Hi social pro 👋

Most brands are watching their competitors, but not many are actually listening to them.

And yes, there’s a difference:

Watching = tracking what they post, how often they post it, and how many likes they get.

Listening = understanding how their audience is actually responding.

That second layer of insight is sitting there in the comment section, yet most don’t even think to use it.

This week, we’re digging into how you can use competitor comment sections as a research tool, and what you can find there that no dashboard will ever show you.

Let’s get into it 👇

— Brett

From the feed: Stop sleeping on your competitors’ comments

Most brands doing competitor analysis are looking at the same things.

What their rivals are posting, how often, what format, how many likes. It’s useful up to a point, but it only tells you what a brand is putting out.

The comment section, meanwhile, can tell you so much more.

When a competitor launches a new product, their comment section will tell you what audiences were excited about, confused by, or unimpressed with. When they run a campaign, the replies will tell you whether it resonated or just got a bunch of views. When audiences start comparing them to other brands in the comments (unprompted), you’ll know exactly where the gaps are and who’s filling them.

This is real-time market research, and your competitors are generating it for you every time they post.

Here’s what to look out for.

1. How their launches actually land

A competitor’s announcement post will tell you more than their press release ever could. Are audiences excited or confused? Are they asking questions that suggest the messaging didn’t land? Are they flagging product issues in the first 24 hours? Comment sections surface the unfiltered reaction that focus groups and surveys never quite capture.

2. Where their messaging isn’t working

Repeated questions and misunderstandings in the comments are a signal that positioning didn’t fully land. If audiences keep asking “but what does it actually do?” or “how is this different from [insert other brand]?”, that’s a gap you can move on. Their confusion is your opportunity.

3. Where your brand is showing up

Audiences constantly references alternatives in the comments of competitor posts. Tracking when and how your brand comes up tells you how you’re being positioned relative to them in the minds of real buyers.

4. What audiences wish existed

Comment sections are full of unsolicited product feedback - requests for new features, variations, or things nobody makes yet (but should). If you catch those early, you have a head start nobody else could have seen coming.

The comment section underneath a competitor’s post is one of the most honest pieces of market research available - and it’s free. Not only that, it updates every time they post.

All you have to do is read it (and the smartest teams are using Siftsy for that 😉).

Pulse check

How often does your team look at competitors' comment sections?

On our radar

Is the internet getting smaller?

This post by Annie-Mai Hodge (a great follow for social media and marketing updates) got us thinking.

Her argument - that the internet is splintering into smaller, parallel cultures rather than one big shared feed - has a direct implication for anyone trying to understand their audiences on social.

If culture is increasingly shaped by platform-specific behavior and community lore, then reading the comments on TikTok might tell you something fundamentally different from reading them on Instagram.

Context is everything - more so than ever.

Read the full post