Most businesses post on social media regularly. They show up a few times a week, share updates, engage with comments when they can. But ask them what's actually driving results, and the answer gets murky. "We think Instagram is doing okay" or "Videos seem to get more likes."

The problem isn't effort. It's that most teams are too focused on creating content to step back and evaluate it. They assume consistency equals progress. But without looking at the data, you're essentially guessing. Some posts will land. Others won't. And you won't know why either way.

A social media audit solves that. It's not some complicated process that requires a marketing agency. It's just a structured review of your accounts to see what's working and what isn't. You look at your profiles, your content performance, your audience behavior, and use that information to make better decisions going forward.

This guide breaks down how to run an audit from start to finish. We'll cover what metrics matter, how to organize your findings, and what to do with the insights you uncover. 

What is a social media audit?

A social media audit is a review of your brand's presence on social platforms. You're checking how your profiles look, what content is performing, and who's engaging with it.

It covers a few things. Your profile setup: are your bios consistent? Do your visuals match? Can someone tell what you do in five seconds? Then there's content performance. Which posts get engagement? Which ones flop? You also look at your audience. Who follows you? When are they active? Do they match who you're trying to reach?

Some audits include competitor checks too. Pick three or four similar brands and see what they're doing. How often do they post? What formats work for them?

Here's an example. A coffee shop posts on Instagram regularly but notices engagement dropping. They do an audit and find something useful. Product photos get some likes. But behind-the-scenes Reels (barista making drinks, morning prep) get way more comments and shares. Their audience wants to see the process, not just the final cup.

Why a social media audit matters

Running an audit helps you stop wasting time on content that doesn't work. When you're not tracking what performs, you end up repeating the same mistakes or missing easy opportunities.

First, it keeps your branding consistent. If your Instagram bio says one thing and your Facebook page says something else, that's confusing. An audit catches those gaps so new followers get a clear message no matter where they find you.

It also shows you what your audience actually cares about. You might think product posts are your best content, but the data could tell a different story. Maybe your tutorials get three times the saves. Maybe your meme posts drive more profile visits. You won't know until you look.

Audits help you spot growth opportunities too. You might find that one platform is underperforming because you're posting at the wrong times. Or that a content format you barely use is actually your top performer.

The biggest benefit? It keeps your strategy grounded in reality. You're making decisions based on what's working, not what you think should work.

Take this example: A cafe owner assumes their best content is product shots because those look professional. They run an audit and realize behind-the-scenes Reels get three times more saves than anything else. People want to see the team, the process, the vibe. That changes everything about what they prioritize.

Let me rewrite it to be even more natural:

How to conduct a social media audit (step-by-step framework)

Running an audit is pretty simple once you get the hang of it. You're just collecting info and seeing what it tells you.

Step 1: List all your active social accounts

Open a spreadsheet. Write down every account you have. Platform, username, how many followers, how often you actually post.

You'll probably find accounts you forgot existed. That Pinterest someone made in 2018. A Facebook page that got created twice by accident. The TikTok you posted on four times before giving up.

Find them and decide. Keep it? Delete it? Merge it with something else? Random dead accounts sitting around make you look messy.

Step 2: Review profile and branding consistency

Look at your profile picture, bio, link, cover image on each platform.

Is everything consistent? Or does Instagram have your current logo while Facebook still has the old one? Does your LinkedIn bio say something totally different from Twitter?

People bounce between platforms. They see you on Instagram, then go check Facebook. If those two pages look like different companies, it's confusing.

Also ask yourself this: would a stranger landing on your profile know what you actually do? Lots of bios are vague. Links go nowhere. Pinned posts are ancient.

Pretend you've never seen your page before and look at it fresh.

Step 3: Analyze content performance

Go back through three to six months of posts. Find your top performers and your duds.

Check reach, engagement rate, comments, shares, saves. Comments and shares count for more than likes because someone had to actually do something.

Look for patterns while you're at it. Videos doing better? Carousels getting saved more? Specific topics that always spark comments?

Check what flopped too. Was it the format? The topic? Bad timing? Sometimes there's an obvious reason. Sometimes stuff just doesn't hit. Either way, write it down.

Step 4: Evaluate audience insights

Pull up your demographics. Age, gender, location, when people are online.

Now compare that to who you think you're reaching. Selling skincare to women in their 20s but your followers are mostly 50-year-old men? That's a problem.

Location matters if you're local. Half your followers in another state can't walk through your door.

The timing thing is an easy fix. Audience online at 7 PM but you post at noon? Change it and see what happens.

Step 5: Audit engagement quality

Read through your comments from the past month or two. Real questions? Actual conversations? Or mostly just emoji reactions and "nice post" type stuff?

Check DMs too. Are people asking real things or is it all spam bots?

Then look at your own behavior. How fast do you respond? Are you actually replying or just hitting the heart button? Someone asks a question and it sits there for a week?

People notice when you don't engage back. They'll stop bothering.

Step 6: Benchmark against competitors

Pick three to five brands that are somewhat similar. Check their posting frequency, engagement, content formats.

You're not trying to copy what they do. You're looking for stuff you might be missing. Maybe they post daily and you post twice a week, and that's part of why they get more reach. Maybe they're doing user-generated content and it's working really well.

Follower count by itself doesn't mean much. 5,000 followers with 300 likes per post is way better than 50,000 followers with 500 likes.

Social Blade

Social Blade is free and works across most major platforms. You can look up any public account and see their follower growth over time, engagement trends, and basic performance stats. It's straightforward and gets the job done.

Phlanx

Phlanx focuses on Instagram specifically. They have a free engagement rate calculator that's really useful when you're comparing accounts. Just plug in a username and it shows you how engaged their audience actually is, not just how big it is.

Step 7: Summarize findings and create action items

Throw everything into a spreadsheet. Nothing fancy. Just columns for the platform, what worked, what didn't, what you're doing about it, how important it is.

Something like:

Platform: Instagram

Working: Team Reels, tutorial carousels

Not working: Product photos, all-over-the-place posting

Doing: Make 2 Reels per week, prep carousels on Mondays, post Tues/Thurs/Sat at 7 PM

Priority: High

Be specific about changes. "Be more consistent" is useless. "Post three times a week at 7 PM" actually means something.

Decide when you're doing this again. Three to six months from now usually makes sense.

Tools and templates to simplify your audit

You don't need expensive software to run an audit. Most of what you need is already available for free.

For tracking everything, a simple spreadsheet works. Google Sheets, Excel, whatever you already use. Some people like Notion or Airtable if they want something a little more visual, but honestly a basic spreadsheet does the job fine.

For analytics, start with what each platform gives you. Instagram Insights, Facebook Page Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, Twitter Analytics, TikTok Analytics. They're all built in and they show you the numbers that matter. Reach, engagement, follower growth, when your audience is active.

If you want something that pulls data from multiple platforms into one place, there are tools for that:

Metricool

Metricool has a free version that pulls data from multiple platforms into one dashboard. It's probably the most generous free plan out there. You can track posts, schedule content, and see analytics without paying anything.

Buffer

Buffer does something similar. Their free plan works well for basic tracking and scheduling. The interface is clean and easy to figure out. Good option if you're just getting started.

Hootsuite

Hootsuite also has a free tier, though it's more limited than Metricool or Buffer. You can connect a few accounts and get basic analytics. It works, but the free version feels pretty stripped down compared to the others.

For competitor research, Social Blade is a great choice and it's free. You can look up almost any account and see their follower growth and basic stats. Not Just Analytics does something similar for Instagram specifically. Phlanx has an engagement rate calculator that's useful when you're comparing accounts.

Tools and templates to simplify your audit

You don't need to spend money on this. Most of what you need is either free or already part of the platforms you use.

For organizing your audit

A spreadsheet is all you need. Google Sheets, Excel, whatever you've got. You're just writing down platforms, numbers, and what you're going to change. Nothing complicated.

Some people prefer Notion or Airtable because they look nicer and you can organize things in different ways. But most people never need that. A basic spreadsheet does the same thing.

For pulling analytics

Each platform has its own analytics built in. Instagram Insights, Facebook Page Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, all of them. They show you reach, engagement, when people are online, how your follower count is changing.

Use those first. They're free and they give you everything you need.

If you're running multiple accounts and don't want to log into each platform separately, there are tools that pull everything into one dashboard. Metricool, Buffer, Hootsuite. They all have free plans. Metricool's free version is probably the best one if you're just getting started.

For competitor research

Social Blade is free and works for most platforms. You type in a username and it shows you their follower count over time and some basic stats.

Not Just Analytics does something similar but only for Instagram. Phlanx has a free engagement calculator that's useful when you're comparing how your posts perform against other accounts.

How to turn insights into action

Doing the audit is one thing. Actually using what you learned is another.

Start with your top performers. If behind-the-scenes content is getting three times the engagement of anything else, make more of it. Don't just do it once in a while when you remember. Build it into your content plan. Maybe that's two Reels per week showing your process, or a weekly story series about your team.

Look at your worst performers too. Sometimes a post flops and there's no clear reason. That's fine, it happens. But if a whole category of content consistently underperforms, stop doing it. Or at least do it way less. If your product photos always get ignored, maybe your audience doesn't care about them. Try a different approach or just cut them out.

Use your audit to adjust your content pillars. A lot of businesses plan content around what they think matters. Educational posts, promotional posts, entertaining posts, whatever. But if your educational content gets tons of saves and your promotional stuff gets nothing, that tells you something. Shift the balance.

Your posting schedule might need to change too. If you found out your audience is most active at 8 PM and you've been posting at noon, fix that. Test the new time for a few weeks and see if engagement improves.

Using AI to execute your audit insights

Running an audit shows you what's working, but then comes the hard part: actually creating more of that content consistently.

You might notice that carousel posts perform better than single images. Great. But now you need to make more carousels. That means coming up with concepts, writing copy, designing visuals, testing different approaches. It's time-consuming, and most small teams don't have the bandwidth.

That's where a tool like Holo comes in. It's trained on over 19,000+ high-performing ads and millions of marketing assets from top ecommerce brands. So when your audit tells you what content works, Holo helps you create more of it without the usual heavy lifting.

Common social media audit mistakes to avoid

Most people screw up audits in the same few ways. Here's what not to do.

Tracking vanity metrics only

Follower count feels good to look at but it doesn't really tell you anything useful. You can have 10,000 followers and get almost no engagement on your posts. The number that matters is whether people actually give a shit. Are they commenting? Saving your posts? Sharing them with friends?

If all you're tracking is how many followers you added this month, you're missing the point.

Ignoring platform differences

What works on Instagram won't work on LinkedIn. TikTok is nothing like Facebook. Every platform has different people using it in different ways.

Some businesses analyze their Instagram, figure out what's working, and then try to do the exact same thing on every other platform. That never works. You have to look at each one separately because the audiences want different things.

Only auditing once a year

Waiting a full year between audits is too long. Things change fast. Algorithm updates happen. Trends shift. What your audience cared about in January might be totally different by June.

Check in every three months if you can. At least twice a year. Otherwise you're spending half the year doing things that stopped working months ago and you don't even realize it.

Not documenting what you find

If you go through this whole process and don't write anything down, there’s no point in doing it. You'll forget most of it pretty quickly, and three months from now you're back to guessing.

Put it somewhere you can reference later, it doesn't matter if it's a spreadsheet or a doc or a notebook. Just make sure you can go back and see what you learned and what you decided to change based on it.

Key takeaways

Building a social presence that works takes more than just posting stuff and hoping for the best. You need to actually look at what's happening with your content. Which posts are getting attention? Which ones are people scrolling right past?

Start small. Don't try to audit every platform you're on all at once. Pick one. Spend a few hours digging into your analytics. Write down what you notice. Maybe your videos are doing way better than photos. Maybe people engage more on certain days. Whatever it is, note it.

Then make a couple changes and see what happens over the next few months.

The businesses crushing it on social aren't necessarily posting more than you or spending a ton on ads. They're just checking in regularly. They notice patterns. When something works they lean into it. When something keeps flopping they stop wasting time on it.

That's really all an audit is. Taking time to see what's actually happening instead of just assuming. It's the difference between strategy and just keeping busy.

If you want to try this, go back through the steps we covered. Pick your main platform and start pulling data. Look for the patterns. Make some changes based on what you find. It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be better than guessing.