{"id":70199,"date":"2018-09-11T10:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-11T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/?p=70199"},"modified":"2018-09-11T10:11:35","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T09:11:35","slug":"competitor-analysis-social-media-strategies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartinsights.com\/social-media-marketing\/social-media-strategy\/competitor-analysis-social-media-strategies\/","title":{"rendered":"Competitor analysis for social media strategies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media strategy and planning essentials<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s important to know what other organisations in your market are doing on social media, to give you context for the current role social plays in customer communication. The aim of competitor analysis is to learn from the state of play and identify strategic opportunities.<\/p>\n

Please note that I also advocate researching the wider market to learn what works from brands that have a respected social presence. They may not be directly relevant to you in terms of content or product, but the techniques and social platform tools they use to engage customers should provide useful insight.<\/p>\n

This article looks at the types of competitor analysis you can and should be doing to help inform your social media strategy.<\/p>\n

1. Audit scope of competitor activity<\/h3>\n

Your goal is to build a clear picture of how other organisations are currently using social media. This needs someone to spend time on their profiles, reading content and checking how customers respond. For example, if there are lots of comments on Facebook, what type of comment and is it always from the same people, or do they get a varied audience?<\/p>\n

Put yourself in the shoes of a real customer \u2013 start following the organisation, post a reply or comment, ask a question. Check how proactive they are in response and keep a note of how long it takes to respond. For example, on Twitter do you get a thank you for following them and how quickly do you receive this? Also check whether the replies are automated or manual \u2013 if everyone gets the same tweet, it\u2019s an automated script running, not a real person engaging with the audience.<\/p>\n

\n
\n \n Social media marketing strategy guide\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Download Paid Member Resource \u2013 Social Media Strategy Guide <\/strong><\/p>\n

Understand how to best use social media in your marketing strategy as an individual or as a business.<\/p>\n

Access the Social media marketing strategy guide<\/a><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div><\/p>\n

The screenshot below shows a Twitter feed comparison of 3 leading US apparel retailers. It demonstrates the visual similarities and difference between the profiles \u2013 you\u2019ll notice that Freepeople and Abercrombie are very similar, dominated by strong visual posts, but Bonobos has more text updates in the timeline.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Comparing<\/p>\n

Is this good or bad?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Check to see where customer activity is greatest. Bonobos actually does a lot of retweeting of other people\u2019s content but has low level engagement and a very low activity rate in general; the 17th \u2013 19th tweets in the timeline dated back to Black Friday weekend in November, as this screenshot is from mid-March!<\/p>\n

Seek to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Are there core channels that every organisation is active on?<\/li>\n
  2. How are our key competitors using each channel to meet their goals of sales, brand engagement and customer service?<\/li>\n
  3. What is the frequency of updates?<\/li>\n
  4. What is the balance between personal vs. automated updates?<\/li>\n
  5. What content is being used and how?<\/li>\n
  6. Are they creating tailored content for each channel?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    2. Assess role of social as customer service<\/h3>\n

    Some industries have been smart at aligning social media with customer service, telcos being a good example. Brands like BT have dedicated Twitter accounts for customer care, separate to the marketing accounts. Twitter data shows significant growth in tweets aimed at brand and service handles, rather than general handles. And companies are getting better at responding to service requests \u2013 according to Harvard Business Review, 46% tweets had no response in Feb 2014 vs. 38% in Feb 2015.<\/p>\n

    There\u2019s a 122 page guide from Twitter outlining the era of customer service on Twitter:<\/p>\n

    \u201cFifty years ago, the 1-800 number revolutionized customer service. Customers suddenly had a free, live connection to companies from the comfort of their homes. We are at a similar inflection point for how brands deliver customer service: today, people are contacting brands via Twitter with the expectation of a helpful and human response; all on stage for the world to see.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    So take a peek at how well your competitors support and service their customers via social networks. Check to see if there are any complaints \u2013 are they proactive in responding, do they make the response public so people know they\u2019re listening?<\/p>\n

    Also check for the tone and style of response. Are they helpful and flexible, or do they get confrontational because they don\u2019t like criticism? If your competitors are poor at providing customer service socially, it could be a quick win for you to put this in place.<\/p>\n

    Seek to answer the following questions:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Do any competitors separate customer service from marketing e.g. separate customer service Twitter account<\/em>?<\/li>\n
    2. Do they personalise with the names\/initials of the people posting updates?<\/li>\n
    3. Are they quick to respond to negative comments?<\/li>\n
    4. Are they constructive and helpful in how they handle customer enquiries.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      3. Assess competitor strengths & weaknesses<\/h3>\n

      You can\u2019t do everything at once, so it pays to use a structured approach to comparing competitors strengths and weaknesses to help you identify gaps. You\u2019re looking for the following things:<\/p>\n