Despite the perception that social media exists solely for entertaining videos or images, the truth is that it represents an effective instrument for marketers, provided they understand how to manage it. However, it should be noted that frequent uploads do not always mean anything. In order to establish whether social media is effective for accomplishing business goals, it is necessary to analyze what works properly, what fails to do so, and how processes can be improved.
This is when the concept of social media audit comes into play.
The significance of the social media audit comes from the fact that it enables assessing the business’s profiles, content performance, audience engagement, website traffic, and conversion.
In this paper, the process of conducting social media audit for seo and conversion purposes, as well as the metrics that need to be taken into account, will be covered.
The Social Media Audit Explained
Social media audit is a broad assessment of how social media activities can help achieve certain business goals.
Why Is a Social Media Audit Important for SEO and Conversions?
Although social media and SEO serve different purposes, they can still be combined to enhance digital marketing. While Google does not consider social media a direct measure of ranking, using these platforms provides publicity and forces followers to search for the brand and access its website.
Usually, social media audits help to find these advantages.
1. Increase brand awareness
It’s easier for people to reach your brand if it has a recognizable image, complete details about its page, and relevant content. People who follow your social media accounts will receive helpful information about your company regularly.
2. Identify the Posts That Generate Traffic
Some posts engage readers, but they don’t lead them to your website. At the same time, there are posts that are not appealing to the audience but provide the exact customers. The audit helps to distinguish between the posts that attract attention and those that help achieve commercial goals.
3. Generate Leads
A properly optimized social media account should encourage actions, be it going to the website or asking for a quote.
Step 1: Analyze Your Social Media Accounts
First, write down all the social media accounts belonging to your company. Write down the main channels, such as Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.
Make sure that the following features are consistent:
1. Business name and business username
2.Profile photo and cover
3.The description of the business
4.Website and Contacts
5.Details related to location and other information if applicable
6.Marketing visuals and texts
7.Last pinned posts and other notable elements to feature
Using the profile, people should figure out who you are and what you do.
For instance, a digital marketing agency should straight away state what services it provides, namely SEO, social media marketing, graphic design services or video editing services.
One good advice is to improve incomplete profiles first and make sure that the link is working and leads to your website.
Step 2: Analyze Your Social Media Content Strategy
Your content is a key factor when it comes to capturing attention and motivating people to take action.
Look back on your recent posts, reels, videos, stories, carousels, and any another format of content you have produced. Search for trends of types of content that do well and the ones that do not communicate better with your audience.
Some questions to consider include:
What subjects receive the highest engagement?
Do your posts lead to clicks on your site or inquiries?
Are you posting regularly?
Do you address the problems faced by your audience with your posts?
Are your images clear and professional and of good quality?
Are your captions informative and contain a proper call to action?
Group your posts in some categories like educational content, promotional content, clients’ testimonials, behind-the-scenes content, industry-specific news, etc.
That should help you spot any missing components of your content strategy.
For instance, banquet halls may have followers interested in posts on venue transformations, wedding decoration tips, and events highlights. Marketing agencies may draw attention with practical tips on SEO and content marketing along with samples of successful campaigns.
Step 3: Evaluate Your Social Media SEO
Social media SEO means the act of improving your social media profile and content in order to help customers find your business on social media platforms and preferably through search engines as well.
Usually, the techniques of optimization depend on the social media platform yet there are several tricks that apply in all situations.
Optimize Your Profile Information
Your business name should look clear and understandable and be complemented by the description of the business services. Pay attention to including relevant keywords in the description but avoid overuse of them.
For example, a marketing agency specializing in restaurant marketing can use the terms restaurant marketing and social media marketing in the description of its services.
Make Use of the Right Keywords in Your Content
Make research to find the keywords your clients use to search for the services you offer.
Ensure you include such keywords in videos, captions, titles, and any other materials you produce.
For example, in a video about restaurant promotion, you can cover the topic of social media marketing in the restaurant industry.
Headlining Effectively
It is important that the titles convey the idea of the article to the readership as well as search-engine algorithms. Avoid using vague headlines that do not carry any meaning. Thus, instead of using something like ‘new project,’ replace it with something more elaborate such as ‘teaching the audience how food reels represent the menu.’
Including Explanations
Allow the audience to view the infographics by means of alt texts. Additionally, you should make sure that there are also subtitles in your video to help them understand the content better.
Keeping Consistency in Branding
Make sure that the name of your brand, as well as logo, description, and link to website, remain unchanged on all platforms.
Step 4: Assess Engagement and Audience Quality
Simply counting followers is not enough to determine the effectiveness of a social media campaign.
It might be more beneficial to have a small audience that contains significant potential buyers than a big number of followers that do not interact with the content.
Key performance indicators that should be taken into consideration include the following:
Impressions and reach
Likes, shares, and comments
Saves and profile views
Number of video views and time spent watching videos
Link clicks
Followers’ growth rate
Direct messages and inquiries
Make sure to compare the results obtained on a regular basis, and preferably take data for a month or three.
Pay attention to the overall meaning of the numbers you have. For instance, a high reach could easily be combined with a low number of profile views, which means that something is missing to get the attention of the viewers and make them search for more information.
At the same time, a low number of views of a certain post could be more beneficial from the business point of view if there were many inquiries regarding that post.
Step 5: Monitor Website Traffic Through Social Media
Your social media accounts should allow potential customers to easily transition from their account to your website.
If you are using Google Analytics 4 (GA4) or any later version, find out how much traffic social media platforms have generated for you. Find out which social media platforms are sending you traffic, what pages visitors land on, and how they act after that.
The most useful metrics will be as follows:
Sessions generated through social media
Engaged sessions
Performance of landing pages
The most important stats and conversions
Sources of traffic and campaign performance
Interactions with important service pages
If you wish to track the activities of your campaigns accurately, it is recommended to use UTM parameters on links you use in your posts, profiles, email newsletters, and campaigns in order to properly identify where website traffic comes from.
UTM parameters will allow you to identify exactly where visits to your website come from, what they were intended for, and where the traffic came from.
For instance, using UTM parameters will allow you to distinguish between people coming through Instagram ads and those coming via LinkedIn posts.
Step 6: Analyze Conversion Rates and Lead Generation
The main objective of social media marketing is not to directly generate sales. Based on the industry you work in, the notion of a conversion could imply anything from submitting the contact form to making a request by phone or booking an appointment. In order to measure conversions correctly, you should define the objectives of your business first.
Then you may begin assessing the effectiveness of your posts in terms of creating the desired response from the audience. Some of the questions you may like to ask include:
Are your calls to action quite clear and relevant?
Is your website or landing page mobile-friendly?
Are your contact forms easy to fill out?
Is it easy for visitors to find out about your prices, services, or make a booking?
Are you tracking conversion events correctly?
What social media platforms are the most efficient in terms of conversions?
For instance, a restaurant might track reservation requests whereas online marketing agency might count consultations and quotes.
Conversion Rate = (Number of Conversions / Number of Visitors) x 100
Step 7: Observe competitors and market trends
Examining competition provides possibilities for strategies in your niche as well as shows how other people in your field think and behave.
Choose from 3 to 5 competitors and analyze their social media statistics.
Consider the following aspects of competitor’s posts:
Topics of posts and frequency of posting
Visuals and video production
Feedback and interaction of the audience
Promotional publications
Call to action (CTA)
Reaction from customers
Engagement and topics of the posts
The objective of the analysis is not imitation of surrounding reality but the finding of pertinent content to create strong and relevant content for the target audience.
For instance, while certain companies have been regularly offering unspecific knowledge in marketing, they have never touched upon restaurant owners’ social media improvement.
Step 8: Develop a Plan of Action from the Data You Collect
The audit is of great significance only if it is utilized to improve things.
Once you have checked your profiles, content, SEO, traffic, and conversions, you should prepare the following action plan:
Divide the tasks into three categories
High priority: Fix broken URLs, missing profiles, wrong contact details, and tracking of conversions.
Middle priority: Improve descriptions of profiles, better content, more efficient calls to action, and creation of updated landing pages.
Continuous improvement: Try new formats, analyze competitors, assess performance of campaigns, and create content that is based on the information about the audience.
You should assign a person who will be responsible for every task and set a deadline. Analyze your work once a month and use the results of the audit on a quarterly basis, or whenever your strategy changes drastically.
This approach will enable you to get from merely gathering the information to implementing your marketing strategy.
Errors to avoid when you are performing a social media audit
All social media platforms have brought their own problems. The following are some of the common mistakes made by social media managers:
Forgetting about the quantity of fans – simply having a large audience does not guarantee that you will use all the advantages that you could.
Making use of your own website statistics. Statistics give no indication of what the users have performed on your website.
Using the wrong keywords. Each keyword should correspond with your audience’s behavior.
Posting content randomly. Each piece of content is supposed to serve a purpose.
Ignoring the importance of constant control. With constant monitoring, it is easier to track what is effective and what is not.
Hoping for fast results. Obtaining the required amount of visibility and credibility involves continuous work.
Conclusion
It’s vital to audit your social media from an SEO and conversion standpoint. Otherwise, you won’t comprehend how your profiles, content, audience engagement, and website experience contribute to your business objectives.
Through profile auditing, content refinement, keyword optimization, traffic monitoring, and conversion analysis, you’ll get a lot of opportunities in attracting the right audience and encouraging them to take action.
Don’t focus on the number of activities but rather the results. It doesn’t mean that a greater number of posts and followers is a measurable success. A good strategy lies in which content and audience requirements connect with significant business results.
At HVAxis Production, we assist organizations in improving online engagement and presence with the help of advertising techniques, social media marketing, SEO, graphic design, and professional video editing. If you’d like to boost your brand awareness or receive more qualified leads, you need to apply a competent marketing approach.
Are you ready to improve your digital marketing skills? Contact HVAxis Production for a conversation about innovative content and marketing expansion.