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The SITS Girls

The Secret to Success is Support

Complete Your Own DIY Blog And Social Media Audit

· Amy Fulcher

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It’s so hard to look at your own content with an objective eye, and well-meaning friends aren’t always willing to tell you what you need to hear. Luckily there are a few things that you can address quickly (in some cases) and objectively (in most cases) that will provide a better experience for your followers and make it easier for brands to find and hire you for campaigns if you take a little time to do a blog and social media audit! 

Blog And Social Media Audit

We recommend completing a blog and social media audit quarterly. This list will help you make sure everything is up to date. 

Woman sitting at a table working on a laptop, doing a social media audit, with words that read How to audit your own blog and social media profiles.

Can everyone see YOU on your blog and social media? 

Depending on the type of content you create, it’s certainly possible you won’t appear in all of your photos. That said, readers still want to create a connection between you and your blog or social media platforms.

Your blog should have an up-to-date “about me” page with a current photo that will give your readers some idea of who is behind all of those yummy recipes or fun DIYs. Consider updating your bio and photo at least annually if not more often — especially if you mention your children. There are plenty of author pages that reference being the mom to a fun-loving toddler when in reality that child just entered high school!

Consider using your photo as the profile image on your social media platforms, but especially on Instagram. You should also appear in your Instagram feed from time to time. Sure, your primary focus might be sharing amazing dessert photos, but at least once a month throw in a photo of you or your family enjoying one of those treats. Not only do followers enjoy seeing your face, but brands also want to see the influencers they are hiring!

Can I tell enough about you from your social media bios?

You have limited characters in your social media bio, and every single one of them should count. Make it easy for followers and brands to find you by using keywords to describe your passions and content.

Things to consider including in your social media bio:

  • Where you live, including the city or nearest metro area
    • Many influencer opportunities are geo-specific.
  • Your interests or passions.
    • Whether you love budget fashion, crave adventure travel, or are dedicated to social justice, anyone who visits your profile should be able to identify at least three things about you just by reading your bio. 
  • Basic family demographics
    • Followers love connecting with influencers who have children of similar ages to their own. 
    • There are tons of opportunities available for families with children in specific age groups. Make it easy for them to find you! 
  • Your email address
    • Yes, everyone is afraid of getting bombarded with SPAM. No, listing your email address in your bio won’t increase your SPAM. It will just make it easier for brands who want to hire you to contact you.
    • Including your email in your profile on Instagram doesn’t show your email address when it’s viewed on a desktop browser. Most brands and agencies are looking on a desktop browser when hiring influencers. Including your email address in your bio makes it easier to contact you. 

Is Your Blog Out Of Date? 

Have you ever visited a blog and thought it looked a little dated? If you’ve been blogging long enough — unless you’ve updated through the years — it’s possible your own blog needs a little sprucing up.

Here are some things to look for and remove to make sure your blog feels current: 

  • Out-of-date elements like blogrolls, blog hops, blog “award” icons, buttons from old conferences and events, stock image cartoon avatars, and “grab my button” codes. 
  • Old-fashioned content like “Wordless Wednesday” and group giveaway posts. 
  • Icons for long-gone platforms like Vine and Google+. 

In most cases, these items can be easily deleted without any negative impact to your site. (Although you should never do anything that changes the coding on your site without making sure you have a working backup in case anything goes wrong!) 

Have you personalized your blog theme? 

Whether you’re on WordPress, Blogger, Wix, or Squarespace, most of us start our blogs by using a theme created by someone else. Most platforms and themes are heavily customizable, and in some cases require updates on your end to make sure every element is up and running. 

Here are some things to check to make sure your blog theme has been updated with your information: 

  • Have you updated the social media icons? 
    • Many blog themes come with placeholder social icons. Make sure they link to your social profiles. 
    • While you’re there, consider clicking on the button or adding the code needed to make those icons open in a new page. Exactly how you do this will vary by the theme or plugin you are using. In some cases it’s simply checking the box that is already there. In other cases you’ll have to add the target=”_blank” code.
  • Have you added a personal favicon? 
    • The Favicon is the little personal icon that shows up in the tab when looking at your site. How you update your Favicon will vary by the platfrom and theme you are using. 
  • Do you have at least one search bar on your site? 
    • Make sure you’re provided everyone visiting your site with an easy way to search for additional content.

Have You Cleaned Up Your Content? 

Many of us have out-of-date content on our blogs that isn’t a reflection of what we currently share, the quality of our work, or current information. Now is the time to clean that up!

  • Is your content out of date or of low quality but still relevant to your brand?
    • Update the content! Take new photos and update the post. If you have dates in your URL make a note in your text of the date the post was updated so it’s clear that you’re sharing current information with your readers.
  • Is the content completely out of date, unhelpful, but still gets a few hits?
    • Consider redirecting that URL to a more up-to-date post that will be of better assistance to your readers.
  • Is the post completely irrelevant to your brand and not getting any traffic?
    • If you truly see no value in the old post it’s ok to delete it from your site. Search engines will eventually realize the post is no longer there and will stop crawling it.

Taking the time to look critically at your blog and social media handles is always a worthwhile investment. Putting in this effort now will also make it easier in the future when you are ready to complete an updated audit! 

Looking for even more support? Join us in the Sway Facebook Group! 

 

About Amy Fulcher

Amy is the founder of the creative entertainment website As The Bunny Hops. She loves working with film and television studios like Disney, Nickelodeon, and DreamWorks to create fun DIY projects and recipes to promote their upcoming movies and TV shows. You can follow Amy on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.