We’ve talked about why you should monitor your competitor’s marketing, and how to set up a monitoring dashboard to do so. But really, all that data you’re collecting on competitors is worthless if you don’t know what to do with it.
Smart data needs to lead to smart decisions.
And that means doing more than just hoarding competitor mentions in your dashboard. You need to sit down, dig in, and get analytical.
Monitoring your competitors isn’t enough—you need to sit down and analyze the data.
Whether that’s once a week, once a month, or once a quarter is up to you. But it deep dives need to be done regularly. That is, if you want to improve your brand. Today we’re talking about conducting a social media competitive analysis.
What You’ll Learn From Social Analysis
By sitting down and dedicating time to look at the data your social media monitoring dashboard has been bringing in, you’ll be able to know exactly where your social media strategy stands, compared to your competitors.
From that, you can tell:
- Which brands in your industry hold the highest share of voice on social media
- What people are talking about in conversations about your industry and competitors
- What your industry is talking about to start the most buzz
- Which influencers are talking about your brand and competitors
Which Trends and Insights to Look For
So, how will this help you build your social media strategy anyway?
You’ll see where your brand stands in relation to your industry, who the influencers of your niche are, which competitors are succeeding on social, and how they’re doing so.
- See where your brand stands: by looking at how often competitors are mentioned, the sentiment of what’s said, and other insights, you’ll be able to benchmark your brand’s market share. This will help measure the success of your social media strategy over time.
- Identify industry influencers: look at the important advocates talking about other companies in your industry to research influencers to work with on future social media and marketing campaigns.
- Measure your competitors’ success: see if a certain social campaign gave your competitor a big boost in engagement and mentions.
How to Conduct Social Media Competitive Analysis in 5 Minutes
Now, once you have alerts set up to monitor competitors in Mention, creating a competitive analysis report will take about 5 minutes, tops. You’ll want to have separate alerts set up for each competitor.
Once you’ve created your reports and it’s time to dig into the data. Here are some ideas on how to use it:
- Look for large spikes in social media activity for your competitors. Then go through the mentions to pinpoint why more people were talking about them than usual. Is it a successful strategy you could adapt?
- Pick out influencers talking about your competitors with negative or neutral sentiment. They’re less likely to be hardcore fans and might be more open to working with the brand’s competitors.
- Use the topic clouds to look at what else is being discussed in these conversations. Are there good opportunities for you to jump in or start your own?
Mission: Accomplished
Over the past month, we’ve walked you through the process of becoming the ultimate marketing spy through smart monitoring. Now your training is complete. You have what you need to build and execute a competitor listening strategy.
A version of this post originally appeared on Mention, and is re-published with permission.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Brittany Berger
All screenshots by Brittany Berger. Taken January 2016.
