A social media audit is a structured review of all your social media accounts that compiles and analyzes your performance across platforms.
Think of your social media audit as a report card: It identifies strengths, areas for improvement, and next steps. It’s typically run by social media managers, marketing directors, or agency teams, and it covers both your organic and paid presence. It also helps marketing leaders evaluate social ROI, update content strategy, and make smarter budget decisions.
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A social media audit helps you make better strategic decisions and gives marketing leaders the evidence they need to justify where budget and effort should go, especially when 59% of CMOs report insufficient budget to execute their strategy. Here’s what a good audit surfaces:
In short, an audit turns scattered data into a clear picture of what to do next.
A social media audit is a diagnostic snapshot of where you are, while a social media strategy is the forward-looking plan for where you’re going. The two work together: the audit tells you what’s happening now, and the strategy uses those findings to map your next moves.
An audit reviews your accounts, performance, branding, and audience at a single point in time. It answers “what’s working and what isn’t?” A social media strategy is the ongoing playbook that sets goals, defines your content approach, and guides how you show up over the coming months. Put simply: The audit tells you where you are, and the strategy tells you where you’re going. Run the audit first, then build or refine your strategy on top of it.
Now that you know what an audit covers, use our handy social media audit checklist to make sure you don’t miss a single step in the process below.
If you’re ready to get into the audit (or want your own version of this checklist), download the free audit templates here.
To conduct a social media audit, follow these steps:
Jot down all your social media accounts to start, from the platforms you use daily to ones you may have neglected. Active or inactive, it’s important to catalog your online presence as part of your social media audit. Don’t forget newer platforms like Threads and Bluesky, which many brands added to the mix over the past year.
In addition, think about the accounts you don’t have yet. With 5.75 billion social media users in 2026, the landscape keeps expanding. Are there platforms you haven’t considered?
In larger organizations, this step also means checking for rogue or unauthorized accounts created by different departments or regions. Tracking these down keeps your presence consistent and protects your brand.
You don’t need to be active on every network, but an audit is a good opportunity to add new ideas to your future social media strategy.
Search each major social network for your brand name (and even your products). Not only might this uncover long-forgotten Facebook groups, but it’s also a chance to catch any imposter or misleading accounts that you can then shut down or report.
Pro tip : Set up a social media monitoring program to catch any future fake accounts.
Check each of your social media accounts to see whether they align with your current brand style guidelines.
Review the following areas for each social account:
Visit each of your social profiles and see how you’re showing up online. Be sure to click on any links to see if they need to be replaced.
Next, audit your social media content. For each social platform, list your five top-performing posts. Include links to each post so you can easily review them later.
But wait – what makes a “top-performing post?” That depends! A good place to start is ranking posts by engagement rate to see what your audience responds to.
That said, you may want to focus on a different metric, like link clicks, video views, or conversions, depending on your unique goals for each platform.
Look through your top posts for patterns. For example:
Record your thoughts in the notes column of your audit document. (We’ll come back to these notes later!)
You can use each social platform’s built-in analytics tool to find your top posts based on specific metrics.
Not sure how? We have complete guides to using all of them:
But hold up: That could take forever. A faster option is with Perch by Hootsuite, which offers more comprehensive social media reporting.
With just a few clicks, you can find the top posts for all your social accounts in one place. You can even schedule regular custom reports that are sent straight to your email.
In this step, evaluate how each social channel contributes to your overall marketing goals.
If you still need to create a mission statement and a few key goals for each social account, now’s the time.
Several accounts may have similar goals, like driving website traffic and increasing conversions. Others may be exclusively for customer service or brand awareness.
For each channel, list out its goal(s) and track your progress toward them.
For measurable goals like traffic or conversions, write down the actual numbers. For example, how many website visits came from Instagram? How many sales came from Facebook Page visitors? If the goal is customer service, write down your CSAT score and see if it’s improving over time. Be specific.
For goals without quantifiable data, record supporting evidence. If your Facebook account is for brand awareness, has your follower count increased? Have you increased your organic or paid reach?
You want to get clear on the purpose of each of your social channels and measure their effectiveness.
Finding relevant information will depend on the goals you set for each channel.
Tracking customer service or brand awareness goals? Try using social listening tools to gather data from real customers. For traffic and conversion goals, use Google Analytics.
Tracking conversions from social isn’t an exact science, though it’s easier on some channels than others.
For Meta (Facebook and Instagram), you need to set up Meta Pixel to track website actions. Most brands now use Meta’s Conversions API along with the Pixel to get more accurate data.
Other social networks have their own tracking codes. Many e-commerce platforms also include built-in social tracking tools. Going platform by platform can be tedious, but you can make this step easier by using a social media management tool like Perch by Hootsuite.
You don’t have to take our word for it, either — our own social team uses Perch to conduct their own social media audits.
Running a social media audit through native platforms takes an eternity. But running a social media audit in Perch takes less than an hour. I have custom reports built for each of our networks and one master report that covers them all. These reports make it so simple and quick to scroll through our content and gain insights into what’s working and not working.Trish RiswickFormer Social Team Lead at Hootsuite
Once you understand your own performance, compare each channel against your top competitors using social media industry benchmarks. This competitive benchmarking shows whether your numbers are strong or simply average for your niche.
If you’re a Perch user, we’ve got good news: the platform makes benchmarking a breeze.
Perch can run an Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter/X competitive analysis for you. You can track up to 20 competitors per network and get a clear view of your strengths and weaknesses — plus actionable insights on the top posts, hashtags, and content formats in your niche.
Perch also offers a handy industry benchmarking tool that helps you compare your performance against averages across your industry.
To get industry benchmarks, follow these steps:
That’s it! You can set up custom timeframes, switch between networks (including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and TikTok) and look up benchmarks for the following metrics:
… and more.
You’ll also find resources to improve your performance right in the summary section.
And, if you need to present your results to stakeholders, you can easily download your comparison report as a PDF file.
If you want to conduct an even more thorough analysis, check out this social media competitor analysis guide and free template.
Next up: dig into your audience insights to understand exactly who you’re reaching on each platform.
Audience demographics are a good starting point. For example, Facebook’s largest audience segment is men aged 25-34, while YouTube’s largest age group is also 25-34.
While your audience may differ from the norm, we’ve compiled all the top demographic data for each social network to get you started:
Learn the demographics of your unique audience on each platform and use that, along with the types of content they prefer, to create buyer personas. (Don’t worry; we’ve got a free buyer persona template here.)
You can find demographic information within each platform’s native analytics. It’s a lot faster if you use Perch’s social listening tools, though.
Search for any topic or keyword, then filter by date, demographics, location, and much more.
You’ll be able to identify thought leaders or brand advocates, understand your brand’s perception in the market, and get immediate alerts if and when your mentions spike (for good or for bad).
The final step is often overlooked, but it matters, especially for enterprise teams: review your accounts for compliance and governance. This protects your brand from legal, regulatory, and security risks that can carry real consequences.
Work through the following areas:
For teams managing this at scale, Vigil is Hootsuite’s governance layer, helping you apply consistent rules and approvals across accounts. Building compliance into your audit keeps your social presence safe and defensible.
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Once your audit is complete, follow these steps:
Consider your audit a reset button. With clearer priorities, your next steps should feel a lot more strategic.
A few habits separate a one-off audit from a repeatable process that actually improves your results. Keep these best practices in mind:
Audits aren’t one-size-fits-all. Here are three common types to show what an audit can look like in practice, depending on your team and goals.
This is the full review that works through all seven steps above: Every account, branding, content performance, channel goals, competitive benchmarking, audience, and compliance. It’s usually run by a social media manager or small team over several hours, and the output is a detailed report shared with leadership. Use this to reset priorities and guide budget decisions for the quarter ahead.
A lighter version focused on top-line metrics, your best and worst posts, and any obvious branding issues. It usually takes 30 to 60 minutes and doesn’t require a formal report. The goal is to spot trends early and catch problems before they grow, so you stay responsive between full audits.
Built for organizations managing multiple brands, regions, or business units. This audit focuses on cross-brand consistency, regional variations, and governance, alongside standard performance and benchmarking. It’s typically coordinated across several teams, and the output highlights where brands align, where they diverge, and where compliance gaps need attention.
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