What’s Your Share of Conversation?

Most people would disagree that social media is a highly measurable medium.

Compared to other forms of advertising where there are a limited number of metrics to work with, measuring social media is relatively easy – particularly when you use the right tools.

Two such tools are Topsy and Social Mention – both do an excellent job of collecting information across the web relative to articles, tweets, videos, posts, images, etc where are brand and / or its competition are being mentioned. These tools allow you to visualize the results and provide tracking over time to help you measure the progress.

So what exactly is “Share of Conversation”? Put simply, it is the percentage of mentions the particular brand receives in relation to the broader conversation. For example, last week there were 186 online “mentions” regarding the Minnesota Viking’s Stadium issue. The Governor of Minnesota; Mark Dayton, had 52 “mentions” about the Minnesota Vikings Stadium. Therefore, Governor Mark Dayton’s share of the conversation about the Minnesota Viking’s Stadium was 21.8% for last week.

And this is important why? Because when people are searching online, they are casting a rather wide net in terms of getting results. Generally speaking most brands are unlikely to continuously dominate the top spots on the search engine results page and all of the other online places people turn to in order to get information about what they are seeking. By understanding your share of the conversation, over time you can better learn what to speak to, where, when and why. By increasing your share of the conversation, you are establishing more trust and credibility in the area your business is in.

Growing your share of conversation begins with listening. What are the hot topics or buzz words within the conversation you want to have a share of? This is and should be an ongoing process as like most conversations, they change on a continuum. By listening and understanding what the audience is talking about, with topics are important and what buzz words are being used, you can more effectively define your social media marketing pitch messages to better align themselves with the conversation – thus growing your share of conversation.

If you need more help understanding Share of Conversation or learning how to better establish a Social Media Marketing strategy, contact us for more information.