Keeping an eye on the competitor is one of the ways businesses ensure they stay in the game. Plenty of social sites know this, and that’s why they’ve given you the option of tracking what other companies are up to. A marketer can find out what works and what doesn’t from what others have adopted and found ways to integrate or avoid a similar approach. Monitoring your competitor is critical because it saves you time and other resources. Here are ways you can keep track of what they are doing.
Keep up with the trends
Trending topics is one of the ways to know what posts and keywords will catch most audience attention. By observing the best tweets from three or more competitors and finding the common thread, you can then choose something that applies to your company that follows a similar thread. If something a firm offering lawyer in Toronto generates attention and you offer related services in another city, you can dissent the post to see why it performed as it did. The idea here is not to copy and paste what works, remember to keep in mind your target audience and your brand voice to produce winning posts. It should, therefore, be a guide, not the rule of law.
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Note the influencers
With every brand, there are a few loyal customers who are eager to share with their followers the products and activities on the same. By noticing who is sharing and what’s getting shared the most, you’re able to see what attracts people to religiously share content. You can equally analyze the content that most of your followers shared and considered replicating. Write to the audience in mind for quality output.
Create alerts
Nearly all platforms have a notification function that allows you to set alerts on your competitor. You can use a private account (or your work email not used to set up the email accounts) and generate alerts on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms where you get notified on their activities. Third party sights such as Tweetdeck, Social Sprout, and Feedly perform similar functions. From that data, you can analyze engagement levels and successes and apply accordingly to your social media strategy.
Keep the goal in mind
Keep your long-term goals in mind as you track what the competitors are doing. An approach to creating posts may prove to be useful when running a sales campaign but won’t fare well during your day to day tweets. Aim to be as dynamic as your audience and only apply what works by reading the mood. Remember to tap into their values and make them feel appreciated, not merely buyers of your products.
