Researching Competitors – Social Media

Social media is a great way to get involved with potential consumers. This is certainly what the majority of businesses use social media for. There is now a new use for social media though, and that is to research what competitors are doing. Nearly every business is using some sort of social media, so it is a worthwhile task to try and determine what they are doing and why.

Like you, your competitors will be using the likes of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and forums to try and get hold of as many customers as possible. The problem for them is that they are exposing their marketing tactics to you. You will be able to browse through all the different social networks that you find them on and will be able to see what they are doing.

Once you are seeing what they are doing, you can start to make a log. Researching competitors that are using social media is incredibly easy, because they have left all of their cards on the table. They are showing you exactly what they are doing, but also exactly what is working for them.

Once you have figured out where they are operating online, you can monitor their progress. If you see them on forums, see what the members have to say. If they are on Twitter, see what promotions they are offering. You can get the big picture and see what works and what doesn’t. This means that when you start your next social media marketing campaign, you’ll have a much better idea of what to aim for and what to expect.

Build this monitoring process into your every day promotion. This will hopefully help determine the best marketing tactics and therefore, save you both time and money, helping you to grow your business.