45. Before you audit your brand’s social media, do this.
SUMMARY
Grab your favorite notes app or an old-school legal pad. India shares tangible actions that’ll help you audit your social media presence with ease. Getting a handle on your myriad platform handles lays the groundwork for establishing a more focused brand visibility strategy. That awareness can open up so much room to create change; this detailed social media audit is an essential element in that process.
In this discussion:
The why behind conducting a social media audit
Itemizing your digital past and present
Breaking down individual page personas and follower characteristics
Assessing your emotional energy while engaging with each platform
Taking control of your active and abandoned accounts
Identifyingwho’s supporting you on each platform?
Getting real about which social media channel/s allow you to truly flaunt your fire
QUOTES
India Jackson
“Whether you are looking to do an audit, or not, awareness can open up so much room to create change.”
“If we don't enjoy showing up on a social media platform, we're going to be less likely to actively use it.”
“When we're really excited and enthusiastic about something, that’s when we're going to deliver our best message.”
ARTICLE
If you’ve followed India at all, you already know that she believes in learning information, getting details, holding space for stories, and taking action. When we get into the loop of consuming, consuming, consuming content, we can easily get caught in that place where we’re learning all the things, but we're not doing anything with the knowledge. And, doing something with all that new information is where the results happen.
Well, whip out your laptop, get that Google doc ready, or fire up your fave notes app (or go old-school with a notebook and pen). “I want you to take some notes on this episode because this episode is going to be really tangible, and it's going to get you kind of started thinking about all the places that your visibility is in now,” India says. But before we get to the good stuff, a disclaimer: if India shared with you every detail in one conversation, it might get overwhelming. No one wants that!
This discussion focuses on social media specifically. Why? “Well, here's the thing: when we start thinking about building a brand or auditing our brand or rebranding or any of those things, you hear us talk so much about values,” India says, “and everything needs to go through the lens of being clear on your values first.” Values are the foundational first step; that’s where everything begins. That's not where everything ends, however.
When clients engage with the From Implicit to Explicit: Leading Through Your Values masterclass over at Pause On The Play, India and Erica Courdae guide participants through a personal values list-making exercise. Then the cohort begins the process of identifying which values from that list don't need to show up in their brand or, if they have a business, in their company. “Let's keep in mind that brands are not always businesses,” India reminds us. “Sometimes, it's a personal brand where you're podcasting, or you're doing influencer partnership deals with brands and, you know, talking about their products.”
Next up is an audit of the brand or business as well as the team assembled. The goal is to confirm that internal and external activities performed on behalf of the brand align with those core values. “I see so many people are like, ‘Yes, let's go do that next! We want that! Can we sign up for that, India? Can we sign up for that, Erica?’” It’s a fantastic process to be a part of. Here, too, if you’ve followed India for a while, you know she is drawn to these logical-minded activities. “The step-by-step person in me loves auditing,” she laughs. “That is, like, my happy place, and being able to show people where they're doing great, and also where they can do more of those things to even be more in alignment with those values…” Well, you get the idea; she loves a good audit!
Do you know on which social media platforms your business or brand appears? You’d be surprised. “I'm going to ask you to stick with me,” India advises, “because I can almost guarantee that, as we go along here and you start listing things out, you're like, ‘Oh, yeah, I got that. And I forgot. I have that account, too, that I haven't touched in, like, five years.’”
Prep: Breathe Deep
First thing’s first. Take a deep breath - in for six seconds and out for six seconds - because listing out all the things can feel like a lot.
Let all self-criticism go; this is a judgment-free zone. “We all have profiles that we've forgotten about. We all have social media platforms we don't like showing up on because they feel icky. That's normal, and that's okay.”
Today’s task is all about clarifying all the places that our brand has a presence - even if that presence is not currently active. “And, the reason that this is important, number one, is if you're going to partner with an external business - meaning FYF or POTP or any other consultancy - to audit anything for you, they need to know all the places that you have.”
Most public relations specialists will also want this information. “I mean, even if you're doing a self-audit, even if auditing is not even on your mind right now, you want to know all the places you have a presence in because when people hear your name on a podcast or in conversation, they may Google you and we have no control over what shows up on the search first, right?” Sure, there are steps we can take to optimize SEO. Still, for the most part, search results aren’t ours to control.
That being the case, India points out that “we want to make sure that the first impressions (and I'm going to say impressions-with-an-S on the end.) are the impressions that we want to be creating because most likely if somebody were to Google you, they’ll find at least three links immediately on Google and some of those might not have been touched in a really long time.”
Search results also apply if you're an employee working for another business, interested in applying for a promotion or a new role. Entrepreneurs, too, should take note. “People are going to Google the owners of your business in these days and times,” India says, “they want to know what they're getting themselves into when they invest not just in the quality of your work and the history of your business and how well you treat your clients and the service you deliver or the product you deliver, but also in your public image.” Do you have any instances of questionable intent or comments in your past that don’t align with how they see or do things? “Keep those things in mind as to why we're doing this, why this is such an important task whether you are looking to do an audit or not, awareness can open up so much room to create change.”
Ready, set, go: let’s dive in!
Action #1: List Your Assets
“The first thing I want you to do is to think about all of the social media brands or accounts or platforms or businesses that you may have ever had a profile on.” What comes to mind for most people is, of course, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and, possibly, TikTok as it’s become so popular so quickly. But there are so many more spaces than just the big players! Do you have a Google My Business account? What about an old Google+ page? How about YouTube? Twitter? Pinterest? What about Blogger? Remember those days?
TikTok isn’t the only platform of the moment, either. Thanks to the pandemic, tons of folks have gravitated to Clubhouse. How about you? Or were you an early Snapchat adopter? What about Tumblr? If you dig down to bedrock, would an audit turn up a long-forgotten MySpace page? Even India admits to having one back in the day (no judgment, remember?).
“Now that doesn't mean that I personally am using MySpace,” she clarifies, “but does that account still have a profile on it? Maybe. So you want to be able to list all of these things out and if there's anything that I missed that has come to mind for you - like when you think about bloggers, are there other platforms that were similar to Blogger or Tumblr that you once had? List that platform out as well.”
Okay. Next, break out all those URLs. “Think about all of the URLs that you once had on these profiles (or still have on these profiles).” When India says URL, keep in mind that in instances like Facebook and LinkedIn, “that gets a little interesting because you don't just have your one login once you're in that platform. You also have the ability to create pages like fan pages or business pages on LinkedIn.” And, let’s not forget that you can create private or public groups within many platforms, so, yeah, add those URLs to your inventory!
If you’re even a casual user of nuanced platform features like LinkedIn newsletters, then, you guessed it: add those URLs to the list! These features are another often forgotten place where you might have content hiding beyond your main LinkedIn page. In addition to each URL, India suggests listing your handles and usernames. Remember that on some platforms, your handle may not be the same as your URL.
See how quickly your brand or business went from three or four social media accounts to upwards of a dozen?! Yeah, they add up if you’ve been online for a minute. The beauty of an audit is that the tasks force you to consider every nook and cranny where you’ve ever set up a digital impression.
Action #2: Who Are Your People?
How many followers or subscribers do you have on each platform? We don’t expect you to know this level of detail off the top of your head; that’s what we’re going to track next. Here, too, you’ll need to examine each persona in your digital portfolio. Do you have followers on your Facebook business page? Do you have members in a private Facebook group? Do you have several private Facebook groups? Look at every one of your profiles. Even if a group is no longer active or archived, ultimately, it’s not deleted.
Once you’ve populated that section of the list, it’s time to think carefully about the people in each space. Who are these folks?
Not sure how to conduct this part of the audit? India shares a personal example that will help you get your brain around this step. “When I think about my personal Instagram page, I've had that since the very early days of Instagram. I mean, I was still in college back then, and it was back when you had to take your picture in Instagram; you couldn't upload something!” So, yeah, India might be showing her age here, but for a good reason (no judgment, remember?): she’s thinking about her entire journey of owning that IG account and gathering details about the folks who follow her on IG. “Those people are probably friends and family; those people are probably people who I met in college, which did include fellow art majors as well as fellow photographers.”
But wait, her list (and, possibly, yours too) gets longer. “These are probably individuals that were here during my modeling phase, in my modeling journey, before I switched over into being a photographer. So that means that it's going to be fellow models, fellow photographers. Oh yeah, and these are definitely people who were there for my photography journey, of that being, like, the primary way that Flaunt Your Fire (which was a different name at the time) facilitated its services.” In addition to her actor acquaintances, India also counts people who have personal brands “because that was one of the areas that we really concentrated our efforts in,” she says, “maybe even a few hairstylists and salons because we provided a lot of photography services for their businesses as well as services that were getting published in beauty magazines.”
After working out the characteristics of her earlier followers, she fast-forwards to the present. India includes the partnership deals she has as an influencer, including those with product - and service-based businesses. “That includes my current clientele as well as a ton of bodybuilders because we had a phase where we were doing a lot of bodybuilding photography and that beautiful industry that I am deeply connected to as a fellow bodybuilder also went and followed me and stayed with my fitness and wellness journey.”
Long story short, a truly extensive audit requires a trip down memory lane. When did you create this account? How long have you had that profile? Who are the folks following each of your platform personas? These details are essential; they’ll inform your future use strategies for each of these accounts. They’ll also help you (or any brand supporting you) assess which accounts become billboards.
OK, sidenote, billboards is a topic for another day.
This defining task allows you to identify who's where - and why. “What are they expecting from you out of when they signed up?” asks India. What phase in your life or the life your business was in when you created that account? “Maybe your content’s changed over the years from what they were used to.” There’s a lot of detail to consider - and a lot of information is gleaned from putting in this work.
Action #3: Energy Check!
As you’re recording this data, how do you feel in and about each digital space? Where's your energy when you have to show up for this account? Now, that might be a direct reflection of the platform itself and how it functions; that might be a direct reflection of how you feel about the people who own the platform.
Your emotional response might be a direct reflection of who's engaging with you - or not - when you’re logged on. “It might be a reflection of who you follow, which might not be the same people who follow you,” India says, “but all of that information goes into the important question of how do you feel when you show up on this account.”
Don’t skip this crucial step! If we don't enjoy showing up on a social media platform, we’re probably not going to engage with it; it’s not going to feel good when we’re there. “If we force that in a strategy, then it's going to be hard to stick to the strategy and actually do the thing and get results!” India says. Ultimately, “the energy that you're showing up in, it's going to be a little bit harder to fully be yourself and to be this amazing awesomeness that you are and for people to pick up on that and love on that because it's coming from a perspective of, ‘I don't really like being here.’”
Ask yourself how do you feel about being in that space. India urges folks to use their words; get into it! “Good? Great? Amazing? Awesome? Inspired? Disgusting? Overwhelmed? Anxious? “Go ahead and write that down,” she says, adding, “ just because we feel one way or another doesn't necessarily mean that that directly determines the strategy as to whether or not you keep the account and actually be active with it.” Again, the task provides valuable data, and it might affect how you'll use that account going forward if an account does need to stay active.
Action #4: Is That Account Still Active?
Speaking of activity, it’s time to consider whether or not an account is active. “I'm going to say anything that you have not touched consistently at least once a month is not active,” India says of abandoned accounts. We’ll say it again: no judgment! “It happens so, if that's the case, totally okay! I have inactive accounts too. I'm here with you. Facebook is definitely one for me. And also one for the FYF brand,” she admits. “We don't really like Facebook, so we don't really use it.”
Once you’ve listed your active, inactive, and abandoned accounts, add another section for your billboard accounts. Again, we’ll take a closer look at billboards at a later date. For now, India shares an example from the FYF strategy. “Our Facebook accounts are what we call a billboard, meaning it's sending people to another place.” Our FB page isn’t inactive. It's not abandoned, either. Instead, it’s strategically there to point folks who still use FB to other spaces in which we prefer to hang out.
“I also want you to think about what does that look like for the followers there? Do you feel like they are engaging with you? Do you feel like it's a two-way conversation there, or are they inactive?” asks India. “Are they quiet? Are they not interested? That's important to note, right, because we can be active all day long in a place, but that doesn't mean that the people on the other side are.”
While you may consider some of these accounts worth abandoning, India calls for caution before hitting delete.“When we experiment with using them more frequently, the people that are there are really responsive, and they're excited about what you're talking about - just gotta show up for them.”
Action #5: Are You A Team Of One?
Do you have a team? A team could be an outside contracting company or individual for virtual assistance. It could be a family member, an agency, or anybody else supporting you as a user or a manager, or an engagement person of this account?
Depending on how far you are in your business, or how much outside support that you have, sometimes that looks like somebody doing your posting for you in content creation. Sometimes, that activity looks like somebody who’s just in that digital space to engage with other people, commenting on their posts, watching their stories. Sometimes that means that this is somebody that you have built up a rapport with where you feel like they can actually reply to comments or DMs, and that just depends on the type of brand or business that you have.
Who are the administrative users, or who is managing your profiles? “In many cases, that might be you, and that's okay. But I want you to know how many times you see you on that list,” India says. “As a client of mine, I want to make sure we're protecting your energy and not spreading yourself too thin.” If you appear all over this list, that's a sign that you might need to reduce the number of currently active profiles.
Action #6: What’s The Point?
Last but not least, take some time to step away from this list and give yourself some space. “Come back to this conversation at least, I'm going to say, one day later and really take some time,” India says. “It can be about five minutes, ten minutes of undivided attention to hold a vision that if you could be in one place online, consistently, and really laser-focused on showing up on that place and that's the place that you would feel the most excited about for social media, which account in which platform would that be?”
When we're really excited and enthusiastic about something, that’s where we're going to deliver our best message. “That’s where people will really be able to take in and witness the way that we're showing up in a way that's a reflection of what's going on inside of who we are and inside of our brand and business.” That's going to be more sustainable as well, India says because it's going to fuel your fire. “And that's the whole point of flaunting your fire is not feeling like you have to do something just because that's the way everyone else does it, but finding what is the way that you are going to be able to flaunt what you bring to the table the best.”
Final Thoughts
Whew! There’s quite a bit to think about in this conversation!
Full transparency: some of the content the FYF team has created around auditing is for our clients. This additional component is helpful in our onboarding process. If you’re working with us, India encourages you to give yourself some space after listing out all of your social media before heading into the next phase. The next phase, as she explains it, “is all of the other accounts that we haven't even tapped into just yet that you probably have, that you haven't thought about, like websites and email addresses!”
If you’re not an FYF client? We’d still love to hear about what’s showing up for you concerning this exercise. What have you encountered while getting truly intentional about which channels people prefer to engage with you and where they’re finding you when they search for your brand? We can’t wait for you to get intentional about this project, uncovering the status of your entire menu of accounts and the public reputation presented on each. Congratulations for dedicating the time to align your public persona with your values further and, as India says, “all the awesomeness that you and your brand and your team and your brand partners and all that jazz bring to the table!”
YOUR ACTIONS FOR THIS EPISODE
A successful social media audit is fueled by your passion, your persistence, and the support of expert facilitators. Get on over to PauseOnThePlay.com/community now and start your journey today.
What’s in The Community for you? How about a monthly coaching and consulting session with a committed small-group cohort? Plus visibility strategies, perspective, and experience from India Jackson. Oh, and don’t forget values integration as well as experiential DEI practices and coaching from Erica Courdae. Want more? The Community also offers virtual co-working sessions and networking opportunities to help you amplify your visibility.
Join us! We’d love to see you in The Community.