In a crowded influencer marketing landscape, your brand's visibility is crucial. To increase your visibility, you need to command the proper attention at the right place. One of the top metrics to help you get the appropriate attention is the Shave of Voice (SOV) on social media. This metric will help you understand your own presence and how you compare to the competition.

One way to increase your SOV is through influencer marketing. By leveraging your influencer's credibility and their loyal audience, you can generate more conversations about your brand. In this article, we will guide you on how to use influencer marketing to grow your share of voice.

Understanding Your Share of Voice

The share of voice is the percentage of total conversations, brand mentions, and visibility in a given market that your brand holds relative to competitors. In the influencer marketing context, it shows the number of conversions driven by your influencer that your brand receives compared to the competing brands.

For instance, if the influencers in your industry create 1000 content pieces, with 100 of them mentioning your brand, it means that you have an influencer-driven SOV of 10%. This isn't another raw number, but it's a representative of the influence your brand has in ongoing conversations.

Why SOV is Important For Influencer Marketing

SOV offers a lot of benefits to brands in influencer marketing in several ways, such as:

• Benchmarking of brand awareness. SOV can show you the level of visibility of your brand compared to others in influencer marketing. A low SOV can indicate that your brand isn't being discussed enough, making it challenging for you to compete.
• Tracking the competitiveness of your campaign. A high SOV number can be an indicator of the effectiveness of your campaign and vice versa. 
• Better competitive analysis. The SOV metric can be a good indicator of essential insights, such as identifying key marketing conversations and competitors gaining traction. You can then use these insights to improve your campaign accordingly. 
• Better budget allocation. Imagine a scenario where you invest a significant amount in influencer marketing but fail to achieve the expected results. This indicates that your influencer partnerships aren't bringing the desired results. You can, therefore, use the information to choose another collaboration.

Using SOV for Competitor Analysis

SOV can also be a good metric for evaluating the competitive landscape. When you track your influencer mentions combined with those of the competitor, you can get insights on:

• The influencer generating the highest visibility for the competitor. This can become your potential brand partner.
• Best content format. You can determine which content format yields the highest reach, such as unboxing videos, reviews, or tutorials. 
• Market gaps. You can identify niches and audiences where your competitors aren't very active, and leverage strategic influencer partnerships to reach them.

For instance, you may discover that your competitors' SOV is strongest among lifestyle influencers and weakest among creators in the fitness enthusiast segment. You can target the gap to increase your visibility in these new audience segments.

How to Use Influencer Marketing to Increase Your SOV

While influencer marketing can help grow your SOV, it isn't all about increasing the number of influencers. It's also about choosing the right influencers whose audience and reach align with your brand voice. Here are a few steps to help choose the right influencer:

• Analysis of your audience overlap. You want to ensure that you partner with the right influencers whose audiences align with your target audience. This can ensure that influencers' mentions result in real visibility.
• Consistent in the brand messaging. You need to ensure that the influencer has a consistent brand narrative that encourages recall and recognition.
• Tiered influencer marketing. Ensure you combine micro-influencers with macro-influencers to reach a deeper niche and increase engagement penetration. 
• Long-term partnership. When there is repeated collaboration, you can increase the mention frequency and perceived authenticity, improving your SOV in the long term. 

How to Use Influencer Marketing to Increase Your SOV

To increase your SOV using influencer marketing, use the following steps:

Determine Your Competitors

You need to determine who your direct competitors are and who you will be tracking. These can include direct competitors selling the same products, or indirect competitors selling products related to yours but not identical to yours. This should also include established and emerging brands.

Select the Right Tracking Tools

You can use analytics and social listening platforms to measure your share of voice across various platforms, including Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and others. You can choose from a wide range of tools, including SproutSocial, Brandwatch, and Meltwater.

Track Reach and Mentions

To better understand your SOV, track both reach and mentions. Mentions aim to track the volume of conversations. On the other hand, the reach can be a good indicator of the size of your audience. 

Map Influencer Impact

Ensure that the influencer-generated mentions are tagged separately to get a clearer picture of the SOV they are directly generating. These acts are the visibility multiplier.

Fill the Content Gap

Find out the kind of content your competitors are excelling in. For instance, if they are dominating in creating video content, you can collaborate with an influencer to create short-form video content for your brand. If you find there is a niche they are strong in, you can target an alternative one.

Run Multiple Influencer Campaigns

You can create multiple mentions simultaneously by coordinating a campaign with different influencers. This can lead to a wave of mentions that results in a temporary SOV spike, capturing the market's attention.

Keep on Optimizing

If you find that your campaign doesn't increase your SOV in a meaningful way, consider whether it's due to your choice of influencer, content frequency, and style. For instance, if you find that your competitors' SOV is 10%, 15%, and 20%, while yours is 8%, you may need to adjust your strategy. Some of the steps you can take include:

• Partnering with three different macro influencers in the week you are launching a product.
• Recruiting 10 micro influencers to create videos in your niche while featuring your product.
• Ensure that macro and micro influencers use branded tags and hashtags to make tracking easy.
• Find content formats that your competitors are using.

Creating a Sustainable SOV Growth Strategy

One single campaign can result in a higher SOV. However, to maintain the SOV, you need to ensure adaptability and consistency. To ensure your brand stays top of mind with your target audience year-round, consider having influencers create content featuring your brand.

When you notice a shift in your competitor's activity or a change in the platform's algorithm, consider adapting your strategy accordingly. Remember that for consistent results, it's essential to focus on maintaining long-term influencer partnerships.

Conclusion

When you use the SOV connect, it can inform your campaign selection, guide your campaign choices, and help you determine whether you are experiencing campaign success beyond just comments and likes. When a brand is committed to monitoring its influencer marketing SOV while working with the right influencers, it can increase its visibility and mentions more than its competitors.