{"id":1604,"date":"2020-03-29T05:35:45","date_gmt":"2020-03-29T05:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/britopian.com\/?p=1604"},"modified":"2023-10-16T06:57:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T06:57:00","slug":"measuring-share-of-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britopian.com\/influencer-marketing\/measuring-share-of-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Share of Voice (SOV): A Measurement for PR, Social Media & SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
Share of voice is a weak metric. It’s not as weak as measuring earned media value<\/a>, but it’s close. It’s easy to game, and it’s not actionable. So it’s okay to disagree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why it matters: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While SOV is an essential measurement approach, it’s important to do it right. It would be best to consider using more advanced methods to prove marketing and communications’ value. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s a quick digital share of voice video<\/a> in case you don’t like reading. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One reason it’s so easily gamed is that there’s no standard definition or methodology for what constitutes a brand mention. Does a retweet count? What about a Facebook post? How about a news article mentioning the brand but not including a link? There are no clear answers and no set standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another issue with using share of voice as a metric is that it doesn’t consider the sentiment or the context of the mentions. A positive mention from a high-authority site is worth more than a negative mention from a low-authority site. Still, most share of voice reports don’t account for the brand sentiment, which is a huge gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, share of voice is a vanity metric. It doesn’t mean anything. Seeing your brand mentioned 50% more than your competitors may be nice, but so what? What matters is whether you are increasing brand awareness, building your reputation, and selling products. That’s what matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Measuring the share of voice is great for a PowerPoint slide if you lead your competitors. But there are other ways to calculate and measure the business value using analytics and then use it to inform your PESO marketing<\/a> strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite all this, share of voice remains a popular metric, particularly in PR and digital marketing. That’s because it’s a manageable number to track, and competitive metrics are sometimes hard to acquire. Plus, it’s an indicator of brand awareness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Share of voice is a metric that measures the percentage of mentions or coverage a brand or product has compared to its competitors. When applying this metric to media landscape analysis<\/a>, some PR pros refer to it as share of coverage. However, in social media, it’s often referred to as share of conversation or share of audience and is used to measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However you define it, the math is the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Here’s a basic example. Let’s say that Brand A and Brand B are both mentioned 100 times in the media. But 60 mentions for Brand A are positive, while only 30 for Brand B are positive. So, even though both brands were mentioned an equal number of times in the news, Brand A has a higher share of voice because it has a higher percentage of positive brand mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Monitoring share of voice over time can help determine your level of brand relevance when comparing yourself to your competitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There’s no one right way to calculate share of voice. It depends on the data source, what you’re trying to measure, and how you want to weigh the results. It counts the number of mentions of your brand or business. It’s basic math. Arithmetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let’s dig deeper from the above example but break it down by each component. One of the critical components of measuring share of voice is determining the data source. In other words, where do you want to pull the mentions from? Here are a few to consider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n For traditional media, you would count the number of articles published that mention your company or product, including broadcast media, over a set time. But even traditional media metrics can be broken down even more. So, the more focused you can be with your share of voice, the better insights you’ll get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think we can agree that not every media outlet is created equal. Some media outlets have more business impact than others. It’s also important to take note of different mention types. Some are more valuable than others. Here are a few additional ways to segment the data for share of voice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When calculating share of voice, you must be consistent with how you are tracking brand mentions. It should be the same share of voice formula to calculate the competitive share of voice. This will give you an apples-to-apples comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second key component to a brand’s share of voice is determining the period you want to track. This could be monthly, quarterly, or even yearly. It depends on your business and what makes sense when calculating your metrics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, you need to establish the competitors you want to track. Make sure these are actual competitors and not just companies that happen to be in the same industry as you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tracking a brand’s share of voice on social media involves using social listening tools to analyze mentions across platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. While simple percentage metrics provide a snapshot, additional context around authoritative voices and relevant topics yields a more nuanced understanding. Extending beyond social, share of voice can also be examined through mentions on Reddit, which is structured into niche interest forums. <\/p>\n\n\n\n From an SEO standpoint, share of voice refers to a site’s proportion of organic search traffic compared to competitors. Whether measured at the site, keyword, or search volume level, share of voice metrics benchmark a brand’s visibility and reach. By considering social listening and SEO data, marketers can better understand brand awareness and optimize content strategies accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media share of voice isn’t different from tracking a brand’s share of voice from traditional media. You write your boolean, select the content sources and date range, and click “Run” using a social listening tool like Talkwalker<\/a>. If you’re a B2B company, you’ll want to focus on Twitter, YouTube, or LinkedIn. You might want to track TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat if you’re a consumer brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, the math is the same and involves counting the number of mentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Building on the example above, assume that Brand A and Brand B are mentioned 100 times on Twitter. Still, Brand A has more social media mentions from authoritative accounts (influencers, media, etc.) While the share of conversation percentage might be equal, it doesn’t tell the whole story of how Brand A performs on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When calculating the share of voice on social media, most people focus on the number of mentions. But the authority should also be taken into account. For example, a mention from an influencer is more valuable than a mention from a random person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Share of conversation can also be measured by analyzing engagement. This includes social media shares, likes, RTs, and comments. The total aggregate of these data points and insights gives you a better understanding of how well your brand is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A topical share of voice analysis can be used for social media, traditional media, or both. In this scenario, you’ll want to first build a comprehensive boolean query around a specific topic, like Remote Work. This topic is relevant for enterprise tech companies that provide unified communications or collaboration software to other businesses. For example, a Boolean query might look something like this:<\/p>\n\n\nWhat is Share of Voice?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
How to Calculate Share of Voice (SOV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Types of Share of Voice Analysis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Tracking Social Media Share of Voice<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Topical Share of Voice<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n