Ever felt like your brand’s voice is getting lost in the deafening roar of the online crowd? You pour your heart and soul into crafting killer content, but crickets. You launch a social media blitz, but tumbleweeds. It’s enough to make any PR pro want to scream into a pillow. But fear not, my fellow communicators! There’s a secret weapon in your arsenal: free share of voice (SOV) tools.
These handy tools can help you measure your brand’s presence online compared to your competitors, giving you invaluable insights to silence those PR anxieties and become a bonafide rockstar.
Key Takeaways
- Share of Voice (SOV) measures your brand’s online presence compared to competitors. It reflects brand awareness and can be a valuable tool for PR and marketing professionals.
- Free SOV tools offer valuable insights like brand mentions, sentiment analysis, and reach metrics. They can be a game-changer for budget-conscious communicators.
- Consider factors like price point, integrations with other platforms, and offered features (brand monitoring, reporting, etc.) when selecting a free SOV tool.
- Develop engaging social media content, invest in share-worthy content, and explore traditional media opportunities to boost your brand’s online presence.
What is Share of Voice and Why Should You Care?
Imagine a bustling marketplace filled with vendors hawking their wares. The vendor with the loudest voice, the one constantly grabbing attention, is likely to make the most sales. That’s essentially how SOV works in the online world. It’s the percentage of total online conversation (think social media mentions, news articles, blog posts) dedicated to your brand compared to your competitors.
Why is this important? Because a higher SOV generally translates to greater brand awareness, market share, and ultimately, sales. It helps you understand how effectively your PR efforts are cutting through the noise and reaching your target audience.
Where is Share of Voice Tools Useful?
Picture this: you’ve launched a new product, and you’re eager to gauge its reception. SOV tools swoop in like a spotlight, illuminating conversations across platforms. From Twitter chatter to Reddit threads, you can pinpoint where your audience congregates and tailor your engagement strategy accordingly. In my own experience, deploying Share of Voice tools during product launches has provided invaluable insights, steering campaigns toward success.
Market Share Vs. Share of Voice
While the two concepts are often used interchangeably, they are actually quite different.
Share of voice (SOV) measures the percentage of brand awareness within a given market that is attributed to a particular brand, company, or product. Market share or Share of Market (SoM) is the percentage of sales within a given market that are attributed to a particular brand, company, or product.
While market share is a valuable metric for determining your brand’s sales in the marketplace, the share of voice is important for understanding how often your target consumers see and hear your brand name.
Free Share of Voice Tools
Now, traditional SOV analysis can involve some hefty price tags. But fret not, budget-conscious communicators! There’s a treasure trove of free Share of Voice tools available that can equip you with valuable insights.
In my early PR days, I was tasked with launching a social media campaign for a local bakery. We crafted mouthwatering content, hilarious memes, and even a live Q&A with the head chef. But after a month, website traffic remained stagnant. Panic started to set in. Was our content falling flat?
Then, I discovered a free share-of-voice tool called BrandMentions. It crawled the web, unearthing mentions of the bakery across social media platforms and news websites. To my surprise, the bakery was being mentioned – but not for our campaign! Turns out, a local blogger had raved about their sourdough bread, sparking a mini online frenzy.
This newfound insight allowed me to capitalize on the blogger’s praise. I reached out for a collaboration, featuring their review on our social media channels and offering them a discount code for their followers. Website traffic soared, and the bakery owner showered me with virtual high-fives.
Features of Free Share of Voice Tools
While free SOV tools might not offer all the bells and whistles of their paid counterparts, they still pack a powerful punch. Here are some key features you can expect:
- Brand Mention Tracking: Monitor where your brand is being mentioned online, from social media platforms to news articles to blogs.
- Sentiment Analysis: See if the online chatter surrounding your brand is positive, negative, or neutral. This helps you identify areas where you might need to address any negative PR or capitalize on positive sentiment.
- Reach and Engagement Metrics: Track the number of people who saw your brand mentions and how they interacted with them (likes, shares, comments).
Pros and Cons of Free Share of Voice Tools
Like any tool, free Share of Voice tools come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a breakdown to help you decide if they’re the right fit for you:
Pros:
- Cost-Effective: No need to break the bank! Free SOV tools offer valuable insights without the hefty price tag.
- Easy to Use: Many free tools boast user-friendly interfaces that make them accessible even for non-technical users.
- Real-Time Monitoring: Stay on top of the online conversation about your brand as it happens.
Cons:
- Limited Features: You might not get access to advanced features like competitor analysis or in-depth reporting.
- Data Accuracy: Free tools may have limitations in data accuracy compared to paid options.
- Branding Restrictions: Some free tools display their own branding alongside your results.
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The Best 11 Free Share of Voice Tools
Now, let’s dive into the good stuff! Here’s a curated list of 11 free Share of Voice tools that can empower your budget-friendly PR efforts:
#1. HubSpot Social Media Management Software
This all-in-one tool will assist you in creating and tracking marketing initiatives, as well as providing powerful social listening features. HubSpot allows you to create keyword monitoring streams, manage social media interactions, and send email alerts when prospects mention your brand. Save time by tracking several social platforms in one spot, automating monitoring, and focusing on the most significant interactions.
#2. Hootsuite
Hootsuite allows you to monitor conversations that involve your business, as well as important keywords and hashtags. Also, Hootsuite, like HubSpot, allows customers to access this information from a simple dashboard, eliminating the need to switch between many social network accounts.
#3. Talkwalker
Talkwalker tracks brand mentions in the news, social media platforms, blogs, and on the web. This tool also goes in-depth to help you gain insight into not only a share of voice but also user sentiment. Talkwalker provides sentiment research in up to 25 languages, making it an excellent choice for international businesses.
#4. Google Ads
Google Ads is an excellent tool for measuring the PPC share of voice. To calculate your PPC share of voice, use their impression share statistic. Conveniently, Google’s tools integrate, so if you already have Search Console, you can connect it to your Google Ads account.
#5. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is a reputable tool for measuring SEO share of voice. Using their batch analysis option, you can quickly see how your organic traffic compares to that of your competitors. Alternatively, you might use Ahrefs to monitor your competitors’ share of voice by comparing them to the terms you wish to rank for. It’s an excellent tool for most SEO requirements.
#6. SEMrush
SEMrush, like Ahrefs, is a superb all-in-one SEO tool that can also help you track share of voice. This can be accomplished using SEMrush’s position-tracking function. You’ll need a business subscription to access it, but it’s well worth it for bigger companies. In addition to the position tracking feature, you can measure the share of voice by area or topic, and discover new competitors.
#7. Brandwatch
Brandwatch is another tool that can help you monitor your brand’s share of voice across social media, the web, and news coverage. You can compare share of voice by brand or by customer sentiment, location, and demographics. This tool is great if you’re looking to dig into customer insights of your competitors.
#8. Brand24
Brand24 is a cutting-edge share-of-voice tool that allows businesses to track and evaluate their whole online presence. Brand24’s AI-powered platform delivers unique access to mentions from a diverse range of online sources, including social media, news outlets, blogs, videos, forums, podcasts, reviews, and more. This ensures that businesses never miss out on critical mentions and can stay ahead in managing their brand narrative.
#9. Mention
Mention is a social media monitoring function that allows customers to track their brand mentions across many social media channels. It can also perform sentiment analysis to help users understand how their brand is perceived by their target audience. In addition, its competition analysis function allows users to compare their brand’s success to that of their competitors, as well as gain insights into their competitors’ social media strategy, top-performing content, and engagement rates.
#10. TrendHERO
trendHERO is a powerful influencer marketing software that specializes in Instagram, assisting businesses in calculating their social value on the network. TrendHERO’s mention impact tool allows you to see who has mentioned a brand’s Instagram account and how it has affected their follower count. This can assist firms understand their reach and influence in their target market, such as identify potential collaborations with influencers who have a significant impact on their audience.
#11. Sprout Social
Sprout Social is a media management and monitoring tool. The tool tracks mentions of your brand on major social media networks. It provides social media automation to assist you in managing your online presence, as well as social listening insights to help your business grow, including the information about your share of voice.
How I Picked the Best Share of Voice Tools
The top 11 Share of Voice tools on my list were chosen for various reasons. I looked at several factors including:
#1. Price Point
Some solutions cost more than others. Pricing is determined by your marketing agency’s size and whether or not you want to use the tool for purposes other than Share of Voice measurement. I chose Share of Voice tools that will scale with your agency as you take on more clients while remaining cost-effective.
#2. Integrations
Share of Voice tools include interfaces with various social media networks for measuring social media visibility and paid advertising clicks. Other products include integrations that allow you to get further into a client’s Google Ads account. I chose tools with a diverse set of integrations to cover everything your agency might want to measure.
#3. Features
All of the SOV tools on this list have detailed feature lists that are continually updated according to new technology and trends. They not only assist with brand monitoring but also offer functionality like client reporting, keyword research, and optimization recommendations.
How to Increase the Share of Voice?
When you measure your SOV, you’ll know if you need to improve it. Compare your SOV to the competitors. The comparison will provide benchmarks, allowing you to accurately estimate your SOV levels. Here are my suggestions and strategies for increasing your SOV.
- Develop your social media accounts: The first tip seems obvious, but it still surprises many businesses mainly because developing a solid social media presence takes time and does not yield immediate rewards.
- Don’t sell right away: What makes social media so appealing? It’s all about being social: talking to your pals, exchanging GIFs, and sharing pictures. That’s why the primary goal of your social media presence should be natural customers.
- Invest in share-worthy content: The more people view your posts, the higher your SOV will be. That’s why it’s crucial to invest in content that people will share. If you’re not sure what form of content works best for your business, look over your competitors’ pages.
- Think beyond social media: Traditional media has not died! You can increase your online share of voice by promoting your company offline, increasing organic search traffic, and enhancing your online advertising and digital marketing strategies. It sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But it works.
What does 100% share of voice mean?
In the context of share of voice (SOV), a 100% share of voice represents a scenario where your brand captures the entirety of the online conversation within your specific market or niche. This means that absolutely all mentions, discussions, and references related to the industry or topic are exclusively about your brand. However, achieving a perfect 100% SOV is extremely rare and not necessarily the most desirable outcome.
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How is SOV calculated?
To calculate Share of Voice, you divide the mentions or visibility of your brand by the total mentions (including those of competitors) and then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage.
What is the formula for Share of Voice?
The Share of Voice formula is SoV= (Your Brand’s Mentions / (Your Brand’s Mentions + Competitor’s Mentions))x100.
What is the share of voice method?
The share of voice (SOV) method is a metric used in marketing and PR to measure the visibility of a brand compared to its competitors within a specific market or niche. It essentially tells you how much of the conversation your brand owns compared to others.
What is the difference between impression share and share of voice?
Both impression share and share of voice (SOV) deal with the visibility of your brand, but they approach it from different angles.
Impression Share tells you how many people might have seen your ad.
Share of Voice tells you how much of the overall conversation is about your brand.
Both impression share and SOV are valuable metrics, but they provide insights into different aspects of brand visibility. Using them together can paint a more comprehensive picture of your marketing and PR efforts.
Conclusion
As we draw the curtains on our exploration of Share of Voice tools, a lingering question echoes in the auditorium of our minds: Can you afford to remain silent in the digital symphony? With the crescendo of competition ever-rising, harnessing the power of SOV tools isn’t just an option; it’s a necessity. So, let us embark on this melodious journey, taking our brand’s voice to new heights. Are you ready to take center stage?
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