It’s a good idea to assess your social media use on a regular schedule. One way to measure your effectiveness is to do a communications audit. Here’s how to figure out how well you are engaging your customers.

• Before You Start: You have one or more business social media accounts.
• Learning Level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated:  Sunday, December 4, 2011

Social Media Communications Audit

It’s a good idea to do a regular review of your social media communications to see what you are doing and how effectively you are doing it. The process is simple and enlightening. Go back through the last month of communication on any social media tools and make some simple observations.

Communication Topics

• How many times did you speak to promote your business?
• How many times did you speak that did not directly promote your business?
• How many times did you speak to promote someone else’s business?
• How many times did you speak on a topic of interest to your community?

Conversation Trends

• How many times did you respond to a conversation someone else started?
• How many times did someone else start a conversation with you about your business?
• How many times did someone else start a conversation with you not directly related to your business?

Community Reach

• How many people did you engage in conversation directly?
• How many people are part of your community (you could have spoken with)?

Conversation Topics

• Make a list of the topics of conversation directly related to your business.
• Make a list of the topics of conversation not directly related to your business.

From this data, you can get an objective view of your current communication patterns. Very often, our perception of things and the facts are quite different. What do you think? Are you broadcasting your message or engaging your community?

Your turn: How do you gauge your level of community interaction? Share your insights in the comments.

Related Articles:

• Are You Really Engaging Your Customers?
• 9 Ways To Engage Your Twitter Community
• Whose Facebook Wall Is It?
• Create A Blog Comment Policy
• Twitter Conversation Checklist
• Write Great Social Media Goals
• The Future of Social Media