At the time we’re publishing this, the first quarter of 2026 is over. That means you’ve (hopefully!) Been posting content consistently for the past three months. If so, you can’t just rest on your laurels. Now you have to tackle the daunting task of conducting a social media audit. But some of you are scratching your head and wondering, “What is a social media audit?”
Today, we’re breaking down this overwhelming and sometimes scary process into five easy steps. But first, we’ll answer your question.
What is a Content Audit? 🧠
A content audit is a comprehensive review of all content published (usually on a website). You look at its quality, performance, and relevance with more practiced eyes.
But what’s a social media content audit? Well, it’s the same thing! But instead of combing through an entire website, you’re taking a look at your social media content. You look at the quality of the video, the type of video, its performance, and its relevance to your current content style.
Do You Need a Content Audit? 🤔
Short answer, probably.
Long answer, it depends. If you’ve been posting for a month or two, you don’t need to conduct a content audit. If you’ve been creating content consistently for the past few months or trying out a new content strategy, a content audit is in order!
Content audits give you an idea of what is and isn’t working on your profile. Right now, you might think everything is perfectly aligned. But on a closer look, with fresher eyes, you might notice some things that don’t quite fit. Or you might spot a few shifts in your content you hadn’t noticed.
And, despite what you might expect, content audits don’t have to be huge endeavors or complex processes. It can be as involved as you want.
Auditing Your Social Media Content 🤓
We know you’re busy; finding time to create content can be difficult enough. Carving out more time to deep dive into old content and (seemingly) think about it? Even for us, that feels impossible. So we’ll cut the clutter and keep this process streamlined. We’ll make it easy, quick, and effective.
Here are the five steps to auditing your social media content.
- Gather your materials.
- Identify your goals.
- Review your content.
- Analyze the data.
- Develop an action plan.
And all you can get it done in 30 minutes.
Gathering Your Materials 📝
The first step is the easiest – and probably the least fun. Get your materials together. What all do you need to audit your social media content? The list will vary depending on your content creation process, but there are a few things we can predict that most (if not all) of you will need.
- Your social media apps. Duh, right? Whatever content you want to audit, make sure the app is up to date and head to your profile.
- Your trackers or calendars. If you use a spreadsheet or third-party app to plan your content or track its performance, be sure you have it on hand.
- Your analytics tools. Some platforms have analytics built in! See if yours does. If not, don’t worry; you’ll be fine without it.
- Your “baseline”. Have a clear understanding of what you average performance or video is. This will help you know when soomething stands out.
And, of course, something to make notes with. That could be a document you pull up on your computer, the notes app on your phone, or an old-fashioned notebook. Whatever is easiest for you!
Identify Your Goals 🎯
This is a two-step process.
First, what are your current social media goals? Are you trying to increase views? Is your focus on engaging with your followers? Did you start the year trying out a few new content pillars?
Second, what do you want to end this content audit knowing? Sometimes you just want to see if your engagement has grown. Othertimes, you’ll want to see if a certain niche is out-performing the others.
What should my goal be? 💭
Sadly, we can’t tell you. Your goals will vary depending on your content, how long you’ve been creating, and what you want out of social media.
However, we can give you a general starting point. We recommend doing a comprehensive look at your metrics, your growth, and your content. This will be a helpful plan if you’ve never done a content audit before, or if you just want to see how your content is doing.
If you’re more interested in seeing how you’ve evolved (and not how your content has performed) you can do that. Pick a starting point and watch all your content from then to now. If you implemented a new strategy, we recommend beginning there.
Review Your Content 🔍
This will probably be the longest part of the process. Before you look for a shortcut, we recommend not rushing. The review is all about finding patterns and seeing what did or didn’t meet expectations. If you try to cut your time in half or find a way around doing it, you may miss valuable insight.
With that note out of the way, let’s demystify this process. Go to your starting point and check out the first video. For creators auditing their performance, they’ll make note of their likes, comments, and shares. Creators focused on their content will take notes on the video itself: what do they like or dislike?
And you’ll do this until you’re at your current content. All you need to do right now is take notes on the metrics or style of the videos you’re looking at. Mark if anything stands out to you. Did it look bad or outperform all your other videos? Maybe a new community found your content, and you weren’t planning on that.
What do I look for? 💭
Look for any videos that performed better or worse than expected. Be on the hunt for videos that have something you like or dislike. Did you find an old content pillar you no longer post on? Was there a type of video that got more traction than the others?
You should be making notes of everything…but you need to mark the videos that stand out. Make a note of what makes them different or why they jump out at you.
Analyzing the Data 📊
Once you’ve reviewed all your content, it’s time to analyze it.
That’s a spooky word, we know! But most analysis is just a simple question-and-answer game. The guiding question is: Are there any patterns in performance? If you were testing something, how did it perform?
If you want to audit your content’s performance, here are a few questions to ask yourself.
- What piece of content generated the highest engagement? The lowest?
- Has there been an increase or decrease in performance? When did it start?
- Did a specific niche/format of content outperform the others?
- Is your content still relevant to your target audience?
- Did the content you’ve been sharing help you meet your overall goal?
For those of us who are more interested in how our content has evolved over time, here are a few questions to consider.
- What piece of content generated the highest engagement? The lowest?
- Was your branding (tone, style, and visuals) consistent across videos?
- Has your content’s quality/focus changed over time? Did that affect performance?
- Was there a type/style of content you made more often?
- What elements did you like? Was there a font or editing style you think looked great?
You’ll get better at the analysis as you do more audits. Not only will you know what you’re looking for, but you’ll have specific videos or metrics you already want to check. You might even have more in-depth data you want to check.
However, the main thing is to look for over- or underperformers. What might have caused that?
Develop an Action Plan 🔥
The final step is putting everything you’ve learned into practice. Now that you can see how your content performed (and hopefully why), how will you update your content?
Once you’ve reviewed and analyzed your content, you’ll usually know what needs to change. Additionally, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel or make your content do a complete 180. You’ll just need to incorporate your findings into your content schedule.
If you aren’t sure where to begin, here are a few ideas.
- Can you recreate your best-performing video? Are there at least some elements from it you can include in future content?
- If a niche or pillar didn’t perform, can you retire it?
- Are there visual elements in your video that you want to include or level up?
- If your content isn’t hitting your target audience anymore…how can you fix that?
- Are you done testing that strategy, or is it evolving? Maybe you’re testing something else instead.
Sometimes, your action plan might not change. Your content might be performing well, and you might not want to change anything. That’s great! Don’t fix what’s not broke. If your content is working, keep at it!
Haven’t Started Creating?
We get it: creating content can be scary. The way to make it less scary? Stop waiting and start creating today. There’s never been a better time to start than today. We walk you through how to do just that in this article.
