How to monitor and organize competitors

How to find (and monitor) online competitors

One of the reference points for those who deal with social media marketing and web marketing in general: find competitors online. Or the realities that They work in your same sector. And they could also occupy goring market parts. But this is only part of the perspective.

In fact, you could be you who eat away from traffic, contacts and customers. But the question is another: what is the real goal? Why should you find competitors online? Do not copy, do not follow the roads already beaten, it would be counterproductive and useless. Sometimes harmful. But each strategy needs this passage.

Do you want to create an editorial plan for your Facebook page? Do you work on your blog’s strategy? Have you just inaugurated an Instagram account? Perfect, in any case, you need a solution to control competitors. You must first identify them and then assess. Not everyone deserves to return to your lists. Last step: follow the updates to assess the results. For Understand what it works And what is not.

A social media strategist must operate in this direction. The same goes for a blogger who works on the editorial calendar. That said, what is the way to follow Find competitors online? Here is a series of solutions necessary to obtain good results and move steps supposed to the objectives.

Start of deep research

The simplest steps are sometimes the most effective. How to discover competitors on the web? Start with an online search via platforms that could accommodate competitors’ social networks. Starting point: Google searchThe large web archive which collects the results necessary to create your list.

The same goes for Twitter: a first research on this channel can make a difference. And this can help you identify potential competitors. In addition, in both cases, you can take advantage of research operators. Find everything here:

These combinations improve the results Depending on your needs. For example, on Google, you can look for all the results that have a certain word in the title shot or perhaps in the URL. While on Twitter, you can identify those who used a term in a specific period.

Are there any other research to do? Of course, you can do the same on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. But the great advantage offered by Twitter is simple: the platform offers very refined tools for Archive interesting profiles. I’m talking about the Twitter list. But do not fear, I will deal with the subject in the following paragraphs

Refine the results with dedicated tools

This research is not enough. If you want to find competitors online, you have to go further. And you need to use special tools to obtain in -depth addresses. The first action to be implemented: you must Monitor specific wordsAnd identify the people who use a subject that interests you on certain platforms. The essential tools may already know them. In any case, I leave them in the list:

• Mention
• Hoots
• Google alert

The latter is an application made available by Mountain View to trace publications containing a word. This is a free solution, but the results are not maximum precision. Much better, however, mention: with this tool, you can Identify web pagesTweets and (not private) updates that interests you. You can also store messages and assign them to other team members. The mention is paid, but the free version always offers interesting tools.

Now it’s time to exploit HootsThe essential solution to manage several Twitter and beyond. With this reality, you create flows in which you enter the research linked to certain hashtags or keywords.

In this way, you join all the tweets that deal with themes that concern you in a single column. And here you can find competitorsBut also potential customers. So you do useful work on several fronts.

Read: 5 ways to publish a special tweet

Analyze the competitors in depth

The search for competitors is not over, each phase can be useful for adding new contacts to the list you are going to create. But as you identify useful names for your goal, you must analyze them to Understand what is the profileWhat they do and how they move. In this regard, there is little to add, you need specific tools:

• Saber
• Seozoom
• Similar
• Whistle

Semrush is a sequel with all the tools necessary to know how the blog or the competitors’ website behaves. For example, you can identify the strongest keywords, I Best positionsthe profile of the input links. And you can compare various websites to maintain control of all points of view.

Similar

Seozoom offers it, with greater attention to the Italian market. But then there is a similarity that was designed to analyze the competitors, difficult to manage something better. Wooarank, on the other hand, analyzes the web projects that you found in depth: you can make a real X -Ray sites and blogsI recommend it to have an overview of competitors from a structural point of view.

Don’t forget social media

Even via social networks, you can find good competitors because there are advanced tools that allow you to work well. One of them is followerwonk, the Moz tool that lists all Characteristics of followers of a Twitter account. With this reality, you can get a lot of data, even if the possibilities dedicated to free accounts are reduced: in any case, it is an excellent resource.

Next-Wonk

To follow competitors on Twitter, I prefer to use platforms that allow you to combine other functions. Like only Pult, a Base for managing your account From the office. But which can also be used to record the behavior of people who could inspire your work. Do you want something special for Facebook? In this case, you must go to the professional: Fanpage Karma is the answer

Carefully organizes competitors

Now, how to observe the activity carried out by competitors? First by monitoring the public day by day. For blogs, the solution is simple: subscribe to Feedly and create a Blog dedicated file that you want to follow. In this way, the flow reader warns you whenever an article that may interest you is published.

For Twitter, however, the way to follow is simple: this creates secret user lists. In this way, you can spy on the action of your competitors on Hootsuite or TweetDeck without problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFXZX2PQ3PC

And Pinterest? I usually work in this way: I create non -public babbles in which I organize interesting messages. So I have a collection of content belonging to accounts to keep an eye on. While on Instagram, I support myself on the different suite that organizes online work: with only you can Watch almost everything With a really minimal and durable price for those who work full time with social networks.

Find competitors online: your opinion

Discovering online competitors has never been a simple job. Or rather, the first step is simple, but the storage phase comes and then the evaluation phase. At this point, it can be Easy to fall into error. Or maybe throw in the towel in front of such a long and articulated work. My advice: works continuously, it is over the long distance that you can make the difference. Do you agree? Leave your opinion in the comments.