Share of Voice (SOV)

While one of your goals is to improve performance across marketing channels, you can assume your competitors have the same intent. That’s why it’s important to track your brand’s share of voice (SOV) on specific channels, and do head-to-head comparisons with competitors using a share of interactions graph.

What is share of voice in marketing?

Share of voice measures how much of the conversation with target consumers your brand owns versus your competitors. This conversation can be on social media, your blog, and any other place your target audience can hear from brands.

Looking at SOV over time will measure who has gained or lost ground among target consumers for your industry.

Keeping track of how much of this conversation — and the attention of consumers — your brand owns versus your competitors helps you to gauge brand awareness, brand equity, and target audience engagement. This means that looking at SOV over time will allow you to report who has gained or lost ground among target consumers for your industry.

Using share of interactions graphs in competitive analysis

A share of interactions (SOI) graph, also known as a stacked area graph, is an effective tool for visualizing how your marketing performance changes over time. It’s like a pie chart that has been stretched out to show more than just a single snapshot in time.

SOI graphs are excellent in competitive analysis as a tool for visualizing head-to-head comparisons of your industry ownership of specific channels.

Here’s an example of a share of interactions graph for Nordstrom, JCPenney, and Macy’s on Twitter:

You can break down share of voice even further by graphing share of interactions by topic. For example, around the holidays retail marketers may want to find out how well they are owning the attention of consumers for specific holiday topics compared to their competitors.

Take a look at this example comparing interactions on social media for Nordstrom, JCPenney, and Macy’s by topic:

This is an incredibly effective way to demonstrate your progress relative to brands you are competing against for consumer attention. These insights can be used to prove the ROI of your marketing efforts, and to visualize how your brand is gaining more traction than your competition.

Learn how TrackMaven can help you measure and report on share of voice for your brand and its competitors. Request a free demo now!

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