When performing a social media content audit, begin by looking at all of the content you have posted in the last two quarters. That is the answer from the HubSpot Digital Marketing Course certification exam, and it is also a sound practical starting point for most accounts.

The Exact HubSpot Certification Answer

When Performing a Social Media Content Audit Begin by Looking at the Last Two Quarters

The fill-in-the-blank question from the HubSpot Digital Marketing Course reads:

"When performing a social media content audit, begin by looking at all of the content you have posted in the last ___."

The correct answer is: two quarters.

Two quarters equals approximately six months. This is the verbatim answer used in the HubSpot digital marketing certification exam, not a paraphrase or approximation.

Why Other Sources Give Different Answers

Search results for this question frequently show three different answers: 90 days, six months to a year, and two quarters. The variation exists because many third-party homework-help sites paraphrase the original question rather than quote it directly, and some offer general industry guidance instead of the course-specific answer.

The table below shows where each answer comes from and how to read it.

Answer Seen Online	Source Type	Is It the HubSpot Exam Answer
Two quarters	HubSpot Digital Marketing Course	Yes
Six months to a year	Paraphrased on homework-help sites	No, approximate only
90 days	Third-party certification answer sites	No, a practical shortcut
12 months	General industry guidance	No, context-dependent

If you are preparing for the HubSpot certification exam, two quarters is the answer to use.

What a Social Media Content Audit Is

A social media content audit is a structured review of all posts published on a brand's social media accounts over a defined time period. The review covers what was published, how each piece performed, and whether the content reflected the brand's goals at the time.

It is narrower in scope than a full social media audit. A full audit covers profile details, branding consistency, competitor positioning, and follower demographics. A content audit focuses specifically on published posts and their performance data. Both are useful, but they answer different questions.

The core purpose of a content audit is to identify patterns: what type of content generates engagement, which formats underperform, how posting frequency affects reach, and where the content strategy has drifted from its original goals. In practice, marketing teams find the content audit the more actionable of the two, because its findings map directly to the next publishing calendar.

Why the Last Two Quarters Is the Right Starting Point

It Covers Two Distinct Business Periods

Two quarters spans at least two campaign cycles, two sets of seasonal conditions, and two months-long stretches of audience behaviour. That breadth is enough to distinguish a one-off result from a genuine pattern. A single quarter can be skewed by a seasonal spike, a viral post, or a platform algorithm change. Two quarters smooths that out.

It Keeps Findings Relevant to Current Strategy

Content posted more than six months ago often reflects a different set of goals, a different posting frequency, or a platform algorithm that no longer applies. Auditing too far back can produce findings that are technically accurate but practically out of date. The two-quarter window keeps the output actionable.

When a Different Time Frame Makes More Sense

In practice, posting volume affects the right window length. Accounts that post multiple times per day may find that 90 days produces enough data. Accounts that post once or twice per week may need a full 12 months to gather a comparable number of posts.

Those are reasonable practical adjustments, but they do not change the HubSpot certification answer. For the exam, two quarters is correct regardless of posting frequency.

When Performing a Social Media Content Audit Begin by Looking at These Seven Steps

Step 1: Gather All Content From the Last Two Quarters

Open a spreadsheet and log every post published across all active platforms during the two-quarter window. For each post, record the date, platform, content type (image, video, carousel, text), a brief description of the topic, and the direct URL. This becomes your social media audit checklist and the base layer all analysis builds on.

Teams that skip this step and go directly to metrics often find themselves working from incomplete data. Native analytics dashboards do not always surface every post, particularly older ones or posts with low reach.

Step 2: Pull Engagement Metrics for Each Post

Once the post log is complete, add a metrics column for each of the following: reach, impressions, likes, comments, shares, saves, link clicks, and for video content, average watch time. These are your engagement metrics, and they tell different parts of the story.

Pull these figures from native platform analytics where possible. Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, TikTok Analytics, and Meta Business Suite all provide post-level data without requiring a third-party tool. For accounts managing multiple platforms, a tool like Sprout Social or Hootsuite can consolidate the data into a single export, though free alternatives like native CSV exports work for smaller accounts.

Step 3: Identify Top-Performing and Underperforming Content

Sort the spreadsheet by engagement rate rather than raw likes. According to Hootsuite, engagement rate measures how many people interact with content relative to reach rather than raw follower count, which makes it a fairer comparison between posts. A post with 200 likes but a reach of 500 outperformed a post with 500 likes but a reach of 10,000.

Look for patterns across the top quartile: do videos consistently outperform images, do certain topics generate more comments, does posting on specific days produce higher reach. Then do the same for the bottom quartile to identify what to reduce or stop.

Step 4: Check Content Against Current Goals

For each post, consider whether the content reflected the brand's goals at the time it was published. A content performance review is a positioning check as much as a metrics exercise. Posts that performed well but promoted a discontinued product or used outdated messaging may need to be archived even if their engagement numbers look good.

Step 5: Review Audience Growth Over the Period

Plot net follower change week by week across the two quarters. Cross-reference spikes and drops against the post log. If a particular week saw a sharp increase in followers, identify what was published that week. If a drop coincided with a change in posting frequency, that is worth noting.

Audience growth is a lagging signal. It does not respond instantly to individual posts, but over two quarters it reflects whether the overall content direction is attracting or losing the intended audience.

Step 6: Flag Negative Feedback and Off-Brand Posts

Record any posts that received complaints, were edited after publishing, or generated audience responses that were not aligned with the brand's intended tone. These are as informative as high-performing posts. They indicate which topics, formats, or tones to avoid in future.

Step 7: Document Findings and Build an Action Plan

This step is absent from most published guides on the topic, but it is what turns an audit into a usable output. As noted in the audit framework from Sprout Social, sharing audit findings with the broader team is what makes the exercise actionable rather than a one-time data exercise.

A completed spreadsheet with metrics is not an audit result. The result is a short document that states: which content themes to continue, which formats to reduce or stop, a recommended posting frequency based on observed engagement patterns, and one or two strategic adjustments for the next quarter.

Without this step, the audit data sits in a spreadsheet and changes nothing.

Platform-Specific Considerations

The audit process is the same across platforms, but the metrics that matter most and the tools available to pull them differ. The table below outlines what to prioritise on each platform. Teams managing three or more platforms commonly find that consolidating this data into a single spreadsheet before comparing results saves significant time during analysis.

Platform	Key Metrics to Audit	Native Analytics Tool
Instagram	Reach, saves, story views, reel plays	Instagram Insights
LinkedIn	Impressions, click-through rate, follower growth	LinkedIn Analytics
TikTok	Video views, average watch time, shares	TikTok Analytics
Facebook	Reach, post clicks, page likes growth	Meta Business Suite
X (Twitter)	Impressions, link clicks, reposts	X Analytics

Applying the same metrics framework across every platform without adjustment produces misleading comparisons. A save on Instagram signals intent and interest in a way that a repost on X does not, and average watch time on TikTok reflects something different from view count alone. Read each platform's metrics on their own terms first, then look for cross-platform patterns.

Metrics Reference Table

The table below summarises the core metrics used in a social media content audit, what each one indicates, and where to find it.

Metric	What It Indicates	Where to Find It
Engagement rate	How actively the audience interacts relative to reach	Calculated or found in platform analytics
Reach	Number of unique accounts that saw the post	Native platform insights
Follower growth rate	Whether content is attracting new audience over time	Platform analytics across the audit period
Content type breakdown	Which formats perform best across the account	Manual categorisation in the audit spreadsheet
Posting frequency	Whether output volume correlates with engagement	Post log in the spreadsheet
Negative feedback rate	Volume of complaints, removals, or critical comments	Platform notifications and analytics

Common Mistakes When Starting a Content Audit

Auditing fewer than 30 days of content is the most common error. The data set is too small to distinguish patterns from outliers, and a single high-performing post can distort the findings.

Auditing more than 12 months without a specific goal creates the opposite problem. The volume of data becomes difficult to act on, and the oldest content reflects conditions that no longer apply.

Applying the same audit criteria to every platform without adjustment leads to inaccurate conclusions. Each platform has different norms, different algorithms, and different audience expectations.

Stopping at data collection without producing a written action plan is where most audits fail. Collecting metrics is the analysis phase. The output phase, where findings become decisions, is what makes the audit useful.

Conclusion

When performing a social media content audit, begin by looking at the last two quarters of content. Review each post for engagement metrics, content type, and goal alignment, then document findings in a short action plan. Audits run twice per year produce the most consistent improvements.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the HubSpot answer for the social media content audit fill-in-the-blank question?

The correct answer is two quarters. This appears in the HubSpot Digital Marketing Course certification exam. Two quarters is approximately six months of published content.

Why do some sites say 90 days and others say six months to a year?

Third-party answer sites often paraphrase the original question or offer general industry guidance. Two quarters is the verbatim answer from the HubSpot course itself.

How often should a social media content audit be performed?

Most teams find that auditing twice per year, once every two quarters, aligns well with campaign planning cycles. Accounts with high posting volume may benefit from quarterly reviews.

What is the difference between a social media content audit and a full social media audit?

A content audit reviews published posts and their performance data. A full social media audit also covers profile completeness, brand consistency, competitor positioning, and follower demographics.

What tools can help with a social media content audit?

Native analytics tools on each platform cover most needs. Instagram Insights, LinkedIn Analytics, TikTok Analytics, and Meta Business Suite all provide post-level data. For multi-platform accounts, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or a manually maintained spreadsheet are practical options.