What can you learn from the other team that will inform your own social media marketing?

Well, they can teach you about trends you may not have yet picked up on. They can also reveal what’s happening in their own business.

You’ll want to pay attention to not only what they’re doing, but what they’re saying on social media.

Here’s what else your competition can show you.

How Your Brand Hold Up Against Theirs

It’s common practice to creep on a competitor’s social profiles. You or your marketing team can get a sense of how well your overall presence stacks up when comparing their efforts against your own.

And while you don’t want to ever copy them, you do want to see if there are any gaps in their offerings or messaging that you can capitalize on.

Such as:

Unique Product Offerings
Did they release a new product?

Maybe there’s a way you can swoop in and create something better once you do a little social listening to see what people are saying about it. These conversations could even inspire a few ideas for future product releases.

Conversations and Trends
What kind of discussions are people having on your competitor’s pages?

If they’ve got an active audience, you can learn about their motivators and whether or not the brand is truly engaged in creating a dialogue with them. Use those insights to deliver more meaningful content on your social profiles.

Checking Out Their Content’s Performance
Obviously, you won’t have access to the nitty-gritty details from their social profile, unless you invest in one of the tools we’ll get to later. But you can take a peek at the number of ‘likes’ and comments for different posts.

Once you do, compare it to the content you’re putting out there. Are you getting the same level of engagement? If not, you could explore posting different types of media like videos and audio clips to increase page activity.

Ways to Give Your Audience Better Content

And speaking of posting different types of content, your competitors can give you ideas about how to kick yours up a few notches.

People on social media are a goldmine for gathering data about their feelings towards products and services. If some questions or comments keep coming up, you could start producing quick videos or even mini podcasts to address them.

It’s also an opportunity to go in-depth with the topic and show without a hard sell how your offerings are superior.

How They’re Talking About Your Brand

Wondering if people are talking smack or praising your brand on social media? Competitive analysis tools like Sprout Social, Brandwatch, and Socialbakers give companies a full, in-depth look at the social conversations happening online.

The insights and metrics revealed through these tools will help you make smarter decisions about the content your company posts.

Insight into Their Social Media Marketing Strategies

Now that you know what they’re saying and have some valuable data at hand, the pieces of the puzzle begin to fall into place. You’re getting a glimpse into your competition’s social media marketing strategy.

You’ll see where your company’s marketing is coming up short and about the different campaigns they’re rolling out and how well they did.

And this information can be crucial in helping you to tweak and come up with ideas that can help you create influential, potentially viral, campaigns.

What’s Next?

So, where does this leave your social media marketing efforts? Well, hopefully, in a better place. Learn from your competitors and let the conversations happening online push you to create more effective social media marketing campaigns that ultimately increase your bottom line.