What is Share of Voice? How to Measure & Increase Brand SoV

As the media becomes noisier and more fragmented, understanding your brand's place in the conversation is more important than ever. If you don’t know how you're being discussed, you risk losing control of the narrative to competitors, critics, or misinformation.

Share of voice (SoV) is a key PR metric that can serve as both a benchmark of where you sit now, and a signifier of where to go next with messaging and campaigns. PR pros also rely on share of voice, with a recent Cision LinkedIn poll showing that 33% check their brand’s SoV metrics on a daily basis.

So why does share of voice matter so much to PR? Let’s take a deeper look at the metric, what it is, the big benefits, and how to measure it.

What is Share of Voice?

In simple terms, share of voice is the total number of mentions, conversations, or coverage your brand or product receives compared to competitors within a specific market, timeframe, or channel.

There are several different contexts in which share of voice applies within the marketing mix:

• Traditional media coverage: Your brand’s share of mentions across print, online, TV, radio, and podcast platforms.
• Social media conversations: Mentions on social media channels such as Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Bluesky.
• Paid advertising: Your share of paid placements compared to competitors across channels like Google Ads, social media ads, and display advertising.
• Search engine results: The percentage of search visibility your brand captures for relevant keywords, including overall presence in search results pages.

The Benefits of Measuring Share of Voice in PR

Share of voice can give valuable strategic insight to PR pros, enabling them to spot opportunities, threats, and industry conversations to join and expand their media footprint.

Are you being talked about enough? If not, you may want to adjust your PR strategy to change that. On the other hand, are you being talked about too much (in the case of a comms crisis) and want to dial down the conversation?

Here are some of the beneficial use cases for measuring brand share of voice for PR:

Competitive benchmarking

Use share of voice to compare your brand's media presence against your competitors to identify market positioning gaps. This will enable you to see which brands dominate conversations in your industry and understand where you need to increase PR efforts to compete for audience attention.

Campaign measurement

Your PR campaigns, if successful, should show a change in share of voice over time. By showing an increase in brand mentions and market conversation share following specific campaigns or announcements, you can demonstrate the impact of your comms efforts.

Crisis management

Is negative coverage overwhelming your brand's share of voice? Understanding the volume and context of crisis-related mentions compared to normal brand conversation levels helps inform response and recovery efforts.

Budget allocation

Share of voice data can justify PR budget and resource allocation. If you show stakeholders where investment in specific channels (e.g. paid, social, or earned) has increased brand visibility, that’s a win for your PR team.

Trend identification

Diving into your share of voice will help you spot emerging industry conversations before they peak. These are opportunities to position your brand in trending discussions, ensuring you’re leading rather than following the latest industry news.

C-suite reporting

Giving your leadership clear, quantifiable share of voice metrics shows brand visibility performance. This backs up your PR efforts with concrete data that demonstrates market presence and competitive positioning.

How to Measure Share of Voice

Share of Voice Formula

Looking for a straightforward share of voice calculator?

The easiest method is to divide your brand’s mentions by the total for your whole industry, then multiply it by 100. For example, if you get 50 mentions out of 100 total, your share of voice is 50%.

For a simple math formula:

Share of Voice = Brand Mentions ÷ Total Industry Mentions x 100

Methods for Measuring Share of Voice

There are two ways to approach measuring brand SoV, each with its own distinct advantages and limitations:

• Manuel measurement: This involves laboriously scanning media outlets to track mentions of your brand and competitors, then applying the above share of voice formula. This gives you direct control over data collection; however, it can be extremely time-consuming and prone to error when scaled across multiple media channels. It also limits your ability to monitor real-time conversations, increasing the chance of missing crucial mentions, particularly if your story is generating a lot of traction in a short space of time.
• Automated measurement: AI-powered media monitoring and social listening tools can automatically track mentions across print, online, TV, radio, podcasts, and social media platforms. They cast a much wider net than manual methods, providing more comprehensive and accurate share of voice calculations. Automated platforms also offer real-time tracking, sentiment analysis, and competitive benchmarking features that manual methods can't match. 

See below for an example of brand SoV measurements in our CisionOne platform, presented in a pie chart and timeline format.

These charts show that Brand A (red) accounted for 52.7% of the conversation over seven days, with the timeline indicating the ebbs and flows of brand mentions in that period, including a large spike for Brand B (blue).

Share of Voice + Complementary Metrics

Share of voice can give you a topline overview of where your brand sits in a conversation at any given time. In isolation, however, it can’t tell you about the quality of coverage.

By pairing share of voice with other metrics, you’ll gain a deeper understanding of your market position. Think about looking at the below metrics alongside SoV and what they tell you about your brand:

• Sentiment
• Reach and volume
• Domain authority
• SoV by country or region

Share of Voice: What the Experts Say

To get an expert perspective on all things share of voice, we called on our Cision colleague – VP of Communications, Paul Netti – to get his thoughts on brand SoV.

Why is share of voice such a useful metric for PR pros?

“Share of voice can help provide a clear picture of how a brand stacks up against competitors in the conversations that matter. It helps PR pros quantify real visibility and impact.

“By tracking SoV across traditional media, online news, and social platforms, communicators can demonstrate how their work is driving attention, shaping reputation, and even influencing market perception. We often see leading brands use SoV as a bridge between PR activity and business outcomes.”

Should share of voice be measured alongside other metrics?

“Yes, many teams track SoV in silos, when the real value comes from integrating it with other metrics like brand sentiment, share of search, and even pipeline data.”

Are there any common mistakes PR pros make when tracking SoV?  

“The most common mistake is treating all coverage equally. A mention in a niche blog isn’t the same as coverage in a top-tier outlet that reaches decision-makers in your industry. Another is focusing only on quantity and ignoring sentiment, audience reach, or message pull-through.”

4 Tips to Increase Brand Share of Voice

Boosting your brand’s share of voice isn’t just about increasing mentions, it’s about putting it in the right conversations, at the right time, with the right audience. Here are four ways to make headway in industry discussions:

1. Develop a Consistent Content Strategy

Your first step is to establish a regular drumbeat of useful content, with consistent messaging, that speaks to your audiences’ challenges. Think about content format and meeting people across myriad touchpoints – blogs, social media, webinars, newsletters, podcasts, and YouTube. 

Get as much mileage out of your content as you can. If you have one in-depth whitepaper, can it be broken down into smaller articles, social posts, or provide the basis for an audio or video discussion? You should be nimble and efficient in how you produce content, too. That flexibility will allow you to capitalize on newsjacking opportunities and respond to significant industry shifts.

2. Proactively Engage in Industry Conversations

Ensure you’re monitoring trending topics and joining relevant industry discussions early, before they become oversaturated. This shows that you’re proactive rather than reactive, and positions your brand as a thought leader rather than a follower. Put your brand forward for speaking opportunities at industry events, awards ceremonies, podcasts, and panel discussions to help generate awareness and recognition.

Don’t forget media outreach as a strategy to build trust and credibility. If you can foster authentic relationships with journalists, influencers, and industry leaders, you’ll earn their trust and over time they'll help amplify the stories you want to tell.

3. Leverage Your Own Employees

Your employees are the most important brand influencers you have. Encourage them to share and amplify company content across their personal social media feeds, extending your reach organically and boosting credibility.

Use your staff to build a deep bench of subject matter experts that can be called on for press release quotes, interviews, and commentary on industry trends. These internal voices often carry more weight than corporate messaging and help put a face to your brand in conversations that too often become filled with corporate jargon.

4. Focus on Quality Over Quantity

Prioritize coverage in high-authority publications and engagement with influential voices rather than chasing volume metrics. Platforms like CisionOne can help here, categorizing media outlets by domain authority to signal where you can generate more credibility. 

Build long-term relationships with key media contacts and industry influencers rather than pursuing quick-fix tactics. Quality mentions from these respected sources matter when you dig below the surface of share of voice metrics, plus they deliver greater impact for your brand reputation. 

Final Thoughts

Treat share of voice as an ongoing strategic tool rather than a one-off metric to measure. It should show you where you sit in a current conversation and provide a benchmark of where you want to go.

However, remember that patience is key. It takes time to grow share of voice, but the investment won’t go to waste. Your efforts will likely result in benefits elsewhere, such as increased media coverage, greater reputation through thought leadership, improved SEO and organic traffic, and boosted employee advocacy.

Start measuring, comparing, and actively working to manage your brand’s share of voice with CisionOne. Reach out and speak to one of our experts.