Competitor Research in Social Media

July 31, 2023

Social Media

Social Media Competitor Research is a step in the right direction if you want to get ahead of them. This will include creating detailed analyses on how competitors act and conduct themselves on social media.

If you have no idea where to start, keep on reading as we’ll guide you through how to conduct a proper Social Media Competitor Research, but let’s start off by discussing it first.

What is Social Media Competitor Research?

Marketing as a whole has come so far, and social media is a necessary tool for most companies to reach their target audiences, and to overall establish a good online reputation. Because of this, almost all (if not all) companies use social media for their businesses and it is important to utilize this fact in researching about them.

Why is Social Media Competitor Research important?

Analyzing a competitor will allow you to stay ahead of them, or to simply just not fall behind. It can also be a way to recognize how your competitors increase their own brand awareness, improve their social media presence, and overall how they conduct themselves on social media.

What is in a Social Media Competition Analysis

A good competitor analysis will and should contain the strengths and weaknesses of competitors which will help make a better social media strategy of your own. If a social media strategy is not in place yet, then this can also be the first step in making one.

A great analysis on competitors will almost always include their:

Social media content

Social media profiles

Frequency of posts, how many posts are made a day, etc.

How they engage with netizens

How to Analyze a Competitor’s Social Media Presence

Now that we’ve gotten the basics out of the way, let’s get onto how to make a great and detailed analysis of a competitor’s social media. Below you shall find a guide on how to do so.

Identify the competitors

You won’t be able to create a competitor analysis if you don’t even know who the competitors are. The first step is to obviously figure out the top competitors in relevant industries the company is in. These can differ a lot of times since the biggest corporations do not exactly compete with small businesses.

An easy way to do this is to conduct simple searches on Google, sending out online surveys, or even conversing with other people.

Gather data!

Gathering data is more complicated than it seems and will soon require the help of tools that can be easily found online. There are many social media analysis tools at our disposal, the easiest to access being the new Google Analytics 4.

Once the competitors have been identified, it is time to collect data about them on specific platforms.

There are lots of social media platforms out there, but there is what we like to call the Big Three when it comes to social media: Facebook, Instagram, and the newly named X (previously Twitter).

Given that, we now need to know the:

Platforms being used by competitors

The type of content they post

Their audience

How their audience reacts and engages with the competitor

These will help provide surface information about a competitor and how they interact with their target audience. By this time as well, you should already grasp some basic strengths and weaknesses that they have.

Check competitor metrics

The next step would be to check the competitor’s social media metrics. This part is easier than the previous one since these can be checked just by simply going to the competitor’s social media profile.

The things to check on the profile are as follows:

The amount of followers

How often the competitor posts

Average amount of engagements per post

Lastly, check for improvements!

The last step in creating an analysis of social media competitors is to figure out what areas that need to be improved by you.

Take into consideration the following:

Are there social media trends that you haven’t been utilizing?

Do you cater to your audience similar to how the competitor does?

Do competitors get different engagements based on the social media platform used?

It is important to look for things that the competitors lack and what areas they are strong in to figure out what things you need to keep doing or things that need to stop. Basically, what the competitor lacks in, do more of it.

Is Social Media Competitor Research feasible?

Everyone nowadays uses social media, and it has heavily impacted how marketers create useful strategies. Social media is a very effective way to reach audiences which is why a lot of businesses establish good online presences.

Creating an analysis of a competitor’s social media presence is the most straightforward way to get ahead of them, as well as figure out what areas need to be improved on in relation to social media.