Work smart, not hard! This phrase should stick in your head throughout your professional journey. The minute you grasp and harness the right tools, you will realize how much time and effort you saved on yourself and on your team.
It has 0 significance if you have just started your career or have been on the scene for quite some time. What matters is to keep yourself updated about the latest trends, but most importantly, to know what your competitors are doing. Stalking your competitors is acceptable to an extent because you should constantly re-assure that you are ahead of the game.
You are probably wondering how to find these competitors, right?
Keep reading….We will go over the whole process and hand out the needed knowledge about Instagram competitor analysis after reading this blog.
First, you should go to Instagram, narrow down your search, and find your competitors. The beauty of the platform is that it provides you with tools to specify your search, like which location, what business, etc. You could also search specific hashtags like #popmusic or #indiesongs. Find the direct and indirect competitors, and always have inspirational figures that you find as role models. If you are a rising pop artist, find your competitors similar to you, and follow Ariana Grande to know what the queen of pop is up to.
But it does not end by just having an overview of their account; you need to collect the relevant data and use it for your own benefit.
The second step is the critical aspects that you should carefully understand.
Following the stalking process, now the data collection time has finally arrived. Look at your competitors’ number of followers, and monitor the growth rate (is the growth steady? Too fast?). You could research by using specific tools like Phlanx, Sharemyinsights, and NJlitics.
Also, analyze the content they produce and how frequently they post and link it to their overall growth process. For instance, if they are constantly posting on Instagram and their followers’ growth is peeking, it means the used strategy is a brilliant one. Additionally, try to understand your competitors’ marketing goals; in other words, what are they trying to achieve with their online presence: is their sole goal maximizing profit? Or spreading brand awareness? or targeting new geolocation?
Moreover, track the hashtags that they are using and the way they are communicating with their audience.
You need a report to add all these data because it is humanly impossible to just store them in your brain. All the collected metrics should be added to one report to go back and forth whenever needed. You have plenty of templates available, but we would suggest Google Data Studio.
Also, after collecting your data, perform a SWOT analysis. In short, it means to compare your account to that of your competitors to know where your brand stands. The SWOT analysis explores four primary areas of your strategy: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
To wrap it up, always remember that competitor analysis is something that should be a top priority. You can’t pause your work; you should keep hitting your rivals and making sure they are not beating you in the game. Also, another trick to find your competitors is by checking the “suggested to you” accounts. The platform’s algorithms will suggest to you the businesses that are more or less close to yours.
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