Share of Voice: The Newest Metric on Your Social Media Report

9 out of 10 social media reports I see include the same set of metrics: reach, impressions, views, engagements, and followers. While these are nice to look at, they often don’t tell us much about performance or give us enough insight for meaningful analysis. Less often, I do see rates, like Click-through Rate (CTR) and Video Completion Rate (VCR). These are also good to see, but I have found most social reports still lack one thing: competitor analysis.

While we hate to admit it sometimes, there’s a lot we can learn from our competitors: things that are working in the industry, things that aren’t, and, most importantly, how all those other metrics might affect how we stack up against competitors.

According to Forbes Councils Member Christopher Tompkins, “The strategic advantage behind compiling a competitive analysis is that it helps you get a better picture of the competition so you can try to emulate their success but also recognize and avoid their failure.”

There’s a name for this metric: Share of Voice.

“Share of voice (SOV) is a measure of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors,” according to Sprout. “It acts as a gauge for your brand visibility and how much you dominate the conversation in your industry.”

Now we’re talking about social media’s potential impact on ROI.