Learning how to analyze competitors on social media will reveal the strategies you can leverage to increase your competitive advantage.
As we always say at Blumy Content Solutions, to stand out, you have to rise above the digital noise. But you can’t rise above it when you don’t know what your competitors are doing better.
In this guide, we will discuss how you can analyze what your rivals are doing online.
What is Competitive Market Analysis?
It involves researching your rivals to gain insights into their products, marketing tactics, and sales. The competitive analysis enables you to evaluate your competitor’s current social media strategies to determine their strengths and weaknesses.
It also involves benchmarking your social media strategies against the top performers in your industry. It enables you to identify new opportunities for growth and strategies you can improve to raise your performance levels.
In summary, a social media competitive analysis should help you achieve the following objectives:
- Identify your competitors on social media
- Know which social media platforms your rivals are using
- Identify how your competitors are using social media platforms to gain a competitive advantage
- Pinpoint the social media and content strategies that are working for the competition
- Identify gaps in your social media marketing strategy
- Benchmark your results against the competitors
- Identify threats to your social media strategies
Steps to Analyze Competitors on Social Media
Now let’s discuss the process of evaluating your rivals:
1. Identify Your Social Media Competitors
To analyze your competitors on social media, first know who they are. Here is how you do it:
Identify Competitive Keywords
When developing your social media strategy, you researched keywords that would enable your content to rank. Find the keywords that highlight the brands in your industry.
For example, let’s say your business is a financial consulting firm in LA. You can research the following keywords:
- Best financial consulting firm in LA
- Best financial consulting firm in California
- Affordable financial consulting firm in LA
- Financial Consultation Services in LA
- LA financial consultation firms
Check Who’s Ranking for Those Keywords in Google
Once you have a list of the top and related keywords, record their related average monthly searches and competition levels.
Then Google search the top-ranking keywords and observe the brands on the first page. Visit their websites and find links to their social media profiles.
Fine-tune the Keyword Search to Social Media Sites
The brands that rank high for your keywords in Google search may not necessarily be the ones on top on social media. Therefore, prioritize the brands that appear on top on social search results since you are analyzing social media competitors.
For example, paste your keywords in Facebook search box. Filter for more relevant results by clicking on the ‘Pages’ tab to see the existing brands.
Identify Similar Brands Your Audience Follows
Use your social media analytics to find and evaluate your competitors. For example, Twitter analytics and Facebook audience insights offer details of other brands your audience follows on social media.
That’s because customers in the consideration stage are more likely to follow several brands in the same industry to help them identify which is best suited to their needs. Record the brands in your industry that your customers follow.
Narrow Down the List of Competitors
Your analysis will be more insightful if you focus on a few top competitors. Narrow down your list to no more than five of the top brands. Ensure these brands also serve your target niche, as these are your direct competitors.
2. Gather Insights and Data on Your Top Competitors
The process involves spying on your selected rivals by going through their social media pages. Make sure you gather insights on the following details about your competitors:
- The social media platforms they are on
- The type of content they are sharing
- How often they post
- Their brand voice
- How your target audience engages with their content
- The hashtags they use in their posts
- The number of followers they have and how fast they increase
These insights will enable you to compare your rivals’ performance with your business. Therefore, as soon you are done collecting your top competitors’ data, ensure you do the same for your business.
3. Compare Your Performance
The only way to know where you stand in the competition charts is by plotting against the competitors. That entails using competitive analysis techniques such as SWOT to compare the data you just collected.
A SWOT analysis allows you to utilize qualitative and quantitative metrics to gauge where your brand stands. The analysis focuses on a specific niche; hence, your findings will enable you to develop strategies that offer you a competitive edge.
Image: an example of a social media SWOT analysis
Ultimately, the SWOT analysis will help you uncover the following details about your brand and competitors.
- What are your competitors doing better than you?
- What are you doing better than your competitors?
- What new market trends are your competitors taking advantage of?
- Who or what poses a danger to your brand’s position in the market niche?
- Where are your competitors struggling?
4. Utilize Social Media Competitive Analysis Tools
Social media competitive analysis tools simplify the process of analyzing your performance against competitors. The tools provide insights to improve your performance.
For example, it is a tedious process going through all your competitors’ social media pages and evaluating their content, strategies, and customer engagement. The tools enable you to gather platform-specific data for all your top competitors.
Social media platforms ranked by popularity
Some tools even provide results across all social media platforms on one page saving you time. We love these social media competitive analysis tools:
- Hootsuite
- Sprout Social
- Meta Business Suite
- Kompyte
- SemRush
- Mentionlytics
5. Refine Your Social Media Strategy
All the data you’ve collected and the analysis you have done will only matter if it helps you boost your social media performance. Go ahead and adjust your strategy where you find it necessary to do so.
Hint: look at the SWOT analysis once again and find out the opportunities your brand should exploit.
Contact Us for Help Refining Your Strategy
Would you like to refine your current strategy to attract customers who will buy from you? We’ll help you develop a competitive strategy based on the data we collect from your social media competitor analysis. Fill out the form to contact us or book a consultation to get started.