Running a social media audit can be intimidating. It’s like weighing yourself for the first time in months — once you have the numbers, you can see what’s working and make a plan to fix the stuff that’s not.
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Even though the lead-up can cause anxiety, the numbers make it easy to make informed decisions on next steps. One of the first times I ran an audit, I realized my VA and I were wasting time on two platforms that barely moved the needle (sorry, Facebook and Pinterest) — while neglecting one channel that quietly drove most of our leads — LinkedIn.
That experience changed how I approach social media strategy. Regular audits uncover gaps and also help us double down on what’s working and make smarter decisions about where to invest.
If you want the same level of clarity, here’s how to run a social media audit step by step.
Table of Contents
- What is a social media audit?
- How to Do a Social Media Audit
- Social Media Audit Template
- Social Media Audit Examples
- Social Media Audit Tools
- Social Media Audit Checklist
Free Social Media Report Template
Share the results of your social media campaigns clearly and efficiently. Highlight your:
- Mentions.
- Engagement.
- Impressions.
- And more!
What is a social media audit?
A social media audit is a structured review of all your social channels to evaluate performance, identify opportunities, and align your efforts with business goals.
It typically involves analyzing:
- Audience demographics and engagement.
- Branding and messaging consistency.
- Top-performing and underperforming content.
- Traffic and conversion metrics by platform.
My scale analogy above is pretty darned accurate. With that in mind, I want you to think of a social media audit like your marketing strategy’s vital signs. The insights you gather will help you prioritize your time and resources instead of chasing trends blindly.
How to Do a Social Media Audit
As you begin your social media audit, remember that you don’t have to start from scratch — some tools have templates or examples while others do the lion’s share of the work for you. Below is the process I use for clients and my own brands.
1. Start with the basics.
First, create a master list of every social account you have — active or dormant. Record each handle, link, follower count, and last activity date in a spreadsheet. Or, you may also want to build out a ClickUp board to help you track performance over time and any follow-up tasks.
As you do this, check your profile elements:
- Is branding (logos, colors, banners) consistent?
- Are bios clear and up to date?
- Do all URLs point to the right landing pages?
This step alone often reveals neglected or outdated accounts that can be cleaned up.
2. Analyze each profile’s engagement.
Follower count is a good metric to track, but it doesn’t show the full picture. I focus on engagement rates (likes, comments, shares, saves, clicks), audience quality, and impressions and reach.
I want you to pay attention to metrics like:
- Are followers interacting with our content?
- Which content formats perform best (videos, carousels, polls)?
- Do we have a healthy mix of loyal fans and new followers?
Tools like HubSpot, Sprout Social, and Later can make it easy to pull this data. The screenshot above from Metricool shows year-to-date performance for one of the brands I track.
3. Find the patterns.
Once I’ve reviewed each channel individually, I look across all of them for trends:
- Which platforms drive the most traffic, leads, or sales?
- Do certain topics or content styles consistently outperform?
- Are there audience segments we’re missing?
Patterns tell you where to double down and where to pivot. The screenshot above shows high-level trends across all platforms, while also allowing me to dig deeper.
4. Set goals for each platform.
Every channel should have a clear purpose. For example:
- LinkedIn – Generate qualified leads through thought leadership content.
- TikTok – Build brand awareness among Gen Z.
- Instagram – Grow community engagement with Reels and Stories.
Not on TikTok? No problem.
You can use whatever channels you like, just make sure you set attainable and measurable goals (e.g., increase Instagram engagement from 2% to 4% in three months).
Then set a cadence for reporting and follow through on the tracking.
5. Make a plan.
Based on your findings, outline what changes you’ll make:
- Refresh creative assets and bios.
- Rebalance your content mix.
- Reallocate resources to high-performing platforms.
- Pause or retire underperforming accounts.
Be sure to assign dates to each — while also determining how you’ll assess if your plan is working and how or when you’ll make adjustments to the plan.
6. Assess new platforms.
Social media moves fast. In 2023, brands started experimenting with Threads and BeReal. In 2024, Lemon8 gained traction. There’s no way to know what will take off in the coming years.
While I never recommend adding another type of content and platform to the rotation without vetting it, it’s probably worth your while to take new platforms for a spin.
Before jumping in, ask:
- Does this platform align with our audience and brand voice?
- Do we have the bandwidth to maintain it?
- Can we test it for 90 days and evaluate ROI?
Pro tip: Make sure to allocate set amounts of time for your evaluation to help you stay out of time-wasting doomscroll mode.
Social Media Audit Template
This free downloadable social media audit template from HubSpot walks you through everything from audience demographics to creative performance. It’s the same one I’ve used with clients who need to share findings with executives. It might just give you the inspiration you need!
Download Social Media Audit Template Now
It shows you how to create an “executive” summary and track audience data as well as the specific performance on top posts.
Free Social Media Report Template
Share the results of your social media campaigns clearly and efficiently. Highlight your:
- Mentions.
- Engagement.
- Impressions.
- And more!
Social Media Audit Examples
Different businesses and their marketing teams use different methods to perform social media audits. And, because everyone has different goals they track different things. I’ve pulled in several templates you can explore to see what fits your needs best.
I’ve found that project management tools offer the widest range of options — and therefore give you a wide range of things to consider. Even if you don’t use the platform or the audit templates, it’s worth reviewing each of these for inspiration.
1. Asana – Social Media Audit Template (PDF)
Best for: Inventorying your profiles and capturing baseline metrics.
This downloadable template provides a structured layout for logging each platform, engagement, and performance metrics. Because it’s a simple PDF, it doesn’t require any specific app to use.
Try it for yourself: Download the Asana template here.
2. ClickUp – Social Media Analytics Template
Best for: Getting a high level of detail and tracking with visual charts.
ClickUp’s template features dashboards, analytics boards, and summary views for tracking campaigns and setting goals across platforms. While more of a tracker than an audit tool, because it’s in the project management tool, you can adapt it to your needs, and they have a goal-setting section.
Try it for yourself: View the ClickUp template.
3. Monday.com – Social Media Metrics Template
Best for: Getting multiple views of your social media audit Kanban boards and visual data.
Monday’s template provides a fully customizable workspace for performance metrics, content tracking, and campaign KPIs. Full disclosure, I find Monday has a bit of a learning curve, but I absolutely love it for its flexibility.
Try it yourself: View the Monday.com template.
4. Notion – Social Media Audit Template
Best for: Showing how an all-in-one workspace can house your entire audit.
Notion’s audit template makes it easy to monitor and improve your social media efforts. Again, you can customize it for yourself.
Try it yourself: View the Notion template.
Social Media Audit Tools
Using the right tools to complete your audit can make the process faster and easier. Social media management platforms can not only compile the data needed for an audit but will also track it over time so that it’s always accessible to you at a glance. Many will give you extensive analytics that offer more than each individual platform’s built-in capabilities. Check out the tools below to see what might work for your business.
Sprout Social
This is an all-in-one social media management platform that provides an in-depth view of how audiences interact with your social media profiles.
Cost: Starts at $199/month after a 30-day free trial.
Free trial: Yes (30 days).
Best for: Mid-size to enterprise teams needing robust analytics, reporting, and scheduling across multiple channels.
Why I like it: While coming in at a higher cost, Sprout provides some of the most in-depth analytics in the industry, making it ideal for social media audits.
HootSuite
This tool creates custom reports for your business that show exactly how social media is impacting your brand.
Cost: Starts at $99/month.
Free trial: Yes (30 days).
Best for: Small to mid-size businesses that need custom reporting and content scheduling in one place.
Why I like it: Hootsuite’s custom reports make it easy to show how social impacts the bottom line. And now that Hootsuite includes Talkwalker social listening in paid plans, it’s got even more oomph and actionable insights.
Zoho Social
The monitoring feature of this tool gives you multiple “listening” columns that update in real-time as engagement happens with your social media profiles.
Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $10/month.
Free trial: Yes — all access free trial lasts 15 days.
Best for: Budget-conscious teams who want real-time listening and monitoring capabilities.
Why I like it: Zoho’s “listening” columns update in real time, which is helpful when auditing audience sentiment.
Sociality.io
This tool will also give you social media reports on competitors to get the full picture of how your audience is engaging with your industry online.
Cost: Starts at $99/month; custom plans available for agencies.
Free trial: Yes (14 days).
Best for: Brands that want competitive analysis as part of their audit.
Why I like it: Sociality.io makes it easy to benchmark your performance against competitors.
Metricool
My current favorite social media management and audit tool — it tracks detailed data on the most popular social platforms and has a generous free plan.
Cost: Free plan available; paid plans start at $24.99/month.
Free trial: The free plan is generous enough for many small teams.
Best for: Small businesses, creators, or anyone who wants detailed data without breaking the bank.
Why I like it: Metricool’s intuitive dashboards make it my go-to for quick audits.
Pro tip: If you’re short on time, start with a tool like Metricool or Sprout Social. They’ll pull most of the audit data for you, so you can focus on strategy instead of spreadsheets.
Free Social Media Report Template
Share the results of your social media campaigns clearly and efficiently. Highlight your:
- Mentions.
- Engagement.
- Impressions.
- And more!
Social Media Audit Checklist
Want a starting point or quick reference guide? Here’s the simple checklist I use every time I start an audit.
1. List all your accounts.
Start by listing every account — active, inactive, or forgotten. Include handles, URLs, follower counts, and last post dates.
Why it matters: I’ve found that a quick run-through a few times a year prevents dated information from showing up. One of my clients had updated their Facebook header for an event — months later, it was still up. An audit caught it, and we got it back to “normal” quickly.
2. Check your branding and profiles.
Are profile images, bios, and links consistent and current? Broken URLs and outdated messaging are more common than you’d think.
Pro tip: I keep a shared document (in a shared folder) with approved bios, logos, and links, so if something is hinky, we can fix it in minutes.
3. Review performance metrics.
Even if your platform tracks engagement (likes, comments, shares, clicks), follower growth, impressions, and reach, you need to take it a step further. Compare the data to last quarter and this quarter last year to get a sense of performance over time.
Why it matters: I’ve found that different industries have different seasonalities, so tracking over time gives you a true sense of whether dips and highs are related to your content or other factors.
4. Identify your best and worst content.
Which posts drove results — engagements and conversions? Which fell flat? Look for patterns across content type, topics, and timing.
A local client’s Facebook reel of a skier going over a slushy pond got more than 100x more views and engagement than our other content. It reminded us to test different kinds of content and then really analyze why certain things work.
Pro tip: These days, with AI everything, personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes content tend to perform better than anything else — especially super polished posts.
5. Know your audience.
Do demographics and behavior match your ideal customers? Are you attracting the right people, or are you just chasing vanity metrics?
Pro tip: 10K or 100K followers doesn’t mean anything if they’re not engaged or won’t buy from you. I’d encourage you to audit engagement by demographic and audience to make sure you’re speaking to the right people.
6. Map each platform to a goal.
Every channel needs a job: awareness, leads, customer support, etc. Set measurable goals for each, and cut platforms that don’t serve your business. Make sure that you — or someone on your team — has an affinity for the type of content that performs there.
Why it matters: If your audience isn’t there, it’s taking up too much of your time and energy. We tested Instagram with a client and found out that all of her people came from LinkedIn. For another example, I personally love TikTok. I tried to make it work professionally, but creating short-form video just isn’t my thing, so I dumped it professionally and now just play around for fun.
7. Review your content mix and posting cadence.
Are you using multiple formats (video, carousels, stories, lives)? Are you posting consistently?
Why it matters: Having more content types in your arsenal can help you ride out algorithm changes. For example, when static images tanked on Instagram, Reels turned things around for many brands.
8. Pay attention to what’s trending.
Choose two to three competitors to follow, and look at content types, performance, and what’s working well. Simultaneously, consume content to see what’s trending in the bigger picture and gain fresh inspiration.
Pro tip: I’m not saying copy them — don’t do that! But if they’re thriving on a platform you’re ignoring or posting a ton of behind-the-scenes content that’s getting lots of views, it’s worth a second look. That’s how I discovered LinkedIn was a huge opportunity for one B2C client.
9. Prioritize fixes and next steps.
Identify 2–3 high-impact fixes for each platform (like updating bios, pruning inactive accounts, or refreshing creative). Then choose 1–2 experiments to test next quarter — whether that means content type, stories to tell, or something different. You get to define what each experiment is.
Pro tip: Put each on your calendar, and where applicable, assign owners and deadlines to make sure it actually happens. Speaking of saving the date — now is the perfect time to get next quarter’s audit on the books.
Get started on your social media audit.
You probably won’t wake up tomorrow, super pumped, thinking, “Yes! It’s audit day!” Same here, friend. Same here.
While it’s fun to nerd out on the numbers and brainstorm next steps, audits aren’t exactly the highlight of most marketers’ calendars.
But it’s worth doing. And more importantly, it’s worth doing right. They’ll show you what’s working, what’s not, and where you’ve been spinning your wheels. And once you have that clarity, it’s a whole lot easier to make smart decisions about where to focus next.
So if you’re waiting for a sign to block off two hours, this is it. Download a template (either one of those I featured or this one from HubSpot) and work through the checklist step by step.
Start simple. You can always add more data and complexity. Just keep at it — you’ll be amazed at how much better your social media starts to perform.
Editor's note: This article was originally published in November 2017 and has since been updated for comprehensiveness.
Free Social Media Report Template
Share the results of your social media campaigns clearly and efficiently. Highlight your:
- Mentions.
- Engagement.
- Impressions.
- And more!
Social Media Strategy