Are You Conducting A Social Media Competitive Analysis for Your Business? It is vital for you to: 💎 See how you stack up against your competitors 💎Identify what content performs best in your competitive landscape 💎See how audiences engage with your competitors 💎See how your competitors engage with their audiences
5 Steps to Conduct A Social Media Competitive Analysis:
1. Identify your Competitors!
This can be as easy as Googling your niche/industry using relative keywords (eg. Digital Marketing Service) and if you are a small business with a physical presence make sure to include your location and important keywords (eg. Sligo + Wild Atlantic Way + 'Sligo Who Knew')
You may not also realize that Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, Pinterest, Twitter are ALL Search Engines for you to utilize!
2. Gather Data
Here you can take a deeper dive into your competitor's Facebook, Instagram etc presence. Gathering data in terms of Likes, Follows, Shares, Comments/Engagement, their campaigns, the kind of content they post including videos, images, and blogs...
Analyze their website - what kind of content are they prioritizing, what is their messaging. Take a look at their blog (if they have one!) - this may help you identify what kind of messaging is resonating with your industry audience.
3. Calculate Their Engagement Rate
While this approach is not foolproof, it does offer some important insights into whether that competitor with 20K followers is really getting the engagement you may think they do.
You can calculate the Engagement Rate by:
Totaling the number engagements they receive on a given platform like Instagram (likes, comments, shares), and divide that by the number of Followers. You then get the Engagement rate by dividing this number by the number of posts.
Eg. Local Hair Salon: 9,000 followers & 12 posts
Total Engagements: 1944 ÷ 9000 = 0.216 ÷ 12 = 0.018 (Rate of Engagement)
To get the percentage multiply by 100.
SO, the Engagement Rate for this account is 1.8%
The average engagement rate on Instagram for an account of this size is 4% so this business, while having many followers, is not taking full advantage of it's profile online.
You can do this for your biggest competitors and compare their rate to yours. This will give you a good impression of the impact you are having in your niche industry. It will also serve as a reminder that even if your competitor has more followers they may not be making that much of a real impact within your niche.
4. Analyze Their Activity Online
Ask questions like:
How often are they posting - are they leaving long gaps of time or are they posting consistently?
Are they responding to comments?
Are they making use of the tools at their disposal ie Polls/ Questions/ Live on Facebook and Instagram?
Are they posting a lot of Promotional material or are they leaning into more storytelling/personal posts?
5. Use Your Findings
Now that you have gathered your data, and hopefully learned more about your competitors activity, you can compile this data into a spreadsheet or report to present to your manager or for your own reference.
It is important to work a competitive analysis into every Social Media Strategy we create for our clients. The trick is to make sure to continue using it as a tool to stay on top of changing trends. You can also get a leg up on your competitors by using some of their own tactics!
In many respects the internet and social media is a meritocracy, if you are creating quality content and are engaging with your audience you will have success.
This process is important on another level, as it demystifies your competitor and their perceived leverage in the market. This can give you the confidence to Up-Level your own digital marketing strategy and take your business to new heights!
Remember: Followers do not equal Brand Loyalty, and Likes do not equal Engagement.