A little competition can bring out the best in people. On social, a Facebook competitor analysis can bring out the best in your brand.
According to the 2022 Sprout Social Index™, over 80% of marketers check their social data on a daily or weekly basis to inform everything from content strategy to market research. These decisions are not made with only proprietary data. Competitive data is essential to get a complete picture.
Using Facebook data to strengthen your competitive intelligence can give you insight into where others are fighting. It is no surprise that Facebook is the most used platform by marketers around the world.
If you are ready to indulge in some old fashioned competitive sleuth, then you are in the right place. Here’s everything you need to know to start monitoring your competition on Facebook.
What is Facebook Competitor Analysis?
Facebook competitive analysis is the process of evaluating your competitor’s Facebook activity for benchmarking data. These reports also provide information about the strengths and weaknesses of your competitor’s social media strategy as a whole.
Performing Facebook competitor analysis involves reporting on key brand development and engagement metrics for your brand and its competitors. Your team can use this social data to determine a baseline for audience growth, publication and engagement goals.
These findings can help you define what it means to provide better content and service on social media, increasing the business impact of your presence on the network.
Why should you do Facebook competitive analysis?
If you plan to do social media competitive analysis, make Facebook your top priority. More than two-thirds of consumers anticipate spending more time on Facebook over the next year, making it a goldmine of strategic insights. If that’s not enough, here are some other reasons to consider:
Establish more relevant KPIs
Competitive benchmarking on Facebook can take the guesswork out of targeting.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to set a new engagement goal. Looking at your historical data can help you set an achievable goal, but without competitive insights, you run the risk of setting goals that are not in line with industry standards.
Your Facebook competitor analysis can lead you to aim higher with your social content while keeping your strategy attainable and actionable.
Identify content gaps
Competitive analysis can illuminate the gaps in your content strategy while supplying you with the information you need to fill them.
For example, an oral health care brand doing Facebook competitive analysis might notice that Quip incorporates month-long adherence and hashtag holidays into its content strategy.
It’s National Dentist Day *and* Women’s History Month, and Leonie von Meusebach-Zesch is one of the most interesting…
Posted by Quip on Saturday, March 6th, 2021
Since these posts do well from an engagement standpoint, that brand can consider how they can put their own unique spin on similar events.
Create better content for your followers
Coming up with new content ideas is a top challenge for many social media marketers.
Instead of starting a brainstorm with a blank slate, use industry data to create some much-needed railings. That’s where your Facebook competitor analysis comes in.
The analysis will help you identify your competitor’s content topics. As you notice them, ask yourself how your brand might approach something similar. What would you do differently? What opportunities are they not taking advantage of?
Eventually, you’ll come up with a unique piece of inspired content that stands out independently of its source material.
Understand the power of customer service efforts
More than half of US consumers turn to Facebook the most for customer service needs, making it the network of choice for customer service.
Quantitative and qualitative reviews of your competitors’ Facebook pages can help you clearly define what they are and what they are not in terms of customer service. It will show you what it takes to have a competitive edge on social.
Facebook competitive analysis tools will help you keep track of what your audience expects from brands on the network. Eventually, you’ll find ways to individualize their service offerings, cementing your position as people turn to brands for a better customer experience.
Test out Facebook’s new features
Facebook started as a social network for college students. Now, it is a social network, a marketplace, a media platform and much more.
This creates an ever-flowing river of new opportunities for marketers. The only downside is that it can feel overwhelming to maintain.
A Facebook competitor analysis can help you identify which Facebook features are worth embedding in your strategy. If a competitor is gaining a lot of traction using a specific tool, it’s a clear sign to get in on the action.
How to Analyze Competitors on Facebook with Sprout
You can do some of this research manually, but Sprout will make the process much more efficient. Sprout’s Facebook Competitor Report lets you track metrics for any Facebook Page so that they can be compared to your own Page. Here’s how to use it:
Step 1: Set up your filters
Use the Filter menu to customize the data you want to see in your reports.
You’ll find three different filters in the menu: Pages, Competitor Pages, and Date Range.
- use pages To choose which proprietary Facebook Pages you want to include in the report.
- use competitor page To manage and select competing Facebook Pages
- Use date range Date picker to choose a time period for your report.
Step 2: Check Summary
The top widget in the Facebook Competitors Report is a summary table. This includes averaging key metrics including fans per post, public engagement, and public engagement.
Use the trends highlighted in the summary as starting points for your competitive investigation. For example, if you notice that your fan average is lagging, this may be the first item to review and cover in your report.
Step 3: Dig in the Numbers
You’ll find three different chart widgets in the Facebook Competitors report:
- audience growth The chart shows how your audience grew compared to your competitors during the selected time period.
- publication behavior The chart shows the different types of posts published by you and your competitors during the selected time period.
- The engagement The chart measures how people are engaging with the post based on the publication date.
Each of these charts goes deeper into the high-level metrics available in the summary table. They also provide an average of each metric for both owned and competitive Facebook pages. Use this information to benchmark your performance against the average of your competitors.
Step 4: Review the post-level data
Use the Top Posts widget to review the most popular posts published during your chosen time period.
The Top Posts widget will help you analyze content published across all competitors to understand what is resonating within your shared audience. As you review the data, be on the lookout for qualitative trends as well. What types of visuals and messaging drive the most engagement? Are there any topics that people are particularly excited about?
Understanding these trends will come in handy during your next brainstorm.
Step 5: Share the Findings
There are a few different ways to distribute your reports from Sprout.
If you want to limit the number of disparate files floating around in people’s inboxes, try the link sharing option. This will allow you to share reports with multiple stakeholders, whether they have a Sprout account or not.
Understanding your Facebook competitor analysis
Numbers are nothing without the right context.
For example, what if one of your competitors ran a lucrative social media contest during your reporting period? This will definitely affect their engagement or audience growth. If your report lacks that context, it could result in an unfair assessment of your team’s performance.
Use storytelling to give meaning to your data. Include the “why” behind your most interesting numbers so that your teammates can understand the full story behind the report, too.
May the best brand win
Facebook competitor analysis may be exactly what you need to level up on the network. Understanding where their strengths and weaknesses lie is the first step to understanding how to make them perform better socially.
Compiling that data takes a lot of work, especially when analyzing multiple competitors. Sprout Social can eliminate all the data collection work so you can focus on planning your next steps. Sign up for the trial today to get a 30-day free trial of Facebook Competitor Reports.
How To Operate The Facebook Competitor Analysis Report The post first appeared on Sprout Social.
