Once you’ve figured out your competition and finally understand what they’re doing—what’s working and what isn’t—it’s time to put all that hard work and effort into a real plan. In this week’s article, we’ll discuss how to leverage all the insight you’ve gathered and turn it into an actionable strategy.
Leveraging Competitor Insights: Applying Lessons to Your TikTok Strategy
Identify Popular Content
Look at the content your competitors’ audiences engaged with and try something similar.
- Topics and Themes: Break all of the “good stuff” down into topics and themes. What subjects were successful for your competitor? How are you defining a “successful” topic? Create content around similar topics.
Identify Ways to Engage
Adopt engagement styles that work well with your audience.
- Tone: Pay attention to the tone your competitor uses in their posts—whether it’s funny, informative, or casual. Look at two things for tone: the tone of their video content and the tone of their captions. The tone you use can either bring people in or turn them away, so be careful.
- Response Time: Notice how quickly your competitors respond to their comments after they put up new videos. How long are they answering comments and questions live in the comment section? After a video goes live, most successful creators will spend the first 10 minutes liking, commenting and resharing to their stories. If you’re responsive it’s sure to boost engagement.
Post Better
Get more strategic with your posting schedule.
- Figure Out the Best Timing: Post during peak periods. Figure out (through competitor observation as well as trial and error) the best time of the day, day of the week, holidays, etc to post. The most successful social media platforms use an actual schedule rather than just post whenever they want to.
- Posting Frequency: How often do your competitors post? Experiment to find the right frequency for your audience. How much is too much? How much is too little? How much is just right?
Create a Hashtag Strategy
Make your hashtags more effective by figuring out how to use a combination of popular hashtags and niche hashtags. Niche hashtags help you find “your people” while popular hashtags bring you to a broader audience.
Create Visual Branding
Create a cohesive visual style that you will be known for. This is your brand identity.
- Visual Elements: Analyze your competitors’ visual style. What are they doing that works? What stands out about their logo and brand identity? Take that information and use colors, fonts, and visuals that align with your brand identity.
Collaborate From the Beginning
Partner with influencers strategically.
- Identify Influencers to Work With: Find influencers who match your brand values and goals. Consider different types of collaborations like sponsored posts, advertisements, contests, and giveaways.
- Do it From the Beginning: You may think it’s early to start spending money on influence, sponsored posts and advertising but it might just be the right move for you. Influencers help take your brand to an actual audience that you can sell to. Especially if you’re starting out with zero followers, figure out the brands and partners that can help grow your account.
Analyze Content Performance
Regularly check the engagement metrics and audience feedback on your competitors and on your own platform.
- Monitor Engagement: Are people liking your posts? Are people liking your competitors’ posts? Monitor likes, shares, comments, and saves on all of your competitors’ content using a spreadsheet. Do this for yourself as well.
- Learn From Audience Feedback: One of the best things about social media nowadays is that it really helps businesses perfect their product. But how? You can figure out everything your audience likes and doesn’t like about your product just by looking at your comment section. Learn from comments and messages to improve your content.
Build a Strong Community
Building your online community will be the key to your success from here on out. Encourage user participation.
- User-Generated Content: Encourage your audience to create and share content on your brand. There are lots of great examples of this that exist online. It’s usually done within the parameter of a larger trend. It’s free, easy and requires almost nothing from you, except for a share in your stories and a save to your highlights.
- Run contests
- Host Live Q&A sessions
Differentiating Your Brand: Standing Out Among Your Competitors
Now that you’ve studied your competitors, it’s time to put the pedal to the metal. But after all that healthy studying and emulating, how do you differentiate yourself? How do you make your business stand out and stand alone? Here are five tips:
- Identify Brand Values
- What values do you want to be known for? What does your brand stand for? Clearly defining your values will help you connect with your audience on a deeper level.
- Define Visual Identity
- Identify brand colors, fonts, and other visual elements. Consistent and unique visuals make your brand easily recognizable and also memorable.
- Create a Unique Logo
- Design a logo that sets your business apart from others and reflects your brand’s identity. A distinctive logo can help your brand stand out in a crowded market. Remember that your logo should be clear, recognizable and memorable.
- Brainstorm
- Create a spreadsheet with ideas that go beyond what your competitors are doing. While it’s good to learn from them, think outside the box to bring something new and unique to the table.
- Build Your Brand Community
- The best way to differentiate yourself is by building a strong, engaged community of your own. Focus on creating content that resonates with your audience. This will bring your brand loyalty and help you develop a connection with your audience.
Continuous Competitor Monitoring: Staying Updated on Industry Trends and Shifts
It’s crucial to stay up to date on trends and shifts in your industry. Why? Because things change quickly. What was trending last week might be outdated this week. Cancel culture and societal changes move fast. To stay relevant, you need to keep up with the times. How do you do it?
Here are some strategies:
- Continue Monitoring Your Competitors
- Stay Informed with Industry Publications, Blogs, and Other Industry News
- Engage in Your Physical and Virtual Circles
- Don’t forget about real-life interactions. Attend industry events, network with peers, and participate in local business communities. Balance this with staying active in online communities and forums.
- Follow Industry Hashtags
- Use Tools like Google Alerts
- Continuously Analyze and Adapt
- Test New Trending Content Ideas
Experimenting with New Content Ideas: Testing Innovations and Measuring Performance
Have you noticed a pattern here?
The pattern is that success on social media comes from constant testing.
When something works, keep doing it until it stops working. When it no longer delivers results, switch and start testing again. The secret sauce is to not only test your content but also measure its performance. This way, you’re not just relying on a hunch.
Instead of saying, “I think this works because we got lots of new followers,” you can confidently say, “I know this works because we gained 10 new followers who comment every day, and three new people clicked on my link.”
So, how do you measure success?
- Engagement Metrics: Track likes, shares, comments, and new subscribers.
- Click-Through Rate (CTR): See how many people followed through with your Call-to-Action. For example, how many people signed up for your course or bought your product?
- Follower Growth: Monitor the increase in your followers.
Differentiate Yourself From the Competition with Socialty Pro
So, you’ve learned from the competition, but now comes the hard part: differentiating yourself from them and convincing your audience that you are the one they should be buying from.
There have been books written about this subject, seminars sold, and mentors hired. This isn’t something that can be condensed into one small article. That said, we did a pretty good job of outlining the basics.
If you want to learn more in-depth techniques for differentiating yourself, consider partnering with the nation’s premier “Done for You” TikTok social media agency.
Start with Socialty Pro
Socialty Pro is a social media marketing agency that will help you understand your competition and stand out in your niche. Socialty Pro is the #1 master of the social media game and knows how to hack the social media world for anyone in any niche. We offer a “Done For You” white glove package, mentorship, and a variety of other services to assist you on your social media journey.
So, what exactly is Socialty Pro?
We’re the world’s top “Done for You” organic TikTok marketing agency, helping businesses like yours thrive online. Our approach is simple yet effective, using proven strategies that focus on trends, engagement, and viral growth.
Our Specializations Include:
- Growing your account from 0 to viral
- Making content go viral on every platform
- Turning creators into leaders in their niche
- Mastering the entire social media game
If you’re ready to hit the ground running, reach out to Socialty Pro today. Learn more about us by visiting the link.
