As we continue through the second half of the year, our PR teams just wrapped up a heavy week of reporting by taking a super close look at program measurement, goals and where the public relations (PR) results stand compared to competitors. While an essential tool in the PR measurement toolkit, share of voice (SOV) may tell you where your company stands, where and how well your message is landing…but true PR success goes beyond these metrics. What truly matters is quality mentions, influence, impact and alignment with your business goals.
Sure, while SOV has its limitations (which we’ll get into next), it’s still a key indicator of how often your brand is being mentioned relative to your competitors in media coverage. It’s useful for tracking visibility in the market and benchmarking your position over time.
As an agency, we consistently include SOV in our measurement reports. But instead of relying solely on SOV, we find it’s especially important to combine it with other metrics so we can measure success in other qualitative ways.
What are the limitations of SOV?
SOV as it stands lacks context and sentiment. Pure SOV reporting simply counts mentions without differentiating between negative or positive, or even impact. However, at W2 Communications, we ensure all SOV reports include proper analysis – meaning we take the time to go through all competitor coverage to see what topics garnered the most coverage. Was it a research report? A product announcement? A negative news cycle? Sometimes competitors are in the press for the wrong reasons, and while we can note that in reports, they’ll still own the biggest share of coverage.
Additionally, SOV lacks quality over quantity measurement. It may seem obvious, but not all media mentions are equal. A publication that matters to one organization may not matter to another. Because of that, we take readership/audience into consideration when measuring results. We often work with our clients to determine what constitutes a tier-1 publication and set goals to obtain coverage in those higher ranking publications. In our reports, meaningful and strategic coverage in an impactful publication matters a lot more than a highly syndicated press release.
Where do we go from here?
Measurement in PR is important, but it’s critical to put together reports that will provide an accurate representation of success. The fact is, success is much more than just owning the majority of a colorful SOV pie graph. It’s a cumulation of SOV, impact, quality message and target audience that properly aligns with the company’s marketing goals, that can really showcase the success of a PR program.
If you want true quality strategic results with meaningful measurement, reach out to us!