<b>They won the conversation and lost the quarter</b>

<b>They won the conversation and lost the quarter</b>

It was launch week, and a DTC sleep-supplement startup celebrated: their share of voice hit 38%, beating two incumbents combined. The room cheered. Then sales came in 22% under forecast.

The listening turned up the uncomfortable part. They'd split their mentions into branded versus problem-space queries, and 71% of their volume was people debating whether the product was a scam. High share of voice, deeply negative composition. They owned the conversation the way a car crash owns an intersection.

When they reweighted by sentiment, their real positive share of voice was 11% — below both incumbents.

They killed the aggressive influencer push driving the noise and rebuilt around three credible long-form reviews. Positive SOV reached 19% in six weeks, and conversion followed.

The takeaway: share of voice without sentiment weighting measures how much you're talked about, not whether it helps you.