Share of voice is your portion of the conversation in your market. The formula is simple; the hard part is counting fairly.
By Commently · · 3 min read
What share of voice is
Share of voice (SOV) is the percentage of the conversation in a market that is about your brand, compared with your competitors. In advertising it first meant share of ad spend; on social media it usually means share of mentions.
The formula
Share of voice = your mentions ÷ (your mentions + every tracked competitor's mentions) × 100
Example, over the same 30 days:
Brand
Mentions
Share of voice
You
1,200
30%
Competitor A
1,800
45%
Competitor B
600
15%
Competitor C
400
10%
Total
4,000
100%
Share of voice is always relative to the set you chose. Add a fifth competitor and every number changes, so keep the set fixed when you compare periods.
Count fairly
Share of voice compares counts, so every brand has to be counted the same way:
The same sources. If you track TikTok for yourself, track it for your rivals.
The same period.
The same keyword rules: brand name, product names and common misspellings, for every brand.
A relevance check. Remove mentions that are not about the brand: same-name companies, unrelated hashtags. Otherwise a competitor with a common-word name "wins".
Counts, not estimates. If a tool samples or extrapolates, ask how.
Choose the competitor set
Three to five direct competitors: the brands your customers actually choose between. Not the biggest names in the category, unless they really are your customers' alternative.
Sentiment-adjusted share of voice
Volume alone rewards a crisis: a rival's bad week raises their share of voice. Add sentiment:
Positive share of voice: your positive mentions ÷ all positive mentions in the set.
Net sentiment, per brand: (positive − negative) ÷ total mentions.
Continuing the example:
Brand
Mentions
Positive
Negative
Positive SOV
Net sentiment
You
1,200
480
120
44%
+30%
Competitor A
1,800
360
540
33%
−10%
Competitor B
600
180
60
16%
+20%
Competitor C
400
80
40
7%
+10%
Competitor A is the loudest brand; you are the best liked.
Read it by channel and over time
By channel. You can lead on news and trail on TikTok; an overall number hides it.
Over time. Weekly or monthly, with the same set. A viral post or a crisis makes a spike; read the trend.
Moments. When a competitor's negative, high-priority mentions climb, your customer service should be ready for their unhappy customers.
What is a good share of voice?
There is no universal number. A useful comparison is your market share: advertising research has long linked a share of voice above market share with growth, known as "excess share of voice". That research is about ad spend, not social conversation, so treat it as a direction rather than a target.
How Commently measures it
Up to five competitors per brand, each with up to ten keywords of its own, collected from X, news, Instagram and TikTok with the same AI as your own brand. Share of voice comes from exact counts over the same period, with sentiment per rival and a strip of each rival's negative and high-priority items. Critical keywords are checked every hour, with an email alert when one appears. Competitor tracking in Commently
Questions
How do you calculate share of voice?
Divide your brand's mentions by the total mentions of your brand and the competitors you track, over the same period and sources, and multiply by 100.
What is a share of voice tool?
A tool that collects mentions of your brand and your competitors from the same sources and calculates each brand's share. The useful ones also check relevance and sentiment, so the share is not inflated by noise or by a crisis.
Should share of voice include our own posts?
Either can be right. What matters is applying the same rule to every brand and every period.
Access is granted in small batches. We set Commently up for your brands, competitors and category, and a free pilot lets your team judge it on its own data.
How to measure share of voice on social media
Share of voice is your portion of the conversation in your market. The formula is simple; the hard part is counting fairly.
By Commently · · 3 min read
What share of voice is
Share of voice (SOV) is the percentage of the conversation in a market that is about your brand, compared with your competitors. In advertising it first meant share of ad spend; on social media it usually means share of mentions.
The formula
Share of voice = your mentions ÷ (your mentions + every tracked competitor's mentions) × 100
Example, over the same 30 days:
Share of voice is always relative to the set you chose. Add a fifth competitor and every number changes, so keep the set fixed when you compare periods.
Count fairly
Share of voice compares counts, so every brand has to be counted the same way:
Choose the competitor set
Three to five direct competitors: the brands your customers actually choose between. Not the biggest names in the category, unless they really are your customers' alternative.
Sentiment-adjusted share of voice
Volume alone rewards a crisis: a rival's bad week raises their share of voice. Add sentiment:
Continuing the example:
Competitor A is the loudest brand; you are the best liked.
Read it by channel and over time
What is a good share of voice?
There is no universal number. A useful comparison is your market share: advertising research has long linked a share of voice above market share with growth, known as "excess share of voice". That research is about ad spend, not social conversation, so treat it as a direction rather than a target.
How Commently measures it
Up to five competitors per brand, each with up to ten keywords of its own, collected from X, news, Instagram and TikTok with the same AI as your own brand. Share of voice comes from exact counts over the same period, with sentiment per rival and a strip of each rival's negative and high-priority items. Critical keywords are checked every hour, with an email alert when one appears. Competitor tracking in Commently
Questions
See it on your own brand.
Access is granted in small batches. We set Commently up for your brands, competitors and category, and a free pilot lets your team judge it on its own data.
Request access