The essentials
- Scope: an audit covers the profiles, the last 90 days of content, reach and engagement by format, the audience and two or three competitors.
- Term: allow a day for one account, two to three days for four networks; a provider charges between €600 and €2,000 depending on the depth.
- 2026 benchmarks: average organic reach of 2 to 6% of followers on Facebook and Instagram, a median engagement rate of 0.5% on Instagram and 2 to 4% per impression on LinkedIn.
- The deliverable: a score per area, the five priority gaps and a dated 90-day action plan, not a 60-page report.
A social media audit answers three questions: are the accounts serving the company's objectives, which content actually produces reach and leads, and where does the team's time go. The method below fits into six steps and relies on each platform's native data, supplemented by GA4 for the traffic side. It works for an SME managing its own accounts as much as for checking a provider's work.
Step 1: frame the audit before opening the statistics
An audit without an objective produces a list of observations that nobody uses. Before any export, set the scope:
- The accounts: list every profile, including dormant accounts, pages created by a former employee and regional duplicates.
- The period: 90 days give a sufficient statistical base; 12 months if you are looking for seasonality.
- The objectives: awareness, traffic, lead generation or recruitment; see the objectives of an SMO strategy.
- Access: administrator role on each page, access to Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn Pages, TikTok Studio, YouTube Studio and GA4.
Step 2: audit the profiles
The profile is the first thing seen by a visitor arriving from a search or a share. The check is done with a simple grid, account by account:
| Element | Compliance criterion | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Name and handle | Identical across every network, with no inherited suffix (“official”, “2019”) | 10 |
| Bio or description | Activity, area, promise and call to action in under 150 characters; keywords customers search for | 20 |
| Visuals | Logo legible at 40 px, banner up to date, same brand guidelines everywhere | 15 |
| Link and tracking | Link to a dedicated landing page, tagged with UTMs (see source, medium and UTM) | 20 |
| Contact details and opening hours | Address, telephone, email, active contact button | 15 |
| Pinned and featured content | Main offer or social proof at the top of the profile, less than six months old | 20 |
A score under 60/100 signals a profile that loses the visitors won by the content. The fixes take half a day and improve the profile-to-site conversion rate, often between 1 and 3% of profile visits.
Step 3: analyse the content and the reach
Export the posts of the last 90 days with, for each one, the format, the date, the time, the reach, the impressions, the interactions and the clicks. Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn and TikTok offer a CSV export; so does YouTube Studio. Then sort by format and by theme. The questions to settle:
- Which formats carry best? In 2026, short vertical video and carousels are clearly ahead of the single image on Instagram and LinkedIn.
- What share of posts reaches less than 50% of the account's median reach? Above a third, the editorial line is too scattered.
- What is the average organic reach relative to followers? The 2026 orders of magnitude: 2 to 5% on Facebook, 4 to 9% on Instagram, 5 to 10% on a LinkedIn page, with no link to followers on TikTok. The detail is in organic reach: definition and figures.
- Is the rhythm being held? Compare the planned frequency with the actual frequency, week by week.
Step 4: measure engagement and audience
The engagement rate is calculated in two ways: interactions divided by reach (content quality) or interactions divided by followers (comparison between accounts). Use the same formula across the whole period. The median benchmarks per follower in 2026: around 0.5% on Instagram, 0.1 to 0.2% on Facebook, 2 to 3% on TikTok, 0.05% on X. On LinkedIn, a page's rate per impression sits between 2 and 4%. Then look at the composition: likes alone count for less than comments, shares and saves, which weigh more heavily in algorithmic distribution. For the audience side, check age, location and net follower growth (new followers minus unfollows); an audience that is 40% outside your catchment area often explains high reach with no leads at all.
Step 5: compare with two or three competitors
Comparison makes the figures readable. For each competitor, record over the same 90 days the number of posts, the dominant formats, the average engagement per post (publicly visible) and the follower-to-engagement ratio. Tools such as Metricool, Agorapulse or Sprout Social automate this collection from €20 to €80 a month. Do not try to match a competitor who posts twice as much: look for the format or the theme they exploit and that you have not yet tested.
| Metric compared | You | Competitor A | Competitor B | How to read it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Posts / week | 2 | 5 | 3 | Rhythm below the sector median |
| Average engagement / post | 18 | 25 | 60 | B produces three times more at a similar rhythm |
| Share of video | 10 % | 40 % | 60 % | Underused format |
| Replies to comments | 30 % | 80 % | 90 % | Moderation to strengthen |
Step 6: turn the audit into a 90-day plan
A useful audit ends with five actions at most, dated and assigned. Common examples: closing dormant accounts, rewriting the bios with a tagged link, going from 10 to 40% video, setting a 24-hour reply time on comments, testing a weekly editorial slot. For each action, set a control metric from the reference SMO KPIs and a deadline. If you hand the execution to a provider, the audit serves as the basis for the SMO brief and the expected deliverables. Plan a lighter second audit at 90 days to measure the gap, then a full audit once a year.
The useful tools at each step
- Native data: Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn Analytics, TikTok Studio, YouTube Studio, X Analytics.
- Consolidation: Metricool, Agorapulse, Swello, Hootsuite or GreenRed's social media module to read every account on the same dashboard.
- Traffic and conversions: GA4 with the acquisition report filtered on the social channel and the social conversions in GA4.
- Scoring grid: a spreadsheet is enough; what matters is reusing it unchanged at the next audit.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Social media tracking module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
How often should you audit your social media?
A full audit once a year is enough for an SME, supplemented by a lighter quarterly review focused on reach, engagement and posting rhythm. An audit is also called for whenever you change provider, ahead of a major launch, or when reach drops by more than 30% over two months.
How much does a social media audit by a provider cost?
The 2026 prices run from €600 for one or two accounts with a summary report to €2,000 and above for four networks, a competitor analysis and a detailed action plan. A freelancer often charges one to three days at between €300 and €500 a day.
Can you audit your social media without a paid tool?
Yes. The native statistics of Meta Business Suite, LinkedIn, TikTok Studio and YouTube Studio cover reach, engagement and audience, with a CSV export over 90 days. A paid tool becomes useful for comparing several accounts or tracking competitors without manual entry.
Which metrics should you look at first in an audit?
Four metrics are enough for a first diagnosis: average reach per post relative to followers, engagement rate by reach, the number of clicks to the site, and the reply rate to comments and messages. Raw follower counts say little about actual performance.