Ever wondered how to make your business stand out on social media? It’s all about knowing your competition. This involves studying and understanding the social media landscape within your industry and mastering the art of social media competitive analysis. It ensures that you stay ahead strategically and position your brand for success.
In this blog, we’ll decode the secrets of social media competitive analysis and explore how to leverage this knowledge to elevate your brand’s presence. Read on!
Understanding a Social Media Competitor Analysis
Social media competitive analysis is a structured examination of competitors’ digital presence, strategies, and performance across various social media platforms. It involves assessing factors such as platform engagement, content strategy, follower demographics, and campaign effectiveness to glean actionable insights.
Here’s a complete breakdown of what it entails:
Platform Presence
Identify where your competitors have a presence on social media. For example, understanding whether they dominate Instagram, rule X, or make waves on LinkedIn can provide crucial insights into their chosen platforms and audience engagement.
This would help you identify which social media platform is working best for them and if there is a gap in the digital world that you can fill. Platform presence also involves analyzing the frequency and consistency of their posts on these platforms.
Content Strategy
Examine the type of content your competitors share, including the tone and messaging in their content. This helps in determining the type of content your audience mostly engages with so that you can cater similar forms of content to your target audience.
Engagement Metrics and Follower Demographics
Engagement metrics such as likes, shares, comments, and retweets are compared and analyzed to understand which posts are striking a chord with the audience.
Competitor analysis also analyzes the demographics of your competitors’ followers to check if they are reaching the same demographic groups you’re targeting or if there is a gap you can exploit.
Campaigns and Promotions
Explore any social media campaigns or promotions your competitors are running. This way, you can gain valuable insights into their marketing strategies and identify potential opportunities for your own brand.
A great example of this is when Burger King cleverly took a dig at McDonald’s marketing campaigns and turned them into its own unique promotion. By playfully tweaking McDonald’s initiatives, Burger King managed to generate buzz and engagement and even win over some customers.
Similarly, you can craft a fitness marketing strategy to outrank your competitors, if you are into a fitness business. Exploring your competitor’s social media can enable you to find the gap you can fill in and to get a competitive edge over utilizing a free QR code generator for seamless integration of promotional materials.
How to Do a Social Media Competitor Analysis?
Utilizing the insights gained from social media competitive analysis can be a potent strategy to enhance your business’s social media marketing effectiveness.
As per statistics, where 90% of marketers have experienced increased exposure and 75% have witnessed a surge in traffic through social media efforts, it becomes evident that understanding and strategically responding to competitor activities is crucial.
Here’s how you can also carry out a successful social media competitor analysis for your brand or business in five simple steps:
Step 1: Define Objectives and Scope
Clearly outline the objectives and scope of your social media competitive analysis. Determine what specific insights or strategies you aim to gain from studying your competitors.
A well-defined scope sets the foundation for a successful analysis, whether it’s understanding audience engagement, evaluating content strategies, or tracking campaign performance.
Step 2: Identify Competitors and Platforms
The next step is to identify and compile a list of your main competitors in the industry. Include both direct competitors offering similar products/services and indirect competitors addressing the same customer needs differently.
Determine which social media platforms are most relevant to your industry and audience, as the choice of platforms can vary.
Step 3: Gather Data and Metrics
Utilize social media analytics tools to collect relevant data and metrics. Focus on key performance indicators (KPIs) such as follower demographics, engagement rates, content effectiveness, and campaign performance. These tools and platform analytics can provide valuable quantitative insights for a comprehensive analysis. For instance, if you’re running a marketing campaign targeted towards a specific region, consider using a virtual phone number for WhatsApp to capture leads and gauge interest.
Step 4: Analyze Content and Engagement Strategies
Explore the content and engagement strategies of your competitors. Evaluate the type of content they share, the frequency of posts, and the overall engagement levels. Assess how competitors engage with their audience, respond to comments, and handle customer feedback on social media platforms.
Step 5: Lastly, Derive Insights and Implement Strategies
Based on the analysis, derive actionable insights that can inform and enhance your social media strategies. Identify strengths and weaknesses in your competitors’ approaches and capitalize on opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, engage with your audience more effectively and stay competitive.
Top 5 Tools to Help You With Social Media Competitive Analysis
Choosing the right social media analysis tool depends on your specific needs, preferences, and budgets.
However, investing in one of these platforms offers a range of features to enhance your social media competitive analysis efforts.
Here is a list of the best social media analysis tools available on the market today:
1. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform that goes beyond scheduling posts. It offers features for competitive analysis that allow users to track competitor profiles, monitor engagement, and analyze performance metrics.
Features Offered:
- Engagement Analytics: Provides detailed insights into competitor engagement metrics.
- Competitor Comparison: This enables a side-by-side comparison of your brand’s performance against competitors.
- Audience Demographics: Offers audience insights to understand competitor follower demographics.
Pricing:
The Standard plan is available at $249/month and offers fundamental features for businesses seeking an entry-level solution. The Professional plan is priced at $399/month and is recognized as the most popular choice. For those seeking advanced capabilities, the Advanced plan is priced at $499 per month.
2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool with a dedicated analytics module. It allows users to track competitors, monitor industry trends, and measure the impact of social media campaigns.
Features Offered:
- Customizable Dashboards: Tailor dashboards to focus on specific competitors or metrics.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Keeps users updated with the real-time social media activity of competitors.
- Campaign Tracking: Easily track and analyze the performance of competitor campaigns.
Pricing:
The Professional Plan begins at a starting price of $99/month when billed annually, which makes it an accessible choice for individual users or small businesses.
If you’re part of a team and require collaborative functionalities, the Team Plan is available for $249/month. Moreover, for larger enterprises with unique and complex needs, custom plans are available.
3. Socialbee
Socialbee is an AI-powered social media management tool with a focus on automation and growth. It includes features for competitor analysis, audience targeting, and content optimization.
Features Offered:
- Competitor Comparison Reports: Generate detailed reports for benchmarking against competitors.
- Content Curation Insights: Identify content that resonates with competitors’ audiences.
- Audience Targeting Recommendations: Receive recommendations based on competitors’ successful audience engagement.
Pricing:
The Bootstrap plan is priced at $29/month or $24.2/month when billed annually. The Accelerate plan, priced at $49/month or $40.8/month annually, is crafted for small businesses. For agencies and larger teams, the Pro plan is available at $99/month or $82.5/month annually.
4. BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo specializes in content discovery and social media analysis. It helps users identify trending topics, influential content, and competitor strategies for effective content planning.
Features Offered:
- Content Performance Analysis: Assess the most shared content from competitors.
- Influencer Identification: Identify influencers engaging with competitors.
- Trending Topics: Stay informed about industry trends and popular content.
Pricing:
Pricing plans at BuzzSumo start at $199/month for individual content creators, whereas its most popular pricing plan (Suite) is priced at $499/month. It also has an Enterprise plan with unlimited searches and up to 30 users, priced at $999/month.
5. Semrush
While primarily known for SEO, SEMrush extends its capabilities to social media analytics. It provides insights into competitors’ social media strategies, keyword usage, and overall online presence.
Features Offered:
- Social Media Posts Analysis: Evaluate competitors’ posting strategies and frequency.
- Backlink Analysis: Understand the impact of social media on competitors’ backlink profiles.
- Content Engagement: Measure the effectiveness of competitors’ content in terms of shares and engagement.
Pricing:
The SEMrush Pro plan, priced at $129.95/month, provides essential features for small businesses looking to enhance their online presence. Next up, the SEMrush Guru plan, available at $249.95/month, is tailored for mid-size businesses. For larger enterprises, the SEMrush Business plan is priced at $499.95/month.
Understanding the Importance of Social Media Analysis for Brands and Businesses
The online marketplace has more than 200 million businesses competing for attention on Instagram.
The key to success lies in cutting through the noise and reaching your precise audience. This is where social media competitive analysis becomes the guiding light for strategic precision.
Let’s understand how competitive analysis helps your brand or business reach your target audience effectively:
It Helps You Understand Audience Sentiment
Social media analysis allows you to determine the sentiment or opinion surrounding your brand in the digital space. By tracking mentions, comments, and discussions, you can understand how your audience perceives your brand. This, in turn, helps you tailor your strategies to address any concerns that may arise within your target audience. High-quality visuals from conference photography can also serve as a powerful tool in monitoring and positively influencing audience perception.
It Helps with Informed Decision-Making
Running a successful social media campaign is not a cakewalk. A lot of data and decision-making goes into running a successful campaign. Informed decision-making becomes possible as social media analysis reveals trends, patterns, and consumer preferences.
Helps with Efficient Customer Relationship Management
When you introduce your brand/business on a social media platform like Instagram or Facebook, you just cannot ignore the customer feedback.
Social media analysis enables you to actively listen to this feedback by addressing concerns promptly. Subsequently, it builds a positive online presence for your brand, creates trust, and contributes to long-term brand success.
Final Words on a Social Media Competitor Analysis
In this highly competitive online world, it is crucial to check out what your competitors are doing on social media. This helps you understand what people like, what’s trending, and what your audience is resonating with.
By monitoring your rivals, you can see what works well for them, get inspired to try new things, and make your own business stand out. This way, you can not only stay relevant but also stay ahead of the curve in your industry.