80+ Essential Social Media Marketing Statistics for 2022

Social media is everywhere. For many people, social media is used daily for entertainment, socialization, and even news consumption — myself included.

Additionally, over the last two decades, it has become one of the primary marketing channels.

With over 53% of the world's population on social media, it’s critical that your business has an effective social media strategy that helps you reach your intended audience.

But, whether you're pitching a social media campaign to your boss or deciding which social media platform your business should put paid advertising behind, it's vital you use data to support your efforts.

Here, we've compiled a list of essential social media stats to ensure you know where to focus your marketing efforts in 2021 to get the highest ROI.

Social Media Marketing Statistics 2021

• As of October 2021, 4.55 billion people are active on social media. (Kepios)
• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketing professionals, 79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on social media. (HubSpot)
• According the same poll, 85% of marketers rank short-form videos as the most effective type of social media content in 2021 (HubSpot)

• 64% of marketers plan to invest more in short-form video in 2022. (HubSpot)
• 82% of marketers repurpose content across various social media channels. (HubSpot)
• 83% of marketers believe the quality of social media posts is more important than the quantity. (HubSpot)

• 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. (GlobalWebIndex)
• Each person spends an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes on social networks and messaging. (GlobalWebIndex)
• 1.3 million new users joined social media every day in 2020. (Hootsuite)
• Millennials are logged on to social media for an average of two hours and 38 minutes daily, while Gen Z logs on for two hours and 55 minutes. (World Economic Forum)

Facebook Statistics

• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll, 79% of marketers report buying paid advertising on Facebook. (HubSpot)
• According to the same poll, more than 50% of marketers plan on increasing their investments in Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok in 2022. (HubSpot)

• Facebook usage among teens is dropping gradually. While 71% of teens claimed to use the platform in 2015, the number has now dropped to 67%. (GlobalWebIndex)
• 69% of U.S. adults use Facebook and 76% have visited the platform in the last month. (Pew Research Center, GlobalWebIndex)
• Facebook had 1.93 billion daily active users in Q3 2021. (Statista)
• 98.3% of Facebook users access the platform on mobile devices. (Statista)
• Video ads perform better than other ad formats on Facebook. (DataBox)
• Facebook ads are used by 70% of marketers, and there were 10 million active advertisers on the platform in Q3 2021. (Social Media Examiner , Statista)
• 16% of all Facebook profiles are fake or duplicates. (Statista)
• The best time to post on Facebook is Wednesday at 11 AM and 1-2 PM. Sundays show the least amount of traffic. ( Sprout Social)
• Facebook Stories have 500 million daily viewers. (TechCrunch)
• Political content is the most viewed genre of Facebook Stories. (Statista)
• Video promotions are equally as important as photo promotions. (Social Bakers)
• 81% of businesses prefer video marketing on Facebook. (Buffer)

For more stats related to Facebook, Facebook Stories, and Facebook Ads, check out this detailed list.

Twitter Statistics

• Twitter reached 211 million daily active users in Q3 2021. (Statista)

• Twitter's 2020 Q3 revenue was $936 million. (Twitter)

• In a HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 79% of marketers plan to continue investing in Twitter Spaces in 2022. (HubSpot)

• In 2019, 22% of U.S. adults used Twitter, down from 24% in 2018. (Statista)

• Link clicks account for 92% of all user interaction with tweets. (HubSpot)

• The best times to post on Twitter are Wednesday and Friday at 9 AM, and Saturday has the least engagement. ( Sprout Social)

• Tweets with hashtags get 100% more engagement. (Twitter)

• Socially responsible ads on twitter perform 12% better than standard ads. (Magna)

• 93% of Twitter community members are open to brands getting involved in conversation, such as providing help and support. (Twitter)

For more on Twitter, check out Twitter Marketing in 2020: The Ultimate Guide.

Instagram Statistics

• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll, 58% of marketers plan to leverage Instagram Reels in 2022. (HubSpot)
• In late 2019, Instagram Stories had 500 million monthly active users. (Statista)
• 67% of Gen Z and 57% of Millennials use the platform, in comparison to only 38% of Gen X. (GlobalWebIndex)
• 64% of Instagram users are under the age of 34. (Statista)

• 98% of marketers say Instagram is the most influential platform for influencer marketing, which is 44% higher than Facebook. ( Sprout Social)

• Videos get 21.2% more interactions compared to images and 18.6% more interactions compared to carousels. (Sprout Social)

• 90% of people on Instagram follow a business. (Instagram)

• 83% of people use Instagram to discover new products and services and 87% said they took specific action, like making a purchase, after seeing product information. (Facebook for Business)

• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 73% of marketers prefer Instagram for influencer marketing. (HubSpot)

• The best times to post on Instagram are Wednesday at 11 AM, and Friday between 10-11 AM. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)

• eMarketer estimated that Instagram added 26.9 million users between 2016 and 2020 — almost double the incremental users expected for Twitter, and far more than any other social platform tracked. (eMarketer)

• As of July 2021, 51% of Instagram users were female and 48% were male. (Statista)

For more Instagram stats, click here.

LinkedIn Statistics

• LinkedIn has more than 800 million active users in 200 countries and regions worldwide. (LinkedIn)

• As of Q2 2021, 60% of LinkedIn users were between 25 and 34 years old. (Statista)

• In Q1 of 2021, LinkedIn revenue is up 16% in YoY growth. (LinkedIn)

• LinkedIn made more than 8.1 billion in revenue in 2020, a 20% increase from 2019. (Business of Apps)

• Marketing Solutions is LinkedIn’s fastest-growing segment. It grew 44 percent year-over-year in Q1 of 2019. (LinkedIn)

• In 2020, LinkedIn was voted the most trusted network. (Business Insider)

• LinkedIn is the top paid and organic social channel for B2B businesses. (Content Marketing Institute)

• 82% of B2B markers report finding the greatest success on LinkedIn. (LinkedIn Marketing Solutions )

• Over 46% of all social media traffic to company websites comes from LinkedIn. (LinkedIn)

• The best times to post on LinkedIn are 8-10 AM and 12 PM on Wednesdays, and 9 AM and 1-2 PM on Thursdays. Sunday is the worst day for engagement. (Sprout Social)

Want to learn how to up your marketing game on LinkedIn? This post walks you through the ins and outs of using LinkedIn for business.

YouTube Statistics

• YouTube is the second-largest search engine globally. (Alexa)
• YouTube is the second most popular channel for businesses sharing video content. (Buffer)
• The number of YouTube users is projected to reach 2.8 million by 2025. (Statista)
• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 44% of marketers plan to leverage YouTube for the first time in 2022. (HubSpot)

• 54% of all people want marketers to put out more video content, and this is an excellent place to begin. (HubSpot)

• Q3 of 2020 showed that U.S. men and women use the platform at equal levels. (Satista)

• On mobile devices alone, YouTube reaches more adults aged 18 to 24 than any TV network. (YouTube)

• 18-to-34-year-olds use YouTube to view video content on TV, 7.9% more often than basic cable, and 14.5% more often than premium cable. (Variety)

• YouTube accounts for more than 25% of total worldwide mobile traffic. (Sandvine)

• 85% of U.S. teens were active on YouTube in 2019. (Statista)

TikTok Stats

• As of January 2021, TikTok has 689 million global active users. (DataReportal)

• In a 2021 HubSpot Blog poll of 1,000+ global marketers, 61% of marketers plan to increase their investment in TikTok marketing in 2022. (HubSpot)
• Douyin, TikTok's original standalone app in China, had 300 million users at the time Musical.ly merged with TikTok. (The Verge)

• TikTok was the most downloaded app in 2020. (Apptopia)

• In 2020, there were over 106,000 TikTok influencers worldwide, up from 35,000 in 2019. (Statista)
• By February 2019, TikTok hit 1 billion downloads, beating Instagram and Facebook in app stores. (Business Insider)

• A majority of U.S. TikTok users are between the ages of 10 and 19. (Statista)

• 41% of global TikTok users are between the ages of 16 and 24. (GlobalWebIndex)

• 58.8% of U.S. TikTok users are female. (Statista)

• TikTok’s average engagement rate is high at all follower levels. (Influencer Marketing Hub)

• In 2019, U.S. TikTok users spent more time on the app than any other social media site, with an average session duration of 10.85 minutes. (Statista)

For more on TikTok, check out this blog post on its growth and popularity.

Reddit Stats

• In 2020, Reddit had 52 million daily active users, up 44% YoY. (Reddit)

• As of Q3 2021, the Reddit mobile app was counting more than 13 million daily active users worldwide on iOS. (Statista)

• The site receives more than 50 billion+ monthly screen views. (Reddit)

• While Reddit was reportedly sold for $20 million , the company's valuation grew to 1.8 billion after 2017 funding rounds. (CNBC)

• Most Reddit users in the U.S. are male, but 15% of U.S. adults say they use the platform. (Statista)

• Only 8% of female U.S. adults say they used Reddit in 2019. (Statista)

Want to determine if Reddit is right for you? Read this blog post for 27 more Reddit stats.

Social Media Consulting Services

Many businesses hire external social media consulting agencies to manage their voice and reputation online. Alternatively, some businesses create roles in-house for a social media consultant — this is someone who is responsible for increasing brand awareness , responding to customer service complaints across social media platforms, and engaging with your audience online.

Whether you're considering hiring an external social media consulting service or creating a role in-house, take a look at these trends that demonstrate the importance of social media consulting:

• Answering a complaint on social media can increase customer advocacy by 25%. (Convince & Convert)

• 79% of consumers expect brands to respond within a day of reaching out over social media, but average brand response rates across all industries is lower than 25%. (Sprout Social)

• 73% of marketers believe that their efforts through social media marketing have been "somewhat effective" or "very effective" for their business. (Buffer)

• 54% of social browsers use social media to research products. (GlobalWebIndex)

• 54% of Gen Z and 49% of Millenials say social media is their preferred channel for ad influence. (Pitney Bowes)

• 79% of people say that user-generated content on social media significantly impacts their purchasing decisions. (Stackla)

Pitching Social Media Consulting Services

All these stats have given you the data you need to work with — now it's time to put your knowledge to use and create your own social media consulting proposal.

If you're a social media consultant and you're pitchinga branding, marketing, or advertising campaign to a client, it's critical you're able to show how you'll help your client grow their business.

Here are six steps you'll need to take to ensure your social media consulting proposal or business plan is effective:

1. Set clear goals. Figure out exactly where your company or client wants to go as far as their business and social media numbers. The clearer and more detailed the vision, the better. Follow SMART Goal guidelines to ensure that you're on the right track.
2. Understand your customers. Know who your target demographics are, because these are the people you're trying to reach and engage. Gather your own social media statistics and use existing data your company or client might already have to figure out who's interacting with the business and who might be good future prospects to reach. After you've done your research, you can create useful character personas to help you better understand and categorize customers.
3. Understand your competition. Those "similar-but-different" companies are going to be out there. And, as with most aspects of the business world, the better you know them, the better you can know how to have a leg up on them. You can conduct this research at the same time you're researching your customers, because chances are they're interacting with competitors as well. Once you've gathered the data on your competitors, one of the most effective ways to use it is to figure out where there might be voids in their services that your business can fill.
4. Be familiar with any existing social media presence. If you're hired to run a company's social media accounts, it's critical you know about any previous social media postings, accounts, and experiments. By understanding what your client has already tried, you're better equipped to take them where they need to go in the future.
5. Don't forget to pull your data. Before your new implemented strategies go underway, it's important to collect a baseline of how it was before, so that you have something to measure against in the future. For example, if you take inventory of how many views you're getting on Instagram Stories before the new strategy is in effect, you can see if the new ideas are improving these numbers or not. It's important to keep a close eye on what is affecting your growth (positively or negatively) so that you know when you're on the right track or when you need to try something new so your business can keep growing.
6. Develop your strategy based on your findings. Define what your content will be, what platforms it will be distributed on, and how it will vary between platforms. Figure out smaller details at this stage too, like your client's tone and voice on social media (either what it currently is or what it should be), along with design and style elements. Always be sure you're staying true to your company or client's brand by consulting with existing materials like mission statements, guides, or brand books.

Finally, take a look at HubSpot's free Marketing proposal template (useful for both PDF & Word) to get you started creating a comprehensive social media consulting proposal.

Let Data Drive Your Social Media Strategy

Social media marketing statistics can show you the state of the business world today, where it might be going, and how you can ensure your business is continuously meeting customers where they want to be met. Use these statistics to your advantage to help you understand what you need to do to effectively use social media for your business today.

Editor's Note: This blog post was originally published in August 2019, but was updated for comprehensiveness and freshness in November 2021.

80+ Essential Social Media Marketing Statistics for 2022 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Twitter Communities: How Marketers Can Leverage It in Their Strategy

According to a 2019 Sprout Social Index survey, 40% of marketers believe private community groups are becoming more important. And 23% of consumers agree with them.

LinkedIn and Facebook have long implemented private groups within their platforms while Instagram and Twitter haven't yet offered that feature.

That was until Sept. 2021 when Twitter announced that it was testing its own subcommunity platform called Twitter Communities.

Let's take a look at how it works and how it can help brands connect with their target audience.

This experiment is Twitter's latest attempt to help connect users. While hashtags, Twitter Lists, the "Moments" and "Topics" features can help surface conversations you're interested in, it can be difficult to identify (and consistently engage with) users who share your interests.

Twitter Communities is meant to close that gap and provide one place for users to meet with users with whom they share personal and professional interests.

There are three types of users in Twitter Communities:

• Admins who own the Community and manage its members.
• Moderators who ensure the Community is safe, facilitate conversation, and connect like-minded people.
• Members who have been invited into the Community and now can engage with other members.

Image Source

As a member, say you Tweet something to your Community. Anyone on Twitter can read, quote Tweet, and report it. However, only fellow members can interact with the Tweet, i.e.: Reply.

A Community can be based on any interest (as long as it follows Twitter's terms of service), anything from career and finance to pets and astrology.

Currently, the platform is only available on IOS devices and on the web, with Android users having read-only access. However, Twitter does have plans to expand to Android devices soon.

Why You Should Use Twitter Communities

Similar to LinkedIn Groups and Facebook Groups, Twitter Communities is another way for brands to reach their audiences.

Because users will be connected by shared interests, brands can narrow down the Communities that align with their target audience and use it to connect with them.

We know that community building is key in building trust with users on social media, particularly with those who are near the top of the funnel. As such, using a platform like Twitter Communities helps brands connect with users and get a better sense of what resonates with them.

Finding Twitter Communities

As it currently stands, you can only access Twitter communities if you are invited or if you are approved to be an admin to start your own.

In that case, the Communities tab will show up on your Twitter app or on the sidebar of the web app. As a non-member, you can view the Community page and timeline if it has been shared with you but you cannot interact with the Tweets or request to join.

Because it's in beta testing, Twitter has set up a request form where users can ask to become an admin or moderator. To qualify, your account must:

• Be public.
• Be at least six months old.
• Have a verified phone number or email address.
• Have two-factor authentication turned on.
• Not have a history of violating Twitter's terms of service.

Once you are approved, you must continue to meet these eligibility requirements to maintain your privileges.

With the HubSpot Marketing Hub, you can integrate your Twitter account, which allows you to schedule and publish Tweets and track your key metrics right from the platform.

How Marketers Can Leverage Twitter Communities

Twitter Communities is another tool marketers can use to connect with their target audience and build a community around their brand.

Brands should avoid using Twitter Communities as a way to promote products and/or services to specific groups of users.

A good rule of thumb to follow with any social network is to focus on engagement, not promotion. While promoting your products and/or services is a natural part of building your brand awareness, it shouldn't be your sole content strategy.

Instead, focus on connecting with your users by posting content they care about. With Twitter Communities, it's even easier to accomplish this, as you can tailor your content to specific sub-audiences within your broader followers.

It's also an opportunity to learn more about your users and see which topics they discuss, what their pain points are, what challenges they face, and what resonates with them.

Twitter Communities: How Marketers Can Leverage It in Their Strategy was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

74 Social Commerce Stats Marketers Should Know in 2021

Everyone wants a personalized and custom experience online, so it’s no wonder that social commerce has taken over the online shopping world.

Channels like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and WhatsApp already have thousands of businesses marketing on their platforms, and many have adopted shopping and payment functions that allow people to buy a product or service directly on the platforms.

While social commerce is relatively new, it falls under the larger umbrella of eCommerce sales, which are expected to reach $4.2 trillion this year. As a result, the revenue potential is high, and it's attracting the attention of marketers across a variety of industries.

Whether you're looking for information to boost your social media shop or shape your online strategy, read on to discover social commerce stats that will help you understand the current market and learn best practices for attracting buyers and growing your business.

Social Commerce Stats for 2021

• General Social Commerce Stats
• Social Commerce Stats by Demographic
• Social Commerce Purchasing Stats
• Social Commerce Stats by Platform
• Social Commerce Stats for Business

General Social Commerce Stats

1. 35.9% of internet users in the US will make at least one social commerce purchase in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
2. US social commerce sales will surpass $36 billion in 2021, with more than 35% growth. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
3. Chinese retail social commerce sales will reach $351.65 billion in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
4. In 2021, US social commerce sales will increase from 35.8% to $36.62 billion. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
5. In China, more than 424 million people ages 14 years and up will make at least one social commerce purchase in 2021. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
6. There were almost 80 million social buyers in the US in 2020, a 30% increase from 2019. (Statista, 2021)
7. Social commerce attracted investment from US companies at the start of the pandemic, in addition to online and mobile commerce. (Statista, 2021)
8. 8 in 10 ten US businesses anticipate selling on social media within the next three years. (Statista, 2021)
9. The number of US social commerce buyers grew to 80.1 million in 2020 and is anticipated to increase to 96.1 million in 2022. (eMarketer, 2021)
10. 30% of eCommerce companies are already selling on social media, and 12% plan on selling through social media platforms in 2021. (Statista, 2021)

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats by Demographic

1. In the US, nearly 36% of internet users are social buyers, which is approximately 90.2 million people. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
2. In a June 2021 survey, 35% of people said social media ads influenced their purchasing decisions. The number jumped to 75% for Gen Z respondents. (Statista, 2021)
3. 70% of internet users in the US who regularly watched live streams led by influencers said they were likely to buy products recommended by the influencers. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
4. Over 55% of social media users in the US aged 18 to 24 made at least one purchase through social channels, followed by users aged 25-34 years old. (Statista, 2021)
5. 54% of Gen Z shoppers and 58% of Millennials agree that social platforms are better than online searches for finding out about new products. (Statista, 2021)
6. The US had about 79 million social buyers in 2020, and this number is estimated to grow to 108 million by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
7. $81.05 was the average value of online orders referred through social media during Q2 of 2021. (Statista, 2021)
8. Apparel and accessories are the largest categories for social commerce. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
9. 11% of social media users immediately make an online purchase after discovering a product, while 44% make a purchase later on. (Statista, 2021)
10. Most social media platform purchases in 2020 were in the video game and accessories category, followed by toys and hobbies and jewelry and watches. (Coupon Follow, 2021)
11. People that use social media to access educational and inspirational content, like livestreams and stories, are eager to buy on social platforms. (GWI, 2020)
12. 27% of global internet users rely on social media to find products to purchase. (GWI, 2020)
13. 13% of social networkers say a "buy" button is one of the top purchase drivers. (GWI, 2020)
14. Over 22% of internet users in the US were expected to make at least one purchase through Facebook in 2021. Nearly 13% were expected to shop on Instagram and over 5% were estimated to shop on Pinterest. (Statista, 2021)
15. By Q1 of 2021, there were one million active Facebook Shops with over 250 million active participants every month. (AdWeek, 2021)
16. With 56.1 million buyers, Facebook ranks as the top social commerce platform in the US. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
17. People who use Pinterest on a weekly basis are 7x more likely to say it’s the most influential platform in their purchase journey when compared to other social media platforms. (Pinterest, 2021)
18. 85% of Pinterest shoppers have more in their basket than shoppers on other platforms. They also spend twice as much per month. (Pinterest, 2021)
19. Around 40% of Pinterest users log onto the site to research brands and products. (GWI, 2020)
20. In Q3 of 2021, YouTube made its ads more shoppable by allowing video action campaigns on connected TVs. (Google, 2021)
21. 51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)
22. Nearly 21% of tablet visits to eCommerce websites resulted from social media platform referrals in Q2 of 2020. (Statista, 2021)
23. Facebook and Instagram are most used to learn about, discover, and buy fashion apparel products in the US. Over half of users said the content they see in their feeds results in a purchase. (Retail Dive, 2021)
24. Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)
25. 70% of shopping enthusiasts look to Instagram to discover new products. (Facebook, 2019)
26. Every month, over 130 million users engage with Instagram shopping posts. (Instagram, 2019)
27. One retail brand using Instagram Shopping, Jane, reported 80% of total social sales came from the platform between July 2020 and February 2021. (Instagram, 2021)
28. 78% of US social network users discover new products through Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest come in second, both at 59%. (Net Solutions, 2021)
29. Social commerce sales are predicted to value $605 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)
30. Social commerce revenues are estimated to exceed $3.4 billion in 2028. (Statista, 2021)
31. In the US, over 5% of total eCommerce retail sales will be from social commerce by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
32. In a 2021 survey, 86% of marketers and agency professionals in the US reported they were enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns. The most common function is linking to the brand's own website. (Statista, 2021)
33. Advertisers anticipate spending $56 billion to promote their products on social networks in 2022. (Statista, 2021)
34. 93% of US executives said their businesses are moving eCommerce efforts to social media. (Statista, 2021)
35. By 2023, 71% of small businesses plan to sell on social media platforms. (Statista, 2021)

Social Commerce Purchasing Stats

1. $81.05 was the average value of online orders referred through social media during Q2 of 2021. (Statista, 2021)
2. Apparel and accessories are the largest categories for social commerce. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
3. 11% of social media users immediately make an online purchase after discovering a product, while 44% make a purchase later on. (Statista, 2021)
4. Most social media platform purchases in 2020 were in the video game and accessories category, followed by toys and hobbies and jewelry and watches. (Coupon Follow, 2021)
   
   Image Source
5. People that use social media to access educational and inspirational content, like livestreams and stories, are eager to buy on social platforms. (GWI, 2020)
6. 27% of global internet users rely on social media to find products to purchase. (GWI, 2020)
7. 13% of social networkers say a "buy" button is one of the top purchase drivers. (GWI, 2020)

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats by Platform

1. Over 22% of internet users in the US were expected to make at least one purchase through Facebook in 2021. Nearly 13% were expected to shop on Instagram and over 5% were estimated to shop on Pinterest. (Statista, 2021)
2. By Q1 of 2021, there were one million active Facebook Shops with over 250 million active participants every month. (AdWeek, 2021)
3. With 56.1 million buyers, Facebook ranks as the top social commerce platform in the US. (Insider Intelligence, 2021)
4. People who use Pinterest on a weekly basis are 7x more likely to say it’s the most influential platform in their purchase journey when compared to other social media platforms. (Pinterest, 2021)
5. 85% of Pinterest shoppers have more in their basket than shoppers on other platforms. They also spend twice as much per month. (Pinterest, 2021)
6. Around 40% of Pinterest users log onto the site to research brands and products. (GWI, 2020)
7. In Q3 of 2021, YouTube made its ads more shoppable by allowing video action campaigns on connected TVs. (Google, 2021)
8. 51% of consumers in the US and UK use YouTube to research or find products to buy. (GWI, 2020)
9. Nearly 21% of tablet visits to eCommerce websites resulted from social media platform referrals in Q2 of 2020. (Statista, 2021)
10. Facebook and Instagram are most used to learn about, discover, and buy fashion apparel products in the US. Over half of users said the content they see in their feeds results in a purchase. (Retail Dive, 2021)
11. Over 36% of B2B decision-makers use Instagram to find out information on new products or services. (Hootsuite, 2020)
12. 70% of shopping enthusiasts look to Instagram to discover new products. (Facebook, 2019)
13. Every month, over 130 million users engage with Instagram shopping posts. (Instagram, 2019)
14. One retail brand using Instagram Shopping, Jane, reported 80% of total social sales came from the platform between July 2020 and February 2021. (Instagram, 2021)
15. 78% of US social network users discover new products through Facebook. Instagram and Pinterest come in second, both at 59%. (Net Solutions, 2021)
    

Image Source

Social Commerce Stats for Business

1. Social commerce sales are predicted to value $605 billion by 2027. (Statista, 2021)
2. Social commerce revenues are estimated to exceed $3.4 billion in 2028. (Statista, 2021)
3. In the US, over 5% of total eCommerce retail sales will be from social commerce by 2025. (Statista, 2021)
4. In a 2021 survey, 86% of marketers and agency professionals in the US reported they were enabling shopping functions in their influencer marketing campaigns. The most common function is linking to the brand's own website. (Statista, 2021)
5. Advertisers anticipate spending $56 billion to promote their products on social networks in 2022. (Statista, 2021)
6. 93% of US executives said their businesses are moving eCommerce efforts to social media. (Statista, 2021)
7. By 2023, 71% of small businesses plan to sell on social media platforms. (Statista, 2021)

74 Social Commerce Stats Marketers Should Know in 2021 was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

How to Write A Career Objective That Gets Your Resume Noticed

Career objectives are a topic of hot debate in the resume space. Certain career experts say they're outdated. Others claim they give hiring managers a quick glance at your top attributes and experiences.

Whether you call it a personal branding statement, experience overview, or resume objective, a career objective statement is still relevant. That's because a well-crafted objective lets hiring managers learn about your skills, personality, and career highlights from the first look.

That's if a hiring manager even makes it to your resume, of course. With an increasingly competitive pool of candidates, HR teams often rely on technology to help sort resumes and select candidates for the next hiring stage. Algorithms pick and choose people based on keywords, often prioritizing optimized language over someone who may be the best fit for the job.

But there are ways to ensure your career objective works for you, instead of against you. Let's look at what a career objective is and how to make yours meet today's resume standards.

What is a Career Objective?

A career objective is a succinct paragraph that summarizes your professional experiences, skills, and goals. It is usually two to three sentences long and sits at the top of your resume, under your name and contact information.

Image Source

Your career objective is one of the first pieces of information hiring managers will see when scanning your resume, so it has to stand out. You can do this in several ways, like tailoring the objective to the role you're applying for, adding top keywords, and highlighting relevant skills. The result should be a concise summary that's clear, actionable, and compelling. Bonus if it hints at your personality.

But what does that look like? Here are the steps you can follow to craft a great career objective for any role.

How to Write a Career Objective

1. Understand the job description.

It's easy to copy and paste information for your career objective from a job description. But to show originality and thought, you have to understand what a hiring manager truly wants.

Do this by looking for the most in-demand skills or characteristics for the role. These are often listed within the job description under a section labeled "Required Skills" or "Core Responsibilities." You can find the right skills or traits to include by cross-referencing the list to any additional descriptions about the company or position.

If you can tell it's a fast-paced work environment, for example, the ability to multi-task and develop efficient processes are good skills to highlight within your career objective.

It's also important to consider the job-specific software you may need for a position. For technical roles like SEO Marketing Managers, tools such as Ahrefs, Google Analytics, or DeepCrawl are needed to perform audits and analysis. Make sure to note the software requirements so you can reference one or two in your objective.

Here's a sample job description for a Growth Marketing Manager in the foodservice industry that shows both the software requirements and the company personality.

Image Source

Once you comb through the job description, create a list of the top 10 traits and skills you want to include in your statement. You may not use all of them, but it's good to have options as you write.

2. Know your value.

If you're deep in the job hunt, you can probably recite your strengths in your sleep. Instead, write down the specific ways you add value to your list of skills and traits.

These can include your strengths, degrees, licenses, or certifications. It's also worth mentioning any strong connections you have, such as working for top-tier clients or experience speaking at industry events. Just make sure the experience is relevant to the company, industry, and role.

Let's say you're applying to a Community Marketing Manager position and have a proven track record of running an ambassador program. The company wants candidates with experience leading teams and implementing community programs.

You can highlight your value by including a statement like this in your career objective: "Experience developing an ambassador program that elevated diverse voices and united micro-communities into one passionate group."

Again, look to the job description to understand how you can most add value to the company.

3. Keep it concise.

A career objective should be no more than three sentences. Your resume still needs to include your work experience, core skills, education, volunteer experience, and certifications.

Write a draft of your career objective using the list you created in steps one and two. Your first few drafts may be more than three sentences. That's okay. Try to remove any excessive language, like "that," "a," "the." And don't worry too much about using complete sentences (see more on this in the examples below).

Here's what a career objective should, and should not, look like for a growth marketer role:

Image Source

If you get stuck, have a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor review the statement. They may be able to offer feedback and correct any errors. You want it to be absolutely perfect, so it's helpful to have one or more pairs of eyes review your work.

How to Write an Objective for a Career Change

You may be comfortable writing a career objective for a field you have experience in. But what if you're changing careers?

The goal when writing this type of career objective is to tie your previous experience into your desired role as much as possible. This requires you to draw connections between your past work and your new career. Let's look at an example, where the candidate is aiming to transition from an accounting career to one in marketing.

The candidate uses the career objective to explain their career switch and draw attention to their analytical skills – a must-have in many marketing careers. If you want to make the switch to marketing, check out this list of in-demand technical skills to get ideas for your career objective.

Career Objective Examples

Every role has distinct requirements, and your career objective needs to reflect those differences. Look to the following examples for inspiration when writing your statement. But remember to change up your career objective based on the position and company.

Lifecycle Marketing Manager

Data-savvy lifecycle marketing manager with seven years of experience crafting omnichannel customer journeys. Have successfully built customer programs that increased loyalty by 25% using best practices for lifecycle frameworks and communication strategies. Strong analytical skills and familiarity with various ESP and CRM software.

Communications Specialist

Highly creative communications specialist who excels in collaborative, fast-paced environments. Over the past four years, I've coordinated and refined content for marketing industry leaders to ensure company narratives are compelling and accurate. Experience managing content libraries, social media platforms, and internal newsletters.

Senior Brand Strategist

Creative lead with a knack for developing strong client relationships and innovative branding strategies. Over 10 years of experience crafting strategic marketing plans that have led to 45% growth in clients' brand awareness. Excellent communicator and coordinator with the ability to foster long-term partnerships while ensuring teams stay on track.

Communications Manager

Proactive global communications manager with 11 years of experience developing and executing strategic communications programs for fintech companies. Skilled at media pitching, evolving core narratives, managing external partners, and overseeing complex technology communications. Looking to guide teams on best practices for translating complex narratives into compelling content that attracts audiences.

Director of Content Marketing and Strategy

An empathetic leader with 15+ years of experience managing high-growth content and editorial teams for Fortune 100 clients. Passionate about building data-driven content strategies that simplify complex messaging to engage audiences and meet business goals. Seeking an environment that challenges assumptions to drive customer acquisition through best-in-class editorial strategies.

Now, it's time to write a career objective that showcases your skills. If you follow the steps above, keep it original, and reference the job description, your objective is likely to wow hiring managers – and hopefully, help you move on to the next stage in the hiring process.

How to Write A Career Objective That Gets Your Resume Noticed was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

Management by Objectives: Everything You Need to Know

A very famous Cheshire cat once said, "If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there."

Alright, maybe Lewis Carroll is actually the one that penned that quote, but it’s true nonetheless, and good advice for life and business.

As a leader, you have expectations for your team. You want to see a specific level of performance and efficiency, but have you ever been clear about exactly what success looks like?

If goals and desired outcomes are not communicated to employees, they can’t possibly meet your expectations. This leads to micromanaging or helicopter-managing and instills the belief in your employees that you do not trust them or their ability to achieve results. Over time, this breeds resentment erodes job satisfaction and increases the rate of turnover as employees go off in search of greener pastures.

If you’ve seen this situation occur multiple times throughout your organization, it’s time to look at your leadership style. Do you provide your employees with the knowledge and the skills they need, and clearly communicate what you want to see?

If not, it’s not too late. Shift your mindset and company culture to management by objectives and watch your employees step up to the challenge.

What is management by objectives?

The term "management by objectives" (MBO) may be new to your vocabulary, but it’s certainly not a new concept. MBO is one approach managers use to get the most out of their employees. It involves creating a series of concrete goals for an employee to accomplish for the betterment of the organization.

Image Source

What is the purpose of management by objectives?

MBO ensures that employees receive clear communication regarding their roles and responsibilities, and they understand the role they play in the overall health of the organization. It not only helps them get clear on what’s expected of them but also gives them a sense of purpose as they take ownership of how they impact the rest of the organization and help meet its mission.

Businesses that operate in silos where from one department to another, people don’t know what anyone else is working on, have a lower chance of succeeding. Employees can easily become disheartened when they can’t see the larger picture. Management by objectives aims to break down these walls for great transparency across organizations.

Management by Objectives Advantages and Disadvantages

Just like any management style, there are pros and cons to management by objectives. Let’s take a closer look:

Advantages of Management by Objectives

• Employees can understand and appreciate their individual impact on the company as a whole.
• Expectations are clearly communicated and based on Key Result Areas (KRAs) tailored to each employee.
• Employees understand what success looks like and what they have to accomplish to reach it.
• Teamwork improves and finger-pointing decreases. Employees know their responsibilities and tasks are less likely to fall through the cracks.
• Employees feel essential and indispensable to the organization as they each perform a unique task.

The Disadvantages of Management by Objectives

• It’s possible for managers to rely too much on MBO and a management style. While it can revolutionize your organization, it has its limitations and is not always appropriate.
• With goals and objectives overemphasized, non-measurable aspects of the work environment (like teamwork, positive customer interactions, etc.) may become less practiced and valued.
• With a constant focus on numbers and metrics, employees may feel anxious about their performance which could make things worse.

As you can see, management by objectives can help your organization move in the right direction, however, it is not a cure-all for every challenge your organization may face. Let’s take a closer look at how to utilize this leadership style for optimum effectiveness.

How To Incorporate Management by Objectives Into Your Organization

Like everything in life, it helps to have a plan before you dive in. Let’s review how to implement MBO in your own company.

Management by Objectives Steps

Define Your Goals

What would you like to see the organization as a whole achieve, and during what time period? These goals should be shared with everyone in your organization.

Create and Communicate Employee Goals

How do your employee’s responsibilities play into the goals of the organization? This will allow you to create specific goals and objectives for them to meet.

Monitor Their Performance and Progress

Review your employees’ performance on a regular basis. Are they hitting whatever numbers you’ve assigned them? Are they steadily working towards a larger goal?

Assess Their Performance

It’s good to know where your employees stand, however, it’s even more important to communicate how they’re doing with them. Without regular performance reviews, your employees can’t gauge how they are performing and if changes need to be made.

Provide Feedback

If employees are doing well, let them know. You may wish to do this privately or publicly to congratulate them and inspire others. If they are not meeting your expectations, provide this feedback privately so as not to demean them in front of their colleagues. You will also need to give them steps to take to improve their performance.

If they’re not reaching their goals, this may be because those goals have not been properly communicated, or because they don’t have the right tools to do what’s expected. Have a conversation to assess if either of these factors is at play, and then do whatever is necessary to remedy the situation.

When you follow these steps, you can implement a successful culture of management by objectives and see an improvement in your team’s performance. This works for a sales environment, as well as customer service, or any other department in an organization.

Management by Objectives Examples

If this sounds like something you’d like to try, you may be wondering what are some examples of objectives that you could set. While specific objectives may differ depending on your industry, product, and specific company, there are some blanket objectives that you can begin with. While any department can use MBO, we’ll take a look at 3 specific instances.

Sales MBO examples

• Decrease the sales cycle to 2 months
• Increase the average sales to $10,000
• Bring in 15 new customers

Marketing MBO Examples

• Increase social media likes by 40%
• Increase time spent on the website by 5 minutes
• Generate 500 new leads per month
• Get 5 media placements

Customer Service BMO Examples

• Decrease call time to under 5 minutes
• Increase customer satisfaction by 30%
• Reduce manager call intervention by 10%

Human Resources MBO Examples

• Improve retention rate by 15%
• Implement a leadership training program for remarkable employees
• Increase employee satisfaction by 30%

When it’s time to inspire your team and breathe new life into your organization, consider incorporating management by objectives into your company culture. You may be surprised how well your employees take to this new system and once they understand your expectations they’re in a better position to meet or exceed them.

Management by Objectives: Everything You Need to Know was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns

What's a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One?

When was the last time you ran a competitive analysis for your brand? And most importantly, do you know how to do one efficiently?

If you're not sure, or if the last "analysis" you ran was a quick perusal of a competitor's website and social media presence, you're likely missing out on important intelligence that could help your brand grow.

In this detailed guide, you'll learn how to conduct a competitive analysis that will give your business a competitive advantage in the market.

A competitive analysis can help you learn the ins and outs of how your competition works, and identify potential opportunities where you can out-perform them.

It also enables you to stay atop of industry trends and ensure your product is consistently meeting — and exceeding — industry standards.

Let's dive into a few more benefits of conducting competitive analyses:

• Helps you identify your product's unique value proposition and what makes your product different from the competitors', which can inform future marketing efforts.
• Enables you to identify what your competitor is doing right. This information is critical for staying relevant and ensuring both your product and your marketing campaigns are outperforming industry standards.
• Tells you where your competitors are falling short — which helps you identify areas of opportunities in the marketplace, and test out new, unique marketing strategies they haven't taken advantage of.
• Learn through customer reviews what's missing in a competitor's product, and consider how you might add features to your own product to meet those needs.
• Provides you with a benchmark against which you can measure your growth.

What is competitive market research?

Competitive market research focuses on finding and comparing key market metrics that help identify differences between your products and services and those of your competitors. Comprehensive market research helps establish the foundation for an effective sales and marketing strategy that helps your company stand out from the crowd.

Next, let's dive into how you can conduct a competitive analysis for your own company.

Competitive Analysis in Marketing

Every brand can benefit from regular competitor analysis. By performing a competitor analysis, you'll be able to:

• Identify gaps in the market
• Develop new products and services
• Uncover market trends
• Market and sell more effectively

As you can see, learning any of these four components will lead your brand down the path of achievement.

Next, let's dive into some steps you can take to conduct a comprehensive competitive analysis.

To run a complete and effective competitive analysis, use these ten templates, which range in purpose from sales, to marketing, to product strategy.

Featured Resource: 10 Competitive Analysis Templates

Download Now

1. Determine who your competitors are.

First, you'll need to figure out who you're really competing with so you can compare the data accurately. What works in a business similar to yours may not work for your brand.

So how can you do this?

Divide your “competitors” into two categories: direct and indirect.

Direct competitors are businesses that offer a product or service that could pass as a similar substitute for yours, and that operate in your same geographic area.

On the flip side, an indirect competitor provides products that are not the same but could satisfy the same customer need or solve the same problem.

It seems simple enough on paper, but these two terms are often misused.

When comparing your brand, you should only focus on your direct competitors. This is something many brands get wrong.

Let's use an example: Stitch Fix and Fabletics are both subscription-based services that sell clothes on a monthly basis and serve a similar target audience.

But as we look deeper, we can see that the actual product (clothes in this case) are not the same; one brand focuses on stylish everyday outfits while the other is workout-centric attire only.

Yes, these brands satisfy the same need for women (having trendy clothes delivered right to their doorstep each month), but they do so with completely different types of clothing, making them indirect competitors.

This means Kate Hudson's team at Fabletics would not want to spend their time studying Stitch Fix too closely since their audiences probably vary quite a bit. Even if it's only slightly, this tiny variation is enough to make a big difference.

Now, this doesn't mean you should toss your indirect competitors out the window completely.

Keep these brands on your radar since they could shift positions at any time and cross over into the direct competitor zone. Using our example, Stitch Fix could start a workout line, which would certainly change things for Fabletics.

This is also one of the reasons why you'll want to routinely run a competitor analysis. The market can and will shift at any time, and if you're not constantly scoping it out, you won't be aware of these changes until it's too late.

2. Determine what products your competitors offer.

At the heart of any business is its product or service, which is what makes this a good place to start.

You'll want to analyze your competitor's complete product line and the quality of the products or services they're offering.

You should also take note of their pricing and any discounts they're offering customers.

Some questions to consider include:

• Are they a low-cost or high-cost provider?
• Are they working mainly on volume sales or one-off purchases?
• What is their market share?
• What are the characteristics and needs of their ideal customers?
• Are they using different pricing strategies for online purchases versus brick and mortar?
• How does the company differentiate itself from its competitors?
• How do they distribute their products/services?

3. Research your competitors' sales tactics and results.

Running a sales analysis of your competitors can be a bit tricky.

You'll want to track down the answers to questions such as:

• What does the sales process look like?
• What channels are they selling through?
• Do they have multiple locations and how does this give them an advantage?
• Are they expanding? Scaling down?
• Do they have partner reselling programs?
• What are their customers' reasons for not buying? For ending their relationship with the company?
• What are their revenues each year? What about total sales volume?
• Do they regularly discount their products or services?
• How involved is a salesperson in the process?

These helpful pieces of information will give you an idea of how competitive the sales process is, and what information you need to prepare your sales reps with to compete during the final buy stage.

For publicly held companies, you can find annual reports online, but you'll have to do some sleuthing to find this info from privately owned businesses.

You could find some of this information by searching through your CRM and reaching out to those customers who mentioned they were considering your competitor. Find out what made them choose your product or service over others out there.

To do this, run a report that shows all prospective deals where there was an identified competitor.

If this data is not something you currently record, talk to marketing and sales to implement a system where prospects are questioned about the other companies they are considering.

Essentially, they'll need to ask their leads (either through a form field or during a one-on-one sales conversation) to identify who their current service providers are, who they've used in the past, and who else they are considering during the buying process.

When a competitor is identified, have your sales team dive deeper by asking why they are considering switching to your product. If you've already lost the deal, be sure to follow up with the prospect to determine why you lost to your competitor. What services or features attracted the prospect? Was it about price? What's the prospect's impression of your sales process? If they've already made the switch, find out why they made this decision.

By asking open-ended questions, you'll have honest feedback about what customers find appealing about your brand and what might be turning customers away.

Once you've answered these questions, you can start scoping out your competitor's marketing efforts.

4. Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

There are a few major factors that go into correctly pricing your product — and one major one is understanding how much your competitors are charging for a similar product or service.

If you feel your product offers superior features compared to those of a competitor, you might consider making your product or service more expensive than industry standards. However, if you do that, you'll want to ensure your sales reps are ready to explain why your product is worth the additional cost.

Alternatively, perhaps you feel there's a gap in your industry for affordable products. If that's the case, you might aim to charge less than competitors and appeal to prospects who aren't looking to break the bank for a high-quality product.

Of course, other factors go into correctly pricing a product, but it's critical you stay on top of industry pricing to ensure you're pricing your product in a way that feels reasonable to prospects.

Additionally, take a look at any perks your competitors' offer and how you might match those perks to compete. For instance, perhaps your competitors offer a major referral discount or a month-long free trial version. These perks could be the reason you're losing customers, so if it feels reasonable for your brand, consider where you might match those perks — or provide some unique perks of your own if competitors' don't offer any.

5. Ensure you're meeting competitive shipping costs.

Did you know expensive shipping is the number one reason for cart abandonment?

Nowadays, free shipping is a major perk that can attract consumers to choose one brand over another. If you work in an industry where shipping is a major factor — like ecommerce — you'll want to take a look at competitors' shipping costs and ensure you're meeting (if not exceeding) those prices.

If most of your competitors' offer free shipping, you'll want to look into the option for your own company. If free shipping isn't a practical option for your business, consider how you might differentiate in other ways — including loyalty programs, holiday discounts, or giveaways on social media.

6. Analyze how your competitors market their products.

Analyzing your competitor's website is the fastest way to gauge their marketing efforts. Take note of any of the following items and copy down the specific URL for future reference:

• Do they have a blog?
• Are they creating whitepapers or ebooks?
• Do they post videos or webinars?
• Do they have a podcast?
• Are they using static visual content such as infographics and cartoons?
• What about slide decks?
• Do they have a FAQs section?
• Are there featured articles?
• Do you see press releases?
• Do they have a media kit?
• What about case studies?
• Do they publish buying guides and data sheets?
• What online and offline advertising campaigns are they running?

7. Take note of your competition's content strategy.

Then, take a look at the quantity of these items. Do they have several hundred blog posts or a small handful? Are there five white papers and just one ebook?

Next, determine the frequency of these content assets. Are they publishing something new each week or once a month? How often does a new ebook or case study come out?

Chances are if you come across a robust archive of content, your competitor has been publishing regularly. Depending on the topics they're discussing, this content may help you hone in on their lead-generating strategies.

From there, you should move on to evaluating the quality of their content. After all, if the quality is lacking, it won't matter how often they post since their target audience won't find much value in it.

Choose a small handful of samples to review instead of tackling every single piece to make the process more manageable.

Your sampler should include content pieces covering a variety of topics so you'll have a fairly complete picture of what your competitor shares with their target audience.

When analyzing your competitor's content, consider the following questions:

• How accurate is their content?
• Are spelling or grammar errors present?
• How in-depth does their content go? (Is it at the introductory level that just scratches the surface or does it include more advanced topics with high-level ideas?)
• What tone do they use?
• Is the content structured for readability? (Are they using bullet points, bold headings, and numbered lists?)
• Is their content free and available to anyone or do their readers need to opt-in?
• Who is writing their content? (In-house team? One person? Multiple contributors?)
• Is there a visible byline or bio attached to their articles?

As you continue to scan the content, pay attention to the photos and imagery your competitors are using.

Do you quickly scroll past generic stock photos or are you impressed by custom illustrations and images? If they're using stock photos, do they at least have overlays of text quotes or calls-to-action that are specific to their business?

If their photos are custom, are they sourced from outside graphic professionals or do they appear to be done in-house?

When you have a solid understanding of your competitor's content marketing strategy, it's time to find out if it's truly working for them.

8. Learn what technology stack your competitors' use.

Understanding what types of technology your competitors' use can be critical for helping your own company reduce friction and increase momentum within your organization.

For instance, perhaps you've seen positive reviews about a competitor's customer service — as you're conducting research, you learn the customer uses powerful customer service software you haven't been taking advantage of. This information should arm you with the opportunity to outperform your competitors' processes.

To figure out which software your competitors' use, type the company's URL into Built With, an effective tool for unveiling what technology your competitors' site runs on, along with third-party plugins ranging from analytics systems to CRMs.

Alternatively, you might consider looking at competitors' job listings, particularly for engineer or web developer roles. The job listing will likely mention which tools a candidate needs to be familiar with — a creative way to gain intel into the technology your competitors' use.

9. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor's content.

To gauge how engaging your competitor's content is to their readers, you'll need to see how their target audience responds to what they're posting.

Check the average number of comments, shares, and likes on your competitor's content and find out if:

• Certain topics resonate better than others
• The comments are negative, positive, or a mix
• People are tweeting about specific topics more than others
• Readers respond better to Facebook updates about certain content
• Don't forget to note if your competitor categorizes their content using tags, and if they have social media follow and share buttons attached to each piece of content.

10. Observe how they promote their marketing content.

From engagement, you'll move right along to your competitor's content promotion strategy.

• Keyword density in the copy itself
• Image ALT text tags
• Use of internal linking

The following questions can also help you prioritize and focus on what to pay attention to:

• Which keywords are your competitors focusing on that you still haven't tapped into?
• What content of theirs is highly shared and linked to? How does your content compare?
• Which social media platforms are your target audience using?
• What other sites are linking back to your competitor's site, but not yours?
• Who else is sharing what your competitors are publishing?
• Who is referring traffic to your competitor's site?
• For the keywords you want to focus on, what is the difficulty level? There are several free (and paid) tools that will give you a comprehensive evaluation of your competitor's search engine optimization.

11. Look at their social media presence, strategies, and go-to platforms

The last area you'll want to evaluate when it comes to marketing is your competitor's social media presence and engagement rates.

How does your competition drive engagement with their brand through social media? Do you see social sharing buttons with each article? Does your competitor have links to their social media channels in the header, footer, or somewhere else? Are these clearly visible? Do they use calls-to-action with these buttons?

If your competitors are using a social network that you may not be on, it's worth learning more about how that platform may be able to help your business, too. To determine if a new social media platform is worth your time, check your competitor's engagement rates on those sites. First, visit the following sites to see if your competition has an account on these platforms:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• Snapchat
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Pinterest

Then, take note of the following quantitative items from each platform:

• Number of fans/followers
• Posting frequency and consistency
• Content engagement (Are users leaving comments or sharing their posts?)
• Content virality (How many shares, repins, and retweets do their posts get?)

With the same critical eye you used to gauge your competition's content marketing strategy, take a fine-toothed comb to analyze their social media strategy.

What kind of content are they posting? Are they more focused on driving people to landing pages, resulting in new leads? Or are they posting visual content to promote engagement and brand awareness?

How much of this content is original? Do they share curated content from other sources? Are these sources regular contributors? What is the overall tone of the content?

How does your competition interact with its followers? How frequently do their followers interact with their content?

After you collect this data, generate an overall grade for the quality of your competitor's content. This will help you compare the rest of your competitors using a similar grading scale.

12. Perform a SWOT Analysis to learn their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats

As you evaluate each component in your competitor analysis (business, sales, and marketing), get into the habit of performing a simplified SWOT analysis at the same time.

This means you'll take note of your competitor's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats any time you assess an overall grade.

Some questions to get you started include:

• What is your competitor doing well? (Products, content marketing, social
• Where does your competitor have the advantage over your brand?
• What is the weakest area for your competitor?
• Where does your brand have the advantage over your competitor?
• What could they do better with?
• In what areas would you consider this competitor a threat?
• Are there opportunities in the market that your competitor has identified?

You'll be able to compare their weaknesses against your strengths and vice versa. By doing this, you can better position your company, and you'll start to uncover areas for improvement within your own brand.

 

Competitive Product Analysis

Product analysis drills down to discover key differences and similarities in products that share the same general market. This type of analysis if you have a competitor selling products in a similar market niche to your own - you want to make sure that wherever possible, you aren’t losing market share to the competition.

Leveraging the example above, we can drill down and discover some of the key differentiators in product offerings.

Step 1: Assess your current product pricing.

The first step in any product analysis is to assess current pricing.

Nintendo offers three models of its Switch console: The smaller lite version is priced at $199, the standard version is $299, and the new OLED version is $349.

Sony, meanwhile, offers two versions of its Playstation 5 console: The standard edition costs $499 and the digital version, which doesn’t include a disc drive, is $399.

Step 2: Compare key features

Next is a comparison of key features. In the case of our console example, this means comparing features like processing power, memory, and hard drive space.

Feature	PS5 Standard	Nintendo Switch
Hard drive space	825 GB	32 GB
RAM	16 GB	4 GB
USB ports	4 ports	1 USB 3.0, 2 USB 2.0
Ethernet connection	Gigabit	None

Step 3: Pinpoint differentiators

With basic features compared, it’s time to dive deeper with differentiators. While a glance at the chart above seems to indicate that the PS5 is outperforming its competition, this data only tells part of the story.

Here’s why: The big selling point of the standard and OLED Switch models is that they can be played as either handheld consoles or docked with a base station connected to a TV. What’s more, this “switching” happens seamlessly, allowing players to play whenever, wherever.

The Playstation offering, meanwhile, has leaned into market-exclusive games that are only available on its system to help differentiate them from their competitors.

Step 4: Identify market gaps

The last step in a competitive product analysis is looking for gaps in the market that could help your company get ahead. When it comes to the console market, one potential opportunity gaining traction is the delivery of games via cloud-based services rather than physical hardware. Companies like Nvidia and Google have already made inroads in this space and if they can overcome issues with bandwidth and latency, it could change the market at scale.

Competitive Analysis Example

How do you stack up against the competition? Where are you similar, and what sets you apart? This is the goal of competitive analysis. By understanding where your brand and competitors overlap and diverge, you’re better positioned to make strategic decisions that can help grow your brand.

Of course, it’s one thing to understand the benefits of competitive analysis, and it’s another to actually carry out an analysis that yields actionable results. Don’t worry - we’ve got you covered with a quick example.

Sony vs. Nintendo: Not all fun and games

Let’s take a look at popular gaming system companies Sony and Nintendo. Sony’s newest offering - the Playstation 5 - recently hit the market but has been plagued by supply shortages. Nintendo’s Switch console, meanwhile, has been around for several years but remains a consistent seller, especially among teens and children. This scenario is familiar for many companies on both sides of the coin; some have introduced new products designed to compete with established market leaders, while others are looking to ensure that reliable sales don’t fall.

Using some of the steps listed above, here’s a quick competitive analysis example.

1. Determine who your competitors are.

In our example, it’s Sony vs Nintendo, but it’s also worth considering Microsoft’s Xbox, which occupies the same general market vertical. This is critical for effective analysis; even if you’re focused on specific competitors and how they compare, it’s worth considering other similar market offerings.

2. Determine what products your competitors offer.

Playstation offers two PS5 versions, digital and standard, at different price points, while Nintendo offers three versions of its console. Both companies also sell peripherals - for example, Sony sells virtual reality (VR) add-ons while Nintendo sells gaming peripherals such as steering wheels, tennis rackets, and differing controller configurations.

3. Research your competitors' sales tactics and results.

When it comes to sales tactics and marketing, Sony and Nintendo have very different approaches.

In part thanks to the recent semiconductor shortage, Sony has driven up demand via scarcity - very low volumes of PS5 consoles remain available. Nintendo, meanwhile, has adopted a broader approach by targeting families as their primary customer base. This effort is bolstered by the Switch Lite product line, which is smaller and less expensive, making it a popular choice for children.

The numbers tell the tale: Through September 2021, Nintendo sold 14.3 million consoles, while Sony sold 7.8 million.

4. Take a look at your competitors' pricing, as well as any perks they offer.

Sony has the higher price point: Their standard PS5 sells for $499, while Nintendo’s most expensive offering comes in at $349. Both offer robust digital marketplaces and the ability to easily download new games or services.

Here, the key differentiators are flexibility and fidelity. The Switch is flexible - users can dock it with their television and play it like a standard console, or pick it up and take it anywhere as a handheld gaming system. The PS5, meanwhile, has superior graphics hardware and processing power for gamers who want the highest-fidelity experience.

5. Analyze how your competitors market their products.

If you compare the marketing efforts of Nintendo and Sony, the difference is immediately apparent: Sony’s ads feature realistic in-game footage and speak to the exclusive nature of their game titles; the company has managed to secure deals with several high-profile game developers for exclusive access to new and existing IPs.

Nintendo, meanwhile, uses brightly-lit ads showing happy families playing together or children using their smaller Switches while traveling.

6. Analyze the level of engagement on your competitor's content.

Engagement helps drive sales and encourage repeat purchases. While there are several ways to measure engagement, social media is one of the most straightforward: In general, more followers equates to more engagement and greater market impact.

When it comes to our example, Sony enjoys a significant lead over Nintendo: While the official Playstation Facebook page has 38 million followers, Nintendo has just 5 million.

Competitive Analysis Templates

Competitive analysis is complex, especially when you’re assessing multiple companies and products simultaneously. To help streamline the process, we’ve created 10 free templates that make it possible to see how you stack up against the competition - and what you can do to increase market share.

Let’s break down our SWOT analysis template. Here’s what it looks like:

Download Free Templates

Strengths - Identify your strengths. These may include specific pieces of intellectual property, products that are unique to the market, or a workforce that outperforms the competition.

Weaknesses - Here, it’s worth considering potential issues around pricing, leadership, staff turnover, and new competitors in the market.

Opportunities - This part of the SWOT analysis can focus on new market niches, evolving consumer preferences, or new technologies being developed by your company.

Threats - These might include new taxes or regulations on existing products or an increasing number of similar products in the same market space that could negatively affect your overall share.

How Does Your Business Stack Up?

Before you accurately compare your competition, you need to establish a baseline. This also helps when it comes time to perform a SWOT analysis.

Take an objective look at your business, sales, and marketing reports through the same metrics you use to evaluate your competition.

Record this information just like you would with a competitor and use this as your baseline to compare across the board.

Editor's Note: This post was originally published prior to July 2018 but has been updated for comprehensiveness.

What's a Competitive Analysis & How Do You Conduct One? was originally posted by Local Sign Company Irvine, Ca. https://goo.gl/4NmUQV https://goo.gl/bQ1zHR http://www.pearltrees.com/anaheimsigns