Share of voice
Share of voice is how much of the conversation is yours. Count one every time a brand you track is named in an answer; share of voice is the percentage of those mentions that were you.
If the answers we measured produced 200 brand mentions and 40 of them were yours, your share of voice is 20%.
It moves when your rivals move
This is the competitive number, and it is the one people misread. You can change nothing and watch it fall.
Say you are named in 40 of 100 answers, and one competitor is named in 40 as well. You each have 40% visibility and 50% share of voice. Now a second competitor arrives and is also named in 40 answers. Your visibility is still 40% - you are in exactly the same answers as before - but your share of voice drops to a third. The room got more crowded; you did not get quieter.
So visibility answers "are we being mentioned more?" Share of voice answers "are we winning against these rivals?"
Only the brands you track are counted
Assistants name a great deal in passing: rival products, publishers, review sites, their own suggestions of what to read next. Every name we spot is offered to you as a possible competitor, and that can run to thousands, most of them irrelevant. Dividing the conversation among all of them would leave everybody near zero and tell you nothing.
So the denominator is your own roster - you and the competitors you chose to track. Their shares add up to 100%, which is what makes the number worth reading.
Related
- Visibility - how often you are mentioned, regardless of anyone else
- Rank - your placing among the brands you track
- Brands and competitors - who is on the roster, and how to change it
- Metrics at a glance - every metric in the set