Short Report: Social Media Audit
Refer to
Chapter 14: “Writing Effective Short Reports”
“How Social Media Helps Businesses” from Chapter 4 (pgs. 140-141)
Prompt
Purpose: Analyze how a local brand/company/business is using social media and determine what they have done so far that is effective and where they could improve. Recommend some strategies they could take that would make them more effective at: brand awareness, brand exposure, and brand image. Be clear and specific in all you write, but specifically with addressing the problem, points you conclude based on research, and recommendations. Limit your research to two social media platforms (ex: Facebook and Instagram).
Audience: Imagine that you are writing this report for the company: direct it to those responsible for social media in the company (it might be the owners or a social media director- you will want to find out). Your report should show them that you understand what they have done so far, where they have been effective, and where they could improve. Consider what your audience would want to know and let that guide your research.
Steps and Report Outline
Background Knowledge (this will not necessarily be included in your report- take notes for yourself so you can determine what to focus on in your research)
Pick a small or local company (or your own company, as the case may be) not a large company or chain and examine the ways this company uses social media.
Read about the company and their background.
Who is the company’s target audience (age, gender, etc.), and how can you tell?
What brand image are they going for, and is this reflected effectively in their social media?
Do they have any competition? Is there another local company doing the exact same thing? Who has a stronger social media presence and why?
Begin Gathering Data
Where is the company using social media? What platforms do they use, and where do they have a strong presence vs. where are they hard to find?
Track the company’s social media activity for the next two weeks and look back a few weeks as well. Are they actively updating their social media, or do they seem somewhat inactive? Has there been any change in the number of likes per post, or the number of views or followers? Track this information as you do research and see if you can find information that helps explain changes or variances in followers, likes, and other criteria.
Collect Data (Findings)
Choose two social media platforms to for this company that you will specifically audit (examine, inspect).
Which company social media activities will you look at more closely? (posts, sharing content, promotion or event information, videos, links, photos, use of hashtags, etc.) Narrow your search.
Choose your metrics to determine effectiveness. Here are some questions to get you thinking: Will you focus on likes, comments, followers, views, shares/retweets? Where has the company been successful? How would you rate the quality of the posts (professional photos, any variation in content, etc.)?
Who is the competition? Looking at the same metrics (ex. Likes on Twitter, comments on Facebook posts), is your chosen company more successful on social media, or is it the competition?
Use data that you have gathered in Step 3 to make Conclusions: What does your data mean? For example: Which posts have been most successful and why? What strategies are being used to gain followers, and are these strategies showing results?
Recommendations: Based on findings, recommend two to three strategies for your company to implement that will increase brand awareness, brand image, and help bring in more customers by appealing to the brand’s target audience. Be specific. For instance, your conclusion has shown, based on research, that the content the company is posting is exactly the same on Facebook and Twitter, and it is receiving a lot of engagement on Facebook but almost none on Twitter, you could recommend that the company stop posting that specific kind of content, and try a specific strategy that generally works better on Twitter’s platform.
Formatting
This short report should be 3-4 pages
Use examples from Chapter 14 for formatting and layout concerns. Your short report should most closely resemble Figure 14.7: A Field Trip Report, or Figure 14.11: An Incident Report in Memo Format, which have a clear, straightforward structure. Your headings and purpose will be different.
You should include at least two useful visuals, which you reference in the report (See Chapter 10)
You will need to include your audience (To), your name (From), the Date and a Subject line (Re:) at the top of the first page of the report
Your Short Report should include the following headings (or slight variations):
Purpose
Yours- state for your audience: to research how effective the company has been in using social media, and to propose some strategies for improvement. This will be only a few short sentences outlining what your report will accomplish.
Findings
Specific data about the company’s social media usage. You should use at least two visuals, which might include graphs, charts, or any other visual mode that you feel would be useful in conveying this information. Make sure all visuals are labeled (ex: Figure 1) and that you address the figures in your text (ex: “As seen in Figure 1”). You must bring in measurable data- consider likes, shares, views, retweets, comments and engagement with social media posts.
Conclusion
This is where you will explain, based on your research and findings, where the company has been the most and the least effective. It is a place to tell your audience what the data means. Note: this is not where you make suggestions for what the company could do better- do not combine your Conclusion and Recommendation section, and both serve different purposes.
Recommendations
Based on the conclusions you draw from your research, offer some recommendations. What could this company do to make better use of social media? Propose some ideas that will promote the awareness of the company, enhance their exposure to the community and their target audience, enhance their brand image and build their customer base. The recommendations should be related to information you discovered in your research (findings) and conclusions you drew based on that research.