PostEaseThe short answer
A social media audit is a periodic review of every account you run: whether each profile is complete and consistent, what you posted, how it performed against your own median, what your audience responded to, and where the gaps are. It ends with a short list of changes: what to do more of, what to stop, which platforms to keep. Run a full one once or twice a year and a lighter content audit every quarter.
The numbers you can pull differ by platform, so an audit compares each platform with itself. Meta’s Instagram insights report reach, saves, shares and, for Reels, watch time and a skip rate; YouTube reports watch time and a retention curve; Bluesky reports likes, reposts, replies and quotes but no views at all. A fair audit uses what each platform actually counts.
The audit, step by step
A full audit in six steps:
- List every account you run, including old ones, and who has the login for each.
- Check each profile: name, handle, picture, bio, link, contact details. Fix anything out of date or inconsistent.
- Pull the last 3 to 6 months of posts per platform, with reach, engagement and, for video, watch time.
- Find your median for each metric, and mark the posts well above and well below it.
- Look for what the strong posts share (topic, pillar, format, opening, time), and what the weak ones share.
- Write the changes: more of what worked, less of what did not, and any platform to add, pause or drop.
Audit checklist
What to check, and the question each answers:
| Area | Check | Question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | Every account, owner and login | Do we control everything posted in our name? |
| Profiles | Name, picture, bio, link, contact | Does every profile look like us and lead somewhere? |
| Cadence | Posts per week, gaps over two weeks | Are we steady, or posting in bursts? |
| Content mix | Posts per pillar and format | Are we all promotion, or all one format? |
| Results | Median reach, engagement, watch time per platform | What is a normal post for us now? |
| Top and bottom posts | The five best and five worst | What should we do more of, and stop? |
| Replies | Time to answer comments and messages | Are people waiting for us? |
| Links | Bio links and link-in-bio page | Do they all work and point to current pages? |
Use your own median
The point of an audit is to compare you with you. Benchmarks help as context: Buffer’s 2026 engagement report puts the median Instagram post at about 5.5% of reach and the median LinkedIn post at about 6.2%; Socialinsider’s 2026 study found Instagram brand accounts reaching 3.5% to 6.65% of their followers per post depending on size. But your median, worked out the same way each time, is the number that tells you whether things are getting better.
Watch for gaps and bursts
Consistency shows up in audits more than anything. AIR’s 2026 study of 18,000 YouTube channels found that gaps of 14 days or more went with fewer views per video, and that a predictable schedule mattered more than volume. If the audit shows long silences followed by bursts, the fix is usually a calendar and a buffer of scheduled posts, not more posts.
A lighter quarterly content audit
Between full audits, a quarterly content audit takes an hour: export the quarter’s posts, sort by your key metric, read the top ten and bottom ten, and note three things to do more of and three to stop. Update the content pillars and the calendar from what you find.
Turn findings into a plan
An audit that does not change the calendar was a report, not an audit. Turn each finding into a specific change with a date: “two carousels a week on Instagram from next month”, “answer comments within the day”, “pause X and move the time to LinkedIn”. Then measure the same numbers at the next audit and see whether the changes worked.
Questions
How often should I do a social media audit?
A full audit once or twice a year, and a lighter content audit every quarter.
What should a social media audit include?
Every account and who controls it, each profile’s details, posting cadence, content mix, results against your own median, best and worst posts, reply times, and links.
What is a social media content audit?
A review of the posts themselves: what you posted over a period, how each did against your median, and what the strongest and weakest have in common.
How long does a social media audit take?
A full audit of three or four platforms takes a day or two the first time, and a few hours once you repeat it with the same template.
Should I compare my results with competitors in an audit?
As context, carefully. Your own median is the fair comparison, since competitors’ audiences, formats and goals differ.
Sources
- Buffer, The state of social media engagement in 2026, March 2026.
- Socialinsider, Social media reach has a 14% YoY decrease on Instagram, September 2026.
- Meta, Instagram media insights, Instagram Platform reference, checked October 2026.
- YouTube, Metrics, YouTube Analytics and Reporting APIs, checked October 2026.
- Bluesky, app.bsky.feed.defs lexicon (postView), checked October 2026.
- AIR, How many videos per week on YouTube: data study by niche and channel size, June 2026.