Defining Your Niche on Social Media: Handling Competition Within Your Niche

In the latest installment of Defining Your Niche on Social Media, Stephanie Young Moss, PharmD, MS, discussed how to handle competing social media pages with the same target audience. Although it’s easy to think that competition is negative, Moss said having a competitor demonstrates a need for the topic that you’re discussing.

“A lot of times, we think that we don’t want to have any type of competition when we’re in a certain niche,” Moss said. “However, it’s important to have at least some type of competition when you’re in a niche, because if you don’t have any competition, there may not be a need for it.”

Moss said there’s a careful balance between too much competition—where the niche is flooded with content—and not too little. When creating your social media presence, Moss said it’s important to be aware of who you’re competing against and what they offer, both to know what’s available and to learn how to differentiate yourself.

Pharmacists should be confident in their own knowledge when entering social media, Moss said, because they are already experts in their field.

“It’s true,” Moss said. “You’ve gone to school for several years, some of you have done residencies, and you’re already an expert at what you do. It’s just time for you to niche down and realize what you’re particularly good at in that niche.”