Engaging with customers not competitors?

I had a friend pose very interesting question yesterday: I have noticed my competitors following me and copying my social media activities (he was using Twitter, videos, blogs). What can I do to engage with my customers and prospects but not my competitors?

Here are my thoughts:

Interesting question, enough that it had me up last night thinking about it! Just last week we tried to follow one of our competitors on twitter and he blocked us! We actually felt kind of good about it since they are much larger than us so I presume he is seeing us as a threat:) So this is one option, don't let them follow you. Now of course they can still get to the information but it clearly says, "bug off dude..."

Another option is to use social media tools that are closed source. Basically a client/prospect portal/community. Depending on your customer's willingness to engage, you could create your own community rather than join the open community and hope to capture your customers there. If you can pull it off, the advantages are huge. You have control over the branded experience, you control all of the content (and I do not mean control as in force the user into what you want them to see.) I mean control who gets to see it, how they interact with it and the tools you give them to do so. Think of the technographics social ladder in the Groundswell. If your customers are creators, then add a bunch of contribution tools for them. If they are critics then create the content and give them the tools to react to it. The nice part about a 'private commiunity' is that you can simplify it by taking out the featuers that you do not need!! Ease of use = adoption.

Finally, it sounds to me like you already have your competitors beat! You are one step ahead of them, which is better than one step behind. Keep innovating and they will have a hard time catching up.