Beyond Likes & Shares: Why True Business Growth Starts with Talk Power

Limited budget but big dreams always make business owners get crafty.
As SMB owners, you would want your products to be unique, right? 

Talking about unique solutions, one of the fastest ways to get your brand to sell products and services like hotcakes is when people talk about it in the open world.

More buzz = gold for your business.

But, what is it called when people are talking about your business? And as an SMB owner, why should you care?

You have all the good reasons to be in the know for what Share of Voice (SOV) and Share of Influence (SOI) are. All the big brands in the world are breaking their heads to measure this too.

Share of Voice (SOV): How many people are talking about you in your industry? SOV helps you understand your share in the total industry buzz, and it is the percentage of conversations you create versus your competitors. If people talk about you more, won’t that mean people are more aware of your brand? If you just said yes, my friend- you are on the right track. It also means new customers will notice you in the market and choose you before others.

Share of Influence (SOI): It is the measure of WHO is talking about your business. Compared to Share of Voice, it is more qualitative. Are industry leaders, established brand influencers, and social media groups affiliated with your industry talking about you?
They should. If they do, it means a better-established brand identity and direct consumer relationship for you.

Here is an infographic to sway your way around the topic more-

I have a thought exercise now that we know what SOV and SOI are.

If I were to ask you a question- what is more important, SOV or SOI? What would your answer be?

Hold on, take a breath before you answer.

3…2..1, let’s go.

If you answered SOV, then woohoo. You are partially correct.
If you said SOI, then you take what’s left over from being partially correct (still in the correct territory)
If you answered ‘both, ‘ you may be as close to the answer as possible.

Truthfully, there is no ‘one size fits all.’ It is 100% dependent on your brand, industry, & target strategy for how to increase your SMB’s SOI and SOV. And it is fully customizable.

SOV helps with the total share of buzz your brand is creating in the industry, and you want to know that metric to understand your competition and fill market gaps. Audience interaction is desirable and helps take your business’s name forward. But it may not necessarily target an immediate new audience. What SOI helps with is direct and effective penetration in the market. When a big beauty influencer is talking about a newly launched Indie herbal makeup brand- the chances of it getting picked up by their audience are very high.
This is fantastic for any business, and necessary.

(That is why the influencer and creator economy is on such a highball, but we will get into that in a separate blog)

Ideally, your business’s strategy needs to have a healthy mix of SOI and SOV tactics so you can get the most bang for your marketing bucks.
But, where to invest those bucks now that we know it can be useful?

‘Getting heard’ has a simple trick, broken down in 3 ways for you to get started:

1. Bring out your content A game: the king of modern marketing, aka content, will help your SOV strategy lift above the ground. Invest your time in your social media and focus on relatability to bring eyeballs to your content- it will help your business get noticed.

2. Engage the audience: getting social media savvy pays. For example- making a community on your social platforms by constantly communicating with your audience, running targeted ads, and hosting giveaways or contests during special occasions can create curiosity and get people directly involved with you.

3. Influencer outreach: Identify key influencers and industry experts, and partner with them. This can include anything from sponsored content, product reviews, or co-hosted webinars.
For example: a productivity app could partner with a time management coach, leveraging the coach’s influence.

Swiggy and Zomato on Instagram are great examples of leveraging the power of SOV because they heavily incorporate strategies 1. and 2. 

The famous Indian cosmetic brand ‘Sugar Cosmetics’ is a wonderful example of how strategy 3 (influencer outreach) will help you grow from the bottom up. With its paid collaborations, influencer events, and appearances with industry leaders Sugar is now a well-known brand. As of 2024, it has already crossed the ₹500 crore sales mark.

If you look at all of the brands mentioned above, the one common thing is that all of them require both SOI and SOV practices, hand-in-hand, to reach their desired amount of buzz and value in the market.

The best part about this? I think it is easily replicable for SMBs where you might not even need big budgets to see results initially.

Do you have any cool examples of how you spotted a good SOI & SOV strategy? Or better yet- you crafted one? Let me know in the comments below!