How to do a monthly social media review in an hour

A monthly review is for you, not for a client or a boss. Its job is to change what you do next month. A report explains results to someone else; a review decides what happens next. Our guide to reporting social media results covers the first; this one covers the second, and the two fit together if you need both.

If several people help with social media, do the review together, or at least share the written decisions afterwards. The person who answers messages often knows things the numbers can't show, such as which posts customers mention when they get in touch. Monthly is the right rhythm for most small businesses. A week is too short for a small account, where one post can swing everything. A quarter is too long to wait before fixing something that isn't working. The review sits on top of a short weekly check, such as the Friday slot in our weekly workflow.

Gathering is the slow part, so do it before the hour starts, ideally in a tracker you update in the same order each time. Do this on the same working day each month, a few days after the month ends. Some platforms take time to settle: TikTok says its analytics data may take 1 to 2 days to update. Others don't keep data for long: Instagram's insights let you choose a timeframe within the past 90 days. Recording each month's figures in your own tracker is the only way to compare this month with the same month last year.

• Your lead number and its target, from your goal
• Reach or views, and engagement rate, for each platform you use
• Link clicks, profile visits and messages
• Visits and key events from social in Google Analytics, if you track them
• Enquiries, bookings or sales you know came from social, from your own records
• A list of every post published, with its pillar, format and date
• Notes on anything unusual: holidays, closures, boosted posts, a week with no posts

Sources: TikTok Help Centre: My posts aren't getting views, checked 15 October 2026; Instagram Help Centre: About Instagram insights, checked 15 October 2026

Keep the same order every month so it becomes routine. The times are a guide; the decisions at the end are not optional.

Work through the steps in order. Numbers come first so you know whether it was a good or bad month before you look at individual posts; otherwise one memorable post can colour the whole review. Write as you go, in plain sentences, in the same document each month.

1. Numbers: write this month, last month and the target side by side for your lead number and two supporting numbers. Note the direction of each and one likely reason.
2. Posts: sort the month's posts by your main rate (engagement rate, saves per reach or clicks) and look at the top three and bottom three. For each, write one line on what made it different: topic, hook, format, timing.
3. Mix: count posts by pillar and format, then compare with results. If one pillar makes up half your posts and little of your results, that's a signal.
4. People: scroll back through comments, messages and reviews. Note repeated questions, objections and compliments; they're your best source of next month's post ideas.
5. Decisions: write three lines. Keep: what worked and should continue. Stop: what took time and returned little. Test: one change to try, with a measure.

A review that doesn't change the calendar is wasted. Before you close the document, open next month's content calendar and make the changes: move slots from the weak pillar to the strong one, add the test posts, and schedule a post answering the most common customer question you found.

Write the decisions where you'll see them at the next review, so you can check whether the test happened and what it showed. Over a few months, that list of decisions becomes the most useful record you have of what works for your business.

Keep the number of changes small. Three decisions a month is plenty for a business where social media is one job among many. If you change five things at once, next month's review can't tell you which one worked, and the plan becomes harder to keep up.

• Put the test in the calendar now, with both versions planned
• Turn the top three posts into a series or repurpose them for another platform
• Drop or rework the format that's consistently at the bottom
• Answer the most common customer question in a post
• Update your goal tracker with this month's figures

An imaginary yoga studio's goal is more trial-class bookings from social. Every number here is invented for illustration.

Numbers: 11 trial bookings from social against a target of 12, up from 7 last month. Reach was flat; booking-link clicks rose. Posts: the three best were short videos of a teacher explaining one pose for beginners; the three weakest were timetable graphics. Mix: timetable posts were a third of the month's posts and brought almost no clicks. People: several messages asked whether beginners could join any class.

Decisions. Keep: the beginner pose videos, one a week. Stop: weekly timetable graphics; pin one timetable post instead. Test: two reels answering 'can beginners join?', one ending with the booking link and one with 'message us BEGIN', measured by bookings.

Every third review, take an extra half hour to look at the bigger picture. These questions don't need answering every month, but skipping them for a year is how accounts drift. Our social media audit template and quarterly plan template give these questions a structure if you'd like one.

• Is the goal still right, or should it change?
• Is each platform earning its time, or should one be dropped or paused?
• Are our profiles, bios and links up to date?
• What did competitors do that our customers responded to?
• What dates and events are coming up next quarter?

Zolyp, which we make, includes Analyze: a plain-language weekly report on reach, engagement and clicks across your connected accounts, with what to do more of and what to drop, and what worked feeds back into your Brand Brain so the next plan reflects it. It can only see what each platform's own API exposes for your connected accounts, and its history starts when you connect, with no backfill. A month of those weekly reports is a useful starting point for the numbers and posts blocks; the customer conversations and the decisions are still yours. Zolyp publishes to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Business, X, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, and Threads. Plans that create the posts start at $29 a month, Lite is $9 a month per brand for scheduling posts you make yourself, and there's a 3-day free trial.