What is Share of Voice?
Share of Voice (SOV) measures how much attention your brand receives compared to your competitors across various platforms, including social media, traditional news outlets, and other media channels. It’s a metric that PR professionals and communicators often rely on to gauge brand visibility and assess how well they are performing in the marketplace. By counting your brand’s total mentions relative to your industry, you can see what percentage of the total mentions are about your company.
At face value, SOV is a straightforward concept. It provides a snapshot of your brand’s ability to capture public and media attention, making it a valuable starting point for understanding your market presence. Communicators value this because they can see a volume related metric on how they are doing versus competitors. However, relying solely on Share of Voice can be misleading, because at its core it is simply a counting exercise.
The Limits of Share of Voice
While SOV is a useful metric, treating it as a definitive measure of success is a common pitfall. Here are some key reasons why Share of Voice, may not tell the whole story:
- Sentiment Matters: Imagine your brand commands 50% of the SOV pie. On the surface, this sounds like a win. But what if the majority of your mentions are negative? For example, if your brand is being criticized in news articles or on social media, having a high Share of Voice might highlight a reputational issue rather than a success story. Without analyzing the sentiment behind your media mentions, SOV becomes a blunt instrument, incapable of providing actionable insights.
- Context is Critical: Not all media mentions are created equal. Coverage in a respected industry journal might carry more weight than a flood of social media chatter. SOV, in isolation, doesn’t account for the context or quality of these mentions.
Turning SOV into a Strategic Tool
To extract real value from Share of Voice metrics, it’s crucial to pair them with deeper analysis. Here are some best practices for using SOV effectively:
- Prioritize Engagement Metrics: Evaluate how your mentions translate into engagement, such as social media interactions, website visits, or conversions. Pairing SOV with these metrics paints a more complete picture of your success.
- Focus on Key Message and Reputational Driver SOV: Track whether your brand’s core messages are resonating in your coverage. Are your mentions aligned with the narratives you want to promote or the reputational categories that are most important to your brand? If not, a high SOV may indicate that your message or reputational impact is being lost or misconstrued.
- Incorporate Sentiment Analysis: Measure the tone of your mentions to determine whether your Share of Voice skews positive, neutral, or negative. Sentiment analysis provides a richer understanding of how your brand is perceived and can help you address reputational challenges proactively.
Conclusion
Share of Voice is an important tool in the PR and communications arsenal, but using it simply as an article counting comparison to competitors doesn’t do anyone much good. Without deeper analysis of areas such as sentiment and context, SOV can lead you astray, masking underlying issues or providing an incomplete view of your brand’s market position. By combining SOV with more nuanced metrics and insights, communicators can turn a blunt instrument into a precision tool, driving meaningful outcomes for their brands.
Understanding Share of Voice’s limitations doesn’t diminish its value but underscores the importance of using it strategically. With the right approach, SOV becomes more than a number. It becomes a pathway to smarter, more impactful communications strategies.
