Does your company message get lost in social media? This quick 6-point list helps you correct the course and capture your audience’s attention.

When was the last time you audited your business’ social media presence?

If your answer sails between “Never”, “It’s been a while” and “I don’t remember”, you’re in the right place.

In the previous blog article, we talked about auditing your website and the most common quick fixes that help turn a good website into a great one. 

This time, we’ll do the same thing for your company’s social media presence: Check the common points where businesses stumble, and fix them to create a smooth path for your clients to find your company, learn to like it, and become loyal clients.

1 – Align the Message Across Channels

First thing: Check your message is consistent across channels. 

What often happens is that a website is created early on, when a business is created. Then, it gets forgotten, while social media channels are updated more actively. New social channels are also added to the communication portfolio as the business and the team grow. 

Over time, this leads to a gap between the message that the website tells and the one spread across social media platforms. 

When auditing businesses’ digital presence, I made an interesting observation: The message is often crispier, clearer and more concise on social media than on the website. Use this to your advantage and check your social profiles for inspiration when updating website content.

2 – Craft Bio for Clients

When formulating the message and aligning the “About” sections and bios on different profiles, there’s one important point to keep in mind. 

Is your core message focused on your clients and the value the business can add to their lives?As on websites many “I”s and “We”s can be replaced by “You”s, the same applies to social media profiles and content. A potential follower and client is always asking “What’s in it for me?” – and the answer should be loud, clear and findable in two seconds.

3 – Deliver Value over Promotion

The client focus should also extend to content, not only the business intro or bio. 

This means that a lion’s share of content should add value to the audience and only a smaller part should speak about the business, team or offers. 

I don’t like to give exact formulas, such as the 80/20 rule (80 % of content adds value while 20 % is promotion) or the “Jab-jab-jab-hook” formula (add value three times before asking something in return once). 

These can be good guidelines when creating a content plan but in real life it’s not about exact measures. It’s about adding value over the long term while finding a flexible balance in day-to-day content creation.  

4 – Check the Look & Feel

If you’re running several social media accounts, have a look at the content across channels. Does it look, feel, and sound similar? If not, why is that?

All social media platforms have their own strengths, weaknesses and audiences. This is a great way to diversify your message and address different stakeholders. 

A start-up can engage with consumers on Facebook and acquire talent on LinkedIn. Service-based businesses can speak to individuals on Instagram and businesses on Entnest. This might lead to slight changes in visual elements and tone of voice, but all channels should feel familiar to someone coming from another platform. This can be done, for example, through visual content templates that reflect the key brand elements.

5 – Share Content Consistently

On top of the visual elements, check the content for consistency, as well. A consistent look and feel comes from topics and approaches that reflect your key message. 

Are certain content types or formats repeated over and over? Is the approach to them more or less similar over time?

Some surprises are allowed, of course, but a regular follower should recognise them as surprises. It’s hard – or impossible – to build loyal following if your followers don’t know what to expect. 

Remember that consistency is not the same thing as frequency. Once a week is consistent and can be enough for a small, beginning team.

6 – Always Check the Links

Now, this one might sound obvious, but… Always, always, always check the links. 

With this, I mean checking both the links on the website leading to social media and the links on socials leading back to the website. 

Once you’re working on the links, also take a deeper look into the linking strategy. How are your links supporting the client’s journey?

Is your goal to drive traffic from social media to the website to a discovery call? Or from the newsletter to a social media group to downloading a freebie?

Whatever the path and goal, smooth out all possible obstacles such as additional clicks and broken links.

Improve Your Social Media Presence Today

Now, which points resonated most with your business?

Choose 1-3 and start working on them today. The work shouldn’t take more than an hour or two, and according to the results my clients have observed after an audit, you’ll see changes rather quickly. 

In the next part of the series, I’ll share a checklist for conducting your own audit!

P.S. If the job feels too hard, check my Digital Presence Audit offer. In just one hour, we’ll audit your favourite channels and draft a game plan that drives your business goals.