Competitor

In the context of social media, a competitor is any individual, brand, business, organization, or entity that operates in the same industry or niche as you and is targeting a similar audience with the same kind of products, services, or content, thereby fighting for the attention, engagement, and allegiance of your ideal followers, customers, or clients on social media. Competitors are a crucial ingredient in the recipe for a successful social media strategy. They give you insight into what works and what doesn’t in your particular industry, and in competing with you, they prompt you to find some way—any way—to distinguish your brand on social media so that it stands out in the minds of an audience that is apparently overlapping in both your and their market.

Like you, they are occupied with the business of trying to grab the attention of your shared audience on social media, so they are a direct threat to your social media. Competitors can take the form of businesses of any size and influence (like you), judges and juries in your industry (like them), and even smaller, up-and-coming brands (like some of our friends and family in the niche of social media)—all of which means that figuring out just who your competitors are is the essential first step. Once you’ve identified your competitors, take a deep dive into their content and the kinds of campaigns they’re running to see how and why they’re engaging successfully (or not) with their audience.

It’s also important to understand who their audience is so that you have a solid grasp on the whole bit of real estate they’re occupying in your industry.