Social media marketing isn’t for the faint of heart. There’s always a new trend to follow, more content to create, and an updated strategy to try.
Luckily, there’s a way to quickly and systematically learn how other brands in your industry promote their businesses on social media. It’s called a social media competitor analysis, and we’re going to show you exactly how to structure and complete one.
With a competitor analysis process in place, you’ll get inspiration for new tactics and topics while also learning what not to do on social networks. Read along to see how it all works.
Contents
What is a social media competitor analysis?
A social media competitor analysis is the practice of auditing your competitors’ social media presence for both quantitative and qualitative information—platforms they use, how often they post, what their brand vibe is, and more.
It’s one of many important competitive analyses you can (and should) do for your business. The goal is to get a complete picture of what your audience is paying attention to on social so that you can resonate but also differentiate (after all, that is the name of the game).
Keep scrolling for the template!
🕵️ Want more ways to learn from the competition? Download How to Spy on Your Competitors: 7 Ways to Become a Competitive Supersleuth
Benefits of doing a social media competitor analysis
You already know that social media competitor analyses are important for strong social media marketing (otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article), but let’s dive a little deeper into the tangible benefits of such an exercise:
- Gauge your performance more accurately: Your own numbers don’t mean much without a reference point. If a competitor posts half as much as you but still gets more engagement, that tells you something.
- Identify what’s already working in your market: Even if you have your own finely-tuned social media strategy going, you can always uncover more angles and content formats that your audience responds to.
- Uncover gaps and opportunities: Maybe there’s too much promotional content in your space. Or maybe there’s a lot of “educational” posts that lack a cohesive brand narrative. These are gaps that you can fill to help you stand out authentically.
- Understand audience expectations: Studying other brands that your audience follows will help you understand the experience they expect from you.
How to do a social media competitor analysis
A social media competitor analysis is not unlike a regular competitive analysis (shocking, I know). And when done properly, it will uncover key insights to help you make strategic decisions (plus satisfy your competitor curiosity—because let’s face it, we all have it). Here’s how to do it right:
1. Identify your competitors
Sounds like a no-brainer, right? It is, but there are some important things to remember here:
- Analyze the right number of competitors: Anywhere from three to seven is good. Too few and you won’t get the full picture. Too many and you’ll drive yourself crazy with data.
- Include both competitor types: You should analyze both direct competitors (they sell similar products/services) and indirect competitors (they sell different products or services but solve the same problem).
- Don’t forget non-competing brands: It might be worth throwing in a non-competing brand that your audience follows into the mix—not for positioning purposes but for creative approaches. A Google, business directory, or social media search should be enough to surface both types of competitors.
- Ignore sporadic competitors: It may be tempting to include a competitor or two in there with a limited social media presence because there’s less information to wade through, but this will only do you a disservice. If they’re not active, you don’t want to model after them.
- Audit yourself first: Before you compare your business to others, make sure you have a clear picture of your own performance. Here’s a social media audit guide to help you do that.
This social media audit template can help you establish a firm understanding of your own account first.
2. Identify which platforms to analyze
There are tons of social media platforms out there today. Lucky for you, not every competitor will be on every platform. Here are some helpful pointers for this portion of your social media competitor analysis:
- Look at your buyer personas: This will help you hone in on the channels where your target audience is most likely to spend their time.
- Then look at where your most active competitors spend their time: This will be an easy indicator of where your target audience likes to hang out.
- Pay attention to emerging channels: New platforms can quickly become major players (just look at TikTok), so if you see early traction from competitors on a newer channel, take that as a signal.
- Use social listening tools: These can show you where conversations about your brand or industry are already happening, which can help with prioritizing platforms.
Lots of important social media platforms to consider in your analysis.
3. Audit their profile-level information
The competitive insights you collect in your analysis will fall into a few buckets. The first one is the profile-level bucket, which you should cover before you dive deeper into content. This includes:
- Follower count: Note that having lots of followers doesn’t always equal high engagement, but it’s useful for context.
- Branding: What is their look and feel? How consistent is it?
- Bio/description: What keywords or value propositions do they highlight?
- Links and CTAs: Where are they driving traffic?
- Overall positioning: What comes through the loudest from a glance at the profile? Expertise? Personality? Convenience? Quality?
This high-level overview will set a nice foundation for the rest of the data.
For this Instagram bio, personality definitely comes through loudest.
4. Analyze their content strategy
Okay, now you’re ready for the heart of your social media competitor analysis. This is the part where you look at 10-20 recent posts and note the patterns. Here’s what to look at:
- Content format: Which format dominates? Images, carousels, Reels, Stories? If it’s a mix, provide an approximate breakdown, like 50% Stories, 25% static images, 25% Reels.
- Content types: Same thing here. Think in terms of relatable or funny memes, POV posts, educational posts, or promotional content. You can also get a refresher on social media content types here.
- Messaging themes: What topics are they focusing on? What is their tone? Are they educational? Entertaining? Aspirational? You can learn more about brand voice and messaging here.
- Posting frequency: Do they post daily or weekly? How consistent are they?
- Creative style: What is their visual aesthetic? What colors and fonts do they use? Is it intentional and consistent?
You can tell when a business puts intention behind its social media aesthetic.
5. Evaluate their engagement and performance
As I mentioned earlier, large follower counts, or even high posting volume, do not equate to large engagement. This metric is the clearest indicator of what your audience actually cares about. Here’s what to look at:
- Average likes, comments, shares, or saves: For example, “Most posts average 40-50 likes, 1-2 comments, almost no shares.” You can learn more about social media engagement metrics here.
- Engagement compared to follower count: This can be a general assessment. For example, “45K followers but only 30-40 likes per post → low engagement.”
- Highest-performing content types: Videos and Reels tend to get more engagement than static posts, so take it a level deeper. For example, “Quick Canva-made animations get more traction than self-style videos.”
- What topics outperform others: Promotional posts often get less engagement than educational ones, so take it a level deeper. For example, “POV posts on industry trends drive more engagement than evergreen educational posts.”
6. Identify the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities
Now that you’ve collected all of your buckets of data, it’s time to zoom out and look for patterns. The best way to understand this is to go through some examples.
- Competitor strengths might include: High production value, strong brand voice, frequent posting, high engagement, clearly defined messaging, or unique creative formats.
- Competitor weaknesses might include: Sporadic posting, inconsistent messaging, low engagement despite high follower counts, too much promotional content, a lack of format variety, or no emotional appeal.
- Opportunities for you may include: New content formats, messaging angles, platforms where competition is low but interest is rising, or engagement strategies you can adapt or improve.
This is a crucial step, because it’s here that you’re turning observations into strategic thinking.
This is the SWOT section of your social media competitive analysis.
🛑 Free resource! How to Do a SWOT Analysis (With Examples & Reusable Template)
7. Summarize your findings
If you’ve completed all of the above steps, you have all of the information you need. But don’t stop there! It’s now time for the most important step, which is to create a digestible summary that you can share with your manager or team, and have for your own easy reference. Your summary should include:
- The key platforms that matter
- What types of content drive the most engagement
- Benchmarks for frequency, tone, and format
- Gaps in the market you can fill
- Recommendations for how your brand should move forward
Now you have what you need to turn social media strategy into decisions and actions.
Note! Most businesses revisit their analysis quarterly or twice a year. This helps you stay on top of quickly evolving trends (which go at lightning speed in the social media world) and your competitors’ activity.
Social media competitive analysis template
Here’s a copy-and-edit template that reflects all the key data points we listed in this post and will give you a solid foundation for running your own analysis. You can use it as is, but I encourage you to modify it to fit your business and thinking style.
Use this social media competitor analysis template to organize and track all your newfound data.
Start your social media competitive analysis now
With this social media competitive analysis, you’ll have what you need to stop guessing—and start strategizing—on how to increase your online presence in the ever-growing social sphere.
Use it to get a clearer picture of what your audience actually responds to and what’s oversaturated, so you can make smart decisions that move the needle. Do this a few times a year, and you’ll be on your way to a more intentional social presence.
