If find that you’ve hit a plateau with your social media channels and that you need some inspiration, here’s a tip: go look at your competitors’ channels! It’s not cheating or snooping, because well, it’s all public, and it’s a great way jog your inspiration and help kick your mind into different gears so you can get yourself out of your social media funk. So where do you start? Follow these easy steps:
1. Set Aside Time: It’s easy to choose not to do this, so block off an hour of your day
where you’ll sit down and dedicate time to analyzing your competitors. It may take time, but trust me, it will yield great results.
2. Scope Out: Make a list of your top three competitors or other businesses competing in the same field as you and scope them out on social media. Briefly go through their channels and see if they are active and successful. If one of them is not, then find another competitor! The point is to find and analyze someone else’s successful social media so that you can inspire yourself.
3. Make A Document: Create a Word document or Excel sheet where you can record and organize all of your findings. Split your document up by competitor and each channel it has, and get ready to do your research!
4. Browse: Start with one competitor and start going through all of its channels and recording what you discover. Start with channel numbers, and then look at the activity on each channel—how often is your competitor posting, what is your competitor’s voice, what type of content is your competitor using, how is it engaging with its fans, etc. If any type of content catches your eye, make note of it!
5. Analyze: When you’re all finished, go through your document and pick out what stood out to you. Think about what your competitor excelled in, and how you can use similar strategies for your social media. Also, pay attention to your competitors’ weak points too!
Think about what they’re not doing well, and how you could improve upon it.
Keep this document handy and refer to it periodically whenever you need inspiration for your own social media channels. Also, it’s not a bad idea to update this document every couple months, which gives you a chance to stay up to date with your competitors’ social media channels!
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