Many people are familiar with the basics of a website or content audit. The reasoning behind a content audit is simple: by determining the quality, natural exposure and relevance of content, you can then determine where improvements need to be made. Ultimately, auditing your website based on content, SEO effectiveness or content diversity is an occasional necessity.

Despite this, many people fail to implement the same standards for their social media presences. You need to focus on your social media performance in order to generate the most bang for your buck in future endeavors. What exactly should you be focused on when performing a social media audit, though? Today, we’ll review the main components in order to guide you in the right direction.

Determine Your Platforms

Ultimately, the first thing you need to do in the midst of a social media audit is determine where your efforts are best placed. You may be operating across 3 or 4 social media platforms at present: are these platforms all ideal for your content/niche? If not, then it may be best to focus on the ones where you’ll get the most bang for your buck. Likewise, there may be platforms out there where you can be pinging servers with content that’ll be received more amicably. Ultimately, any platforms that are currently being served that are not delivering results may need either a change in strategy or total abandonment due to the nature of the audience.

Evaluate Your Demographics

Who exactly is the target audience for your content? If you do not already have the answer to this question, then there’s a good chance you’re not maximizing social media performance. How could you when you have no idea who you’re trying to reach? Ultimately, breaking down who it is your targeting – age, gender, location, interests and other demographic features – can help you better cultivate a content strategy that’ll produce results.

Gauge Engagement

Once you’ve determined which platforms are most worth your time, you’ll then want to determine how exactly each platform is performing in the here are now. There are many social media metric solutions available – including in-house measurement tools and analytics on sites like Facebook – but those that attempt to convert all proprietary metrics across social media platforms into uniform measurements are ideal here. From ROIs to conversion rates, take inventory of which platforms are delivering the most value to your brand.

Categorize Your Content (and Your Competitors’)

Last but not least, it is time to take inventory of your content and determine its categorization. Some forms of content may be better suited for different social media networks; pinging servers on Instagram with long-winded blog posts probably won’t generate as much value as it would on Facebook. You’ll then be able to determine which networks are better for which types of content, and can proceed to distribute anything and everything on your website through the proper channels.

It is of course also essential that you evaluate the approaches of your competitors. What kinds of content are they sharing on social media? How are they seemingly targeting their audiences? You can learn a lot of lessons from your competitors – especially if they are well-established within the niche.

Ultimately, social media audits aren’t much different than other types of audits. You’ll evaluate the effectiveness of each social media platform, categorize content, analyze your competition and target the right people. If you can incorporate these basic tips into a more detailed audit strategy, you’ll definitely stand to make big gains in your target audience.