Social media audit template: Free checklist + guide

Social media plays a key role in marketing your business and connecting with customers. By checking your accounts regularly, you can see what’s working and find new ways to grow.

A social media audit makes this process easier. The word "audit" might sound intimidating, but using a template will walk you through each step. Read on to learn more and get a free template to help you get started.

What is a social media audit?

A social media audit means reviewing all your social media accounts to see how they’re performing, spot new opportunities, and get better results. You’ll look at things like your audience, engagement, and how your posts are doing on each platform.

A social media audit isn’t like a tax audit. It’s just about gathering important information from your social channels in one spot so you can make smart decisions.

When should you do a social media audit?

There’s no strict rule for how often to do a social media audit, but some best practices can help. Most businesses find that doing an audit every quarter is a good way to make updates and see how things are going.

If your social media is doing really well and you don’t need to make many changes, you might only need to audit every six months. But if you’re getting a lot of negative feedback, it’s a good idea to check your accounts more often to keep everything up-to-date.

Why use a social media audit template

A good template can change the way you do social media audits. Here’s why it helps:

• Save time: Instead of building a spreadsheet from scratch, you can jump straight into gathering data and analyzing your performance.

• Stay organized: A template helps you collect and compare data from all your social media accounts in one place.

• Ensure consistency: Using the same template each time makes it easy to track your progress and notice trends.

• Make better decisions: Visualizing your key metrics side-by-side helps you draw actionable insights and support data-driven decision-making.

• Collaborate easily: Templates make it easy to share your results with your team so everyone knows the goals and next steps.

Ready to begin? Download our free social media audit template below and follow the steps.

How to perform a social media audit

Whether you’re new to social media audits or have done them before, these seven steps will help you through the process. Download our free template below and use it as you collect your information.

1. Locate all social media profiles

Begin by making a list of all your business’s social profiles, even the ones you don’t use anymore. Search your business name on Google and each social platform to find any accounts you might have missed.

As you add profiles to your template, sort them by their status:

• Active and high priority: Accounts you use regularly and drive engagement.

• Inactive or low priority: Accounts that haven't been updated recently.

• Potentially fraudulent: Accounts created by someone outside your company that need investigation.

• Departmental accounts: Separate profiles managed by different teams within your organization.

The specific platforms you audit will vary based on your company, but may include:

• Facebook

• TikTok

• Instagram

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

• X (formerly Twitter)

2. Ensure brand messaging and completeness

Look at each profile as if you were a potential customer. Does it clearly show who you are and what you offer? Check these things:

• Check your handles: Try to keep all your social media handles the same so people can find you easily. Using your brand name is usually best.

• Examine the homepage: You'll want a cover photo that reflects your brand on the social media account's homepage. Make sure the image you choose is properly sized and formatted for that specific social platform.

• Become verified: Consider following the necessary steps to get your social media account verified with a checkmark badge to prove your authenticity. Check with each platform to see how to earn this important checkmark.

• Look over your bios: Ensure that your bios on all platforms are up-to-date and accurately reflect your brand messaging and vision statement.

• Update contact information: Use this time to check and correct all addresses, phone numbers, emails, and URLs.

• Review pinned posts: Make sure your pinned posts are still relevant and match your current marketing campaigns.

3. Find patterns within your social media profiles

It’s important to know which posts your audience likes on each platform. Every social media site is different, so pay attention to what works and what doesn’t.

As you audit, check how much people interact with your latest posts on each platform. Do videos or photos get more likes, shares, or retweets? Look at these things:

• Total number of followers

• Likes

• Tweets to your brand

• Retweets

• Shares

• Comments

• Best-performing posts

Add this information to your social media audit template, including any theories and tests you may conduct between now and the next audit. Once you've identified which posts perform best, use a social media reporting template to track metrics and organize performance results across platforms.

4. Set goals and KPIs

Once you've identified your profiles and found the patterns of what works and what doesn't, create goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for each profile. Not every profile needs to have the same goal; designate different objectives that best match the consumers on each site.

Goals can include:

• Increasing traffic to your site: Engaged customers on social media can follow through and visit your website, increasing your unique visits.

• Growing brand awareness: Metrics like post reach, audience growth rate, and social share of voice help drive customer conversations about your brand.

• Managing brand reputation: You can track brand mentions and hashtags, both positive and negative, on social media. This is a great way to get ahead of any potential issues.

• Expanding community engagement: This includes growing likes, shares, and follows. Increased reach means that more potential customers are hearing about your brand, therefore growing your brand's awareness.

Make sure that each goal is SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. SMART goals set a clear objective, making them more achievable than a generic goal.

5. Assess the best social media platforms for you

Once you've gathered information about your channels, use a clear decision-making process to determine where to focus.

• Are your goals being met?

• Could they be better met on a different platform?

• Is there a better platform for one type of content to thrive on?

• Do your customers use a platform you're not on yet?

You may have accounts on lots of platforms but not much activity. Put your energy into the platforms where your customers are most active. This is also a good time to deactivate old accounts that haven’t been updated in a while, since they probably aren’t helping you reach your goals.

6. Standardize channel ownership

As you fill out your template, choose one person or team to be in charge of each social media account. They’ll keep the accounts updated, on-brand, and reaching the right people.

Having one person manage all your social platforms means you don’t have to give access every time someone joins the team. It also keeps your accounts more secure by limiting access.

7. Track action items and next steps

Once you've pulled apart all of this information, devise a plan for the future. Running quarterly social media audits gives you plenty of action items to focus on between now and the next one. For instance:

• Consider keeping your social media strategy the same if engagement is high.

• Think about updating brand strategies where needed.

• Deactivate and delete outdated or replaced accounts.

• Change up the types of posts if you're getting little to no engagement.

• Post more of the social media content that is garnering high engagement.

• Post more of the types of top-performing posts on a more frequent basis by setting up a social media content calendar.

By devising a specific plan based on the goals you established, you can create a social media strategy that works best for you and your company. It might take time to notice a difference, so keep track of your audits regularly as part of a continuous improvement process.

Social media audit template

Using a social media audit template has several benefits that make your audit process easier and help your marketing:

• Organization: A template gives you a simple way to collect and review data from all your social posts in one place. This helps you stay organized and makes sure you don’t miss any important details.

• Efficiency: With a ready-made template, you save time and effort. You can start your audit right away instead of figuring out what to include or how to set it up.

• Consistency: Using the same template every time helps you review your social media in a consistent way. This makes it easier to track your progress and spot trends.

• Clarity: Seeing all your key numbers and KPIs side by side gives you a clear picture of how your social media is doing. This helps you find insights and make better decisions.

• Collaboration: Templates make it easy to share reports with your team and others. This way, everyone knows the goals, priorities, and next steps.

Our free social media audit template will guide you step by step through your social media activity. Just follow along and add your information to find the insights you need for your marketing strategy.

Social media audit examples

To show what a detailed social media audit looks like, here are a few examples. These samples show how different companies might use an audit template to review their online presence.

Example 1: Startup software company

This growing startup uses social media to build brand awareness and connect with small business owners. Their audit shows:

• Steady follower count growth of 20% per quarter across all social channels

• Highest engagement metrics on educational LinkedIn posts about digital marketing tips

• Lower-than-average click-through rates and conversions on Facebook ads promoting sign-ups

Based on these findings, the company will focus more on LinkedIn content and review its Facebook ad targeting to get better results.

Example 2: Eco-friendly clothing brand

This eco-friendly fashion brand uses Instagram and Pinterest to show off its products and build a community of environmentally conscious shoppers. Their audit found:

• User-generated content in social media posts receives 5x higher engagement than branded posts

• Styling tips and outfit inspiration pins drive the most referral traffic

• Inconsistent posting cadence on Instagram Stories

The brand plans to share more customer photos, make more tutorial content, and post new Stories every day to boost their social media presence.

Example 3: Global software corporation

This large software company stays active on all major social networks to reach IT decision makers. Their audit found:

• Minimal engagement on Twitter, with an audience that skews much younger than their target buyers

• High view counts on in-depth product demo videos

• Extremely active LinkedIn community asking technical support questions

The company will move resources away from Twitter and focus on growing its YouTube library and offering more support on LinkedIn. They also plan to compare their results with competitors.

Social media audit tools

You can do an audit by hand, but using tools can make the process faster by collecting data automatically and giving you better insights.

1. Social media management platforms

Tools like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and Agorapulse offer built-in analytics across major social networks. You can aggregate data on follower count, reach, engagement, and top-performing posts. Many also provide reporting capabilities to visualize trends.

2. Social media analytics dashboards

Platforms like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics track social media referral traffic to your website. You can see which networks drive the most clicks, conversions, and revenue.

These insights are crucial for optimizing your social media marketing strategy and SEO. For a more comprehensive view, consider using a website audit template to evaluate technical SEO and conversion benchmarks alongside your social metrics.

3. Social listening tools

Social listening tools such as Mention, Brandwatch, and Talkwalker track mentions, keywords, and how people feel about your brand across social media and the web. They give you a wider view of what people are saying to go along with your own data.

Social media audit checklist

To make sure your audit covers everything important, use this simple social media audit checklist:

1. List all your social media profiles, including ones that may be inactive.

2. Check each profile for consistent branding, messaging, and up-to-date information.

3. Identify your best-performing content types and posting times for each channel.

4. Record key social media metrics like audience growth, reach, engagement rate, and referral traffic.

5. Note audience demographic data and any shifts in your follower profile.

6. Analyze paid social ads for reach, click-through rates, and conversion rates.

7. Review social listening data for brand sentiment and relevant conversations.

8. Assess customer service interactions and response times.

9. Benchmark your KPIs against industry averages and competitors.

10. Summarize key insights, goals, and action items based on the social data to improve your social media performance.

By following this social media audit checklist and leveraging analytics tools, you can gain an in-depth understanding of your social media presence and discover opportunities to optimize your strategy

Get started with our social media content calendar

Social media audits don't need to be scary; they are a necessary part of any digital marketing plan. By completing a social media audit template, you can track your progress and ensure your efforts are making an impact.

Ready to put your audit insights into action? With Asana, you can organize your social media strategy, track your audit findings, and coordinate content calendars all in one place. Get started today to turn your social media audit into real results for your team.

FAQs about social media audit templates