How can you analyze social media competition?

1 Identify your competitors

The first step is to identify who your main competitors are on social media. You can start by listing the brands or businesses that offer similar products or services, target similar audiences, or operate in similar markets as you do. Then, you can use tools like BuzzSumo or Social Blade to find out how popular and influential they are on different social media channels, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn. You can also use these tools to discover other potential competitors that you may not be aware of, based on their content, keywords, or hashtags.

2 Define your metrics

The next step is to define what metrics you want to use to measure and compare your social media performance with your competitors. Depending on your goals and objectives, you may want to focus on different aspects of your social media presence, such as reach, engagement, sentiment, traffic, conversions, or revenue. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or Twitter Analytics to track and report on these metrics for your own accounts. However, to access and analyze your competitors' data, you may need to use third-party tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or SEMrush, which can provide you with more comprehensive and comparative insights.

3 Analyze your strengths and weaknesses

The third step is to analyze your strengths and weaknesses based on the metrics you defined. You can use tools like SWOT analysis or competitive matrix to visualize and evaluate how you stack up against your competitors on different dimensions of your social media strategy. For example, you can compare your audience size, growth rate, engagement rate, content quality, content mix, posting frequency, response time, brand voice, customer feedback, or influencer partnerships. You can also look for gaps and opportunities in your competitors' strategies that you can exploit or avoid.

4 Benchmark your performance

The fourth step is to benchmark your performance against your competitors and industry standards. You can use tools like social media benchmarks or social media scorecards to set realistic and achievable goals and targets for your social media performance, based on your competitors' average or best results. You can also use these tools to monitor and track your progress and improvement over time, and to identify areas where you need to improve or adjust your strategy.

5 Learn from your competitors

The fifth step is to learn from your competitors' successes and failures. You can use tools like social media audits or social media case studies to examine and understand how your competitors execute their social media strategies, what works and what doesn't work for them, and what lessons and best practices you can apply to your own strategy. You can also use tools like social listening or social media surveys to gather feedback and insights from your competitors' audiences, such as their preferences, opinions, needs, pain points, or expectations.

6 Adjust your strategy

The final step is to adjust your strategy based on the results of your analysis. You can use tools like social media calendars or social media templates to plan and implement changes and improvements to your social media strategy, such as creating new content, testing new formats, experimenting with new channels, optimizing your timing, refining your targeting, or enhancing your communication. You can also use tools like social media dashboards or social media reports to measure and evaluate the impact and effectiveness of your changes and improvements, and to communicate your results and achievements to your stakeholders.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?