Once upon a time social media was just for people who wanted to catch up with college chums or trade pictures of their lunch. Now it’s a treasure trove of opportunity for brands who want to connect and engage with customers. Today 77 percent of Fortune 500 companies manage at least one Twitter account and 70 percent are on Facebook. A whopping 93 percent of marketers turn to social media to enhance their marketing strategies.

1. Beating Your Competition at Social Business

2. If your brand is on social media, chances are your competition is too.
Don’t worry, though, there’s plenty of room for everyone on social
networks. The old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” is good advice
but who says you can’t do both?
Once upon a time social media was just for
people who wanted to catch up with college
chums or trade pictures of their lunch. Now it’s a
treasure trove of opportunity for brands who want
to connect and engage with customers.
Today 77 percent of Fortune 500 companies manage at least one Twitter
account and 70 percent are on Facebook. A whopping 93 percent of
marketers turn to social media to enhance their marketing strategies.
Here are some tips to managing your
competition across social channels.

3. Don’t be afraid to engage.
If another company mentions you kindly in a tweet or Facebook post, be sure to
thank and acknowledge them in return to build goodwill between both brands
and customers. Naturally, you won’t want to respond if a company makes
negative comments about your brand but don’t ignore their attempts to
acknowledge you in a favorable way. Make sure to return the favor at some
point down the road.
Companies don’t typically competitors to their
followers but a well-placed shout-out to a
tangentially related brand is a great strategy
to keep in mind. Take this Tweet from
Charmin, for instance, that acknowledges a
job well done by Tide, who shared the same
advertising space during a televised football
game.
Well twitterverse, we bid you goodnight! Congrats to @tide
for a great commerical & the Baltimore Ravens on their win!
#tweetfromtheseat
— Charmin (@Charmin) February 4, 2013

4. You don’t have to mention your competitor by name to highlight the ways your
product or service is better. If your sales data shows customers prefer another
brand over yours in certain instances, use social media to combat the issue.
If the perception is that another company’s product works better outdoors than
yours, launch a social media hashtag campaign encouraging users to post images
of your product in action out in the elements.
Help customers comparison shop.
Photo Credit: Jeff Djevdet Via Flickr

5. As you create social media campaigns, check out the followers and fans of your
competition to see what they respond to best and what they ignore.
Feel free to follow or friend their customers, but don’t intervene in social
conversations between a competitor and its followers. It’s disrespectful to the brand
and awkward for the customer.
If you feel funny looking at your competitor’s public friend list, remember they’re
almost certainly checking out yours.
Check out the competition’s followers.

6. Social media is not the place for negative
advertising or unfriendly tactics.
You’ll earn yourself an unfavorable
reputation with customers and industry
leaders alike.
Play nice.
Photo Credit: Daniel Oines Via Flickr
Above all, keep all direct and indirect engagement with
your competitors friendly and light-hearted.
No one likes negative campaigning in
advertising any more than they like it in politics.

7. The most successful brands on social media know that the
key to making the best of your competitors’ presence is to
form a good policy about how, when, and if to engage them.
After all, you’re all in the same boat so you might as well
make the best of it.