Social Media Audit Template: Free CSV Checklist

What is in the audit template

Six sections to work through in order. The first two are quick and find the easy fixes; the content audit is the one that takes an afternoon.

• AUDIT DETAILS

  Brand, date, the window you are auditing and the one thing you want from the audit.

• 1. ACCOUNT INVENTORY

  Every account the brand owns or should claim, who holds the login, and a keep, fix or close decision.

  Columns: Network, Profile link, Who holds the login, Posted in the last 30 days? (Y/N), Followers, Keep, fix or close, Reason, Next step

• 2. PROFILE CHECK

  The social media audit checklist: five yes, partly or no checks per profile, scored out of ten.

  Columns: Network, Name and handle match the brand (0 to 2), Photo and cover are current (0 to 2), Bio says what you do and for whom (0 to 2), Link goes to the right page (0 to 2), Contact or booking route is clear (0 to 2), Total (out of 10), Fix

• 3. CONTENT AUDIT

  Recent posts judged on one metric, each marked keep, change or stop.

  Columns: Date, Network, Format, Topic or content pillar, Metric used, Result, Keep, change or stop, Why

• 4. WHAT THE CONTENT AUDIT SAYS

  Five questions that turn the post list into findings.

• 5. AUDIENCE AND COMPETITOR CHECK

  A few public profiles in your space: what they do well, what they do less well, what you could try.

  Columns: Who, Network, What they do well, What they do less well, What we could try, Link

• 6. PRIORITY FIXES

  Every fix ranked by impact and effort, with an owner and a date.

  Columns: Fix, Network, Impact (high, medium, low), Effort (high, medium, low), Owner, Due date, Status

How to run the audit, step by step

1. 1

   Set the window and the question

   Fill in AUDIT DETAILS. Ninety days is a good default because it is long enough to show a pattern, and the table below shows it is within the look-back several networks give you.

2. 2

   List every account, including the dead ones

   In the inventory, add every network the brand has an account on and the ones it should at least have claimed. Note who holds each login. An account nobody can sign into is a risk to fix first.

3. 3

   Check each profile as a stranger

   Open the profile signed out, or from a phone that has never seen it. Score the five checks 0, 1 or 2. Anything below 8 out of 10 goes to the fix list.

4. 4

   Pull the posts and judge them on one metric

   Choose one metric per network and use it all the way down the list. Use the network’s own name for it. Ten to twenty posts per network is enough to see a pattern.

5. 5

   Answer the five findings questions

   Which formats beat the rest, which topics you post most against which perform, what to remove, pin or reuse, whether a quiet spell cost you, and whether every post serves the goal or is just habit.

6. 6

   Rank the fixes and give each an owner and a date

   Sort PRIORITY FIXES by impact, then effort. Do the high impact, low effort ones this week. An audit with no owners is a document, not a plan.

Sample Street Bakery audits its nine possible networks. It finds one profile with a broken link, one dead account, and a clear pattern in its posts.

Sample Street Bakery is an invented business. Every number in this example is made up to show the arithmetic, and none of them is a benchmark for your business or for any network.

The audit took one afternoon and produced three fixes with owners. The strategy for the next quarter now has evidence behind it: put more weight on process Reels. The next step for the bakery is the social media strategy template.

How far back can you audit? What each network states

An audit is only as good as the history behind it, and the networks differ. This table records the look-back each network’s help page states, read on October 15, 2026. Where a page states none, we say “not stated” rather than guess. Pull the numbers for your audit window before the window slides.

Practical rule: audit a 90 day window, save a screenshot or an export of each network’s overview on the day, and note it in the audit details. Instagram’s own timeframe tops out at 90 days, which is why we suggest that length.

Five mistakes that waste a social media audit

• Auditing only the accounts you use

  The inventory is the point. Unclaimed or abandoned accounts are a brand risk, and the audit is the one time you will look for them.

• Judging posts on a mix of metrics

  If likes are used for one post and views for another, the ranking means nothing. One metric per network, the same all the way down.

• Counting what a network does not show

  Where a network gives no number, write “not shown” rather than guessing. The table below says which networks state what.

• Copying a competitor’s numbers

  You can see what a competitor posts, not what it earned. Compare approach, not results.

• Stopping at the findings

  An audit ends with owners and dates. Without them, the same problems turn up in next year’s audit.