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Understanding Your Competitors From Your Customers’ Perspective

Regardless of what your product or service is, understanding what your customers think of both you and your competitors is key.  While you may have an idea of who your competitors are and what they do, ultimately you aren’t the ones making the purchasing decisions.  Fortunately, there are many ways to scope out your customers’ views and one of the easiest ways is through the use of social media.

Social media is defined as the interaction of people through online networks and communities.  Facebook and Twitter are the two biggest examples of social media, and both can be used to see what your customers are really thinking.

Doing this is easy.  For Twitter, you go to their website and enter the name of one of your competitors or their products into the search box at the top of the page.  You will soon see a constantly refreshing list of what Twitter users are saying about that company or product.  Because most users consider Twitter to be a safe and personal space, the opinions you see will be genuine, honest, and right from the source: the customers themselves.

With Facebook, you can find your competitor’s page and see what people are saying in comments.  Then you can compare these comments to what customers are saying on your own Facebook page.  There is much you can learn by seeing what potential customers like and dislike about your respective companies or products and comparing them.

Lastly, a simple Google search of both yours and your competitor’s companies can bring up review sites where customers compare and contrast their options.  This is another solid way to get inside the minds of your customers and get a great view of what they are thinking.

With these and other techniques, you should soon be able to get an inside look on what people think of your brand and of your competitor’s brand.  They are the ones spending the money, and as such knowing their opinion is truly invaluable.