Finding your competitors on social media and analyzing their performance is crucial for any business looking to succeed in the digital landscape. With over 4 billion daily active social media users worldwide, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more have become integral marketing channels. Understanding what your competitors are doing on social media provides valuable insights that can inform your own social strategy.
Why is competitive social media analysis important?
Competitive analysis serves several key purposes:
- See what social platforms and tactics your competitors use to identify new opportunities for your brand.
- Compare their performance metrics to benchmark your own social media efforts.
- Learn what type of content resonates with your target audience.
- Discover potential partnerships and influencer marketing opportunities.
- Gain inspiration for your own social content and strategy.
- Identify their weaknesses and differentiate your social presence.
In essence, researching competitor social media activity allows you to make data-driven decisions for your social strategy and ultimately gain a competitive edge.
How to find and analyze competitors on social media
Follow this step-by-step process:
1. Identify your competitors
Start by creating a list of your top competitors. These may include:
- Direct competitors – Businesses offering similar products/services targeting the same audience.
- Indirect competitors – Businesses with different offerings but competing for the same customers.
- Market leaders – Most prominent brands in your industry.
Aim for 5-10 of the most relevant competitors to analyze.
2. Search for their social media profiles
Now conduct searches to find your competitors’ social media accounts. Search for their business name and branded hashtags/keywords across platforms like:
| Platform | Things to Search |
|---|---|
| Page name, @username | |
| @username | |
| @username, #hashtags | |
| YouTube | Channel name |
| Company page |
3. Analyze their social media presence
Once you’ve found their profiles, dive deeper into analyzing their social media presence and activity:
- Followers/Fans – How big is their audience? How does it compare to yours?
- Engagement – What types of content gets the most likes, comments, and shares? Look at engagement rates too.
- Posting Frequency – How often do they post? What days/times?
- Content Types – Do they focus on video, images, carousels? Any interactive content?
- CTAs – Do they use calls-to-action in posts? Are they directing traffic to their site?
- Hashtags – What branded and industry hashtags are they using? Any unique ones you can leverage?
- Partnerships – Are they collaborating with influencers or other brands?
- Advertising – Are they running paid social ads? What types?
Track this data over time to identify trends and changes in their strategy.
4. Compile your findings into a competitive intelligence report
The next step is consolidating your research into a competitive intelligence report. This report summarizes key information on each competitor to easily compare.
Include:
- Overview table of competitors’ social media profiles and followers
- Benchmarking their engagement rates vs. industry averages
- Breakdown of content types and top-performing content
- Summary of their posting cadence and tactics
- List of key influencers and brand partnerships
Formatting your findings into an organized report makes it easier to digest the intelligence and glean actionable insights.
5. Identify opportunities to differentiate and enhance your strategy
With your completed competitive analysis, ask yourself:
- What are my competitor’s strengths and weaknesses on social media?
- What platforms or tactics are they not effectively leveraging?
- What opportunities do I have to differentiate my brand?
- How can I create more engaging content by learning from what resonates with our target audience?
- Who are potential content partners or influencers I can collaborate with?
Then develop an action plan to capitalize on these opportunities and improve your own social media strategy.
6. Continue monitoring competitors regularly
Competitive social media analysis is not a one-time exercise. Set a reminder to redo your research quarterly or every 6 months.
Ongoing monitoring lets you stay on top of new trends and adjust your strategy accordingly. Use social listening tools to track competitors automatically.
Fast-changing social platforms mean you must continually analyze competitors to remain competitive.
Tools to analyze competitors on social media
Conducting competitive research manually is time-consuming. Using the right social media analytics tools can streamline the process.
Here are some top tools for competitor analysis:
BuzzSumo – Discover top-performing content and influencers for any topic or competitor website.
Socialbakers – Track competitors’ social media performance with pre-built competitive reports.
Hootsuite – Monitor brand mentions and keywords related to competitors.
Sprout Social – Set up listening streams for competitors’ profiles, hashtags, etc.
Mention – Get alerted when competitors are mentioned online.
NetBase Quid – Powerful social listening with sentiment analysis and content analytics.
These tools range from free plans up to enterprise-level capabilities. Select one fitting your budget and needs.
Key takeaways
Here are the key points for conducting competitor social media analysis:
- Research competitors on all relevant social platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, and more.
- Benchmark competitors’ performance and tactics versus your own.
- Leverage tools like BuzzSumo, Socialbakers, and Sprout Social to streamline tracking.
- Create a competitive intelligence report to consolidate your research.
- Identify strategic opportunities to improve your social presence.
- Monitor competitors regularly to adjust your social strategy over time.
Competitor analysis is critical for boosting your social media game. Follow these steps to unlock data-driven insights that will fuel your content, engagement, and social advertising. With the right competitive intelligence, you will gain a winning edge on social.
Conclusion
In summary, monitoring and analyzing competitors’ social media activity provides tremendous value for shaping your own social strategy and content. Dedicate time to thoroughly research key competitors across the major platforms. Dig into their posting cadence, engagement levels, content partnerships, and advertising approaches. Compile your findings into an organized report to easily compare competitors and identify opportunities. Make competitor analysis a regular practice to keep gaining strategic insights. With consistent competitive intelligence, you can craft social content and campaigns that resonate better with your audience. Competitor research is a crucial investment for social media success.