End-of-Year Social Media Audit: What to Fix Before 2025

The end of the year is the best time to conduct a social media audit. It helps you see what’s working, what needs improvement, and how to get ready for 2025. Whether you manage social media for a government agency, public health organization, or another regulated industry, the goal is the same: have a strong strategy and ensure your social media supports your organization’s goals.

Use our simple guide below to help you focus on key areas for your year-end audit.

Government Agencies and Government-Related Organizations

For government agencies, social media must be clear, helpful, and follow rules like the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). During your audit, check how well your social media is meeting these goals.

Key Areas to Audit:

1. Compliance with Regulations: Check if your posts follow ADA rules. Make sure images have alt text, videos have captions, and any downloadable content is easy to access. Also, ensure all your posts comply with FOIA.
2. Public Engagement: Look at how well your social media connects with the public. Review likes, comments, shares, and feedback. Which posts worked well? Which ones didn’t?
3. Crisis Communication Readiness: Is your team ready to handle crises on social media? Review your social media crisis plan. Make sure your team or colleagues know what to do in case of an emergency.

How to Fix for 2025:

• Improve Accessibility: Use tools like Siteimprove to check and fix any accessibility issues.
• Boost Engagement: Look at your most popular posts and plan similar content. You can create town hall updates, policy announcements, or holiday Q&A sessions to keep residents informed and engaged.
• Update Crisis Plans: Make sure your crisis communication plan is current and that all team members are trained to respond quickly. 

Public Health Organizations

Key Areas to Audit:

1. Messaging Consistency: Are you sharing the same message and tone across all your platforms? Inconsistent messaging can cause confusion.
2. Crisis Communication Effectiveness: Review how your organization handled crises this year. Did you respond quickly and clearly? Were people happy with your responses?
3. Community Outreach: Are you reaching all parts of your community, especially those who need health information the most? Check if your posts are connecting with all audience groups.

How to Fix for 2025:

• Streamline Messaging: Create clear rules for tone, content, and design to keep your messaging the same across all platforms.
• Improve Crisis Response: Use social media tools like Hootsuite to track how people are responding to your posts. Create templates for crisis messaging to save time when urgent issues arise.
• Broaden Outreach: Use data to see which platforms and types of content connect best with different groups. Create targeted campaigns for each group to improve outreach.

Higher Education

Colleges and universities use social media to connect with, educate and inform students, students’ caretakers, alumni, and promote on-campus events. Your audit should check how well you are engaging these groups and how your content supports your institution’s goals.

Key Areas to Audit:

1. Student Engagement: Are you responding to student questions quickly? Are you posting content that shows campus life and celebrates student achievements?
2. Alumni Relations: How well are you engaging with alumni? Are they interacting with your posts, attending events, or donating after seeing your content?
3. Event Promotion: Did your social media campaigns help boost attendance at on campus events? Look at both virtual and in-person event promotions.

How to Fix for 2025:

• Increase Student Interaction: Use more interactive content like student takeovers, live Q&A sessions, and campus tours to get more student engagement.
• Boost Alumni Engagement: Personalize your outreach by graduation year, program, or location. Tailored content helps alumni feel more connected to your school.
• Optimize Event Promotion: Use social media ads to promote events. Track how well the ads are working and adjust as needed. Retarget ads to reach people who showed interest but didn’t register.

Banking and Finance

Trust, transparency, and education are key in banking and finance. Your audit should focus on how well your social media builds trust, follows industry regulations, and teaches your customers.

Key Areas to Audit:

1. Trust and Transparency: Review your content. Are you explaining financial services in simple terms that build trust with your audience?
2. Compliance with Financial Regulations: Ensure your posts meet industry rules, like those from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
3. Customer Education: Is your content helping customers learn how to manage their money? Make sure your tips are easy to understand.

How to Fix for 2025:

• Increase Transparency: Use clear, simple language to explain financial services. Infographics and short videos can help break down complex topics.
• Enhance Compliance: Work with your compliance team to review posts before they go live to make sure they meet industry regulations.
• Boost Customer Education: Create educational content focused on financial literacy. You can use quizzes, videos, or webinars to make the learning process engaging and easy to follow.