Setting up Share of Search to conduct a brand diagnostic

Getting started with using Share of Search can seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are a couple of tips and tricks we have learned from working with our growing number of My Telescope users to feel confident in your Share of Search set-up. 

1. Know what you want to use it for
Most people use Share of Search for either tracking their brand or to measure their campaign impact. Knowing which one you want to do will help you choose the right search terms and optimise your sentiment analysis. The total result will be much more accurate and easier to interpret.

2. Start broad and work your way down:
If this is the first time you set up Share of Search, we recommend to use it as a brand diagnostic to get an understanding of your brands starting point (zero point calibration). That way you’ll have a good starting point for your future progress. By simply typing in your brand name and those of your competitors you will get a very broad search. Those results will paint a broad picture of how you are perceived and surely give you insights into more things to investigate next time. The easiest is to immediately start the search once you have the brands setup.

3. Don’t be generic in your search
The one thing to mainly watch out for, is if your brand has a very generic name. In that case you should always spend some time selecting some key search words to ensure accurate results. Examples are brands that are last names like “Marshall”, or use a generic term like “Sleep” for a bedding company. In that case select the words that are connected directly to your organisations’ activity to ensure you get the right search volumes.

4. Think like a consumer!
Fight every corporate instinct you have when choosing your competitors. You probably have a fixed set of competitors in your particular category you compete with, but remember that the general public is not conditioned to think in the same type of categories and competitors as you are. So think like about who consumers could see as your competitors. If your company is about lawnmowers, maybe the term of gardening-services will be an interesting competitor to keep in mind when setting up a search.

Once you have this mindset you’re good to go! Remember you can also just edit your search, so if you’re not getting the right results, just give it another try.