audience alignment: Ensure your content resonates with the right target audience by analyzing demographics and engagement. 
• Analyze competitor strategies: Gain insights into your competitors' social media efforts and spot opportunities for differentiation. 
• Optimize content strategy: Identify what types of content work best and adjust your strategy to focus on high-performing posts. 
• Measure ROI: Track your return on investment by assessing the effectiveness of social media campaigns in driving business goals. 
• Check platform consistency: Ensure brand messaging, visuals, and tone are consistent across all platforms. 

How to conduct a social media audit in nine steps 

Social media audits can refine your social media strategy and amp up your online presence. Here are nine steps to get started with your social media auditing: 

Step 1: Re-evaluate your goals and KPIs 

Before diving into the audit, it’s essential to revisit the social media goals you hoped to achieve with your marketing initiatives. Your audit findings will determine if you’re on track or off. It also ensures that your audit has a solid purpose and direction. Based on your audit observations, you might need to re-evaluate your goals and make them more realistic to where your business stands today. 

Go back to the drawing board and revisit your goals for a bit. Were you looking to increase engagement, grow your following or drive traffic to your website? Did you have social media KPIs to measure goal attainment and were they accurate? These KPIs could include metrics like follower growth, click-through rates or conversion rates — basically, the numbers that tell you if you're on track. They go beyond likes and shares to measure things like: 

👉 Engagement rates: This includes the ratio of interactions (likes, comments, shares) compared to your overall reach. 

👉 Reach and impressions: How many people are seeing your content and how often? 

👉 Click-through rates (CTR): Are people clicking on your links, and are those clicks driving traffic to your website or landing pages? 

👉 Conversions: If your goal is sales or sign-ups, how many of those interactions are turning into actual customers or leads? 

Need more details? Check out more social media metrics. 

Step 2: Inventory all your social accounts and profiles  

With your goals sorted, start gathering all your social media account information into one master list. This step is about more than just knowing where you’re active — it’s about making sure all the details are right, keeping your brand consistent, and most importantly, ensuring your accounts are secure. 

Here’s what you should do: 

• List your accounts: First, round up every platform you’re on wherever your brand is active or inactive. This helps you get a clear view of your social footprint. 
• Gather details: For each account, note down the usernames, emails and account owners. With multiple accounts and team members, having everything in one place is essential. 
• Verify activity: Check whether each account is active. If some are collecting dust or not serving your goals, consider scrapping them. 
• Consistency check: Ensure consistent social media branding. Make sure your brand looks the same across all platforms — logos, bios and contact information should be uniform to reinforce your brand identity and recall. 
• Give your social media permissions a health check: Here’s a critical step — check who has access to your accounts. Permissions can get messy when team members change roles or leave the company, so take a moment to log into your platforms and review who has access. If someone’s role no longer requires admin rights, remove or adjust their access. And if it’s been a while since you updated your passwords, now’s the time to do that too. Consider enabling two-factor authentication for extra security. To get more information, read these social media security best practices. 
• Document your findings: As you go through each account, document everything — login details, activity status and access permissions. Having this info organized in one spot keeps things running smoothly and reduces the risk of surprises down the road. 

Step 3: Analyze your content performance 

With your social accounts organized, it’s time to take a closer look at the content you’ve been sharing and how well it resonates with your audience. By breaking down your content’s performance on social media, you’ll uncover patterns that show what’s working, what needs tweaking, and where to focus your efforts moving forward. 

Check the content types: Start by looking at the different types of content you’re posting. Are you mostly sharing photos, videos or articles? Each type tends to perform differently depending on your audience and the platform. Find out which formats are driving the most interaction — photos might stand out on Instagram, but videos could be winning on Facebook. 

Spot your winners: Next, track down your top-performing content. These are the posts that got the most engagement — likes, comments, shares or click-throughs. What made them successful? Was it the topic, the format or maybe the timing? Reverse-engineering the success formula can help you replicate success over and over. 

Engagement levels: Don’t stop at surface-level metrics. Dive into how people are actually interacting with your content. Are they commenting or just scrolling past with a like? Meaningful engagement (shares, comments, clicks) is where the real value lies — it tells you if your content is connecting or just filling space. 

Learn from your low performers: If a post didn’t perform well, take a moment to understand why. Was the content irrelevant to your audience? Was it posted at the wrong time? These insights are just as important as understanding your top performers and will help you avoid similar missteps in the future. 

💎Get all Your Content Analytics for Free...Right Here 

Sprinklr’s social media analytics and reporting platform offers an in-depth look at how your content performs across various social media platforms plus individual post performance. It yields insights on your: 

• Top performing content themes & tones 
• Top content by different goals 
• Top performing media types by channel 
• AI recommendations for performance improvement 

Find out all about how Sprinklr can optimize your efforts to drive revenue and improve brand health.

SIGN UP FOR A DEMO

Step 4: Reassess audience demographics 

Your performance data only matters if it’s coming from the right target audience. This brings us to your audience demographics — one of the most critical parts of a social media audit. 

It's not enough to just perform well on social media; you need to make sure you're attracting the right people. Are the people engaging with your content the same ones you’re trying to target, or is there a disconnect? Understanding who’s following you will help you refine your content and audience targeting so it’s aligned with your ideal customer. 

Look at your followers' data: Start by analyzing audience demographic information such as age, gender, location and interests. You might discover that your current audience doesn’t match your intended target. For example, if you’re a brand targeting millennials, but your follower base is mostly older adults, that’s a red flag, and you should work on it.  

Make adjustments, if needed: If your content isn’t reaching your target audience, it’s time to tweak your social media approach. Maybe the messaging needs to shift to resonate better with your ideal audience, or perhaps it’s time to explore new platforms where your target audience is more active. Remember, social media is dynamic, so don’t be afraid to test, adjust and pivot your social media strategy accordingly.  

💡 Get Inside Your Audience’s Minds and Hearts 

With Sprinklr smart audience insights, you can tap into deeper behavioral insights, like your audience’s preferences in media, products and influencers. This helps you understand not just who your audience is but also what they care about. By analyzing these critical details, you can better align your strategy to match their preferences and build a more engaged community. 

For instance, if you notice a large segment of your audience is into certain types of media or follows specific brands, you can tailor your messaging or partnerships to tap into those interests. 

Intrigued to learn more?  

Sign up for a free demo of the Sprinklr platform and watch your audience insights unfold before your eyes. 

Get a Sprinklr Demo

Step 5: Adjust your metrics in real time 

With your audience review and content analysis done, the next move is to stack your performance against the metrics you mapped in step 1 of auditing. You might need to update your metrics and KPIs based on real-time findings so far.  

Why, you ask? 

Revisiting your performance metrics is crucial because social media is constantly evolving. What worked six months ago might not work today. Social media trends change, social media algorithms shift, and your audience’s behavior can vary over time. If you’re not regularly reviewing these metrics, you might be investing time and resources into strategies that are no longer effective. 

Now that you know why this is important, here’s how to do it: 

Review platform analytics: Each social platform has built-in analytics tools. For example, Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics and Facebook Insights provide essential metrics like engagement rates, follower growth and reach. Or use third-party social media analytics tools for curated reports and recommended actions. 

Compare with your KPIs: If you set specific goals in Step 1 (like increasing website traffic by 10% or boosting engagement rates by 15%), now’s the time to see how you’re measuring up. Your KPIs are the benchmarks that show whether your social media efforts are moving the needle in the right direction. 

Spot trends over time: Don’t just look at recent posts — analyze social media trends over months or even a year. Are there patterns in the types of social media content that perform best or times of day when engagement is higher? 

Test and adjust: If your metrics are falling short of your goals, test different types of content, posting times or messaging strategies to see what moves the needle. Learn the nitty-gritties of social media A/B testing here.  

Step 6: Set up competitor and benchmarking alerts 

Now, take a moment to see what your competitors are up to. You don’t need to replicate their tactics but keep a close watch on them and learn from their successes and mistakes. Social media auditing after all is all about staying ahead of the curve! 

Pay attention to the type of content your competitors produce, how frequently they post and how their audience reacts. Are their snappy tweets racking up retweets, or are their in-depth articles getting a lot of shares? Accurate social media competitor analysis provides actionable insights to help you fine-tune your strategy. 

But don’t just focus on their posts — look at who’s following them and, more importantly, who else those followers are following. Get a deeper understanding of your shared audience. It might even reveal some interests or trends you hadn’t considered before. 

And if something unusual catches your eye — a different platform or unexpected content — don’t overlook it! That might just be the key to a fresh idea or a new direction that sets you ahead. Set alerts for dips and peaks in your competitors’ activity and engagement and jump right into action when you see a window of opportunity. Also, monitor how your KPIs measure against competitor and industry averages, which is a one-click job using Sprinklr's competitive benchmarking platform. 

Step 7: Conduct a SWOT Analysis 

Once you’ve wrapped up your competitive analysis — gathering insights on how your rivals are performing and what strategies they’re using —it’s time to take things a step further with a social media SWOT analysis. While a competitive analysis shows you where you stand in relation to your competitors, a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) gives you an objective view of your business and where it fits in the market. In short, this analysis helps you identify opportunities for growth and highlight external threats you need to prepare for — whether from competitors or market trends. 

How to conduct a SWOT analysis 

Strengths: These are the aspects of your social media strategy that are already working well. These could be high engagement rates, unique content, or a highly loyal audience. For example,  if you have strong engagement rates on Instagram and high-quality visuals, that’s a strength you can continue to build on. 

Weaknesses: This is where you identify areas that need improvement. Where are you falling short? Maybe you’re not posting consistently, or your competitor has better customer engagement. Acknowledge these weaknesses so you can address them head-on. 

Opportunities: Look for areas where you can capitalize. Is there a trend you haven’t tapped into? A new platform your audience is flocking to? Competitor analysis can reveal gaps in the market that you can fill. 

Threats: These are external challenges that could negatively affect your social media performance. Identify external risks, such as new competitors entering your niche, shifting algorithms on social platforms, or changing audience preferences. Understanding these subtle threats helps you stay agile. 

Step 8: Refresh your social media response templates 

Once you’ve finished your SWOT analysis, you’ll have a clear picture of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the social media landscape. After that, it’s time to take those insights and put them into action, starting with something simple but powerful: refreshing your social media response templates. 

Whether it's for answering questions, resolving complaints or engaging with positive feedback, your response is your brand’s direct voice to the audience, and it deserves a refresh to align with your SWOT insights. 

Here’s how you can refresh and revamp your social media messaging: 

Review your current templates: Take stock of what you’re already using. Are these templates still relevant to the types of comments and inquiries you get? More importantly, do they match the brand tone you want to communicate? If your brand is known for being approachable and fun, but your replies sound formal or cold, it’s time to rewrite them. 

Update based on your SWOT analysis: Your SWOT findings will guide how you refresh your responses. If you identified strong social customer service as a strength, emphasize that in your replies. If negative sentiment or complaints were a threat, tweak your templates to be more empathetic and constructive. Make sure your replies reflect your brand’s values and voice. 

Inject personality and flexibility: Templates are a great starting point, but they shouldn’t feel cookie-cutter. If your brand has a witty or casual tone, inject that into your responses where appropriate. At the same time, leave room for flexibility. Encourage your team to personalize replies to fit the conversation so that each interaction feels genuine. 

Test and adjust: Once you’ve rolled out the new templates, keep an eye on how they’re performing. Are complaints getting resolved more quickly? Don’t be afraid to tweak things as you go based on what’s working (or not working). 

Dig Deeper: Learn How to Respond to Customers on Social Media (+ Examples) 

Step 9: Develop an actionable social media plan 

Now that you’ve gone through the critical steps of your social media audit, from understanding your audience to tracking performance metrics, it’s time to bring everything together and build an actionable social media plan. This is the final, essential step because it translates insights into actions. 

Your social media plan should include: 

• Clear, quantifiable social media goals 
  The foundation of your actionable plan starts with well-defined social media goals. These goals should be specific and measurable, such as growing engagement by 20% or driving 15% more traffic to your website. Having clear objectives makes it easier to track progress and make necessary adjustments along the way. 
• A detailed social media content calendar 
  Your social media calendar serves as the roadmap for your social media strategy. It should outline what content to post, when to post it, and on which platforms. Cover everything from product launches to seasonal campaigns, and make sure you’re consistent. 
• Insights from the social media audit 
  Leverage the insights from your audit to double down on what works. If your audience loves video content or certain topics, lean into that. Use the data to inform your future posts and continue experimenting with new ideas while phasing out what isn’t performing. 
• Competitor analysis data 
  Monitor your key competitors to see how their strategies evolve and what kind of content works for them. Use tools like Sprinklr to benchmark your performance against theirs. 
• A consistent posting schedule 
  One of the most critical lessons from your SWOT analysis might be related to consistency. A solid, well-timed social media posting schedule is essential for maintaining audience engagement and keeping your brand top-of-mind. If you’ve identified inconsistencies or gaps in your content calendar, now’s the time to fix those and ensure that you’re posting at optimal times when your audience is most active. 
• Automated monthly reports 
  Set up automated monthly reports and you’ll never miss any critical social media insight. Those reports will land in your inbox like clockwork, so you’re always in the know and never scrambling for last-minute data. 
• Regular data-driven adjustments 
  Once you’ve got your report, it’s time to dig in. Look at what’s working, what’s not, and catch any shifts in your follower demographics. This is the intel that’ll keep you ahead of the curve. 

Social media audit template (downloadable) 

3 Powerful social media auditing tools 

When conducting a social media audit, the right social media management tools can streamline the process and provide critical insights. Here’s a look at three top platforms — Sprinklr, Hootsuite and Buffer — that can help you comprehensively audit your social media presence. 

Sprinklr 

Sprinklr is an enterprise-grade platform that offers a wide range of features tailored to help you conduct a detailed social media audit. It’s particularly useful for large and mid-sized organizations managing multiple social channels. 

Key features of Sprinklr social media auditing: 

• Unified analytics dashboard: Sprinklr provides a centralized platform where you can monitor and analyze data from all your social media accounts. This unified view helps you track key performance indicators such as engagement, reach, and audience growth across multiple channels. 
• AI-powered sentiment analysis: Sprinklr uses artificial intelligence to analyze the sentiment behind social media mentions and comments. This feature helps you understand how your audience feels about your brand, which is critical for assessing brand health and reputation. 
• Social listening and competitive benchmarking: The social listening capabilities of Sprinklr allow you to monitor conversations about your brand, industry, and competitors. The competitive benchmarking feature lets you compare your performance with your competitors, providing insights into where you stand in the market. 
• Custom reporting and dashboards: Sprinklr offers customizable reporting options, allowing you to create reports focusing on specific metrics relevant to your audit. These reports can be tailored to show detailed analytics on engagement, reach, sentiment, and more. 
• Real-time alerts and monitoring: You can get real-time alerts for significant changes in your social media performance, such as spikes in negative sentiment or sudden drops in engagement. This feature ensures you can respond quickly to any issues or opportunities as they arise. 

Hootsuite  

This tool from Hootsuite is popular among small to medium-sized businesses and provides essential auditing features like detailed performance metrics, social listening, and customizable reports. These features allow you to track engagement, understand trends, and measure the success of your social media strategy, all of which are key components of a social media audit. 

Key features: 

• Social listening: Monitor brand mentions, hashtags, keywords, and competitor activities. Plus, it helps you gauge public sentiment, identify emerging trends, and understand how your brand is perceived across different social media platforms. 
• Customizable reporting: Create customizable social media reports that automatically gather data and highlight key metrics based on your specific audit needs. These reports can be tailored to focus on particular aspects of your social media performance, making it easier to share insights with your team or stakeholders. 
• Post-performance analysis: Analyze the frequency and timing of your posts, along with their impact on engagement. By reviewing when and how often you’re posting, you can adjust your schedule to optimize reach and interaction with your audience. 

Buffer  

Buffer is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for smaller teams or individual users. It offers performance analytics and engagement tracking, which are important for evaluating the effectiveness of your content. Buffer's content calendar feature helps you audit your posting schedule to ensure consistency and strategic alignment. 

Key features: 

• Post-performance analytics: A straightforward analytics dashboard that tracks the performance of individual social media posts. It allows you to see metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and clicks, helping you understand what content resonates best with your audience. 
• Engagement tracking: Track engagement across all your social media platforms. By analyzing how your audience interacts with your content, you can gauge the effectiveness of your social media strategy and identify areas for improvement. 
• Audience insights: Offers insights into your audience’s demographics and behavior, helping you understand who is engaging with your content. These insights are essential for tailoring your content to better meet the needs and preferences of your audience. 

Tips to analyze your social media audit findings  

Alright, so you’ve just finished your social media audit. You’ve walked through every step, used the tools, and now you’re staring at an audit report that’s practically screaming for your attention. But what comes next? 

Here’s what we suggest: 

Connect the dots and understand the results 

After your social media audit, carefully review all the data and connect the dots. This involves identifying patterns, trends, and insights from the results. For instance, determine which types of content are performing well and which platforms are driving the most engagement. By understanding these results, you can pinpoint what’s working, what isn’t, and why, enabling you to make informed decisions for future strategies. 

Come up with new ideas 

This is also a great time to brainstorm new ideas. Gather your social media team, content creators, and even someone from the analytics team who can provide deeper insights. If possible, include a few people from outside the social media team — such as sales or customer support — who can offer a different perspective on what your audience might need or want. 

Present your findings 

Now that you have your insights, it’s time to share the audit report with your team or stakeholders.  

Here’s how to structure your presentation: 

💡 Start by sharing the most important insights, like which platform is driving the most sales. 

💡 Let everyone know how you collected the data and which metrics you focused on. 

💡 Break down what’s working and what isn’t on each social media platform. 

💡 Outline any changes you want to make to your strategy and explain the goals behind them. 

Use Sprinklr Social for your social media audit 

Remember, your goal after a social media audit isn’t just to report what you found, but to get everyone on board with the changes you’re proposing or open the floor for a constructive debate. A well-organized presentation will help you gain the executive support you need to move forward. 

And if you need a tool to help streamline your social media efforts, Sprinklr’s got your back. Whether you need a deep dive into your audits or just want to streamline your reporting, Sprinklr’s got everything you need to keep your social media strategy sharp and on point.