As we head into the second half of 2019, perhaps it’s time you considered whether your current approach to social media is cutting the mustard. If not, it’s time for a social media audit!
But where do you even start when it comes to knowing if you are doing it right or wrong?
According to the 2018 Yellow Social Media Report, 40% of internet users say they follow their favourite brands on social media, and a quarter of people are following brands that they are thinking of making a purchase from. Hence, getting on top of your media marketing strategy for 2019 is a must.
In this blog, we will look at practical measures you can take to audit your socials and ensure your brand produces the traction and hopefully the return on investment (ROI) you want
1. Start by tracking engagement
If you aren’t getting engagement on your posts then you really need to audit your social media. Firstly, look at why you are on social media. After all this is a social platform designed to connect with people and create conversations.
Calculate your engagement rate to give you a picture of how much engagement you are receiving. Your engagement rate is the percentage of engagements you receive on your posts based on the number of people who have seen your posts.
Here’s a simple formula we use:
Total Post Engagements / (Total Reach /100)
An engagement is usually defined as a like, comment, share or post-click.
Some like to calculate their engagement rate based on followers rather than reach, but we find this isn’t an accurate portrayal of engagement as your posts will reach people who don’t necessarily follow you (here’s hoping!).
You can obtain your reach and post engagement numbers from Facebook Insights, Instagram Insights or many third-party reporting tools.
Benchmarks vary for both Instagram and Facebook however typically our clients receive around 10 – 25% engagement rate on Facebook and between 2 – 10% on Instagram.
Here is Sprout Social’s general guidelines so you can benchmark your results:
- Less than 1% = low engagement
- Between 1% and 3.5% = average/good engagement
- Between 3.5% and 6% = high engagement
- Above 6% = very high engagement
Tracking your engagement on your socials will allow you to monitor whether your social media performance has been successful, however, keep in mind engagement doesn’t necessarily translate into ROI.
2. Check on your reach
If you are struggling to build engagement, the first place to start when troubleshooting is to check your reach is on track. It could simply be a case that you aren’t receiving any engagement because not enough people are seeing your posts!
Reach represents how many people have seen your post since it went live, if reach is non-existent (less than 50 people per post), try the following steps:
- Boost or promote your content – make sure the audience is targeted to your ideal customer
- Reassess the content you are posting – circle back to your audience, consider how you can provide them with interesting information that they want to read and see – ask yourself: ‘Who is the customer? What’s of value to them?’
- Do you simply have formatting issues with your posts? For example, too much text on images, using link previews, wrong hashtags or posting messy long links will not work in your favour. There are many different factors that can impact the social media algorithms if you want a full rundown on the algorithm make sure you check out our blogs ‘Facebook Algorithm Explained’ and ‘The Instagram Algorithm That Changes The Game’
3. Are your posts representing your brand well?
The next thing you need to assess when it comes to your social media audit is whether your social media platforms represent your brand well.
Looking polished and professional on social media is just as important as on your print marketing or website – in fact, you may have more eyeballs on your social channels!
Unanswered negative reviews, out of date content, off-brand graphics, low-quality images and are all common mistakes that don’t paint a picture of a slick operation.
After you have audited your socials for the past year, understood what worked and what didn’t, you can then use this information to plan an effective social media marketing strategy for the future.
If this all sounds like a lot of work, well we are here to tell you… it is. But if all else fails you could begin working on infiltrating the Kardashian family. This is a fail-proof way to win not just on social media, but in life; depending on how you look at it.
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Chronicle Republic Communications is a boutique Sydney marketing consultancy for real estate, property and interiors professionals. We specialise in social media, content marketing, email marketing, blogging, search engine optimisation, social media advertising and much more!
If you are looking for social media for real estate, property or interior design our digital marketing experts can help you bring your brand’s story to life.
