Templates
Social Media Audit Template and Checklist
Published by Influence
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A social media audit checks whether your accounts, content and available results support your current business goals. Inventory the accounts, inspect what a visitor sees, compare a defined period and finish with a short action list. Separate confirmed problems from guesses. The template below is designed for a small team and does not require access to a competitor's private analytics.
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Set the audit boundary first
Write down the accounts, dates, time zone and sources you will review. Use comparable periods and distinguish organic from paid activity. Save the metric definition and the time each source was checked. An unavailable value is not zero, and an older reading is not a current result. If an account cannot be inspected, record that gap rather than treating it as healthy.
This is a marketing review, not a security certification. Confirm who is responsible for each account through your normal access process; do not place passwords, recovery codes or customer information in the worksheet. A public profile alone cannot prove who has access behind it.
Copy the audit template
Account and public profile URL: [platform and exact account]
Business purpose: [audience, message and useful next action]
Review scope: [dates, time zone, organic/paid scope]
Account owner: [responsible person; no credentials]
Profile checks: [name, description, link, contact details, current offer]
Content sample: [posts included and selection method]
Evidence: [metric, definition, source, value, checked date]
Observed issue: [what is directly visible]
Possible explanation: [hypothesis, clearly separated from fact]
Priority: [customer impact and effort]
Action, owner and deadline: [specific next step]
Unknowns and follow-up: [missing data and how to resolve it]
Review the account in a useful order
- Check the profile as a customer would. Open its destination link and confirm that the name, offer and contact information agree. Check mobile readability and whether essential text exists outside images.
- Review a defined content sample. Include routine posts as well as unusually strong or weak examples. Note unclear claims, expired details, missing context and inconsistent destinations.
- Compare available measures using the same definitions. Keep platform figures separate when the underlying metrics differ. Reach, impressions, clicks and bookings answer different questions.
- Distinguish a finding from an explanation. A broken booking link is observable. “People dislike our photos” is a hypothesis that reaction counts alone cannot establish.
- Choose the next few actions. Fix a customer-blocking error first, then make a bounded content experiment. Assign someone to confirm the change worked.
Worked example: Maple & Clay's October review
All details below are fictional teaching data for a Portland ceramics studio. The same figures appear in the reporting example. Compare October 1–28, 2026 with September 3–30, 2026: two 28-day windows in America/Los_Angeles. The example covers one account's organic posts, with the same metric definitions in both periods.
Fictional example
October: 12 posts, 4,800 impressions, 240 recorded interactions and 36 link clicks.
September: 10 posts, 4,000 impressions, 160 recorded interactions and 30 link clicks.
Interactions in this example mean likes, comments, saves and shares; they are actions, not unique people.
Observed profile issue: the profile links to an old workshop page. The current booking page exists, but visitors must find it themselves.
Finding: link clicks rose alongside posting volume. Clicks per post remained 3 in both periods; the totals alone do not prove each post became more effective.
First action: the owner replaces the outdated destination through the normal review process, then opens the public link on mobile to confirm it.
Next experiment: answer one recurring beginner question in two comparable posts; record the dates and available results before drawing a conclusion.
Interactions per impression are 240 ÷ 4,800 × 100 = 5% in October and 160 ÷ 4,000 × 100 = 4% in September. That is a one-percentage-point difference, not proof that a specific creative choice caused it. The studio recorded eight completed bookings versus six, but the example has no reliable post-to-booking attribution.
Turn findings into a practical plan
Keep each action tied to the evidence that justified it. “Correct the workshop URL” is clearer than “optimize the funnel.” Do not change existing tracking or campaign links just to make the audit spreadsheet look complete. Note any measurement gap for the person who owns that system. Use the calendar template for approved follow-up content and the publishing workflow for review before scheduling.
How often should a small business run an audit?
Choose a cadence that matches account changes and available time. Recheck immediately after an important offer or destination changes; use a broader periodic review to compare patterns. This worksheet does not prescribe a universal monthly requirement.
Can we audit a competitor?
You can inspect public profiles and posts, but cannot infer their private reach, conversions or revenue from visible reactions. Keep public observations separate from your own account data and avoid treating different audiences as equivalent.
Can Influence provide every figure?
Insights shows available account and post metrics where supported; coverage and freshness vary by provider. Use the original source when a measure is missing, record its definition and do not substitute an unrelated number. Google's user-metric definitions illustrate why even similarly named measures need context.