{"id":12215,"date":"2015-05-28T06:00:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T13:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/?p=12215"},"modified":"2015-05-28T06:00:11","modified_gmt":"2015-05-28T13:00:11","slug":"cool-tools-that-will-help-you-track-your-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/cool-tools-that-will-help-you-track-your-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool Tools That Will Help You Track Your Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you have a weather app on your phone? \u00a0Why?<\/p>\n<p>DUH &#8212; so you can know what the weather will be like and be prepared with either an umbrella or sunscreen or boots and gloves &#8212; right?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Tracking your competition is a lot like having a weather app on your phone. \u00a0You\u2019re not going to change your entire life because of what the weather says, but you\u2019ll be prepared for any eventuality. \u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-12218\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/competitive-weather.jpg\" alt=\"competitive weather\" width=\"341\" height=\"434\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Over the last month, I\u2019ve been writing about how to collect competitive intelligence: \u00a0the three different kinds of competitors (you\u2019re probably ignoring two of them), free and easily accessible sources of competitive information who will probably give you more business because you took the time to talk to them and \u00a0the 8 pieces of info you have to collect. \u00a0Today, I\u2019m going to seal the deal with a few tools to help you make this process super easy to implement.<\/p>\n<p><b>Google Alerts:<\/b> \u00a0Start setting up a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/alerts\">Google Alert<\/a> to receive a notice whenever your competitor\u2019s name, product or brand name or maybe even their management team is mentioned.<\/p>\n<p><b>Social Media Tracking:<\/b> \u00a0Use <a href=\"https:\/\/hootsuite.com\/\">HootSuite<\/a> to track your competition. \u00a0I like this platform because it is FREE (of course) and because you can create specific tabs for whatever you\u2019re up to. \u00a0So create a tab that includes a search for key industry hashtags, then create a tab that searches for mentions of your competitors names and brand names. \u00a0I also like HootSuite because you can track multiple social channels; Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter &#8211; all together. \u00a0This way you are all in one app. \u00a0You can also track \u201csentiment\u201d. \u00a0Here is an article that mentions some <a href=\"http:\/\/socialmouths.com\/blog\/2010\/03\/31\/6-tools-for-twitter-sentiment-tracking\/\">tools<\/a> that you can explore.<\/p>\n<p><b>Email Promotions:<\/b> If your competitors do active email marketing &#8212; SIGN UP to receive their emails. \u00a0Sure, they can unsubscribe you, but you\u2019ll still learn something &#8211; and it will come straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p><b>BuzzSumo<\/b>: I originally started using <a href=\"http:\/\/buzzsumo.com\/\">BuzzSumo<\/a> to come up with blog article ideas, but have discovered that it\u2019s a super competitive analysis tool. \u00a0Simply search for a competitor&#8217;s name or brand name and see how many social shares they got.<\/p>\n<p><b>HubSpot\u2019s Marketing Grader: <\/b>\u00a0This was originally designed as a lead magnet to show you where you can improve your web site. \u00a0But why not use it to grade your competitor\u2019s web site instead? \u00a0It\u2019s an easy way to see gaps in their ability to reach customers (oh, and you can use it for your own site for the same thing).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/tomhumbarger.files.wordpress.com\/2011\/12\/hubspot-summary.jpg\" alt=\"image\" width=\"579\" height=\"341\" \/><\/p>\n<p><b>Twitter Search<\/b>: \u00a0See who has shared a competitors article by searching the URL on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12217\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/twitter-search-450x294.png\" alt=\"twitter search\" width=\"450\" height=\"294\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ispionage.com\/\"><b>iSpionage<\/b><\/a> \u2013 This is a keyword monitoring tool. \u00a0Just type in a competitor website and you\u2019ll see the best performing keywords and how much your competitor is spending on them. \u00a0You can also see your competitors most effective web copy (that\u2019s my favorite).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-12216\" src=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/ispionage-450x146.png\" alt=\"ispionage\" width=\"450\" height=\"146\" \/><\/p>\n<p>WARNING: You may be tempted to jump into each of these tools and put them on your to-do list. \u00a0Don\u2019t do that, you will overwhelm yourself. \u00a0Instead, get focused on what you want to know, what decisions you\u2019re looking to make about your business and your brand and then choose the tool that will give you exactly that information. \u00a0Only review each of these tools to see how well they help you achieve your desired outcome.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you have a weather app on your phone? \u00a0Why? DUH &#8212; so you can know what the weather will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[341],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cool Tools That Will Help You Track Your Competition | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do you have a weather app on your phone? \u00a0Why? 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