Why Social Share of Voice should be top priority

Why Social Share of Voice should be top priority

In uncertain times with consumer confidence changing faster than the weather, there has never been a better time to make sure your brand is getting its fair share of social share

This from Toby Britton, the co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Miappi…

If you’re not already aware, Social Share of Voice (SSoV) is an elegant way to find out how much people are talking about your brand on social media compared to your competitors.

What is Social Share Of Voice?

Taking a closer look at your Social Share of Voice can reveal where people are talking about you (for example, Facebook and Twitter), what they are saying, and why they are saying it. By getting social share-savvy, you can use these smarts to get the jump on the competition and shape your marketing strategy in a cost-effective way, growing your digital presence and making it easier for people to find you and trust your products or services.

This approach is essential for many brands with shrinking marketing budgets that need to go further than ever. In addition, by listening more closely to your customers, you’ll be able to respond to their needs, and with the right tone-of-voice, too.

The beauty of Social Share of Voice is that it can serve as a great metric for campaign reporting. If you manage to increase your SSoV, it is likely to be a sign that your campaign is working, and that your marketing budget is being spent in the right places.

SSoV is calculated as the percentage of total industry mentions that belong to your brand. This, along with your competitors’ shares of voice, can be neatly displayed in a pie chart (known as a ‘camembert’ in France!). It’s possible to work out your Social Share of Voice manually by trawling through yours’ and your competitors’ mentions, but who’s got time for that?

Technology to the rescue

Modern problems require modern solutions, and fortunately, social media listening platforms such as Miappi are on hand to make the task a doddle. By segmenting by market, product range and even by community, you can see how your brand stacks up against others’ in a variety of situations, giving you extra targeting power when it comes to crafting your campaign.

For example, if you notice that a competitor’s product is getting used by one particular community in a particular setting more than yours is, you have identified an opportunity to challenge and grow your awareness there.

Focus on UGC

By growing your Social Share of Voice, you increase the chances of translating this into your market share. The million-dollar question is: What can be done to increase this valuable metric? One of the easiest (and most fun) ways to do this is by focusing on User Generated Content, or UGC for short. This might sound jargony, but it’s actually nothing of the sort.

UGC is essentially homespun content, often visual, created for you by your most engaged customers, which exists on social media such as Instagram or can be directly uploaded to you via a form. It can be informative, beautiful, funny, moving, and much more. In essence UGC is what makes up your SSOV, these are those powerful moments when your customers decide to be vocal, creating and sharing content that praises your brand.

Social media listening platforms also allow brands to aggregate, license, and curate UGC easily which, with the right permissions, can then be reposted on social media, displayed at points in the purchase path, re-edited into video- the list is only limited by your imagination.

Because UGC features ordinary people who are also consumers, it acts as social proof that encourages more people to talk about your brand or give a potential customer an extra nudge towards the shopping basket. What could be better?

Understanding your UGC to paid ratio

One of the most cost-effective ways to grow and maintain a strong digital presence is to aim for a good ratio of UGC and paid media. That way, you spend less but get more sales and referrals through the social proof that you’ve republished on your social media.

For example, you want to know that for every carefully crafted post you put out on your owned channels, you will encourage multiple UGC posts, therefore also growing your Social Share Of Voice. By designing your campaigns to elicit UGC, you can run effective people-powered campaigns without sinking loads of money into paid media or sponsored posts from high-end influencers.

How to generate more UGC

Some brands will already have plenty of UGC out there, but for many, the creation of UGC will need to be encouraged. Fortunately, there are usually plenty of willing brand ambassadors ready and waiting to get creative. All you need to do is give them clear instructions.

Much of the best social campaigns are launched with a paid/owned post showing consumers an example of how they want people to react to their brand. This could be a step-by-step tutorial or a professional shot creative featuring a prominent figure. Be clear with your message, provide clear instructions, and explain why and how you would like your target audience to respond.

UGC campaigns work best when they give something back to the creator, so make sure you highlight the value you are trying to bring the consumer. This value might simply offer the chance for a consumer’s post to be featured, which can be enough if you are amplifying their voice on a matter that is important to them.

However, some brands, particularly smaller brands, can benefit from adding an incentive. Another way to give back to the creator is to invite them to join an exclusive community of UGC creators for your brand. This way, you can keep in touch with your most engaged fans and reward them ethically.

Best in class

Gymshark’s recent #NHSSweatySelfie campaign hit all the right notes for those who took part in creating UGC. The instructions were clear and simple: Get moving, take a selfie, upload it on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook with the hashtag #NHSSweatySelfie, and for every selfie uploaded with the hashtag, Gymshark pledged to donate £5 towards Birmingham Women’s and Children’s Hospital Charities.

The campaign was a huge success, raising £180,000 for charity. It also gave back to those who participated, giving them a way to raise money from the comfort of their homes and encouraging them to keep fit at the same time. By using UGC, Gymshark also managed to get a visual diversity that wouldn’t have been available to them through a traditional campaign given the social-distancing and travel constraints of coronavirus rules.

By harnessing the power of your most engaged customers and their boundless enthusiasm using social listening platforms, you’ll be able to create high-impact marketing campaigns that have extra resilience in changing times. Your content will appear in a whole host of diverse scenarios, growing your digital presence, and helping you to earn a big slice of that all-important Social Share pie. 

https://miappi.com/

Our Gold Sponsor