According to amaSocial, competitor tracking is best utilised when you place your focus on specific topics and keywords. This is because instead of receiving a data dump of all the things that your competition does, you get clear and specific insights into data that actually matters.

With this in mind, it is clear why making use of a tool that keeps track of competitors will benefit your brand tremendously.

Here, Jacobs answers four of the main questions pertaining to competitor tracking:

1. What exactly is competitor tracking?

Competitor tracking gives you insight into your brand’s perception and share of voice on social media. This allows you to stay ahead of industry trends and helps you determine how much of the overall conversation is about your brand in comparison to your competitors.

It also helps you to identify pain points in your shared audience’s conversations. Understanding what consumers’ are worried about can help to give you ideas when generating digital content for your brand.

2. What do clients need to keep in mind when looking at tracking competitors? Is it advisable to track various competitors and how do you pick the right ones?

When looking to track competitors, you have to understand who your direct and indirect competitors are. Find your biggest direct competitors — ones that offer similar products or services to you. Tracking these types of competitors will give you the most helpful insight.

Be specific in the type of conversations you want to track, whether it is around competing solutions, leadership movements, queries, complaints, launches or potential leads. When data is carefully segmented, you are able to extract information that will add value to your overall content strategy.

At amaSocial, we structure this type of information with the help of our unique data management systems, which allows you to be instantly notified of changes in the competitor space.

3. What type of brands and companies most benefit from competitor tracking services?

Competitor tracking can assist any brand in building relationships with their audiences, as well as give them a better understanding of the space they occupy in the industry. Every brand out there has at least one competitor — and knowing what they are up to is vital.

Competitor tracking is an important service for a brand who wants to offer more value to their audience and engage in conversations to solve problems. Business can only flourish when problems are solved; this leads to more effective relationship building, which is key in business.

When the objectives for tracking your competitors are clear, you are able to narrow down the key focus areas where you will be able to extract quality insights.

4. What insight can brands gain through competitor tracking? How does this insight place clients ahead of the rest?

The insight gained from competitor tracking will depend on the objectives you have. Competitor tracking can often unearth information on social networks that a business may not usually see or be aware of.

This includes finding influencers and their related networks, trending topics within your competitors’ coverage, timelines of engagement or announcements and key locations within your competitors’ data.

amaSocial’s tailored reports provide marketers with a broader view of their brand as well as its positioning within the industry.

For more information, visit www.amasocial.com. You can also follow amaSocial on Facebook, Twitter or on Instagram.