A quick glance at the number of followers and likes is not enough in 2022. We all know that these numbers are not the reflection of the actual situation anymore. Moreover, it is a well-known fact that lots of influencers and brand accounts are using the power of Instagram bot services and even buy likes and followers.
With this knowledge and understanding that it’s not that simple, no fair opinion about any IG account can be made without the help of professionals. But I have a quick 30-minute lifehack for those who need to have a bunch of cool and respect-worthy competitors on hand. If you’re still not convinced about the idea of commercial surveillance on your top competitors, I’d like to persuade you with 3 benefits of this research.
Why do you need to do Instagram competitors research in 2022?
#1 Hack their Instagram content marketing strategy
You need to understand how they use their content. It is not only about the basic knowledge of what they post and when, but also how they promote it and does it work well. It is an extremely useful thing to have this information about 5-10 of your main competitors:
- What are they posting about? How often do they post?
- Which of their posts are most successful by likes? By comments?
- How do they promote their content?
- Who are their hot clients?
There are hundreds of questions to ask yourself, and then use these answers like a pro. Also, it is vital to determine if the content is shared by other users, analyze branded hashtags, and lots more.
#2 Spy on their backlinks
Backlinks are normally about SEO, but on Instagram, this logic works as well. By finding and following your competitor’s strategy you can look deeply into this powerful part of their promotion. Find influencers they work with, find their hot clients and those who are happy with their product, research for cross-promotion brands they love to work with. All this info can teach you a good lesson about marketing.
It is beyond creating content — find out how best-selling competitors rank for certain hashtags. Determine which of them bring sales. And use them. It’s a piece of cake if you have a cool list of successful competitors on hand.
#3 Get a hot audience from their accounts
“This is not fair,” you might say. But this is just business. And if they are not as agile as you – you win the deal.
Top Instagram competitors' list-making lifehack
What you need
Just one tool — Advanced Instagram Search.
This is an upgraded and detailed IG search engine. Instagram itself can only dream about such a variety of filters and categories to search with. It is mostly used to find suitable product influencers. But I personally use it as a magic wand for competitor research.
How you do it
This is a 3-step simple technology to apply for finding competitors one by one. Use it as many times as you need to collect a full and exhaustive list.
STEP #1: SET FILTERS
Type into the search line a keyword that describes your business. Choose all filters according to your business idea. For my example, I’ll make a list of competitors for a women’s jewelry IG shop with worldwide shipping. Profile gender is an interesting search filter to try. Especially when the product or service you offer is gender-sensitive. As for my goal, the gender of the profile doesn’t matter.
Category is a super useful thing to filter. Try finding the same keywords in different categories. For the jewelry business I’ll try to find shops in these categories:
- Product/Service
- Shopping/Retail
- Local business
- Jewelry/Watches
- Brand
- Accessories
Followers from - Followers to is a brilliant thing to filter your competitors. I advise you to choose accounts with a medium number of followers if you are a rookie. In my case, I choose 100,000-1,000,000 followers.
STEP #2: SCOUR THE RESULTS
Look what you’ve got after pressing “Search”. Not all accounts will be suited to you. Open up in a new window those you consider look great and whose bio meets your expectations. From this page, you can either open the IG account directly on social media or analyze it through the Profile Analyzer tool. Both will open up in new windows. The points to check out before adding the account to a list of your competitors:
- Bio is a vital thing to check through. Find info that is close enough to your business. If you ship worldwide, find those who do the same. If you sell vintage, look for the same from your competitors.
- Check the Engagement rate. This is an important step for those who are keen not just for likes but sales. For every niche, the engagement rate is absolutely different.
Find those that are close to your niche and focus on them. Choose accounts with the best engagement rate.
STEP #3: LOOK THROUGH THE CONTENT
After you’ve chosen accounts with a dream following and engagement rate, now it’s time to focus on the content they post. Open all of them right on Instagram and take only those you really appreciate and would like to get inspiration from to your list. On this step, I advise you to use Story Downloader. But that is another story!
