Overcoming Competition: How to Make Your Business Stand Out on Social Media
In this post, I’m getting into competition for your business in a different form than you’ve ever heard it before. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking our only competitors are other business owners in our niche, but it’s important to have an understanding of who you’re really up against in the online space.
Gaining this insight will launch you into further business success and can inspire you to use the information your competition has to your advantage. I’m delving into these ideas and more below.
Who We Think Our Competition Is
I believe in collaboration over competition. And I’m a firm believer that when you can effectively communicate your message in a way that your ideal client can feel and experience, you won’t even need to compete with others. This is because the people you’re meant to work with will just find you.
When we hone in on our expertise, we can really lean into that. And that means that you’re not competing with a bunch of broad things because you’re clearly the expert on the topic.
Even so, it’s easy to get caught up in the idea that our competition exists in those in our sector. Those offering similar products or services. Those who have similar missions to us and who are seeking similar clients.
But I truly believe that this isn’t the case. Continue reading to learn who our biggest competitors really are.
Who Our Competition ACTUALLY Is
Instead of our biggest competition being someone else with a podcast or business that offers services similar to ours, it’s actually someone else entirely. Are you ready for this? Because the realization just may blow your mind…
Our biggest competition exists in the companies who spend a lot of money making sure that they’re grabbing the attention of your ideal clients. I’m talking about those apps that keep us reaching for our phones, keep us scrolling. Social platforms like Facebook and Instagram are some of the companies I’m referencing here.
And it’s important to realize that when something is free, you are the product. Wow- that’s pretty crazy to think, right? But it’s true. Free social apps are looking to grab your attention. The longer you spend on social, the more they can see what you’re interested in. They want to keep you engaged on the platform for as long as possible because you’re continuing to provide them with data that they can sell.
Unfortunately, that’s how they’re making money. From the information they’re attaining from users like you.
But the good news is, if they’re getting that information from you, they’re also getting it from your ideal clients. And that’s where we can put this information to use.
In short, your competition exists in these big companies because they make it so that you need to fight to capture the short attention span of your target consumer.
In a world of notifications, likes, live streams, and never-ending content – we need to keep the attention of our followers and be super engaged with them, or else we’ll lose them to the million other things going on on their smartphone.
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How to Bypass These Big Companies
We need to figure out how to bypass these big companies in order to capture the attention of our ideal customers. Something I love about podcasting is that it allows your listener to do other things while they tune in.
To listen to a podcast, your target audience doesn’t have to be sitting in front of their phone. They can be walking, taking a shower, driving, and so on. They can be doing things that help them feel productive while they’re simultaneously learning from you.
Take someone who likes to walk, for instance. They can be getting their steps in with your podcast playing on their headphones. For them, it will feel like they’re right next to you having a conversation.
This dialogue is powerful because it bypasses the distractions they have on their phone. Plus, it allows them to listen while you get their mind going, prompting internal questions. That’s really powerful stuff, and it’s huge in capturing the attention of your audience.
Leveraging Your Competition: The Bottomline
As I mentioned, these big companies that spend the big bucks to learn what makes their consumers tick are our biggest competitors. But I’m going to let you in on a secret: we can leverage what we know about them to our advantage.
That’s because we can learn from these platforms. We know how they operate, and we can utilize them to see how our ideal clients interact with content.
It’s as simple as that! Understanding how we can use our competition to our advantage is huge, and it’s bound to help us grow our business in a positive way AND in a smart way.
I hope this post has reframed the way you think about your competition and inspired you to use the big-name platforms to your advantage in a way you hadn’t previously explored.
Be sure to connect with me more over on Instagram, I’d love to hear what you thought of this post and what your major takeaways were.
See you back here in the next one!
