I spy something with my little eye … a competitor’s social media platform?
But it’s not really spying. It’s research.
Checking to see what your competitors are doing on social media could help you what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and help you decide what you want to incorporate and avoid yourself.
So, log onto TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, or create some accounts with them, if you haven’t already. Search the websites of people and businesses in your field.
Your research will help you stay better informed. It’ll help you see things with new perspectives and apply these viewpoints in ways that could improve your career and your life.
During your search, you might want to ask yourself some questions as guidance.
Which keywords and descriptions are people using?
Searches are one way to investigate your competitors’ social media.
To find these postings, you might want to search for keywords and descriptions that you would use to describe yourself. The results could lead you to people who are doing similar things.
Are they incorporating these keywords effectively in their posts? Are you? The answers to these questions could help you discover if you’re saying what you want to say.
What kind of content are your competitors’ posting?
Looking at other sites teaches you what kind of content is out there and what competitors are trying to do with it.
If you work in health care, visiting other health care providers’ platforms, especially ones that share your specialty or interests, could be especially illuminating.
Are the postings purely educational? Do they include blog posts or other more personal perspectives? Do they take a more formal tone or include language that uses words such as I, we, and us?
Looking at the information health care providers post and how they frame it could help you determine what you want to include (and omit) on your own platforms.
What’s receiving positive and negative feedback?
Although your goal with social media probably isn’t to get the most number of likes for your posts, researching likes and shares could help you determine if other people are reading and responding to certain content.
Investigating your competitors’ likes and shares helps you see these numbers.
Even investigating thumbs-down signs and other negative feedback helps show some of the people who have engaged with posts.
When are competitors posting and viewers responding to posts?
The timing of social media posts and responses could also teach a lot.
Does social media content posted at certain times receive more responses? You might notice that more responses might occur if they’re posted at certain times of day or specific days.
For posts related to holidays, do viewers seem to engage more with ones posted before, during, or after the commemorations?
Frequency might also matter. Sites with more followers might be more popular because they contain more content and post more frequent content.
How successful is certain content?
In addition to giving, you information about viewer numbers and timing, social media comments help you see what readers like and dislike.
A few negative comments could be chalked up to readers’ personal preference. Dozens or more might mean there’s content that site owners should avoid or frame very differently.
If multiple contents mention the same concern or issue, you could address this issue on your own blog post or other type of posting.
Are competitors’ campaigns missing any issues?
In fact, examining your competitors’ posts and their responses could help you create posts and campaigns of your own.
When competitors aren’t addressing the issues raised in comments, address them. If they’re not including content that you think readers and viewers might enjoy and find useful, create it.
For example, if you have a medical practice with several young patients, consider creating and posting for sites that highlight videos and other types of media. In your videos, you don’t need to perform attention-grabbing stunts, but you could explain what you do in understandable language to reach a media-savvy audience.
Are your competitors neglecting to offer specific goods and services?
Analyzing social media sites could also teach if your competitors are neglecting other things.
Customers or patients might go online to mention that they miss certain goods and services. If their health care providers or businesses aren’t offering them any longer, maybe you could.
By supplying what customers demand, you’re participating in basic economic transactions that could ultimately lead to business success.
Which platforms are people using?
What are the kinds of platforms other people in your field use?
Seeing where they post could be instructive. If it looks like they’re using certain social media sites to capture certain demographic groups, check to see if they really are achieving this engagement.
If they’ve engaged successfully, you might want to use these sites to post similar content to target similar audiences. If they’re not reaching audiences, consider crafting different content or addressing different readers on those platforms.
How do your competitors address their feedback?
After reaching their audience members, how do your competitors respond to the feedback they receive?
Not responding at all could hurt business. So could responding a long time after people have left comments, or responding defensively instead of politely and professionally.
Basically, competitors might provide excellent examples of how not to acknowledge issues. Or, if customers have handled them professionally and received appreciation for their efforts, those efforts could also be instructive.
Do other people mention your competitors?
Have other people noticed your competitors’ efforts?
Other businesses and sites might mention your competitors on their own pages. Instead of being upset that they’re receiving recognition, try to capture such attention yourself.
If you’re hosting an event for your business, invite the sites who’ve mentioned your competitors. They might mention you as well. You could also talk about these sites, creating cross promotional opportunities that benefit everyone.
For other ideas about how to promote your medical practice online, contact Practice Builders. We’ll help you develop sites and promotional tools that could help you and your practice distinguish yourself from your competitors.