The 30-Minute LinkedIn Competitor Analysis
Stop guessing what to post. This is the exact process for studying 5 competitors and turning their wins into a swipe file you'll use every week.
Why competitor analysis beats inspiration
Founders who "post what feels right" plateau fast. Founders who study what's already working in their niche compound — because they're starting from proven formats instead of guessing.
This is a 30-minute process you can run once and revisit monthly.
Step 1 — Pick the right 5 competitors (5 min)
Your competitors aren't always the loudest people in your space. They're the people your buyer follows. Use this filter:
- 2 direct competitors (same product, same ICP)
- 2 adjacent founders (different product, same ICP)
- 1 educator or consultant in your category
Step 2 — Pull their last 90 days of posts (10 min)
Scrolling profiles manually wastes hours. Use a tool like RockitRank to pull each competitor's posts into one table sorted by engagement. You want their top 20%, not everything.
Step 3 — Tag each top post (10 min)
For every top post, capture three things in a spreadsheet:
- Hook pattern (contrarian, story, list, question…)
- Format (text-only, carousel, image, video)
- Topic angle (tactic, opinion, behind-the-scenes, customer story)
Step 4 — Find the patterns (5 min)
Sort the spreadsheet by hook pattern. The patterns that appear 3+ times across competitors are your high-confidence templates. These become your next month of posts — in your voice, on your topics.
What to do with the swipe file
Every Sunday, pick 4 templates from your file and outline 4 posts for the week ahead. You'll never face a blank page again — and your hit rate will climb week over week because you're remixing patterns that already proved themselves with your exact audience.
Skip the manual research
RockitRank pulls competitor posts, tags the patterns, and drafts in your voice — so you spend time shipping, not scrolling.
Start your 3-day free trial →