Competitive Analysis: Social Media
From playing rock, paper, scissors to battling it out over a race to see who could run the fastest, I never turned down competition.
But who am I kidding, that hasn’t changed. I’m a very competitive person and I like winning. Actually put VERY in all caps and change like to love in the previous sentence.
Regardless of my own competitive personality, the most apparent competitiveness in society is obviously business…next to sports of course. Every business has at least one identifiable competitor and there will always be this inherent competition. If you’re winning, your revenue is in the plus zone and if you’re losing obviously it could go the other way.
Besides revenue, virtually being the main factor with competition in business, there are clear other forms that have risen up to the cause. One of these has become a vital component in every business — social media.
Competitive social media isn’t necessarily always a quantity factor, the most followers, likes, pins, etc, doesn’t make for a full blown winner. Lately, I’ve noticed much more competitiveness on social media in regards to the actual content and how it increases the brand’s engagement.
1. Brand to Brand Interaction on Twitter
Some of the best examples of competitive social media can be directly seen with Twitter. Twitter provides an easy and quick way for companies to broadcast informative tidbits. It’s also a way to showcase the best battles of wit.
This past week KitKat and Oreo battled it out. They aren’t direct competitors, but I have to admit when I’m at the store I do limit myself to only one sweet snack. So, I guess I would have to chose between Oreos or KitKats. It was a battle on Twitter neither completely dunked in milk or giving each other a break, but there wasn’t any blood. The banter between the two mainly revolved around wit and laughter with a game of tic-tac-toe. A fan tweeted at both stating of her chocolate fondness and Kitkat responded with a real-time tweet to Oreo with the beginning of the game. Of course, Oreo responded and it was fun seeing the match between the two.
Yes, sometimes your competitors are the evil rivals, but keeping in mind about the quick nature of Twitter and that people respond more to positive tweets could have a good, monitored output of replies that keep customers and competitors on their toes laughing.
2. Live Pinning
Pinterest still has a pretty large amount of buzz swarming themselves, probably because they just released a highly anticipated analytics component. E-commerce sites have really jumped into Pinterest and have ruled it. A great example of this can come from Oscar de la Renta and the infamous OscarPRGirl. OscarPRGirl is one of the best known examples in the fashion industry who has taken social media by storm. However, they took it up a notch by live pinning their bridal show last year. Definitely a different take on how to use Pinterest, but it gained a lot of attention. Also, Alex Bolen, the CEO of Oscar de la Renta, quoted saying “As with all of the experiments we try here, we want people to spend time paying attention to us, not our competitors.” Pinterest has been shown to drive a lot of traffic to sites, so take note of Oscar de la Renta’s live pinning and using Pinterest to your competitive advantage.
3. Facebook Stand off
Last year, Thomas Cook reached out to Thomas Cook UK, a global travel agency, on their Facebook page informing the agency of the ridicule and annoyance he faced constantly sharing the same name of the travel agency. He posted a “cheeky” remark saying that the years of sharing the same name deserved him a free trip to Paris. Unfortunately Thomas Cook UK was not as sympathetic and told Mr. Cook that he could visit the site himself to find a trip he could also pay himself.
Then, lowcostholidays.com, a competitor, swooped in to save the day. They sympathized with Mr.Cook and sweep him away off to Paris for free. Sometimes looking over your competitors Facebook pages could in fact present opportunities for you to help their disgruntled customers. Customers often voice their complaints on Facebook or Twitter, so why not use those social media outlets to your advantage to answer the customers that your competitors could have left in the dark.
When it comes down to it, everyone wants to be the best. The best user on Twitter, the best Facebook page, the best pins. Yet, it’s not all about quantity in social media, it’s the engagement. If you are interacting with your customers more or even competitors (in a light-hearted way), it’ll only prove to be a beneficial outcome for your company. When it comes down to it, these interactions only fuels the competitiveness that helps run a company forward…or to the ground. We are hopeful the latter doesn’t happen, unless you are one of our competitors.
