Competitors’ Analysis on Social Media – How to Do It Right? With Stewart Dunlop

Let’s face it: social media can seem scary to a business (regardless of size) trying to promote their services/products. There are so many platforms and, when you do choose one, it feels like you just entered a savage race for customers’ attention.

However, with over four billion people using this environment, businesses can’t afford to ignore it. In fact, social media is an important step when you want to create an online presence for your startup because it helps you build a relationship with future customers and boost sales.

The good news is that others have done it before you, so you can use their experience to build an efficient strategy. So, today we’ll talk about how to study your competitors’ activity on social media and how to learn from it.

Identify your Competitors on Social Media [Optional Step]

This is the first step towards a high-quality analysis, but you should only take it if you don’t already know the name of the main competitor brands.

As such, start by looking for businesses similar to yours, but don’t limit yourself at small or medium-sized companies. Even if your startup is activating at a local level, you can still learn from a nation-wide strategy.

Perform the search based on services and products you provide but also include a Google search using the keywords people use to find your company. This way, you’ll be presented with companies with a similar profile to yours.

Gather Data – Free Tools You Can Use

Once you’ve identified your main competitors, you need to decide on the platforms you want to follow (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) and start the data gathering phase.

Quick tip: Most successful social media campaigns happen on the main platforms, but it’s important to adapt your strategy according to your customers’ preferences. This means that, if you know your audience likes a specific type of platform, this is the one on which you should focus.

The data gathering phase is basically a period of observation where you take notice of the competitors’ behavior on the channel(s) you consider important. Since the amount of data is huge, we recommend using tools that were specifically designed to analyze social media activity.

For instance, a tool like Fanpage Karma (free to use with limited accessibility to features) follows accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest. However, the tool does its best job analyzing Facebook accounts. You will get information on top posts, engagement by specific hours in the day, growth, and more.

Another great tool to consider is Twitonomy (also with a free option), but it only analyzes Twitter accounts.

Analyze the Data

Once you have a significant amount of data, it’s time to start the analysis.

Look for metrics that talk about engagement such as:

Frequency of Posts – how often do the competitors post?

Actions when people comment on posts – do they respond or like the comments?

You will notice that brands who engage with their following (post often, respond to comments, and more) are the most successful.

Another important metric is the type of content they share. Pay attention to the formats that show up most often (video, blog posts, images, and so on) and the percentage of promotional posts. To calculate this, take a look at their latest 5 to 10 posts and make a note of the number of posts that include a call to action element (link to visit, a contest, a sale, and so on).

Some marketers also like to consider the tone competitors use when posting on social media. For instance, do they post in the name of the brand (we are doing this) or they allow individuals to represent the brand?

Still, your brand’s voice should be tailored to your unique audience, so it’s not a good idea to copy the tone you find to be most successful.

Quick tip: You should also analyze the main competitors’ site content (even though it’s not exactly social media).

Implement What You’ve Learned

The final stage of the analysis is drawing the conclusions and implementing them into your own activity. Otherwise, the time and effort you invested will be in vain.

The first thing to keep in mind is that this analysis provides you with general guidance and is not to be copied exactly into your own strategy. For instance, such an analysis can show that some of the social media channels you’ve been targeting are not worth the investment. The result of this finding is a reorientation of your promotional efforts.

If, for instance, the percentage of promotional posts is low in your niche, you should make sure to stay in the same bracket. This shows your audience is sensitive to this kind of posts and you don’t want to force things. However, you can play with the limits and make a note on the reaction.

Overall, the competitors’ analysis on social media is useful in providing some light in the brushwood of this environment, but it’s not an accurate map.

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