Why You Should Follow Your Competitors on Social Media
Every business person strives to make their business a success and gain an edge over their competitors. You may promote your brand on social platforms to raise awareness and engage your target audience. Under such circumstances, you may become shocked if someone asks you whether you follow your competitors on social media.
However, keep in mind that the purpose of social platforms is to assist users with networking. You can expand your network and build lasting relationships with other businesses that can benefit you in the future. If you know how to interact with your competitors, you can make the most of these digital platforms.
Here’s why it’s important that you follow your competitors on social media:
Tackle Misleading Information
Businesses maintain their social presence to attract and engage their existing and potential customers as well as establish goodwill. But won’t it create problems for your brand and tarnish your image if your competitors spread fake news about your business?
You can better combat fake news if you follow your competitors. It’s important to note that indulging in a verbal fight with another business through social posts portrays a negative image of your business, and you’re likely to lose a chunk of your customer base. So, be careful with how you handle this problem.
It’s best to share the truth about your brand through your own social media handles. Not only will this satisfy your target audience, but it’ll also protect your brand from negative publicity.
Get Innovative Ideas
It’s never a good idea to steal the ideas of your competitors. This practice negatively affects your brand reputation as well as leads to legal issues.
You have to be proactive and creative when it comes to successfully running a business. Come up with innovative ideas through which you can better meet the needs of your customers and retain them for extended periods.
Moreover, you can also enjoy a myriad of benefits by following your competitors on social sites. For instance, if they post a great piece of content, you may get inspired and come up with some valuable content ideas for your own audience.
Learn From Their Mistakes
Building a brand reputation isn’t easy and it takes years to establish goodwill. However, even a minor mistake can ruin your entire efforts and you may have to shut down business activities.
You can avoid making costly mistakes by learning from your own mistakes as well as those that are committed by your competitors. Back in the day, it wasn’t easy to monitor the activities of competitors, but with the help of social platforms, it’s no longer a challenge to keep an eye on other businesses and capitalize on their mistakes.
A majority of businesses create social accounts, but they often fail to regularly post on social accounts. Due to this inactivity, they lose their valuable customer base. Learn from the mistakes of your competitors and attract their existing customer base by regularly posting valuable and engaging content.
Not many businesses respond to the negative feedback or comments of their customers on social media. If your competitors suffered due to the lack of response, you should learn from their mistake and refrain from showing the same behavior towards your customers. Listen to your audience, appreciate their positive feedback, and address their concerns to grow your business.
Get the Latest Industry News
If your competitors are active on social media, they may post the latest and relevant news about your industry. Following such businesses on social media is like subscribing to a stream of industry-related news.
The social media accounts of your competitors are the sources of real-time information and updates of your industry. Aside from following influencers, you should also stay in touch with your competitors to learn more about the latest industry trends.
Understand Your Target Audience
Regularly posting quality content on social media is a tried and tested method to attract and retain your audience. But it won’t benefit you much unless you monitor the performance of your content. Aside from monitoring the performance of your own brand, analyzing your competitors’ posts on social media is also recommended.
You can find out the type of content that engages the audience the most and then follow in their footsteps. Aside from determining the frequency of posting content, you can also find out the times of day when your target audience is active and post content accordingly.
Through social media, you can find out what your competitors are up to through promotional posts. You can learn about the products that are getting the highest engagement and the products or services that attract the audience the most.
Following experienced competitors is a great way to learn how you should interact with your audience, particularly if you’re struggling to find your place in the crowded market. Pay attention to the tone and quality of posts. Through an in-depth analysis, you can further improve your social media strategy.
Tips to Follow Your Competitors the Right Way
Direct competitors are businesses that deal in the same products or services as you. While it’s important that you monitor their online activities, it’s not always recommended to follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or other social platforms.
They may suspect that you’re involved in foul play and want to steal their ideas. It’s in your best interest to follow your indirect competitors on social platforms, but you have to be extremely careful when it comes to your direct competition.
Running a business is quite a task. You should outsource the task of managing social accounts to a professional team so you can focus on more important tasks. Get in touch with Cohn Media today to discuss your digital marketing options.