Why Share of Voice Matters in China Right Now

12 May 2022

The influencer marketing industry shows no signs of slowing down. In China, demand for Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) has been growing exponentially.

As KOLC marketing becomes more and more crucial for brands seeking to grow in the China market, the number of moving parts in a strong, well-rounded China marketing strategy is also growing.
Share of Voice is one of these vital metrics, which is a component in understanding brand awareness of one brand in relation to that of its competitors in the same market. It is a measurement of the total number of conversations pertaining to a brand out of the total conversations taking place in that brand’s market.

So what is Share of Voice?

Share of Voice is a measure of how many people are actively talking about your brand on various public channels. This metric can help measure the efficacy of KOLC marketing campaigns, social media outreach, advertising campaigns and web traffic in relation to the performance of competitor brands. The utility of Share of Voice is to enable brands to visualise their share of the conversation in their industry.

Ok, great, but why does this matter?

Yes, this matters particularly in China. In such a digitally advanced, social media centric market, it is more important than ever to pay attention to increasing your Share of Voice. The proportion of Share of Voice a brand possesses makes most of the difference between whether a social media user scrolls past a sponsored post endorsing your brand, or pauses for a few seconds to read the post and engage with it. If your brand has a greater share of voice, its visibility on social media will be higher, as will be the probability of sending your campaign messaging to target audiences.

In a market as saturated and competitive as China’s, your brand is competing with countless other brands that appear on social media; with so many brands engaging in influencer marketing across social media, you can get a good idea of how competitive the share of voice pie really is in China.
With a strong Share of Voice, your brand will be more able to penetrate the online noise and reach more customers, both existing and new.

Share of Voice is particularly useful for assessing the social media performance of a brand. With nearly 1 billion social media users in China (983 million to be exact), it is extremely important for brands to stay informed of the conversations relating to their industry so that they can leverage that intel to maximise their digital marketing strategies.

So what’s the best way to measure Share of Voice?

Brand mentions, hashtags, reach, engagement, impressions and sentiment are all useful ways to evaluate share of voice on social media. Furthermore, collaborating with a greater number of KOCs can help increase a brand’s social media Share of Voice.

By reliably assessing Share of Voice, a brand can acquire a clearer understanding and assessment of how many people know about the brand, where its Share of Voice is successful and where it needs to be improved.

Let’s face it. In a digital-first market like China, social media is the place where consumers connect and source information about brands and products. As a result, social media is the place to connect with your consumers directly, and this is where Share of Voice matters the most. With a greater share of voice, you will be able to increase your visibility to them. So as a new brand in China, how do you do this?

The answer is influencer marketing, or in China, KOLC marketing. With the right combination of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) and Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs), as well as a well-planned and properly executed campaign, you will have a better shot at snatching a bigger piece of the share of voice pie on social media.

You need to recruit and collaborate with influencers who are credible, cost-effective and relevant to your brand (and your target audiences). Partnerships you have with your brand need to be the best fit possible. For example, you can search for influencers who are already talking about your brand or product, generate healthy engagements within the genre of interest your brand is in, and have the greatest potential for growth. This is why it is important that your influencer pool contains the correct balance of KOLs and KOCs, to maximise the delivery of your campaign messaging to relevant, high-value audiences. Learn more about identifying the right influencers for your brand campaigns here.

With PJdaren’s influencer community of over 4 million and versatile campaign systems, you’ll be on your way to a winning KOLC marketing campaign in a flash! PJdaren provides end-to-end solutions for influencer recruitment, product testing, brand optimisation and more!

Think you’re ready for China? Drop us a line and let’s get the conversation started.

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About 评价达人 – PJdaren:

Since 2016, PJdaren has helped some of the world’s largest brands build trust, collect insights and drive sales in China by engaging Key Opinion Consumers (KOCs) and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) through our state-of-the-art influencer marketing solutions.

Our full-service solutions connect brands with our over 4 million-strong KOC and KOL community. We facilitate targeted, authentic conversations and content, enabling brands to capture the market with measurable results.

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