Understanding your opponents is crucial if you wish to keep forward. This implies getting a nuanced perspective of their strengths and weaknesses—and understanding how your audience perceives them. Aggressive market analysis is the important thing to attaining this. It helps you higher perceive your prime opponents and monitor market traits to refine your technique primarily based on knowledge.
Social Listening serves as a robust aggressive evaluation instrument, extracting focused model insights from widespread on-line conversations throughout social networks. With Social listening aggressive evaluation, you get real-time details about how shoppers act, new traits and opponents’ actions, which you need to use to shortly pivot methods and keep forward of the sport.
Let’s dive deeper into how social listening for aggressive evaluation offers you an edge.
The advantages of utilizing social listening for aggressive evaluation
Social Listening offers you real-world insights extracted from on-line chatter for a birds’-eye view of the aggressive panorama. These insights make it easier to refine advertising and marketing methods to optimize your return on funding (ROI) and innovate throughout your corporation.
It’s no shock that 13% of social media leaders have prioritized Social Listening in 2025, with 12% of budgets allotted to it. In case your opponents are gaining a aggressive edge by investing on this space, you threat being left behind by ignoring it.
Aggressive analysis additionally offers you perception into macro-consumer traits such because the affect of elevated client costs on total spending habits and model preferences. Or, higher goal Gen Z, a demographic recognized for its excessive buying energy and distinctive client conduct.
Aggressive intelligence is very crucial in social media advertising and marketing due to the character of social. As new platforms, options and traits emerge, social groups should maintain aggressive market analysis on their radar to verify their model stays related.
Social listening offers your social groups swift, complete insights from throughout social networks, overview websites and buyer boards—at a fraction of the price and time conventional analysis strategies take. You’re in a position to extra simply overcome flux in platform algorithms and face constantly evolving client conduct. You’re additionally higher in a position to perceive how your opponents are navigating these shifts and adapting their methods to fulfill them.
Plus, you’ll be able to analyze sentiment in 1000’s of name conversations to deal with buyer wants extra productively and make sure the competitors doesn’t have an effect on your market share.
6 suggestions for social listening aggressive evaluation
Understanding your competitor’s social media technique means you need to use what’s working and keep away from their errors. Listed here are six suggestions for utilizing social listening in aggressive evaluation:
1. Monitor competitor sentiment
Since your viewers typically overlaps with that of your opponents, their buyer suggestions is very related to you. A criticism or request that comes again typically reveals a standard downside or want. This is a chance to indicate your self as the only option for that standard want.
Public sentiment about your opponents is available on social media, offering worthwhile insights into their strengths and weaknesses. By analyzing this knowledge, you’ll be able to refine your technique to differentiate your model and showcase its strengths.
For instance, shoppers typically take to social media to debate their favourite fast-food chains. A aggressive evaluation of feedback in Reddit social listening knowledge can present what shoppers love and what they anticipate from their favourite eating places.
Sprout’s instruments for aggressive evaluation make it straightforward to have a look at buyer suggestions like this from social media. This helps manufacturers perceive how their opponents are seen and the way they’ll stand out.
2. Determine market gaps
Social media is a goldmine of helpful and unfiltered model data you in any other case wouldn’t discover. With prospects ceaselessly sharing ache factors, praises, unmet wants and even concepts for brand new options, it’s like having non-public entry to your opponents’ focus teams.
By listening carefully, you’ll be able to spot gaps of their or your choices and use this data to fill the voids. Some suggestions might recommend small quality-of-life enhancements, whereas others may spark game-changing concepts for brand new merchandise.
For instance, Apple’s transition to USB-C ports. For years, iPhone customers have wished a common charging resolution like USB-C. Apple ultimately responded to buyer sentiment by introducing USB-C ports within the iPhone 15 lineup. This determination solved a long-standing buyer downside, and confirmed a key lesson for these utilizing social listening: If there’s one thing most of your buyer base needs, seize the chance and provides it to them.
3. Refine content material technique
Analyzing content material that resonates along with your opponents’ viewers reveals efficient methods in your business. If sure matters, codecs or channels drive considerably increased engagement amongst your shared viewers, you need to use this perception to tailor your content material for larger influence.
For instance, thermal drinkware Stanley, a model that’s over 110 years outdated, spent most of that point advertising and marketing to males—particularly flasks for tradesmen and out of doors staff. Nevertheless, after figuring out a rising demand amongst ladies, and particularly the eco-conscious trying to reject single-use plastics, they revamped their content material technique to focus on this untapped viewers. They used influencer advertising and marketing for his or her new Quencher tumbler on Tiktok, utilizing feminine influencers to showcase the product.
The marketing campaign went viral and result in Stanley redefining its market presence.
4. Monitor business traits
Staying on prime of business traits is significant to staying related and forward of the competitors. Social listening helps you to observe rising matters, shifting client preferences and evolving market dynamics. By figuring out and responding to traits proactively, you place your model as a pacesetter, and meet buyer expectations in a quickly altering panorama.
Nike acknowledged the rising client demand for environmentally accountable merchandise as early as 2019. In response, it launched its “Transfer to Zero” marketing campaign, aiming for zero carbon emissions and 0 waste throughout its operations. This initiative consists of commitments to make use of 100% renewable vitality by 2025 and to cut back carbon emissions throughout its world provide chain by 30% by 2030.
The marketing campaign was so standard that many manufacturers like The Good Plastic Firm began following Nike’s #movetozero marketing campaign.
5. Measure buyer satisfaction
Evaluating buyer satisfaction ranges in your opponents is a helpful benchmark to enhance your services and products. While you perceive the place opponents fall quick, it helps you fill gaps and information your enhancements.
If prospects repeatedly specific frustration with a competitor’s customer support, chances are high they care about your customer support, too.
For instance, McDonald’s launched the Grimace Shake as a limited-edition drink within the UK after its success within the US. The shake was a success, and lots of took to social media to precise their disappointment when it left the menu. In response, McDonald’s determined to relaunch the Grimace Shake within the UK in December 2024 for a two-week interval. Followers rejoiced, making it viral by sharing images on social media.
By utilizing social listening to measure buyer satisfaction, you’ll be able to proactively deal with ache factors, refine your choices and present prospects that their opinions matter.
Sprout sentiment evaluation instruments allow you to guage buyer satisfaction to determine which areas want enchancment and which resonate most along with your viewers.
6. Benchmark efficiency
Utilizing direct opponents as benchmarks helps determine progress alternatives and areas for enchancment. Because you share the same audience, evaluating efficiency reveals what’s working and what’s not.
Monitoring your competitor’s efficiency enhances this course of by exhibiting the way you stack up on key metrics. For instance, if a competitor is getting constantly excessive engagement on a selected community, it alerts that your viewers is energetic on that platform and you need to strive investing extra within the area.
Guarantee your methods stay related in an ever-evolving aggressive panorama by constantly assessing your efficiency. Sprout’s aggressive evaluation instruments allow you to do exactly that. Monitor your efficiency in opposition to opponents via metrics like viewers progress, engagement and sentiment throughout a number of platforms.
Learn how to conduct social listening aggressive evaluation in 5 steps
Social listening goes past merely monitoring conversations—it’s about extracting actionable insights to get an edge over robust competitors. A well-executed social listening aggressive evaluation supplies the dear knowledge that you must refine your methods, spot alternatives and strengthen your place available in the market. Observe these 5 steps to benefit from your efforts:
Step 1: Outline your objectives
Earlier than diving into social listening, take time to obviously define what you need to obtain. Are you aiming to enhance your social media engagement? Determine market gaps? Benchmark efficiency in opposition to opponents?
Setting particular, measurable objectives will information your social listening evaluation, making certain you concentrate on the conversations and metrics that align along with your aims.
Step 2: Determine your prime opponents
Decide your primary opponents. These might embrace manufacturers who instantly compete in your business, these serving the same viewers and even manufacturers you aspire to in the future attain—although it’s vital to maintain your aspirations considerably real looking for the sake of actionable evaluation.
By deciding on probably the most related opponents, the information and insights can be extra related and actionable, and higher positioned to assist drive knowledgeable methods.
Step 3: Use social listening to conduct in-depth analysis
Give attention to monitoring the metrics and conversations that align along with your clearly outlined objectives. This might contain monitoring mentions of your opponents, analyzing product opinions or figuring out widespread buyer ache factors to uncover worthwhile insights.
Sprout Social’s aggressive evaluation subject template streamlines this course of by serving to you observe key metrics like share of voice, engagement and sentiment traits. With customizable templates and actionable visualizations, Sprout helps you determine rising traits, prime key phrases and vital business shifts, offering a deeper understanding of the place opponents are excelling—and the place they’re falling quick.
Step 4: Evaluate your product and advertising and marketing methods
Use the insights gained from social listening to guage how your merchandise and advertising and marketing efforts stack up in opposition to your opponents. Analyze key areas similar to pricing, promotions and content material methods to determine what’s driving their success. Are there elements of their technique that might resonate along with your shared viewers? Use this data to adapt your methods.
To study extra about aggressive product evaluation.
Step 5: Consider your aggressive place
Together with your social listening evaluation full, use the outcomes to replicate on the place your model stands available in the market. Put aside your bias in the direction of your model—acknowledging your weaknesses will be simply as helpful as recognizing your strengths.
Use these findings to refine your methods, bolster your distinctive promoting factors and deal with areas for enchancment. Repeatedly repeat this course of to remain forward of market traits and altering viewers wants. Issues can transfer quick.
Learn how to use Sprout for social listening aggressive evaluation
Social listening knowledge offers you a deep understanding of your corporation surroundings, extending past advertising and marketing to different key areas like product enhancement, recognizing progress alternatives and enhancing buyer care.
In response to The State of Social Media Report, 95% of enterprise executives agree corporations should rely extra closely on social media knowledge to tell enterprise selections throughout all areas of the enterprise—not simply advertising and marketing.
There’s a transparent purpose for this reliance on social media knowledge. The Sprout Social Index ™ revealed, 68% of shoppers comply with manufacturers on social media to remain knowledgeable about new services or products. They ask questions, share experiences and talk about product and repair alternate options. This creates a wealth of customer-driven data ready to be harnessed.
Social competitor evaluation instruments allow you to mix inner data and social media intelligence, bridging the hole between the way you assume your viewers perceives your model and their precise sentiment. When these insights are paired with knowledge out of your CRM, product analysis and gross sales knowledge, they offer you an excellent clearer image of develop market share.
Constructing supplies pioneer James Hardie® makes use of social listening for aggressive analysis. They interact in viewers and pattern evaluation, analysis product sentiment, determine business influencers and conduct competitor comparisons to construct holistic model methods past advertising and marketing.
“Not solely is it good from a model well being and advertising and marketing angle, it’s additionally vital data we are able to cross on to our gross sales groups and product groups. We are able to discover traits and customary themes that come up in conversations. We are able to determine not solely our personal model advocates however model advocates for our competitors,” says Bridget Kulla, Senior Digital Advertising Supervisor at James Hardie.
Right here’s a fast take a look at how you need to use Sprout for social listening aggressive evaluation.
Determine patterns and correlations
Search for patterns and overlaps between your inner data and what social listening knowledge reveals. Use Sprout to create presentation-ready experiences that may assist your crew do competitor mapping to contextualize your analysis and aggressive knowledge. This course of will make it easier to determine opponents that weren’t even in your radar earlier than, offering a extra in-depth understanding of your market.
Combine social listening in your workflows
Educate your crew on the facility of social listening and exhibit how social insights can seamlessly plug into their workflows. For instance, Sprout’s Model Key phrases functionality zeroes in on X conversations which might be related to your model and business, together with your competitors. You’ll be able to add key phrases mentioning your organization and merchandise to floor even these conversations the place you’re not tagged instantly.
This provides you a direct view of chatter on X the place shoppers point out you in relation to a competitor. This additionally offers you a chance to affix the dialog and suggest our model.
Monitor listening knowledge by matters
Advertising, gross sales and product groups every prioritize totally different facets of the model expertise. To maximise the worth of your social media listening, slim your focus to matters and knowledge that’s actually related to your objectives. This focused method helps you to extract insights from 1000’s of social conversations with out getting overwhelmed.
Sprout’s Listening resolution permits this sort of detailed aggressive analysis evaluation with ease. Powered by Sprout’s Analyze by AI Help functionality, you’ll be able to observe crucial metrics, hashtags, key phrases, mentions trending in your Subjects and even emojis. Get all these insights within the Dialog tab of your Listening Subjects.
Additional filter outcomes to get extra insights in regards to the time period.
Our built-in, AI-driven Question Builder supplies customization choices in your listening, enabling you to incorporate or exclude key phrases. You too can create Matter Themes to additional streamline your social listening knowledge to seek out actionable insights.
Turning your social listening aggressive evaluation knowledge into actionable insights
A key a part of social media aggressive evaluation is changing your analysis into insights you need to use. Sprout helps you obtain this by consolidating your aggressive analysis knowledge right into a single, unified supply, making it simpler so that you can analyze and resolve what actions to take.
Get a complete side-by-side comparability of key metrics, together with whole engagement, potential impressions, model sentiment and share of voice. This permits a simple evaluation of your model’s efficiency relative to opponents. These metrics additionally provide a deeper understanding of which model is main the dialog and the way your audience perceives your model versus the competitors.
Use the templates to:
Discover insights by community
Achieve worthwhile insights into your content material efficiency throughout networks similar to Fb, Instagram and X (previously referred to as Twitter) with network-specific efficiency and engagement experiences. These aggressive experiences offer you a comparative view of which networks your opponents are prioritizing. This, in flip, might help refine your social media technique or spotlight a content material hole you’ll be able to fill in your viewers.
Additionally use Sprout’s Customized Reviews to share related insights throughout departments. These experiences assist your groups mix cross-network competitor engagement and listening knowledge for a holistic view.
Spot prime business and competitor traits
Uncover distinguished traits and matters inside your business and extract insights on plenty of components similar to opponents, content material varieties, message types and viewers sentiment. Make the most of key phrase filters to refine your search and select a date vary to look at each long-term and short-term aggressive traits.
For instance, listening knowledge can reveal an upward pattern in client demand for merchandise which might be ethically sourced and environmentally pleasant, which may affect your total model technique and differentiate you from the group.
Construct partaking content material
Sprout’s competitor efficiency report reveals you ways your opponents’ social content material is performing. It highlights key metrics like engagement, publish frequency and viewers progress, as a way to benchmark in opposition to opponents and determine what resonates along with your shared viewers. Use these insights to refine your content material technique going ahead.
Additionally assess detailed content material efficiency and engagement knowledge throughout Fb, X and Instagram primarily based on the distinctiveness of every social community. As an example, content material that excels on Instagram might not carry out as effectively on Fb attributable to variations in format and consumer conduct.
Determine areas of progress
Analyze suggestions about your product and repair to proactively deal with buyer considerations and determine areas for enchancment and progress. You also needs to analyze competitor suggestions, as you’ll be able to acquire insights that can be utilized to refine your advert messaging and develop extra focused promoting propositions. This method allows you to differentiate your model whereas staying vigilant on competitor efficiency.
Combine findings throughout your tech stack
Sprout’s Tableau Enterprise Intelligence (BI) Connector will enhance the worth and actionability of your aggressive evaluation. It helps you to mixture insights from a number of programs into dynamic, data-rich visualizations of key metrics all through your buyer journey. Use this instrument to trace social engagements, common response charges for social buyer care initiatives and your aggressive share of voice.
You too can customise visuals and acquire an immersive view by mapping social engagements and conversion charges to gross sales knowledge.
Use social listening aggressive evaluation for a profitable 2025
Use social listening to conduct a radical SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, alternatives, threats) evaluation for your self and your key opponents. This method to aggressive market analysis will give you actionable insights to navigate efficiently via 2025 and past.
From analyzing your opponents’ pricing methods and worth propositions to refining your content material technique, use Sprout to determine alternatives and set your model aside.
Able to unlock significant insights? Request a demo in the present day and acquire the aggressive edge your model wants.
