Twitter is booming with activity each day. About 500 million tweets are sent out on any given day. Naturally, profit-driven brands try to take advantage of the platform all the time. Every brand has rival brands competing for their share of voice on Twitter. Conducting Twitter competitor analysis is important to stay ahead of the competition. 

Twitter brand wars are notorious for the harmless jibes brands throw at each other. But then, there’s more to winning your audience over on Twitter than just engaging in these brand wars. In this blog, we will help you dig deeper into each and every Twitter competitor you have. Keep reading to find out how you can ace your Twitter marketing strategy by tapping into Twitter competitor analysis.

What is Twitter Competitor Analysis? 

Twitter competitor analysis, in a nutshell, involves tracking all your competitors on Twitter. You spy on your competitors’ Twitter activity and make sense of their strategy, albeit through ethical means. With the data that you derive using Twitter competitor analysis, you can build well-rounded plans for your brand on Twitter. 

To clear out your doubts, let’s take a look at some of the commonly asked questions around ‘Twitter Competitor Analysis’. 

Common Questions Associated with Twitter Competitor Analysis

How do you analyze competitors? 

To analyze competitors, first and foremost, you need to know who your competitors are. Doing thorough research is important- there are direct as well as indirect competitors. To analyze any competitor, whether it is their offline activity or social media activity, you need to keep track of their performance.

 A good competitor analysis tool will help you do just that. There are many merits to getting a competitor analysis tool- about which we will talk later in good detail. 

How to perform a social media competitive analysis? 

To conduct social media competitive analysis, pick the competitors against whom you want to benchmark your performance. Dig into your competitors’ activity and how they are performing on social media platforms. 

Get a social media competitive analysis tool to do the job for you. With the help of the data derived, you can take all important decisions around your social media presence. 

What is the purpose of competitor analysis?

No matter what industry you belong to, you do not exist in a vacuum. There will always be other players in the market. This means you will need to keep an eye out for what these ‘other players’ are up to.

The purpose of competitor analysis, in this sense, is to gather competitor data and gain an edge over them. 

Which two functions allow you to keep track of competitors on social media? 

A social media competitor analysis comes with various features that help you capture competitors’ activity. When it comes to the functions that allow you to keep track of competitors on social media, overall competition tracker and share of voice are helpful. 

With the competition tracker, you can get an overview of your competitors analytics. The share of voice is a good metric to understand how your brand is faring against competitors, in terms of visibility in the industry. 

By now you must’ve gotten a fair understanding of social media competitor analysis. The important thing is that you scan the competitor landscape on every platform. We’ve covered a blog on Instagram competitor analysis. And, if you’re looking to dig into your competitors on Facebook, then this Facebook competitor analysis guide will definitely come in handy!

In this blog, we will mainly be focusing on Twitter competitor analysis. If you’re still considering whether you should really invest in Twitter competitive analysis, the next section will help you get a better understanding. 

Why Twitter Competitor Analysis is Important? 

To DecodeTwitter Competitors’ Content Strategy 

To begin with, you can leverage your Twitter competitors’ content strategy to feed into your own strategy. Content plays a very important role in driving your audience’s actions. Especially, on Twitter, where creating short-format content that stands out, is very challenging. 

Knowing what your competitors are doing, will help you a great deal. What content formats is your Twitter competitor putting out? How much engagement are they generating? 

Twitter competitor analysis will help you dig deeper into all the analytics behind your competitors’ content. Given that your target audience overlaps that of your competitors’, knowing what’s working for them will definitely help. 

Besides, knowing which hashtags they are using, as well as the consistency at which they are putting out content, will help inform your strategy as well. 

In a nutshell, you can take cues from your Twitter competitors’ content strategy. Using these cues, you can frame a well-targeted Twitter content strategy.  

Stay on Top of Industry Trends

One of the best parts about Twitter competitor analysis is that it helps you make sense of all that’s happening in the industry. And here’s the thing- if you are relying on the ‘trending’ page on Twitter to stay on top of your industry, then you’re making a big mistake. 

If you want access to industry-specific trends, you’ll need to dig deeper. For this, you’ll need to track your competitors’ activities. What are your Twitter competitors doing? What subjects are your Twitter competitors talking about? 

With Twitter competitor analysis, you can easily get access to all these insights. In the process, you can constantly update your strategy to match up to the industry standards. 

Capture Share of Voice 

On a competitive platform like Twitter, building visibility can be challenging. Your share of voice tells you how you are faring in terms of brand visibility. 

As a part of Twitter competitor analysis, the share of voice is an important metric to help you measure your performance vis-a-vis the industry. If the share of voice of your brand is lower than most of the competitors in the industry, perhaps you need to change your Twitter strategy altogether. 

In this way, the share of voice helps you scan your industry and get an audit of how your brand is performing. With your share of voice, you can always be watchful of your position in the industry and build strategies that help you stay ahead of the competition. 

Use Twitter Competitor Analysis to Identify Gaps in your Strategy

Get a thorough look at your competitors’ strategy to identify gaps in your own. There will always be something or the other to learn from your Twitter competitors. Twitter competitor analysis lets you monitor every move of your competitor and thereby, help you point out your own areas of improvement.  

Looking at your competitors’ data helps you a great deal in pointing out ways in which you can improve your own strategy. Let’s say, you have a low reach on your Twitter handle or perhaps, there has been a drop in your engagement rate over the past few months. In such situations, looking inwards will no longer help. Twitter competitor analysis will really come in handy, here. 

Point Out Opportunities 

Twitter competitor analysis will also help you identify opportunities in the market. You more or less, share your target audience with your competitors.

Spot opportunities that your competitors may not be tapping into, at this point and enjoy a competitive advantage. Twitter is buzzing with people talking about and to brands. If you’re not tapping into what people are talking about your competitors, you’re losing out on very important opportunities. 

Knowing what your audience is saying about your competitors is as important as knowing what they say about your brand. And so, you need to start tapping into competitor data. 

Frame your Paid Content Strategy 

Lastly, you can use these in-depth competitor insights to frame your Twitter Ads and paid content strategy. The thing about paid content is that you are investing money and would naturally want to get a high ROI on that. 

With competitor insights, you can build a well-rounded paid content strategy. The more information and insights you have at your disposal, the easier it will be to make decisions regarding not just your paid content but your overall budget. As such, getting an in-depth look at your competitors’ data is very important. 

Now that you know how important it is to conduct Twitter competitor analysis, let’s get straight to the action. You can manually go through your competitors’ Twitter handles, and make sense of their strategy. That is one way to approach this. Another, more efficient and simpler way is to let a Twitter competitor analysis tool do the job for you. 

So, let’s look at the different Twitter competitor analysis tools you can use to get Twitter competitor insights. 

Top 5 Twitter Competitor Analysis Tools 

Twitter Competitor Analysis Tool #1: Unbox Social

If you want to track your Twitter competitor insights, Unbox Social is a great option! This is a multi-faceted social media competitor analysis tool that helps you track your competitors’ activity through a comprehensive dashboard. The most helpful part about this tool is that it captures all your Twitter competitor data for you. All you have to do is sign up to get started. 

Once you’ve signed up, someone from our team will get in touch with you for the on-boarding process. To start tracking your Twitter competitors, you can follow these quick steps- 

i) Head Over to the Competition Tracking Section 

On the Unbox Social dashboard, navigate the ‘competition tracking’ section. Here’s a snapshot of the dashboard- 

ii) Start Adding Competitors to your Competition Bucket 

Track up to 5 competitors by simply adding them to your ‘CompetititonBucket’. If you’re building multiple competitor buckets, it will be convenient to label your Twitter competition bucket with a name such as ‘Beauty Brands’ or ‘Lifestyle Brands’. 

To add competitors to your bucket, you will have to add the URLs for their Twitter handles. Once you’ve done this, the tool will start tracking competitors’ activities using an intelligent algorithm. All you’ll have to do is navigate through the competition tracking tool to discover important insights about your Twitter competitors. 

iii) Get an Overview of Your Competitors’ Activity 

Get a gist of your competitors’ performance. This includes measuring your competitors’ engagement levels, reach,following and other important metrics for a given period of time. 

iv) Deep-dive into Competitors’ Content 

Analyze your competitors’ content, in greater detail and in a comprehensive and organized manner. 

This is something you cannot do by simply skimming through your Twitter competitors’ handles. You’ll need to do a careful analysis of every competitor. But, Unbox Social makes it easier for you by putting all the data in a way that it is consumable and simple. 

Here’s a snapshot of the tool:

What kind of content are they putting out? 

How frequently do they tweet? 

What has been the response on their content? 

Which hashtags are your competitors using?

Unbox Social helps you get answers to all these questions about your Twitter competitors. 

v) Find out About Your Twitter Competitors’ Audience 

Head over to the ‘Audience’ tab to tap into insights about your Twitter competitors’ audience. Know about your competitors’ audience demographics as well as the content themes brands are talking about.

Further, find out which top influencers are talking about your Twitter competitors and use these insights to build your own influencer marketing strategy. 

vi) Tap into the Data Behind Every Post 

You know you can take cues from each and every tweet your competitors put out. Capture all the data behind your competitors’ tweets. This includes the engagement rate, no.of retweets, favorites and interactions.

vii) Put Data into Perspective with Twitter Competitive Analysis Reports

Finally, put all the data derived, into digestible information that is easy to understand. With the help of the social media reporting tool by Unbox Social, you can pull out reports in pdf, xls and ppt formats. 

Twitter Competitor Analysis Tool #2: Vaizle 

Vaizle is a Twitter competitor analysis tool that lets you compare engagement levels and Twitter activity in the past 30 days. This free Twitter competitor analysis tool gives you a brief summary of your performance against that of your competitors. 

To benchmark Twitter performance, all you have to do is enter your URL and that of your competitor. You can compare your Twitter activity with one competitor at a time, to get an in-depth Twitter competitor analysis.

Twitter Competitor Analysis Tool #3: Social Insider 

This is a Twitter competitor analysis tool that helps you monitor your mentions and analyze your performance. It also helps you get a bird’s eye view of your competitors’ performance. Here’s a snapshot of the tool- 

Twitter Competitor Analysis #4: Tweet Binder 

While Tweet Binder is known to be an effective hashtag tracking tool, it turns out to be great for analyzing Twitter competitors. With Tweet Binder, you can monitor specific hashtags that your competitors are using. Tweet Binder lets you track mentions around specific hashtags. In doing so, you can find out how your hashtag strategy is faring against competitors’. 

Twitter Competitor Analysis Tool #5: Tweet Charts 

Like Tweet Binder, Tweet Charts also helps you dig into content for specific hashtags or topics. It lets you generate a report of custom data for any hashtag, word, username, email, or phrases. You can pull out data around your competitors by looking up hashtags, words, usernames, or phrases relevant to your competitors. 

Once you’ve made your pick, you can get straight to the action. So, let’s find out how to conduct Twitter competitor analysis in 5 steps 

Conduct Twitter Competitor Analysis in 5 Steps 

1. Conduct a Keyword Search to Find Competitive Keywords 

To begin with, you need to find out who your Twitter competitors are. For this, conduct a keyword search using Google Adwords Keyword Planner. 

One way to go about it is by looking up target keywords that are relevant to your brand. With Google Adwords Keyword Planner, you will be able to find all the related keywords, along with information about search volume and competition. 

Another way to find out competitor keywords is by running an analysis of your website with this tool. This will provide you with a list of keywords relevant to your business, along with average search volume and competition levels. 

2. Identify Brands Ranking for those Keywords on Google 

The next step is to find out what brands are ranking for these keywords. Look up every keyword on Google. Explore the SERP thoroughly, to find which of the brands are your direct or indirect competitors. 

You may share the same target audience, but may not be offering the same set of products. Alternatively, you may be offering similar products, but may not be catering to the same set of audiences. 

Perhaps, you can also go through their websites to dig a little deeper and narrow down your list. 

3. Conduct a Hashtag Search on Twitter 

Using the same list of competitor keywords, you can also conduct a hashtag search on Twitter. Find out which brands are using those hashtags frequently. Now, you will have to make the judgment whether a brand can be classified as a competitor or not. 

4. Start Tracking Competitors with a Twitter Competitive Analysis Tool

Deploy a Twitter competitor analysis tool to start tracking your competitors. Using Unbox Social, you can track some of the most important Twitter metrics including: 

Share of Voice 

Find out how your brand is faring in terms of visibility on Twitter. Compare your performance with that of your competitors’. The best part about using Unbox Social for Twitter competitor analysis is that it helps you analyze your brand voice and also insights related to engagement levels, and interactions. 

An Overview of Twitter Competitor Analysis

Try to make sense of your competitors’ performance with the help of insights including estimated reach, engagement and no. of followers. Use this information to benchmark your performance against that of your competitors’.  

Here’s a snapshot of the Twitter Competitor Analysis from Unbox Social-

Audience Sentiment Analysis 

Find out what sentiment your competitors’ audience is showing with Unbox Social. How positive, negative or neutral is the audience’s sentiment in response to the competitors’ strategy? 

Combine this with other important insights about your competitors to build a concrete Twitter strategy. 

Twitter Competitor Brand Score 

Unbox Social also provides you with a brand score, to depict how your brand is positioned. Your brand score gives you a gist of how your competitors are performing. It helps point out the key performance areas for your business.The brand score lets you identify gaps in your strategy as well as in that of your competitors. 

5. Generate Twitter Competitive Analysis Report

Finally, start drawing inferences from your Twitter competitor analysis with the help of reports. On the Unbox Social dashboard, you can easily generate reports with a simple click of a button. Here, you can pull out competitor analysis reports in multiple formats depending on your use-case, i.e. pdf, xls, and ppt. 

The whole point of conducting Twitter Competitor Analysis goes in vain if you don’t take away anything from the whole process. Once you’ve got your Twitter competitor analysis report ready, start taking action. Revamp your Twitter strategy to win over your audience. 

Conduct Twitter Competitor Analysis for a Winning Twitter Strategy 

Building a strong Twitter strategy takes more than just looking at the data behind your own Twitter performance. You also need to dig into your competitors’ strategy if you really want to ace your Twitter game. 

Tap into the Twitter Competitor Analysis tool by Unbox Social’s Instagram Competitor Analysis. Gain a competitive advantage over your Twitter competitors and start identifying key performance areas in your strategy. 

Get started with tracking competitors and gathering vital insights with Unbox Social. Sign up now!