Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

Discovering Your SMM Competitors

In This Chapter

Researching consumer online activity

Tracking your competition

Creating personas to sharpen your marketing

Recognizing new SMM concepts

Which consumers are using the social web is a subject of much debate. Some see social networks as a passing fad and try to ignore it. They are just as wrong as the evangelists who believe that everyone is using the social web all the time.

The truth is that it’s difficult to say who is using the social web. This is because the term social web is most commonly used to describe how people socialize and interact with each other across the web. With every passing day, many websites are becoming social platforms where visitors can interact and learn from one another. So then how can you find out which consumers use the social web? The best way is to understand how your company fits into the big picture and how your competitors are using social media.

In this chapter, we explain how to do that. Having a firm grip on the lay of the land in the social web makes it easier to craft a marketing plan ...