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As a business owner, your initial instincts might be to stay as far away as possible from your competition. You’re all competing to attract the attention of the same target market, after all. Doesn’t that mean that it’s a big no-no to follow their social media accounts? No! In fact, the opposite is true; following your competitors on social media can help you to get some inspiration for new marketing strategies and give you valuable insight into your industry.
In the following blog, we are going to discuss why you need to consider following your competitors online.
- Learn what you’re up against:
Okay, let’s get one thing straight: following your competition on social media platforms is not a sign of friendliness; it’s pure business. Researching what your competitors are doing online will help you to differentiate between marketing strategies that work and those that don’t. If you wanted to, you could stalk their social media pages without following them, but to really observe their daily marketing strategy, we advise that you follow their pages.
Focus on the tiniest details in their content:
- What time of day do they post their content?
- How often do they post to social media?
- Are there specific posts that get more engagement than others? Why?
- On what social media platform do they get the most engagement?
- Gather information:
The more you analyze your competitors’ online content, the more you will start discovering certain patterns specific to their brand. Consider taking these ideas and making it your own. Try taking ideas and recreating it into something unique to your brand’s story and mission. We are not saying that it’s okay to steal ideas from your competitors’ designs at all. Always stay authentic to your own branding style and be consistent.
- Stay up to date with the latest industry news:
Shiny, new things have a way of absorbing everyone’s attention. The same is true about social media. Everyone storms to social media for information and demonstrations. However, it is a race against time; you need to be the cool kid at all times. If you are not the first one to release a new product online, you won’t gain the attention of the masses as much.
Following your competition will come in handy because you will be able to keep an eye on their progress at all times. If your competitor posts the first image of a new industry-related trend, make sure that you are the one to post the first video about it. In order to stay at the top, you want to one-up your opponent every single time.
Keep in mind that you are in detective mode; don’t fall for the temptation of engaging with their content. Otherwise, you might end up giving them free brand awareness.
