A social media audit in an hour: what to look at and what to ignore

You can audit a social media account in an hour if you look at six things only. Does the profile tell a stranger what you do? When did you last post? Does anyone reply to comments and messages? What do buyers write in the comments? How many people tap through to your phone or website? Does the account match the rest of your business? Leave followers, likes and best-time-to-post charts until those six are fixed.

How should the hour be spent?

Set a timer and keep the account open on your phone next to a spreadsheet. Do not fix things as you go; write them down and fix them after.

Start with the profile because it is where every visitor lands. A bio that says "Passion for excellence" tells a visitor nothing; one that says "Bathroom tiles and fittings, Arera Colony, open 10 to 8" tells them what they need.

What do the replies and the comments tell you?

This is the part owners tend to skip. A comment from a buyer is a lead you have not answered. Count the number of questions in the last month that got no reply: "Price?", "Is this available in white?", "Do you deliver to Sehore?". Each may be a person who wanted to buy and left.

Write the questions down in one list. They are your next three posts, and some belong on your website. If the same question appears five times, put the answer into the profile itself.

Check whether the page replies in the buyer's language. A Hindi comment answered in English can make a local shop look run from somewhere else.

A comment that asks a question deserves an answer on the day it arrives. If you cannot manage that, post less and reply more.

What can you ignore this hour?

Followers, likes and the number of posts. They are easy to see and tell you little about enquiries. For a shop, a page with six hundred followers and fifteen messages a month is worth more than one with ten thousand and none.

Also ignore posting-time charts, hashtag counts, and competitor follower numbers. They are not wrong, but they are not where the hour pays back. Come back to them when the six checks are in order.

For example: a tiles dealer in Bhopal

This case is invented. A tile and sanitaryware dealer in Bhopal posts on Instagram and Facebook through a relative, and the owner runs the hour on a Sunday evening.

The profile name is the dealer's old shop name, the phone number in the bio belongs to a former employee, and the address is missing. The last post was a Diwali greeting nine weeks ago. In the comments over the last two months the owner finds seventeen questions from buyers: price per square foot, availability, delivery to nearby towns. Four have a reply, none within a day.

Clicks are the surprise. The call button gets taps, but the number is the former employee's, so every call goes to a phone nobody answers. That is the biggest finding of the hour, and it is a single line of text.

The owner fixes the number first, then the name, then spends another hour answering the seventeen old comments, with an apology where it is due. Most have moved on; two reply. After that, ten minutes on one fixed day goes on comments and messages, and the best five questions go on a card for the relative to turn into posts.

How do you read the clicks?

Insights differ by platform and change, so look for these wherever they live: profile visits, link taps, call taps and message starts. Write down today's numbers, then look again after you have made changes. Compare like with like, such as the same number of days, because one busy week proves nothing.

Be careful with interpretation. If visits are high but taps are low, the profile is not convincing. If taps are high but enquiries are low, the problem sits after the tap: the website, the phone, or slow replies. A slow reply wastes a click that cost you nothing to earn. How to track the site end is in website analytics for a small business.

What to do with the page of notes

Sort your findings into three heaps. First, things that lose enquiries today: a wrong phone number, unanswered comments, a missing address. Fix these in the next day or two. Second, things that make you look unreliable: mismatched names and logos. Fix them this month. Third, things to try: new post ideas from buyer questions.

Do not start with the third heap. If you have never answered a comment, a better camera will not help.

If the hour reveals several branches with different pages, a larger job lies ahead, and the brand consistency audit is the next step. For the whole of marketing rather than social alone, use the marketing audit checklist.

Start with the call button

Before you do anything else today, tap your own call and WhatsApp buttons and check that the phone that rings is one you answer. That takes a minute and is the cheapest fix in this post. Then block sixty minutes this week, open the table above and score your account. If you want someone outside the business to look at it, social media audit is the service for that, and the marketing hub shows where social sits against the rest. To talk it through, tell us what you need.