Information from this blog was obtained from Entrepreneur, Hootsuite, and Digital Doughnut
Most people say to beat your competitors or don't allow them to know your secrets. Some even say to cut off all ties with your competitors. Although I believe that these sayings are half-truths, I say why not use your competitors to help your own company?
Conduct a Competitive Analysis
Why is it important to see what your competition is doing? I think we can all answer that question. However, you might have not ever thought to do a competitive analysis to see where your company sits compared to theirs. I am not saying that you need to compare a company like Google or Amazon, however, look to a company that is similar in age, size, and location. So after finding those competing companies, what do you look for? In Hootsuite's article found here, they talk about knowing the platforms they are on, how they use them, understanding the strategy, and lastly finding out the social threats to your social media platform. These are important because if you can figure out what your competition does well and what they do not do well, then you can start to narrow down what the ideal target market is. Now, I understand that at this stage you probably know your target market, however, you will be able to understand the new taste in the market. You also will be able to position yourself above the competition. Lastly, if you also find out about the social threats, you will be preparing yourself for worst-case scenarios, or even preparing how to stay on the popular trend.
Beat Your Competitors' Strategies
Hopefully, it does not come as a surprise that the next thing we mention is going to try and beat your competition. I mean that is how you survive as a business but it might seem tricky to do. Here are a few tips that we have gathered from reading the article from Digital Doughnut. First off, do an Audit of your brand. This is just going to help you understand what you are doing well and what you can compare with your competitors. Since we already did a competitive analysis, really one of the few things left is to research your target market and the trends. Once you can figure out your market and consumers, you can adjust to have a really good social media strategy. This will help to create a social media strategy, to help with the content calendar and posting on social media. Just make sure you are posting regularly and always remember to stick to your strategy. One last thing to point out is that you always need to measure your post influence. Look to data analytics to help you measure what you did well and what you didn't.
Figure Out If You Are Succeeding
How do you know if you are succeeding? That is the question we receive a lot. Well, the first thing to look for is how much influence has your Social Media gained. Are people following you on social media, what does your engagement look like? Are people commenting on your posts? These are just a few examples of KPIs to look at. After reading this article from Entrepreneur, we have come to the conclusion that really the only way to find out how successful you have been by using benchmarking. This quote is taken straight out of Entrepreneur's article titled How to Succeed on Social Media By Using Your Competitors:
"Benchmarks are very similar to key performance indicators (KPIs), but while KPIs can get a little muddled in wish-fulfillment rather than reality, benchmarks use competitor and industry data to help markets define goals that are both actionable and achievable."
So essentially, benchmarking is analyzing the data given to you by competitors in your industry to help you set realistic goals. By doing this and achieving what is doable, you will know if your marketing efforts are successful. All in all, using your competition and the data they give you is something we should all be doing to help our companies become the leading giant in their industry.
To check out a similar article click here: The Best Ways to Research Social Media Marketing
Resources
Newberry, C., & Tien, S. (2021, June 1). How to do a competitive analysis on social media (tools and templates). Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://blog.hootsuite.com/competitive-analysis-on-social-media/
Tompkins, C. (2021, September 2). How to succeed on social media by using your competitors. Entrepreneur. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/379625
Ochwat, M. (2019, December 10). 10 tips to beat your competitor's Social Media Strategy. Digital Doughnut. Retrieved April 13, 2022, from https://www.digitaldoughnut.com/articles/2019/november/10-tips-to-beat-your-competitors-social-media
Comments