Carrying out a social media audit is a useful way to get back to basics. If you were new to using Facebook for business purposes when you first set up your Page, going back and auditing everything from your logo to your posting frequency affords you the chance to apply the lessons you have learned since starting out.
Even if your Facebook Page was set up with some knowledge, an annual audit gives you a chance to check that everything is on track and verify that new features and services from the social network have been incorporated.
If this is your first Facebook Page audit, read on for a step-by-step action plan which you can work through as you go.
Your logo
The dimensions for logos and cover images change often. You’ll need to check that your logo confirms to size requirements. Your Page logo will show at 170x170 pixels on desktop computer, 128x128 pixels on smartphones and 36x36 pixels on most feature phones. Your image will display as a square.
In addition to checking the size is correct, make sure your logo stands out. This is the image users will see when searching for you, so it should be a strong representation of your brand, eye-catching and instantly recognizable.
Your cover image
Your cover image will display as 820 pixels x 312 pixels on desktop computers and 640 pixels x 360 pixels on smartphones. The minimum size is 399 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall.
Once you have checked the dimensions, it’s time to audit the cover itself. The cover image is the largest element users see when they land on your business Page and it can be an image or a video. Depending on your business, you can use this area to add a call to action, engage the senses, inspire a purchase, express your brand personality or share your value proposition.
Papa John’s uses its cover to share an offer and engage the senses:
While Airbnb expresses its personality with a video of a traditional house, washing blowing the breeze:
Check your call to action button
As a Business Page user, Facebook gives you a number of options for your call to action button. Call to action buttons were launched for Pages in 2014 so, if your Page was set up before then, you may have missed this option. The button sits under your cover image and is an easy way to drive a conversion from your social presence and boost customer acquisition.
You can choose from seven options:
- Book Now
- Contact Us
- Use App
- Play Game
- Shop Now
- Sign Up
- Watch Video
Even the biggest brands aren’t immune to missing this – Airbnb would be well served to add the Book Now or Contact Us button for example, as it isn’t making use of this feature currently:
The Bellagio by contrast is using an appropriate Book Now button:
Whatever your business, there should be a call to action option that suits. Check which one you are using and keep in mind that you can change this in line with other marketing activity. If you are running a conference for example, your cover image could be used to promote it and the Book Now call to action button used to sell tickets.
If later in the year you launch an app, your cover image should change to promote your app and the call to action button switched to the Use App option.
Is your About Us content up to date?
It’s very rare that a business stays exactly the same. If you set your Page up a while ago, this audit is the perfect time to go back and check that you are still happy with your About information. This could well be the first thing that a user reads about your business when researching a product or service provider. Your About information should therefore be concise, succinct and compelling. Read it and confirm that it is still reflective of your organization, is up-to-date and is clear, to the point and snappy enough to make a great first impression.
Check your content
Your content is where most of your day-to-day social media efforts will be focused so you should already have a clear picture of what you’re doing and how frequently you are posting. Take a step back for the purposes of your audit so you can verify that everything is as it should be.
When auditing your content, ask yourself the following questions:
- How often are you posting content?
- Is this in line with the frequency of competitor posts?
- Do you have a good variety of content types, such as images and videos?
- Are you sticking to an 80/20 rule of thumb when it comes to interesting, entertaining and useful content versus volume of sales and promotional updates?
- What types of content and topics generate the most comments, likes and shares?
- Is your audience being invited to contribute their own content often? (such as reminders to tag themselves at your venue or using your product?)
- What time of day is your most successful content posted?
Are you tagging products?
If you have created a product catalogue, you can tag up to 30 of your products within your Facebook Page post. This loops the reader directly to one of your products for sale, meaning it’s a great way to boost traffic and sales.
If you have advertised on Facebook you may have a product catalogue already set up. If not, you can find more information and a step-by-step guide here.
For ecommerce retailers, tagging products is a very useful means of driving qualified traffic to your catalogue pages.
Tagging a product needs to be done at individual post level when you upload an update. Simply click on the product icon from the compose update box and then select the product you’d like to tag.
Are you measuring the impact of your efforts?
You’ll obviously want to know that the time and effort you are investing in your Facebook Page is making a positive contribution to your overall marketing goals. When auditing your Page, ask yourself if you are taking sufficient steps to measure the impact of your social media presence, rather than simply paying it lip service.
At the most basic level, Facebook will send you a weekly Page update to let you know how your Page has performed at a higher level. For more granular and detailed metrics, you can use a reporting option from a tool like Hootsuite or, dive into your Analytics report. You can set up Analytics to email you a custom report once a week or once a month. If you don’t have this or another form of measurement in place, do this during your audit.
Auditing your Facebook page regularly is a useful exercise that allows you to take a step back from the day-to-day posting. It is a chance to look at the bigger picture and double check that you are up-to-date with the latest developments from the social network.
