How to Do a Social Media Competitor Analysis

By Rijad Mujić · Published 2026-10-01

For many small businesses, social media is where customers first see them. Looking at how competitors use it tells you which platforms matter in your niche, what kind of content gets attention, and where there's room for you.

1. Find where they're actually active

List your main competitors (see how to find your competitors) and check each one on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn and YouTube. Note where they post regularly, not just where they have a profile. The platform most of them are active on is usually where your customers are.

2. Measure the basics

For each competitor and platform, write down:

• How often they post (per week).
• When they last posted.
• Roughly how many people react or comment on a typical post, compared with their follower count.
• Which formats they use: photos, short videos, stories, text.

Follower counts alone can mislead. A page with 500 followers and lively comments often brings in more customers than one with 10,000 silent ones.

3. See what gets a reaction

Scroll back a few months and find their best-performing posts. Look for patterns: behind-the-scenes clips, customer photos, before-and-after results, prices, offers, tips. These are topics already proven with your audience.

4. Read the comments

Comments are reviews people don't bother writing on Google. Questions that go unanswered, complaints about slow replies, and repeated "how much is it?" questions all point to things you can do better. See what competitor reviews can tell you for how to read them.

5. Check their ads

Meta's Ad Library shows which ads they're paying for right now, and ads running for months are usually the ones that work. Details are in how to see your competitors' ads.

6. Decide what you'll do differently

Pick one or two platforms, not five. Choose a content angle competitors aren't using, like showing real prices, answering questions in videos or featuring customers, and post consistently for a month before judging the results.

Rijad Mujić builds and runs ScoutBrief, a competitor research tool for small businesses. How ScoutBrief researches competitors →

Keep reading

• How to Do Competitor Analysis with ChatGPT (and Its Limits)
  Prompts that work for competitor research, the mistakes AI chatbots make, and how to check their answers.
• How to Do a Competitor Analysis for a Small Business
  A step-by-step process for researching your competitors, plus a template you can fill in by hand or generate in a couple of minutes.
• Ecommerce Competitor Analysis: How to Research Online Stores
  Pricing, shipping, returns, reviews and ads: what to compare when you sell online, and how to find your edge.

Looking for advice for your trade? Competitor analysis by industry →