The cultural landscape of the modern world is constantly changing. Internet celebrities are created in as little as six seconds. Viral videos can be viewed on every continent across the world in a matter of hours. There’s a lot going on with navigating trending content.
As a result, there are also a lot of opportunities for brands to join the conversation — that is if they can keep up. With things moving at such a fast pace, trends can disappear before we even have time to craft a meaningful message in response to them.
Learn from them
Are you still struggling to find the best way to communicate with people from your niche and always have the feeling your competitors do a better job at it? Take a closer look at what they are doing and learn from it. What do they do? How do people from your target audience react? Which social channels do they use? In which channels do they get the best/most reactions? What kind of content are they using and what topics do they cover?
By analyzing your competitor’ social media and content marketing strategy, you can get valuable insights into what you should be doing and what your target audience may like – or what networks may not be worth the effort. It can save you a ton of time and effort to learn from this information that you can get for free.
Get information
I am a marketer and in many aspects, I know a lot about online and social media marketing. But I do follow a lot of other online marketers; I am subscribed to their blogs and email lists. Why do I do that? Because I can still learn from them: I can see what they do and how I react to it. I also get a ton of information and can easily select which of this information I want to read or watch and what to ignore. All in all, being subscribed to my competitors makes me a better marketer.
As an online marketer, I am never done learning and by simply listening to people I would otherwise regard as my competitors I get even better at what I am doing. Not listening to them would mean I would be missing out. I can get a ton of information for free from people that I highly respect.
If your competitors produce great content from your niche and share industry insights or knowledge, appreciate their work and learn from them. If they provide value, you can profit from it just as much as your potential customers.
Also, watch out for what they are doing: Would that be an option for you too? How does their audience react? Do they have followers on social media and to what kind of content do they engage?