There’s a strange irony in social media work. The teams responsible for building engagement and brand awareness online are often operating in survival mode. Under-resourced, overtasked, and constantly responding to requests. Many social media managers spend their days churning out content with little time to stop and ask: Is any of this actually working?
That’s why audits aren’t a luxury. They’re a necessity.
At Forumm, we’ve been working closely with social media teams across universities, schools, and charities to help them pause, take stock, and build a clearer picture of their digital performance. This isn’t just about performance metrics. It’s about reclaiming time, setting smarter priorities, and getting teams off the reactive treadmill.
The process typically takes around two weeks:
Some clients want to focus on one main platform, like LinkedIn. Others need a full audit across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and more. Whether it’s narrow or broad, the goal is to give teams clarity and direction. And for institutions looking to refine their social media strategy, university teams benefit from this clarity more than most.
Trinity’s team had already done excellent work collecting analytics. But like many comms teams, they didn’t have the time or capacity to sit with users and listen. That’s where we came in. User testing let us validate what the team already suspected, uncover a few surprises, and back up our recommendations with real human insight.
It’s a reminder that behind every homepage and every campaign is a person trying to make a decision, solve a problem, or feel something. Strategy starts with listening.
One of the most valuable outcomes of a social media audit is identifying high-performing themes. These are repeatable content patterns that audiences respond to. And they don’t have to be flashy. Some of the most effective posts are the simplest: a strong photo, a short and honest quote, a short-form video that feels authentic.
By focusing on themes, teams can build a social media strategy that’s proactive rather than reactive. A clear set of themes acts as a filter for what gets posted, helping teams say yes to the right things and no to the distractions.
This is especially powerful in a university setting, where content requests are constant and varied. A theme-driven strategy supports both brand consistency and internal alignment.
In the past, social media strategy in a university setting was often built around platform demographics. Facebook was for parents. Instagram was for prospective students. TikTok was for Gen Z. That model doesn’t hold up anymore.
What we see now is that content, not just platform, determines reach and engagement. A well-crafted student story can land just as well on Facebook as it does on Instagram or TikTok. The idea that you have to create radically different content for each audience segment is outdated and often unsustainable.
Instead of targeting by demographic, we recommend targeting by theme. Focus on quality storytelling and let the platform amplify it appropriately. This mindset shift is one we consistently encourage in our work as a higher education digital agency. It makes content creation more manageable and more impactful.
There’s an invisible cost to content that doesn’t connect. When teams spend 30 minutes writing, editing, and posting a piece that lands with minimal engagement, that time is effectively lost. Do that five times a week, and the cost becomes massive, both in productivity and morale.
Audits expose these inefficiencies. They show where the effort is going and what the return looks like. More importantly, they help social media managers make the case for doing less, but doing it better.
For institutions with tight budgets and small teams, this clarity is critical. It allows them to optimise without needing to increase resources. In fact, improving workflow is often the most effective form of budget relief.
An audit is a starting point, not a finish line. Once we’ve shared our findings, we work with teams to turn insight into action.
Typically, we provide:
A summary of key data points
Benchmark comparisons to peer institutions
Top-performing themes and post types
Recommendations tailored to each platform
A short- and medium-term content roadmap
This helps university marketing teams move forward with confidence. Some use it as the foundation for a larger marketing strategy. Others apply the recommendations immediately. Either way, it’s not just about reporting, it’s about enabling better decisions.
We hear this all the time: “We know we need to fix our approach, but we just don’t have the headspace to stop and figure it out.” That’s understandable. But a short pause now can unlock massive efficiency later.
A social media audit is a chance to reset. It helps teams get off the content treadmill and into a rhythm that’s more thoughtful, strategic, and sustainable. It’s a key move for any marketing strategy for a university that wants to grow smarter without burning out its people.
And best of all, it doesn’t require a six-month process. Just a few focused weeks can give your team the clarity it needs to start making real progress.
