As a digital marketer, knowing what works on social media is necessary. Social media competitive analysis reveals what competitors do right, where they fall short, and how you can capitalize on these opportunities.
This process allows you to spot industry trends and gaps that you can use to improve your social media strategy. A social media competitive analysis example provides practical insights into industry trends, keeping you sharp and maintaining your competitive edge.
Learn the exact steps, tools, and strategies to keep you ahead of the competition in social media.
What is Social Media Competitive Analysis?
Social media competitive analysis involves monitoring your competitors’ social media activities, tracking their social media performance, and using that information to improve your social media strategy, which helps businesses gain actionable insights about industry trends and competitive positioning. This process includes benchmarking their follower growth, engagement rates, content styles, and more. It helps you get a clear picture of what’s driving success in your industry.
Social media competitive analysis provides real-world data on what works for digital marketers. This analysis shows what competitors do well and where they miss the mark, allowing you to refine your approach with decisions rooted in competitive insights.
Social Media Competitive Analysis Template
You can use the Free social media competitive analysis template that I have created for PrimeNest Realty. Using our free social media competitor analysis template helps you systematically measure key metrics. This fictional competitive analysis will help you use the template.
Different industries require customized competitive analysis approaches. Here are industry-specific templates you can adapt:
1. Retail/E-commerce Template
- Product promotion strategies comparison
- Shopping features utilization (Instagram Shop, Facebook Marketplace)
- Customer review response tactics
- Seasonal campaign effectiveness
- Visual merchandising approaches
2. B2B Services Template
- Thought leadership content comparison
- Lead generation tactics
- Case study and testimonial usage
- LinkedIn engagement strategies
- Webinar and educational content effectiveness
3. Food and Beverage Template
- Visual content quality assessment
- User-generated content volume
- Local engagement strategies
- Promotional offer effectiveness
- Influencer partnership approaches
Key Metrics to Track in Competitor Analysis
Focus on tracking these key metrics to understand your competition’s social media performance: A detailed social media competitor report can summarize these insights and benchmark your performance on social media marketing:
- Follower Growth Rate: Social media competitor analysis compares whether competitors’ audiences grow faster than yours, gauging their brand momentum.
- Engagement Rates: Likes, shares, comments, and other engagement metrics show audience activity and indicate which content types work best, informing your content creation ideas.
- Content Types and Posting Frequency: What are they posting-videos, images, stories? How often are they creating Instagram stories? Understanding this helps you adjust your content plan.
- Hashtags and Share of Voice: Track which hashtags competitors use and whether they lead industry conversations, revealing social media trends you may have missed.
- Post Timing: Determine if competitors post at peak engagement times and compare with your posting schedule to maximize audience reach.
These metrics help identify areas where you might be lagging and opportunities to get ahead.
Conduct a SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis forms a vital part of social media competitive analysis, assessing Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats associated with businesses. SWOT analysis gives a comprehensive view of your company’s market position, areas for improvement, and potential risks.
In social media competitor analysis, SWOT helps assess your competitors’ performance compared to your own. SWOT breaks down your competitors’ performance for strategic decision-making:
Strengths: Look for what your competitors are excelling at. Maybe they have high audience engagement or an active, loyal following. Can you replicate or improve on these strategies?
Weaknesses: Are there areas where they’re underperforming? Low audience engagement on certain platforms or a lack of content diversity could be gaps you can exploit.
Opportunities: What trends or industry gaps can you take advantage of that they’re missing? This is where you can differentiate your brand.
Threats: Are new competitors entering the market, or are there industry shifts that could affect your standing?
Here are the questions you can ask for each section of the SWOT analysis:
| Strength | Weakness | Opportunities | Threats |
| What content or strategies are driving the most engagement for competitions? | Are there any platforms where they have a weak presence or low engagement? | Are there industry trends or emerging platforms they are missing that you can capitalize on? | Are there new competitors entering the space with strong social media strategies? |
| Which platforms are they performing best on, and why? | Do their posts lack variety or creativity? Is there a content format they’re underutilizing? | Are there content gaps or topics they aren’t covering that resonate with your audience? | Is their audience growing faster than yours, and if so, what are they doing differently? |
| Do they have a larger, more active follower base compared to your brand? | Are they slow to adopt new trends or features on social media (e.g., TikTok, Instagram Reels)? | Can you target a demographic or interest group they haven’t fully reached yet? | Are there shifts in audience preferences or platform algorithms that may put you at a disadvantage? |
| Are there specific types of posts (e.g., videos, stories, reels) that consistently get higher engagement? | Is there a negative sentiment in their audience comments or reviews? | Are they failing to engage with any communities or hashtags that could expand your reach if you tap into them? | Could their superior ad campaigns or influencer partnerships be pulling your audience away? |
This competitor analysis will give you a clear view of where your brand stands in relation to others, helping you improve and create industry benchmarks.
Benefits of Social Media Competitive Analysis
Social media competitive analysis offers these benefits:
- Improved Strategy: Competitor analysis provides insights into successful tactics you can apply to your social media campaigns.
- Identify Opportunities: Competitive analysis reveals market gaps and underutilized platforms, giving you advantages on social media channels.
- Better Customer Engagement: Adapt competitors’ successful tactics to boost your own audience engagement.
- Benchmarking for Growth: Track competitors’ growth to set realistic benchmarks for your social media performance.
- Competitive Benchmarking: Social media competitive analysis enables you to establish realistic performance benchmarks by comparing your metrics directly against competitors, which helps you set achievable goals and measure progress against industry standards.
- Proactive Threat Management: Monitor emerging competitors and audience preference shifts to adapt quickly across social media channels.
- Enhanced Ad Campaigns: Fine-tune ads using competitor data to increase return on investment (ROI).
Identify Your Competitors on Social Media Platforms
The ability to identify competitors is the first step in social media competitive analysis. But it’s not just about looking at direct competitors; indirect competitors are important too.
Direct competitors are businesses offering the same products or services to your target audience. Let’s say Nike vs. Adidas. Both target the same types of customers with a similar product lineup.
Indirect competitors don’t offer the same products but still have the same target audience. For example, while Nike might see outdoor gear brands as indirect competitors, since both are going after people with active lifestyles, the products are different.
When you need to identify competitors both direct and indirect on social media, you can:
- Use Google searches to see who ranks for relevant keywords.
- Check social media platforms using hashtags your audience follows.
- Use tools like Hootsuite or Similarweb for more detailed insights on social media competitor analysis through their activities.
Platform-Specific Competitor Tracking Strategies
Different social media platforms require tailored approaches for effective competitor tracking. Here are platform-specific strategies to monitor your competition across major networks:
Instagram Competitor Tracking
- Save competitors’ profiles to your close friends list for quick access
- Monitor their Instagram Stories and Reels for content trends
- Track hashtag performance using Instagram’s search functionality
- Analyze their Instagram Shopping features and product tagging strategies
- Note which Instagram features (Guides, IGTV, etc.) drive highest engagement
Facebook Competitor Tracking
- Use the “Pages to Watch” feature in Facebook Insights to monitor competitor growth
- Analyze their Facebook Group strategies and community building approaches
- Review their Facebook Events frequency and attendance rates
- Monitor ad transparency tools to see their active Facebook ad campaigns
- Track how they leverage Facebook Live and video content
LinkedIn Competitor Tracking
- Follow competitor company pages and turn on notifications
- Monitor their thought leadership content and executive engagement
- Track their employee advocacy programs and company culture content
- Analyze their LinkedIn poll engagement and discussion participation
- Review their LinkedIn showcase pages and product offerings
Twitter Competitor Tracking/X Competitor Tracking
- Create private Twitter Lists containing competitors for streamlined monitoring
- Track their hashtag usage and participation in Twitter chats
- Analyze their tweet frequency, timing, and engagement patterns
- Monitor their Twitter thread strategies and storytelling approaches
- Note how they handle customer service interactions
TikTok Competitor Tracking
- Analyze competitors’ trending video formats and challenge participation
- Track their music choices and effect usage
- Monitor their hashtag strategies and collaboration approaches
- Note their posting frequency and optimal video length
- Analyze comment engagement and community building tactics
By implementing these platform-specific tracking strategies, you’ll gain comprehensive insights into your competitors’ social media performance across all relevant channels, allowing you to identify platform-specific opportunities and threats.
How to Do a Social Media Competitive Analysis?
The social media competitor analysis process includes:
Step 1: Identify Your Competitors: It’s important to track competitors’ social media activities regularly to capture real-time trends. Start by identifying your direct and indirect competitors through Google searches, hashtags, and social listening tools, which allows you to create a comprehensive list of businesses competing for your audience’s attention. Make sure you’re keeping track of both types because they can offer different insights.
Step 2: Track Key Metrics: After identifying competitors, collect data on follower growth, engagement, content types, and posting frequency. Use a social media analytics template for periodic tracking.
Step 3: Conduct a SWOT Analysis: Analyze gathered data through SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for a comprehensive comparison with competitors.
Step 4: Leverage Tools: Use social media competitor analysis tools with social dashboard and social media audit tools such as Hootsuite, Similarweb, SEMrush, Rival IQ, and BuzzSumo to dive deeper into how competitors’ social media strategies impact their overall web traffic and conversions.
Step 5: Continuous Monitoring: Establish a quarterly or biannual routine to review competitors’ evolving strategies.
Step 6: Create a Comprehensive Report: Compile your findings into a social media competitive analysis report that includes competitor profiles, performance metrics, content analysis, and strategic recommendations based on the data collected, which serves as a reference document for your team’s strategy development.
Real-World Social Media Competitive Analysis Example
Let’s walk through a practical example of how a fictional fitness brand, FitLife, conducted a social media competitive analysis against its main competitor, PowerFit:
Step 1: Competitor Identification
FitLife identified PowerFit as their direct competitor by searching fitness-related hashtags on Instagram and analyzing Google search results for “home workout equipment.” They also identified an indirect competitor, NutriWell, which sells fitness supplements to the same target audience.
Step 2: Metrics Collection
FitLife tracked these key metrics over a 3-month period:
- PowerFit gained 15,000 new Instagram followers (8% growth rate) compared to FitLife’s 9,000 (5% growth rate)
- PowerFit’s average engagement rate was 4.2% versus FitLife’s 3.1%
- PowerFit posted 5 times weekly with a content mix of 60% video, 30% images, and 10% user-generated content
- PowerFit’s most successful hashtags were #homeworkout, #fitnesscommunity, and #30daychallenge
Step 3: SWOT Analysis Results
FitLife’s analysis revealed:
- Strengths: PowerFit excelled at video content and user challenges
- Weaknesses: PowerFit had minimal presence on Twitter and poor response times to customer comments
- Opportunities: PowerFit wasn’t leveraging fitness influencers under 100K followers
- Threats: PowerFit was launching a new product line similar to FitLife’s bestsellers
Step 4: Strategy Implementation
Based on these findings, FitLife:
- Increased video content from 40% to 65% of their content mix
- Launched a 45-day fitness challenge with daily posts
- Partnered with 5 micro-influencers with highly engaged audiences
- Improved their Twitter presence to capture the audience PowerFit was missing
- Accelerated their product development timeline to maintain market position
Step 5: Results Measurement
After implementing these changes for 2 months, FitLife saw their engagement rate increase to 4.5% and their follower growth rate jump to 9.5%, outperforming PowerFit in both metrics.
This example demonstrates how systematic competitive analysis can reveal actionable insights that directly improve social media performance.
Conduct a Comprehensive Social Media Competitor Audit
A social media competitor audit goes beyond basic analysis by systematically evaluating every aspect of your competitors’ social presence. Follow this structured audit process to gain deeper insights:
1. Profile Assessment
Examine competitor profiles across all platforms, noting:
- Profile completeness and optimization
- Brand consistency across platforms
- Quality of profile images and cover photos
- Effectiveness of bio/about sections and CTAs
- Use of branded hashtags and keywords
2. Content Audit
Catalog and categorize 3-6 months of competitor content:
- Content themes and topics that generate highest engagement
- Content formats (video, image, text, carousel, etc.)
- Content tone and voice (professional, casual, humorous)
- Storytelling techniques and narrative approaches
- Visual aesthetics and brand consistency
3. Audience Analysis
Analyze the competitor’s audience demographics and behavior:
- Audience size and growth rate by platform
- Geographic and demographic information
- Audience interests and pain points based on comments
- Most active audience segments
- Audience sentiment toward the brand
4. Engagement Evaluation
Measure how effectively competitors connect with their audience:
- Average engagement rates by content type
- Comment quality and sentiment
- Response times and customer service quality
- Community management strategies
- User-generated content volume and quality
5. Campaign Review
Examine recent marketing campaigns:
- Campaign themes and messaging
- Cross-platform integration strategies
- Campaign duration and frequency
- Promotional tactics and offers
- Campaign performance metrics
6. Competitive Gap Analysis
Identify opportunities by documenting:
- Platforms where competitors have weak presence
- Content types they underutilize
- Audience segments they neglect
- Topics relevant to your industry they don’t address
- Technical or creative execution shortcomings
Document your findings in a structured audit report that highlights actionable insights and opportunities for your own social media strategy.
Use Competitive Insights for Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
Apply competitive insights to improve your social media strategy by:
- Adjust Your Content Strategy: Use your competitive analysis findings to improve your social media strategy by tweaking your content approach. If you see that competitors are having success with specific types of posts, consider incorporating those formats into your own plan while maintaining your brand’s unique voice and positioning.
- Optimize Ad Campaigns: Tailor ad campaigns based on competitors’ successful formats. Shift focus to video ads if they generate better engagement.
- Regular Monitoring: Social media is constantly changing, so set up quarterly or biannual audits to track competitors’ social media content strategy, which should include analyzing their posting frequency, content types, and audience engagement patterns to keep your strategy up to date.
Best Social Media Competitor Analysis Tools
These tools make competitive analysis easier and more effective:
- Hootsuite: Great for tracking follower growth and engagement across platforms. This social media competitor analysis tool simplifies data collection so you can focus on social media analysis. This method also supports robust hootsuite competitor analysis for a deeper look at engagement metrics. Hootsuite offers a free plan with limited features for small businesses.
- Similarweb: Useful for tracking how competitor social media efforts lead to actual web traffic, giving you a broader sense of their impact. Similarweb provides free basic competitor insights with limited data points.
- SEMrush: A powerful tool offering detailed competitor research and keyword insights to help shape your social media strategy. SEMrush offers a free account option with daily search limits.
- Rival IQ: Provides in-depth social media tracking and performance comparisons, letting you see how you stack up against competitors. While primarily premium, Rival IQ offers free competitive reports.
- BuzzSumo: Great for analyzing which types of content work best in your industry and discovering popular topics. BuzzSumo offers a free plan with limited searches per day.
These tools streamline analysis by automating data collection. This allows more time for analyzing trends and refining strategy rather than digging through raw data.
Conclusion
Social media competitive analysis helps digital marketers stay ahead and create industry benchmarks. By regularly reviewing your social media competitor analysis, you can refine your own and ensure you’re making data-driven decisions that lead to growth in the competitive landscape.
If you’re just starting out, begin with basic competitor analysis tools and key metrics, then scale your efforts as you gain experience. Regular audits keep your social media strategy fresh and relevant.
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FAQs
1. What’s the best frequency for competitive analysis on social media?
A good rule of thumb is to conduct a social media competitive analysis quarterly or biannually, which allows you to track how industry trends are evolving, benchmark your performance against competitors, and stay ahead of the curve with timely strategy adjustments.
2. Can competitive analysis improve ad campaigns on social media?
Yes. By analyzing your competitors’ successful ad strategies, you can examine their messaging, visuals, offers, and targeting approaches to tweak your own social media content and ads for better performance and higher conversion rates.
3. How do I get started with tools for competitor analysis on social media?
Start with free trials of tools like Hootsuite, or Similarweb to get a feel for how they can enhance your analysis. Meanwhile, you can use native audience analytics tools to keep tab on your growth.
4. How often should I conduct a social media competitive analysis?
It’s recommended to perform social media competitive analysis quarterly or biannually. This ensures you’re keeping up with trends and adjusting your strategy based on the latest data.
5. Is it necessary to monitor indirect competitors?
Yes. Indirect competitors, who target the same social media audience but offer different products, can provide valuable insights into trends and engagement strategies that you might not be tapping into yet.
6. What’s the biggest mistake to avoid in social media competitive analysis?
One common mistake is focusing only on follower count. Engagement rates and the quality of interaction with followers are more important social media metrics to track.
Ruchi Dhimar is a skilled content writer with 4 years of experience. She is passionate about crafting compelling narratives, specializing in writing content for different industries.