Social media auditing is paramount if you want to stay ahead of your competitors and ensure your marketing channels are all pulling in the same direction.
Brand marketing teams are often tasked with launching and managing multiple social media accounts and maintaining a near-constant flow of content.
Maintaining consistency, achieving return on investment (ROI) goals, and continually developing innovative social media content can be challenging.
No wonder marketers find emerging trends one of the biggest challenges to stay on top of.
The solution? Conduct regular social media audits, so you can track campaign progress and make smart adjustments as you go.
An audit examines your social media accounts, content, and performance across networks and compares them against industry benchmarks. It helps you answer questions like:
- Are we posting on the right social media platforms and at the right times?
- Which content formats and messages resonate most with our target audience?How do our engagement and follower growth compare to similar brands?
- What opportunities are we missing that competitors are capitalising on?
To conduct an effective audit you need the right software. The tools covered in this article range from all‑in‑one social suites that handle publishing, listening, and analytics, to specialized platforms focused on competitive benchmarking or influencer performance.
Whether you’re a marketer, social media manager, or agency, these solutions can save countless hours, surface hidden insights, and justify investment in social media.
In this guide:
- Brandwatch
- Rival IQ
- Buffer
- SocialPilot
- Agorapulse
- Sprout Social
- Hootsuite
Begin your social media audit process today>> Use Brandwatch’s social media audit checklist to assess your brand’s presence today!
Why social media audit tools matter
Social media moves so quickly, with algorithm changes and advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), that audit tools are essential to stay on top of everything.
New trends, fresh formats, emerging social media platforms, and shifting user behaviors mean strategies that worked yesterday may underperform tomorrow.
This pace shows no sign of slowing – especially as AI unfolds at an unprecedented rate.
Brands that succeed are those that continuously evaluate their presence, learn from data, and adapt.
Here’s what a comprehensive social media audit tool can help you achieve.
Gain a holistic view of social media performance
Instead of jumping between native analytics for each network, an audit tool aggregates data into one dashboard. The very best provide aggregated views across Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, TikTok, and more, letting you track social media performance in one place.
Enjoy API connectivity
Some tools only scrape the surface of social media sites, while others – like Brandwatch – have API connectivity to dig deep into each platform. These tools are usually official partners to top social media sites and can conduct more detailed audits.
Compare yourself against competitors
Effective tools let you benchmark your metrics against industry rivals. Brandwatch’s social media management suite, for example, includes a Benchmark module that allows users to compare against competitors, find trending content, and understand share of voice.
Identify high‑performing content and gaps
Many platforms highlight your top posts or show which topics competitors neglect. The best delve into deep analytics and identify gaps in content, using granular insights into engagement and demographics to suggest improvements.
Save time with automated reporting
Creating reports manually is tedious. Tools like Brandwatch Measure and Buffer enable you to build and download presentation‑ready reports quickly.
Listen to conversations beyond your owned channels
Social listening helps you understand brand sentiment and spot emerging trends. Brandwatch’s suite monitors your brand across over 100 million sources, and includes historical consumer data and competitive channel analytics to provide deeper context.
Collaborate across teams
Many of these tools support multiple user roles, approval flows, and shared content libraries, ensuring teams work from the same data and avoid duplication. A calendar and content library help teams align on cross‑channel campaigns and maintain consistent branding.
Top social media audit tools for 2026
1. Brandwatch
Brandwatch’s Social Media Management suite combines publishing, engagement, listening, and analytics into a single platform. Within this suite, the Measure and Benchmark modules provide powerful audit capabilities.
Brandwatch key auditing features
- Actionable social insights: The platform lets you listen to consumers and benchmark against competitors. It monitors your brand across more than 100 million sources, and provides historic consumer data and competitive channel analytics going back years. That makes it ideal for long‑term audits.
- Benchmark module: Quickly compare your performance against competitors, find trending content, and understand your share of voice. The module surfaces top content and identifies gaps where your brand could stand out.
- Customisable analytics dashboards: Brandwatch offers dashboards to measure performance across networks. Users can tailor views to highlight key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter and export reports for stakeholders.
- Cross‑channel scheduling: Brandwatch’s Publish feature means you can act on your audit’s findings by planning, scheduling, and previewing posts across channels, aligning teams around campaigns.
- Large content library: A shared content library ensures consistent branding and the ability to make wholesale tweaks based on the findings of your audit.
- Seamless collaboration: Assign user roles, approvals, and tasks to streamline audit workflows.
Who uses Brandwatch?
Brandatch offers a range of options to suit brands of all sizes. Enterprises and large teams that need deep analytics, long‑term data, social listening, and competitor benchmarking across multiple networks thrive.
Global brands trust Brandwatch because it integrates with major social networks as an official partner, making it a robust option for comprehensive audits.
>> Learn more about how Brandwatch can elevate your social media audits by booking a demo today!
2. Rival IQ
Rival IQ specialises in competitive analysis and benchmarking. It provides detailed analytics, alerts, and benchmarking reports across major social networks. Users can create a social media audit template to cut time and generate standardized reports.
Rival IQ auditing features
- Social posts analysis: Rival IQ offers tools for hashtag analytics, popular topics, post timing, media types, and keyword search. It provides landscapes and filters to compare your performance against your industry or head‑to‑head with a specific rival.
- Alerts and benchmarking: Always‑on alerts notify you of competitors’ posts or profile changes and feed data back into longer-term audits.
Who uses Rival IQ?
Marketers focused on competitive benchmarking and industry benchmarking who need granular metrics for auditing.
3. Buffer
Buffer is known for its ease of use and primary focus on posting social media content. While it’s largely seen as a social media publishing tool, it can also perform audits based on analytics obtained across social media sites.
Buffer auditing features
- Smarter insights and aggregated dashboards: Buffer delivers easy‑to‑understand analytics that show which post types perform best, who’s engaging, and when to post. This data feeds into reports so you can gauge performance across Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and more.
- Custom reports and target audience insights: The platform provides audience demographics, engagement patterns, and content preferences to refine your social media strategy. Users can build on‑brand reports in a few clicks and export them as PDFs or images.
Who uses Buffer?
Small businesses, solopreneurs, and content creators who want straightforward analytics, best‑time recommendations, and quick reporting.
4. SocialPilot
SocialPilot is a social media management and analytics suite that’s geared toward agencies and growing brands. Its analytics module is designed to turn data into decisions.
SocialPilot auditing features
- Granular analytics and audience demographics: The tool goes beyond surface‑level metrics to show engagement, target audience demographics, and reach – data that can feed into audit reports. It also tracks audience engagement in their local time zone.
- Centralised dashboard and reporting: SocialPilot allows you to compare key metrics across all channels from a central dashboard and build presentation‑ready reports. It automatically pulls data from Google Analytics to tie social activity to revenue.
Who uses SocialPilot?
Agencies and small to mid‑sized businesses that want analytics and demographic insights as part of a wider package that includes flexible reporting.
5. Agorapulse
Agorapulse is a social media management platform that emphasises ease of use, collaboration, and return on investment (ROI) measurement.
Its reporting capabilities are particularly relevant for audits and realigning social media strategies based on findings. Users can also integrate Canva into Agorapulse to cut content curation time.
Agorapulse auditing features
- Centralised dashboard and reporting: Agorapulse lets users compare key social metrics across channels from a single dashboard and identify top‑performing posts. Users can then build custom, presentation‑ready report templates that automate for future audits.
- ROI measurement: The tool ties social activity to revenue by automatically pulling data from Google Analytics, giving users a wider understanding of what posts drive sales and leads when conducting an audit.
Who uses Agorapulse?
Teams that need the ability to connect social metrics to business outcomes and conduct audits that show clearly-defined ROI.
6. Sprout Social
Sprout is a social media management platform that has audit capabilities alongside a range of other features. It places a strong emphasis on competitor analysis and insights, allowing users to generate auto-reports with just a click.
Users get access to AI‑driven tools to track sentiment, monitor competitor activities, and identify industry gaps – factors that help inform audit reports.
Sprout auditing features
- Competitor audits: Sprout allows you to establish competitor reports across various social networks. Users can track measures such as follower growth, engagement rates, content types, and posting frequency as part of a competitor audit.
- Actionable insights: Audit reports come with identification of high‑performing content formats and advice on what to do next. The analysis also addresses audience targeting by revealing what resonates with competitors’ audiences.
Who uses Sprout?
Brands that want detailed audits by using competitor analysis, social listening, and content analysis. Sprout is a large suite and is most commonly used by big organisations seeking data‑driven insights.
7. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a social media management platform that, like Brandwatch and Sprout, offers a suite of management and analytics tools to support audits.
Users can manage multiple clients or social media accounts in one place and assign individual tasks to team members – including auditing duties.
Hootsuite auditing features
- Multi‑platform analytics: Hootsuite’s analytics dashboard lets you identify top posts across platforms and track conversions through repeatable reports. This data then feeds into your audits.
- Custom reporting and templates: The platform includes a ready‑to‑use social media audit template and a customisable analytics dashboard. Of course, you can tweak these if you wish.
Who uses Hootsuite?
Businesses looking for a wider social solution to manage multiple accounts, track ROI, and access ready‑made social media audit templates.
How to choose the right social media audit tool
Now you’ve seen the seven best social media audit tools for 2026, it’s time to consider what’s right for you. There are plenty of factors to weigh up, and you might find the best solution is one that offers a demo mode first.
Below are six core considerations to make when choosing a tool:
- Scope of your audit – If you only need basic analytics for a few platforms, a lightweight tool may suffice. However, most brands need in‑depth audits to truly compete with rivals and steer their marketing campaigns, so a tool like Brandwatch – with competitor benchmarking and social listening – should always be considered.
- Budget and scale – Determine how many social media accounts, users, and reports you need. Some tools offer free plans but limit data retention or features. Enterprise tools require investment but provide expansive data and customer support.
- Integration with existing workflows – Check whether the tool integrates with other systems such as Google Analytics, CRM platforms, or project management tools. Brandwatch’s partnerships with major social networks make reporting and collaboration easier.
- User experience and support – A steep learning curve can slow adoption. Evaluate interface intuitiveness and available training resources. Being able to speak to experts whenever you need them is paramount.
- Reporting needs – Decide whether you need quick, beautiful reports (Buffer) or highly customisable dashboards (Brandwatch, Rival IQ). Consider how often stakeholders require updates and whether automated reports are important.
- Future growth – Ensure the tool can scale with your brand. Solutions with flexible pricing tiers and add‑on modules (like the Brandwatch suite) allow you to expand functionality as your needs evolve.
FAQ: Social media audit tools
Q: What is a social media audit?
A social media audit is about cataloguing your social accounts, assessing their performance, and comparing them against goals or industry benchmarks. It involves analysing metrics such as follower growth, engagement, content types, posting frequency, and sentiment to understand what’s working and where improvements are needed. The best way to conduct a comprehensive social media audit is to use a tool like Brandwatch that can draw data from millions of posts and provide an accurate overview of your brand’s performance online. Some audits also look at competitor performance to identify gaps and opportunities.
Q: How often should I conduct a social media audit?
It’s recommended to conduct a full social media audit at least once per quarter. Regular weekly reviews enable you to identify trends early, adjust your social media strategy, and respond to platform changes.
Q: Are there free social media audit tools?
Yes. Native platform analytics, such as the Meta Business Suite and LinkedIn Page Analytics, offer free metrics. There are also lightweight tools that offer free versions. However, free tools often restrict data range and lack competitor benchmarking.
Q: Do I still need a social media audit tool if I already use a scheduling platform?
Scheduling platforms often include basic analytics, but they might not offer deep insights or competitive benchmarking. A tool like Brandwatch – with its Measure, Benchmark, and Publish modules – does it all from one place. If your scheduling tool doesn’t provide the level of analysis you need, consider switching to a social media management tool with audit capabilities, which can deliver more actionable insights.
Begin your social media audit process today
Regular social media audits help you stay aligned with your audience, improve content strategy, and outpace competitors. They are a vital complement to a brand’s marketing strategy and provide the insights required to maintain a strong brand presence across social channels.
Brands that fail to audit their social media performance are effectively posting with their eyes closed.
Ultimately, the best social media audit tool is the one that fits your specific goals, budget, and workflow. By choosing wisely and conducting regular audits, you can unlock deeper insights, refine your social media marketing strategy, and ensure your presence remains impactful in 2026 and beyond.
>> Want to know more? Book a demo with Brandwatch and discover the easiest way to conduct social media audits today
