How to Steal Your Competitors' Social Media Followers

Robyn Miga |@robynmiga Social media is a game changer for marketing.

In one location, you’re able to have an on-going conversation with your clients or potential customers. However, without followers, social media is a dead end for marketers. So the big question most businesses have is how to drive traffic to their pages in order to build a stronger following.

While stealing from your competitors used to mean that there could only be one winner, in social media, everyone wins…unless you’re playing the game better.

Networking

Start by following your competitor’s pages. For instance, if you own a bed and breakfast, you could start by following some of the big brand hotels that are in your area. You can find them by searching in Twitter or Facebook, or find the top hits for “bed and breakfast” or “hotel” that appear in Google.

Once you have pinpointed your competitors and found their social media sites, it’s time to start digging.

Analyze Activity

There are many tools out there that will help you analyze a specific Twitter or Facebook page. These analyzers will give you insight into almost every detail of their social media strategy, from when they have the most traffic, the users who interact the most, to the specific Tweets or statuses that get the most responses. There are several tools out there for both Facebook and Twitter. Fanpage Karma will give you a free analysis for Facebook, and Twitonomy will offer information for Twitter. These are not the only sites that offer this service, so shop around for the service that serves you best.

Now all you need to do is type in the Facebook page or Twitter handle to receive your free analytic report on the site.

Stealing Facebook LIKES

For you to successfully steal your competitors clients, you need to understand what they are doing right, as well as what they are doing wrong.  You will be able to see what sorts of posts followers are responding to, as well as their biggest flaws. You will also be able to see what country is bringing the most interaction and whether your followers are mostly male or female.

Once you get to know the profile, now is the time you swoop. However, Entrepreneur points how that you should be careful not to get too excited.

“Nothing is more annoying to a Webmaster than someone joining their social network to blatantly advertise a website,” the article points out. “Don’t do that. You will get banned instantly.”

Instead, you should just be a helpful follower on the topic. If followers are asking questions that no one is answering, answer them. The best thing you can do is to become the go-to source for the topic. Once you’re the go-to source, they will start coming directly to you for answers. It’s important that you maintain these relationships as well, and not stop being the source they go to once they are following you.

Stealing Twitter Followers

While there are many similarities between analyzing Facebook versus Twitter followers, the biggest difference is that you will be able to interact with Twitter followers outside of the competitor’s Twitter account. With Twitonomy (and similar services) you will be able to find out the followers that retweet the most, who are mentioned the most, as well as those who most often receive replies.  

Much like with Facebook, now is your time to shine. Find their weakness, and become the expert they go to for information.

“The one key element of networking is helpfulness. You have to be helpful,” Entrepreneur pointed out. “You can’t just come asking for a handout; that is just tacky and will get you nowhere.”

Though there are varying opinions on the best way to steal Facebook and Twitter followers, one thing is certain, it all begins with networking. Through establishing yourself as an expert that appeals to their interests, they will naturally gravitate toward your pages.

Happy stealing.