A solid presence in social media is an essential component of digital marketing. By building a following on different platforms, you can stay ahead of the competition and reach more people.
However, if you don’t know how to measure your current social media performance, it might be hard to identify what you should improve on. That’s where a social media competitive analysis comes in.
Here are some of the steps you can take to perform a social media competitive analysis.
1. Look for Your Competitors
First, you need to determine which of your competitors are already active on social media. Use Google to search their names and their business name. Don’t forget to explore their brand names, as well.
Try out different keywords and phrases. The more variations you use, the higher the chance of finding your competitors.
If your competitors appear in many places, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, they’re pretty active on social media. If you can’t find them in any of these places, then they might not be on social media.
2. Analyze the Social Media Data of Your Top Competitors
Next, you have to analyse the social media data of the top three to five competitors. Each social media platform has a different way of measuring data, so you have to pay attention to those details and analyse them with a comprehensive approach.
Try to evaluate and measure everything, including the following:
- The number of fans, followers, and subscribers they’ve managed to obtain
- How frequently do they post content
- The engagement rate and the average comments per post
- The average post views
- Their followers’ demographics
- The topics they discuss the most
- The content they share the most
- The strategy they use to grow their social media audience
- The tools and resources they use
- The content they post that generates the most engagement
- Their social media posting schedule
3. Prepare Your Brand’s Social Media Data
Now, it’s time to analyse your brand’s performance in social media marketing. The most important metrics to track are the number of fans, the number of followers and the number of subscribers on social media. Aside from these things, take note of the metrics you looked for in your competitors.
4. Benchmark Your Performance with Your Competitors
After you’ve gathered data about your competitors’ performance, you can benchmark yours against theirs. This way, you’ll have a better idea of how you can improve your social media performance. You’ll also know if it’s necessary to do something differently if you cannot meet certain milestones.
5. Perform a SWOT Analysis
After benchmarking your performance against your competitors, it’s now time to conduct a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Strengths are the things you do better than your competitors. These strengths can be anything from the number of social media followers to the content you post that gets the most engagement.
Weaknesses are the things that hold your brand from being successful on social media. These are the areas that you need to improve on.
Opportunities are those things that you can still do, even if your competitors have done them first. These opportunities can be expanding your reach to new audiences, creating content and using the right social media tools.
Threats are the risks you need to consider before taking a particular action. The threats include your competition and the tools and resources you don’t have.
After identifying your strengths and weaknesses, you can use them as guides for your strategies and tactics. You can also use your opportunities to guide your goals and objectives. Finally, you can use your threats as guides for your risk analysis.
Final Thoughts
Social media is a powerful tool for marketing, especially for local businesses. However, it’s not easy to understand how it works. There are numerous social media platforms with different features and unique ways of using them. By performing a social media competitive analysis, you’ll know if you have what it takes to use social media effectively against your competitors.
For social media marketing services in Singapore, Kingz Marketing is the perfect partner for your business. We will grow our online presence through customised social media strategies, whether you have a following or no social media presence at all. Are you ready to step up? Message us today for a free consultation.