Why You Should Follow Your Competition on Social Media
When you log onto social media, probably the last thing you want to see is a lot of content from a brand that you deem your competition, but any savvy business owner will tell you that you should follow your competitors on social media whether you want to or not.
Why?
Well, much like the metaphorical “elephant in the room,” ignoring something or pretending it doesn’t exist won’t make it go away. Completely avoiding your competitor’s marketing strategy — because, yes, a social media presence is an important part of a marketing strategy — doesn’t mean they aren’t marketing themselves. It just means you don’t know what they’re doing. So instead of pretending it doesn’t exist, start paying attention and use that knowledge to your advantage.
“But wait,” you think, “won’t that look bad to my customers if I’m following my competition on social media.” Probably not. Although it’s impossible to determine what every one of your followers will think, it will actually look much better to the vast majority of people if you and your competition seem at least on friendly enough terms to be friends on social media. But that point actually makes a nice segue into our first reason…
You’re not actually competitors — you’re just two brands in the same industry.
Okay, in all fairness, maybe you are competitors. But in this instance, stop thinking with that mindset. If you’re going to take advantage of what you observe from them on social media, you need to consider that you’re each your own business with something unique to offer. You have something that sets you apart and makes you different.
The reason this distinction is so important is that you can’t copy everything your competitor does, either on social media or in real life. This will just make you look bad. By observing their social media presence, you get a strong understanding of their brand. What sets you apart from that and makes you different from them? What need do you fulfill that your competition is not, and how can you reflect that in your own social media presence?
You share a lot of the same followers.
As previously stated, you and your competitors probably share many of the same followers on social media — people who are in your general area and who are interested in your industry. If you’re paying attention to those followers only with regard to how they interact with your own page, you have a much more limited perspective. You want to take advantage of every opportunity to learn about your customer, even if it’s how they’re reacting to another brand.
Take a look at some of your competition’s more popular posts. What sort of information intrigues or excites your shared customer base? When you scroll through the comments, you might see a lot of questions or suggestions that your shared customer base has. Take advantage of that information and let it help you develop not only a stronger social media presence for yourself but a stronger business model, too.
You see exactly what your competitors have to offer their customers.
Even if you thought you knew your competition when you first opened your business, you might not know what your competition is up to these days. How are they responding to changes in the industry? What new products or services are they launching? Have they expanded their hours or added positions within their team to better serve their clients?
Think of it this way: If your competition has always been closed on Sundays but now they’re suddenly open, this could mean they’re taking away from some of your Sunday business. What can you start to offer on Sundays that will continue to bring people in your door? Staying informed about how their business is changing and adapting doesn’t mean you have to change and adapt in the same way (you probably shouldn’t be changing and adapting exactly as they are), but you are at least aware of what they’re doing and can start coming up with your own ideas.
It’s not just about what — it’s also about when.
You have to be careful about when you time certain promotions or marketing campaigns. Put the word out there too early and people might not be interested yet. But if you wait too long, you might miss your chance. So it doesn’t hurt to know when your competition starts marketing things like Christmas merchandise or back-to-school sales. If you see an announcement in October that they will have Christmas merchandise in stock on November 1, and nobody seems really interested…well, you know that you have a little bit of time before you should make a similar announcement. On the other hand, if they announce back-to-school-specials in mid-July and everyone is reacting, you know that you probably shouldn’t wait until August the way you originally planned to do.
Look at what type of media they’re using.
It’s not always about the message. Sometimes it’s just about the way it’s delivered. Visual elements like photos, videos, and infographics can increase the reach of a post much more so than simple text. You also might notice that links to blog posts on their website generate a lot of buzz. Even if the content of your posts are different, you might want to adopt some of their media choices if they prove to be especially popular.
They are watching you.
Finally, chances are your competition is watching you. Paying attention to their social media presence will help you see whether they are copying you. If so, maybe it is time to take your game to a whole new level.