You're looking to track your brand's share of voice. What PR analytics software should you use?

As a brand, it is crucial to keep a finger on the pulse of your industry and understand how your voice is resonating with your target audience. One way to gauge your brand's impact is by tracking your share of voice. This metric allows you to measure your brand's visibility and presence in the media landscape compared to your competitors. However, manually tracking this data can be a daunting task. That's where PR analytics software comes in.

Businesses benefit from PR analytics software because it allows them to track and understand the performance of their media coverage. It provides critical insights into the emotion, reach, and impact of public relations operations. This information is critical for evaluating campaign success, analysing audience perception, and making educated decisions to improve the entire public relations strategy. It also enables competitive benchmarking, which helps organisations stay ahead by comparing their performance to that of industry peers.

PR analytics software automates the process of monitoring and analyzing media coverage, enabling you to gather insights and make data-driven decisions. These tools provide a comprehensive view of your brand's share of voice by monitoring mentions, sentiment, reach, and other key metrics across various media channels.

Consider the following factors: 1. Coverage Sources Look for software that offers a wide range of coverage across traditional media outlets, online publications, and industry-specific sources. 2. Real-time Monitoring Choose a software that provides real-time monitoring, allowing you to stay updated on the latest mentions. 3. Sentiment Analysis Look for software that offers sentiment analysis, which categorizes mentions as positive, negative, or neutral. 4. Competitive Analysis Choose a software that provides robust competitive analysis, allowing you to compare your brand's visibility and sentiment with industry rivals. 5. Customizable Reports Look for features like data visualization, export options, and automated reports.

It's also important to add other names you might be known by or the name of your product. Meta is still sometimes mentioned as Facebook. Both names should be included to accurately gauge their share of voice. The same goes for Apple, which should track mentions like iPhone, iPad, Mac, Etc.

Talkwalker is one of the best tools for tracking sentiment, mentions, tonality, with much more granularity than other tools in the space. Ultimately every company is a snowflake, meaning different analytics matter to one company than another.

Don't forget MuckRack! You're likely already using it, and the coverage reports will feature many of the same (or equivalent) metrics as CoverageBook without having to invest in additional software. Signal AI is great for measuring brand sentiment and SOV, as well as creating graphs for SOV and competitor coverage - but as always, you'll need to determine how important these features are for you vs. how much budget you have.

These tools are great but can be expensive and a bit tricky to use. It would be helpful if they were easier to understand and didn’t have any surprise costs. Simplifying things and making them more affordable would make these tools even better. Mention, Prezly and Brand24 are other options to consider depending on your main goals.

1. Meltwater Meltwater offers a comprehensive suite of PR analytics tools, including media monitoring, sentiment analysis, social media tracking, and competitive intelligence. Their customizable reports and real-time monitoring make it a favorite among PR professionals. 2. Brandwatch Brandwatch specializes in social media listening and analytics. Their platform allows you to track brand mentions, sentiment, and industry trends across various social media channels. 3. Talkwalker Talkwalker offers a comprehensive suite of PR analytics tools, including media monitoring, sentiment analysis, and competitive benchmarking. Their platform provides real-time insights and customizable reports for effective brand tracking.

Prezly: The Campaign Overview feature of Prezly works well with many of the other tools to provide you with a clear image of the media contacts in your PR CRM that are responding most favourably to your stories or press releases. This aids in the management of your contact lists by quickly eliminating any invalid emails, provides guidance for crafting campaigns, and directs the process of following up on pitches.