You need to track your competitors on social media. How can you do it better?

Start by identifying competitors in your industry. Maintain a comprehensive list and consistently conduct in-depth research on their content engagement and collaborations. Regularly analyze their strategies to gain insights.

Tracking your competitors on social media can help you gain insights into their strategies, performance, and audience. To do it better, you can follow these steps: • Identify your main social media competitors and the platforms they use. • Analyze their content, engagement, and sentiment to understand what works and what doesn't for them. • Benchmark your own results against theirs and identify your strengths and weaknesses. • Use social media competitor analysis tools to automate and simplify the process and get more data and insights. Some of the best social media competitor analysis tools are: • Hootsuite • SocialPilot • BrandMentions

In the competitive social media landscape, students like me must identify who we're up against, especially when aiming to grow our brand or channel. As a BTech student and YouTuber from Thapar University, I've learned that focusing on a few relevant competitors can provide actionable insights. I can uncover content gaps and engagement strategies by analyzing peers who excel in tech tutorials or AI discussions. This targeted approach is more effective than casting a wide net and trying to track every content creator out there.

Competitor analysis is one of the most helpful ways to drive your social media strategy, especially if you are starting from scratch. There's a lot of great tools out there that have been named, but at times they don't have everything you might be looking for - or they have limitations... so in my role at Penna Powers, I decided to create my own competitor analysis tool (thank you Google Sheets) to identify, track, sort, analyze (and even eliminate) competitors. From there, I pulled inspiration to help craft a strategy unique to my client and their goals. My customized competitor analysis tool has been used in every strategy I've created since. :)

- List down your industry competitors. - Monitor their social media presence & feeds along with using social listening tools. - Identify the pattern: frequency of posting, content, communication, responsiveness, community engagement, CTA's and conclude their strategy. - Check for Paid Ads through ad libraries. - Create a comprehensive comparison & record all the learnings. - Now align your business needs with your analysis report and hit the road.

After identifying competitors, select metrics based on objectives, platforms, and resources. Common metrics include reach (post and story visibility), engagement (likes, comments, shares, saves), sentiment (brand perception), growth (followers, fans, subscribers), and conversion (actions taken from social media). Tailor your metric selection to align with your specific goals and monitoring capabilities.

In my experience it's really hard to get a comprehensive picture of a competitor by looking at just a few metrics. They differ from channel to channel, might change in meaning and relevance over time (algorithm changes) and you may have to rely on third party software to aggregate them. So in 2018, we started developing an open source standard together with clients, academia, media and advertising associations which we called the maturity model. It uses 60 criteria for each social media channel and was applied to over 20 industries and refined in the process. It requires manual work but is also more transparent and even when things change, the overall result is still comparable over time. A great way to benchmark against others or yourself.

Engagement rate should be the first metric to study. Sure a brand can gain a large following but can it actually engage with its audience via its own socials? Lots of companies relay on influencers and other forms of media to connect with their audiences - the most successful however are able to provide value via their own social media. Engagement rate is a clear indicator of this value

Now, choosing the right metrics is crucial. It's like picking toppings for your pizza - sure, some might say pineapple is essential, but it's all about what works best for your taste buds... I mean, business goals.

To excel in tracking competitors on social media, prioritize the right metrics aligned with your goals and resources. Focus on reach, gauging the audience exposed to competitors' content; engagement, encompassing likes, comments, shares, and saves; sentiment analysis to understand public perception; growth, monitoring follower count; and conversion, measuring user actions. Tailor these metrics to your platform and objectives for a comprehensive competitive analysis. Regularly evaluate and adapt your strategy to stay ahead in the dynamic social landscape.

To track competitors' metrics efficiently, choose appropriate tools. While native analytics like Facebook or Instagram Insights exist, they have limitations and can be time-consuming. Opt for third-party tools for enhanced features and insights. Tools like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, or Buffer provide comprehensive social media analytics, enabling performance comparison with competitors. Social media listening tools like Mention, Brandwatch, or Talkwalker facilitate tracking, analysis, and response to online conversations about your brand and competitors. For benchmarking, consider tools like Rival IQ, Socialbakers, or Quintly to evaluate your social media performance against industry standards or specific competitors.

While social monitoring tools like Brandwatch are effective for tracking competition, I can't emphasize enough the value of utilizing the Meta Ads Library. It provides insight into the current ads a brand is running across the Meta platforms. Additionally, explore LinkedIn Ads Library, and if you're outside the US, TikTok's Ad Library. In addition, liking/following competitors on social handles, engaging with their content, will trigger signals of interest to algorithms, ensuring you see their content in your feed. Lastly, accept their cookies when visiting their website and sign up for their CRM if available. All these actions will offer a comprehensive digital snapshot of their marketing efforts.

To elevate your social media competitor tracking efforts, it's essential to leverage the right tools. Invest in robust social media analytics and monitoring tools that offer comprehensive insights into your competitors' activities. Platforms like Brandwatch, Sprout Social, or SEMrush can help you track competitor performance, monitor their content strategy, and analyze audience engagement. Utilize these tools to stay informed about emerging trends, identify content gaps, and benchmark your performance against industry leaders. By integrating powerful analytics tools into your strategy, you enhance your ability to make informed decisions and stay ahead of the competition in the dynamic social media landscape.

HOOTSUITE, BUFFER, SPROUT SOCIAL, METRICOOL, META for facebook and instagram are just some of the tools. It will just depend on your familiarity.

You need to keep an eye on your competitors to improve your Social Media Performance. Here are some of the top tools to watch your competitors: ✔️ Hootsuite ✔️ BuzzSumo ✔️ Social Blade ✔️ Later Enable in-depth information through your competitors and optimize your strategy accordingly.

To enhance competitor tracking on social media, prioritize data analysis and actionable insights. Scrutinize competitors' patterns, trends, and gaps to inform your strategy. Learn from their successes and failures, discover your unique value proposition, and identify potential opportunities and threats. Regularly update and analyze data, ensuring a dynamic approach. This iterative process enables continuous optimization of content and campaigns, providing a sustained competitive advantage in the ever-evolving social media landscape.

Effectively analyzing and acting on data to track competitors on social media involves a strategic approach. Track the types of content your competitors are sharing. Evaluate the frequency and timing of their posts. Analyze engagement metrics like likes, comments, and shares. Identify patterns in high-performing content. Track changes in competitor follower counts. Look for correlations with specific campaigns or content strategies. Identify weaknesses or gaps in your competitors' strategies. Capitalize on these opportunities to differentiate your brand. Adjust content, posting frequency, and engagement tactics based on what works for your competitors.

The final step in refining your social media strategy is analyzing and acting on data gathered from competitor tracking. Seek patterns, trends, gaps, and insights. Learn from competitors' successes and failures, define your unique value proposition, spot new opportunities and threats, and continually test and optimize content and campaigns. Remember, tracking competitors is an ongoing process, demanding regular updates, analysis, and proactive steps. Employing these strategies will empower you to gain a competitive edge in your market.

Pay close attention to the type of content and platforms being used. Use the information to identify and outline their trends. If you can plot and pattern the trends then you should be able to predict and forecast their trends. From here you will be able to implement a strategy to help gain market share.

the essential is first to know what you want and give your audience what they asking for, Embrace your UNIQUENESS and be genuine, let your audience see the person behind the content. Consistency is the bedrock of successful content creation. To maintain a steady posting schedule is a must, to engage their audience regularly with fresh and relevant content, have a unique voice which become known everywhere and worldwide, and finally keep on learning

Follow them. Engage with them. Be interesting how they do what they do. BUT… Realise that how THEY do what they do - even if it works for them - may not work for YOU. I once had a competition approach me at an awards show (he’d had a few drinks) to tell me that he just copies all my social media activity but that it didn’t seem to be working for him. There were plenty of good reasons this was the case but it all boiled down to this: He wasn’t being true to him / his business. Our approach was never going to work for him. He needed to do his own thing. Do your own thing.

Although looking at your competitors is beneficial, developing your own identity and having your own brand voice will still be the best that you can do. At the end of the day, people look for AUTHENTICITY from Social Media pages and content creators. And nowadays, the trend is, the more realistic, the more humane... the more it is relatable and engaging.

And lastly, don't forget to consider audience analysis, content strategy evolution, brand perception monitoring, SEO and keyword tracking, and adaptive strategy implementation. Phew, that's a mouthful! But hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither is a killer social media strategy.

Beyond the battlefield tactics, understanding the winds of change and how they sway consumer sentiment is key. It’s about seeing the forest for the trees, recognizing not just the moves of our direct competitors but also the shifting sands of the industry itself. By staying attuned to these broader trends, we don’t just react -- we lead, crafting narratives and strategies that resonate on a deeper level, ensuring our voice is not just heard but followed.

Always always always look at competitors on social media. Social media is a great way to tell at a high level what customers are thinking of brands and what they like to see. Use your competitors as content testers by looking at their posts and filtering out the ones with little engagement or less than usual. Focus on the social media posts with high engagement and voila, they did the heavy lifting for you.