Social Media Landscape Audit

In recent years social media has become an increasingly crucial part of the marketing and public relations strategies of many businesses. Large companies and marketing companies employ full-time social media professionals to develop and oversee campaigns, profiles and pages.

A social media landscape audit should be the first step in any social initiative. Without it, your social media engagement is likely to lack focus. The chances of success without this crucial element of the planning process are slim. Conducting a social media landscape audit will empower you to join the conversation on your chosen networks with an in-depth knowledge of what is being said about your area of the market.

If you are already involved in social media, it is important to carry out a thorough evaluation of the way in which you are using it to communicate with your customers. It is equally necessary to look at your employees, their social media expertise and how they present your company on social networks. You may have invaluable assets and resources that you were previously unaware of. The next step is to look into what is being said about your company, product and brand online. This can give you an interesting insight into what your customers think of you and what changes they would make in an ideal world.

Having reviewed your own social media presence, you will need to perform a similar review in relation to your competitors. As a starting point, you can look at their profiles, pages and blogs. You need to know which of your competitors consumers tend to prefer. You can find out what is being said about particular products and how your competitors rate in terms of customer service. Any creative ideas and viral campaigns that have been successful elsewhere in your sector can provide food for thought when creating your own campaigns. Trending topics allow us to understand what consumers are engaging with and historic analyis tools can show us what content received the most engagement from the public for specific topics.

Analytical social media tools can pick out conversations that are taking place relating to a particular keyword; for example, a website looking to market holiday accommodation may use the keyword "bahamas holiday" or the phrase "bahamas hotels". Analysing these trending topics will uncover relevant content and information on social networks, blogs, websites and forums.

Once you have established or updated your social media campaign, it is important to put in place performance indicators to measure its success. As well as tracking direct visits to your website from your campaign, you can measure how many visits convert to sales. The analysis should show you the gaps both in the social media conversation and in your product market. This will put you in the advantageous position of being able to focus very carefully on meeting your customers' needs.