How to Grow Your E-Commerce Brand’s Share of Voice via Social Media

For many traditional businesses, calculating their market share was an important component of running a company. Some would use it to calculate how many units have been sold, and others would use it to project future revenue. In today’s digital world, e-commerce brands look at additional factors and metrics when it comes to market share. Share of voice plays an important role in determining what percentage of the market’s advertising activity belongs to which player.

This guide will dive into the importance of share of digital voice and why it matters to e-commerce businesses. We’ll also look at ways you can grow your share of voice within your niche and beyond.

What is Share of Voice and Why Does it Matter?

Share of voice (SOV) helps you measure how popular your brand is in comparison to your competitors. Many different factors can be measured in this comparison including:

• How much advertising time in one sector is bought by you
• How many views you get over others
• What percentage of the total target audience engages with, speaks about, and refers to your brand over your competitors
• How many times your brand is mentioned over the rest

We can think of it as conducting a competitor analysis alongside social listening. You want to assess what is being said about you on social media, and monitor what you are posting about yourself too. 

With more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies having an active social media presence, you need to know where you stand in the highly competitive and overpopulated space. 

Paying attention to your share of voice is important because it:

• Allows you to track the effectiveness of each marketing campaign
• Helps you set realistic and achievable goals for the future
• Provides you with a benchmark of success and failures against your competitors
• Helps you gain data and insight into your customer engagement levels
• Lets you manage your brand PR efforts

Using Social Media to Grow Your Share of Voice

1. Publish High-Quality Content

Your chance of SOV growth is higher when more people are willing to share your content. This means that everything you publish and post online across your social media channel should be engaging, shareable, and easy to digest. Your audience on social media needs to resonate with your content. Whether you’re posting organically or utilizing ads on paid social media, they need to be targeted to a particular audience so they see exactly what they want to see.

Play with a variety of content formats, from GIFs to videos, and memes to high-quality images. You want to expand on your reach without appearing too salesy. While going viral on TikTok or Instagram might not work for everyone, it is worth investing in short-form videos to increase your chances. Research from Wyzowl shows that video content is twice as likely to get shared between friends. And, 73% of customers would rather watch a video about a company’s product or service than read about it. 

2. Become the Authority in Your Industry

If you have a unique product offering that helps you stand out from the rest, make sure you flaunt it. It could be a special feature or service that is only offered by you, or it could be a special individual that works at your e-commerce brand. Establishing yourself as a thought leader in your niche is a great way to engage and attract a larger share of voice. 

Customers are more likely to find a connection with a human name and face than a corporation. If someone in your team has a special story to tell then let them share it. Allow them to make an impact in your field, encourage growth, share news and developments across your social media platforms. They can also publish content that is educational, informative and innovative. 

Regardless of Elon Musk’s reputation and fan base, his name appears across multiple news outlets, social media channels, and corporations. All of which add to his share of voice. 

3. Be Consistent and Reachable

Maintain an active social media presence. There’s no point in keeping empty social media accounts without updating them. Start conversations for engagement and be proactive in publishing content on a regular basis. Set up a social media content calendar for key events throughout the year to save time in the long run. 

Responding to customers in a timely and professional manner is a key part of growing your e-commerce brand’s share of voice. You want to be seen as a brand that cares, and there’s nothing better than addressing customers’ grievances in public to show them this. Even banks that reply to customers on social media within an hour score highly in terms of customer service and satisfaction. 

The holiday season is usually busy and lucrative for most e-commerce brands. Be sure to allocate enough staff to keep in touch with your customers on social media during this period. 40% of them are more likely to go through with a transaction with you if they can message you directly.

4. Incorporate Social Media into Your Omni-Channel Marketing Plan

While social media is a key component of your online share of voice, it is important to make it a part of your larger omni-channel marketing strategy. Create a consistent, seamless browsing and shopping experience for consumers across all the varying digital channels. This includes email marketing, mobile marketing, and your shopping website or app.

When a customer moves from one platform to another, they want to experience a smooth transition with as little effort as possible. Speak to them in the same language, provide them with the same service and personalize their purchase journey as much as possible. 86% of shoppers expect seamless conversations between channels. Happy and loyal customers are more likely to continue talking about you, share news about you, and continue patronizing your business. That all adds to the growth of your share of voice.

5. Stay True to Your Tone of Voice, Mission and Vision

Lastly, when talking about share of voice, don’t forget to focus on the ‘voice’ part of things. Authenticity, transparency, and trustworthiness are crucial to staying true to your brand’s tone of voice and overall vision. Your company mission & vision should reflect in the type of social media content you produce so you’re more recognized, and the voice you speak in will automatically be recognized as well. You want your e-commerce business to be associated with and known for your clear vision. 

Use social media to showcase the values that your brand believes in. Those that resonate with them will help grow your share of voice in no time. 

Let adQuadrant Maximize Your Online Visibility

Whether you want to refine your marketing strategy or justify your USPs, comparing your brand to your competitors on a regular basis is essential. You want to learn what your e-commerce brand is doing better and identify areas to improve. Utilizing social media alongside SEO, PPC and other digital marketing tools will help you keep a close eye on what’s being said about you. 

Running professional social media accounts that add value to your business and to your customers is hard work. Reach out to the team at adQuadrant to increase your brand’s online visibility, improve your social media presence and engage with customers the right way.

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About the author: Joanne has lived in five countries and is always on the hunt for a new city to explore. After a Masters in English Literature from the University of Leeds, she landed an internship at Google that ignited her passion for all things digital. She has 10 years of experience in content writing, reads 2 books a week, and loves ‘90s pop culture.