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Ann-Derrick Gaillot is Meltwater's content writer. She joined the Americas team in March 2022 with nearly a decade of experience in content writing, copywriting, editorial, and culture journalism.

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See all blogs written by Ann-Derrick Gaillot, Meltwater's content writer. Social media management ★ digital marketing ★ ...

Author: Ann-Derrick Gaillot

On Tuesday, May 6, more than 1,400 PR, comms, and marketing professionals from around the world gathered in Manhattan for the highly anticipated, third annual Meltwater Summit. Offering attendees a mix of sessions ranging from the practical to the visionary, the event delivered on its promise of new perspectives from expert speakers and opportunities to connect meaningfully with peers. Here’s a slice of what you missed (or want to revisit) from Day 1 of Summit 2025.

The morning kicked off with the official launch of Meltwater’s newest innovation, Mira, the first comprehensive AI intelligence engine designed to help PR, communications, and marketing teams get from insights to impact even faster. After a rousing welcome by VP of Culture Zubair Timol, keynote speakers Chief Strategy Officer Alexandra Bjertnæs, Chief Executive Officer John Box, Chief Technology Officer Aditya Jami, and Chief Product Officer Chris Hackney each took to the stage to unveil this latest innovation integrated into the Meltwater Suite. 

Now powered by Mira, new enhancements announced include:

Mira Studio: This chat-based interface within our social listening solution does everything from uncovering consumer insights to compiling media lists, all with a quick prompt.

Mira Companion: Integrated throughout the Meltwater Suite, these context-specific, pop-out companions streamline and accelerate existing workflows.

Meltwater Copilot: Available for Microsoft-enabled organizations, this chat-based AI assistant within Teams brings Meltwater insights to broader internal audiences.

The excitement around Mira carried over to the next segment as Meltwater VP of Marketing Jenny Force welcomed Summit’s celebrity keynote speaker Reese Witherspoon. While globally known for her acting career, Witherspoon’s mastery of storytelling extends to her business ventures Hello Sunshine, Draper James, and Reese’s Book Club. In a thoughtful conversation touching on leadership and staying true to your mission, she emphasized the importance of grounding business decisions in core values.

Figure out what your values are and keep it to five things. Get laser-focused on what your mission is, what you want to accomplish, and how you treat people. 

— Reese Witherspoon, Author, Producer, and Founder of Hello Sunshine

Witherspoon’s keynote, with its focus on authenticity and moving with intention, set the tone for the rest of the day’s sessions.

Witherspoon wasn’t the only one delivering impactful takeaways on the first day of Summit. The Main Stage alone featured five sessions with expert speakers from Havas, We.Communications, dig Human, Point 600, Unserious Podcast, Microsoft, Heineken, Crumbl, and Yahoo. Download our forthcoming Summit Playbook for a full breakdown of those sessions’ insights

From presentations in the breakout rooms to the conversations in the halls, it’s impossible to sum up all of the highlights of the day. You just had to be there — and next year you can be! Instead, here are three themes that emerged throughout the day.

Staying agile in today’s quickly-shifting PR, comms, and marketing landscapes was a recurring theme. In her session ‘Navigating Career Advancement in Communications: Insider Strategies for Securing Your Next Role’, Brooke Kruger, founder of KC Partners, noted that comms hiring is steady but more competitive than ever. With hiring processes growing longer and more rigorous, candidates not only need to be prepared for interviews and references, but also need to stay agile and responsive with example projects and ideas at the ready. 

Lyndsey McFail, Director of Social Media at Broadcast Music Inc., highlighted the importance of preparation to remaining agile in her presentation ‘Harmonizing Social Media: Crafting Compelling Video Content with Limited Resources.’ Along with sharing the methods behind some of her most successful social videos, she illustrated how planning tools like lists, posting schedules, and capture plans (like her signature 5-for-1 Method) help solo and small teams maximize limited resources. 

You don’t need a big team to make a big impact — you need big intention. 

— Lyndsey McFail, Director of Social Media, Broadcast Music Inc.

From the data side, Will Swope, Associate Director of Issues Management and Monitoring at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, demonstrated his three-step process for building more insightful reports. Beginning with the first step of creating a basic search and improving it, next he digs into key insights, and finally chooses the right report template. With that process, he explained, organizations can remain agile throughout news cycles as narratives and objectives continually shift. 

Having the right data is important, but as multiple presenters emphasized, that data can’t exist in a vacuum. Jerrod Lew, Manager of Crisis and Issues at Philip Morris International, urged attendees of his session, Turning Social Listening into a Crisis Management Powerhouse, to shift to their PR reporting to have more contextual emphases with analysis of engagement and impression trends. Context around data was also a touchpoint in the day’s Communications Panel: Data-Driven Strategies for Effective Media Relations, featuring SHEIN US’s Head of Brand PR Lisa Zlotnick, and Accenture’s Insights Lead, Corporate Communications, Colleen McGroarty, moderated by Nicole Schuman, Managing Editor at PRNEWS. Attendees of that session learned how contextualizing data within real-world business impacts is essential for communicating impact to executives.

Cyabra CEO Dan Brahmy and Edelman Managing Director and Global Head of Digital Crisis Dave Fleet also spoke to the importance of context through the lens of misinformation in their talk Manipulated Narratives: Navigating the Reputational Maze of Misinformation. Along with identifying the actors behind harmful content and exposing the coordinated behaviors behind them, Brahmy and Fleet highlighted the need to contextualize misinformation in wider narrative landscapes to better understand how to respond. 

Finally, Rob Key, CEO of Converseon, and Justin Schoen, Director of Strategy and Customer Success at Converseon, a 2025 Summit sponsor, shed light on how their company’s AI models (now integrated into Explore+) allow users to go beyond binary sentiment data to access more nuanced analyses around categories like customer attitudes and trust. 

In his presentation 2025 Webby Talk Trend Report: It’s Giving Brainrot, Nick Borenstein of the Webby Awards explained the ins and outs of chronically online culture, including how it is creating communities both on and off of the Internet. Organizations looking to engage with current trends in brainrot and other digital cultures should only do so when it is authentic to their brand. 

Meanwhile, Vanessa Mbonu, Vice President of Marketing of the NAACP, championed leading with humanity and recognizing the people represented in the numbers.

Don’t think about your audience as merely data points. There are real people behind the data, so talk to them: communicate with their interests and pain points in mind.

— Vanessa Mbonu, Vice President of Marketing, NAACP

For social, Mbonu noted that if you know your audience, you don’t have to overthink every output. Authentic content will follow, from posts that effortlessly say what everyone is thinking to influencer partnerships that feel naturally on-brand and organic. 

From the premiere of Mira to business lessons from Reese Witherspoon to strategic insights from experts across industries, Day 1 of Meltwater Summit was a powerful kickoff. And yet, there’s even more to come with Day 2. Stay tuned.

The biggest moments from the first day of Meltwater Summit 2025, including takeaways from keynote speaker, Reese Witherspoon.

Recapping Meltwater Summit Day 1

Major Moments from Meltwater Summit 2025, Day 1

Looking for an alternative to Cision for your social media and media monitoring needs? 

Many highly-rated options are out there. Read on for a quick and easy guide to the top Cision competitors.

Before we look at competitors, let's take a closer look at what Cision is and does. 

Cision is a multi-platform software that offers users four main capabilities: targeting media figures and influencers, PR distribution services, social listening, and media monitoring. 

It is perhaps best known for PRWeb, its digital media PR distribution platform, and PR Newswire, its digital and traditional media press release distribution platform.

Meltwater gives modern PR and marketing teams a smarter, faster way to work — with an all-in-one suite for media monitoring, social management, social listening, influencer marketing and everything in between. 

Our platform is easier to use, more customizable, and backed by expert support. Advanced AI powers journalist recommendations, coverage summaries, and sentiment analysis—saving time and delivering deeper insights than Cision ever could.

<table class="table-primary alternate-color">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Available Features</th>
<th>Meltwater</th>
<th>Cision</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Industry-Leading AI Capabilities</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>AI Ethics, Security & Governance:
First in the Industry to Achieve
ISO 42001 certification
</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unlimited Customer Support and Training</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Stand-alone Social Listening Offering</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Consolidated Solution for News Monitoring, Social Listening and Social Media Management</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Industry-Leading Dataset</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Data Security You Can Trust: ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 certifications</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Unlimited News and Broadcast Coverage</td>
<td>Yes</td>
<td>No</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The following companies offer solutions that are good alternatives to what Cision is offering.

Scroll down to read more about their pros and cons.

Cision has been a player in communications for more than 150 years, but its platforms leave many users wanting something better. It has many competitors in the crowded marketing technology space, but there's only one that ticks more boxes than the rest.

Our platform is a best-in-class social and media intelligence solution for PR, marketing, communications, and social professionals. From social media analytics and engagement solutions to an all-encompassing influencer marketing platform, Meltwater is designed to solve all the problems and obstacles (and take advantage of all the opportunities!) that come along with modern marketing.

In addition, Meltwater is an industry leader in AI innovation. Our AI-powered integrations empower users to make greater impacts and uncover deeper insights at scale with: 

Instant summary of themes, trends and topics to surface key insights

And with Mira, your AI powered teammate, AI is seamlessly incorporated into your workflow, increasing efficiency, data accuracy, and productivity. 

Our PR, comms, and social solutions are integrated with each other, but Cision's varied tools require users to log into multiple platforms and seek support from multiple account representatives. Brandwatch and Falcon.io, which have been under the Cision umbrella since 2021 and 2019 respectively, remain completely separate platforms. 

To our credit, Meltwater solutions are customizable and easy to use. Plus, clients enjoy having one dedicated customer success team per account. Usability and integration are especially key when it comes to campaign management and long-term marketing strategies. 

Insights extracted from media monitoring and social media analytics can be put to good use seamlessly via our social engagement and influencer marketing platforms. 

Meltwater's Media Intelligence Solution

Some Cision clients complain that its journalist database includes some out-of-date information. Our database, on the other hand, offers keyword searches for journalists and a "living" media list that uses data cleansing to eliminate double counting. 

Another common pain point Cision customers experience is missing coverage. With Meltwater clients are privy to more extensive and comprehensive results when it comes to press or social media mentions. 

And, importantly, extensive doesn't mean complicated. The social listening and media monitoring process and UX design is simplified for our clients, while providing deeper and more tailored insights.

We also excel in reputation and brand management use cases. With a broad social listening capability across numerous channels worldwide, it offers users a comprehensive look at online conversations about their companies and brands. And custom reporting on traditional and bespoke reporting metrics makes analytics and insights easy to communicate across teams and departments. 

For brands and companies looking to get into the exploding world of influencer marketing, our solutions facilitate identifying and vetting influencers, managing influencer campaigns, capturing and analyzing results, as well as payment. 

Finally, live Meltwater customer support reps are available to clients 24 hours a day, seven days a week, setting our users up for success.

From PR to communications to marketing to social media and every combination in between, Meltwater is the comprehensive, all-in-one Cision alternative that thousands of marketing professionals worldwide prefer. 

Meltwater is the top Cision alternative, but there are many other options to compare it with. Here's how other competitors match up.

Critical Mention is a media monitoring platform that helps businesses and brands keep tabs on their earned media mentions and coverage. 

Critical Mention vs. Cision Communications Cloud

While Critical Mention helps users collect and monitor media coverage, it doesn't help with crucial aspects of drumming up engagement. Cision offers capabilities like communication management and email distribution that Critical Mention is missing.

GlobeNewswire is a global press release agency and newswire distribution network. It delivers unique press releases, multimedia content, and financial disclosures to databases and news outlets, including NASDAQ and Reuters.

G2 reviewers applaud GlobeNewswire for being easy to use, but, despite its name, it distributes across 92 countries compared to PR Newswire's 170+.

Newswire lets users distribute press releases, track news and industry trends, and analyze campaign performance.

Newswire and PRWeb are competitive tools, except when it comes to multimedia. Newswire charges extra for including more than one image or video in its releases. By comparison, PRWeb offers users a wider range of embedded, attached, and hyperlinked multimedia.

This reputation management software's main features are automated email and SMS review invites along with a branded website where customer feedback can be displayed.

Notably, both Cision and NiceJob lack keyword and brand tracking. For straight-ahead review generation and management, NiceJob is the more specialized tool. 

Prezly helps public relations professionals get their websites, email engagement, media relations, and customer support in order. Some of its go-to features are its media contacts database and press release creator.

Prezly's main advantage over Cision Communications Cloud is its CRM platform strictly for PR contacts, which lets users track the conversations and interactions with key individuals. At the same time, Prezly is a very specialized tool that may not be the best choice for businesses and brands with more robust marketing and PR needs.

Businesses use Prowly to manage their media relations using the platform's journalist database, press release creator, and other tools.

G2 reviews show that many users find Prowly to be easier to use than SaaS like Cision, but for some that simplicity may come at the cost of versatility. Prowly offers a free trial, which lets you check out the accuracy (and relevance to you) of its media contacts database. 

Cision boasts tons of offerings, but it isn't right for everyone. Want to learn more about how the #1 Cision alternative can boost your business? Get in touch for a Meltwater demo today!

7 Alternatives to Cision • The Top Cision Alternative • Cision vs Meltwater, Critical Mention, GlobeNewswire, Newswire, NiceJob, Prezly, and Prowly

The Best Cision Alternatives 2025

Learn why more companies are choosing Meltwater.

Marketing technology has evolved past relying on guesses and assumptions; your social media marketing strategy should, too! 

These days, social media listening is essential for digital marketers, giving them the ability to conduct:

Competitive intelligence and market intelligence

All driven by comprehensive data analytics and insights. 

Whether you're considering using a social listening solution like Meltwater's for the first time or are dissatisfied with your current choice, it's best to have a clear understanding of what's out there. But with so many social listening offerings available today, it's easy to get lost in the sea of options. Finding the right tool for your business doesn't have to be a struggle. Read on to learn more about the 13 best social listening tools for 2025.

The Top 13 Social Media Listening Tools for 2025

Understanding how social media listening works is the first step in choosing the right solution for you. In a nutshell: 

Social listening tools aggregate social data from social media platforms and analyze them according to specific attributes or metrics. 

Marketers use that data to inform their marketing strategy, better understand their target audiences, predict trends, identify influencers, and so much more. Overall, social listening tools enable better decision-making through data.

Check out our Ultimate Guide to Social Listening to learn more.

The top listening tools on the market today overlap in some of the features they offer but are distinct in many others. When choosing the right listening tool for your needs, consider these features:

Choice of Social Channels: Not all listening tools "listen" to the same social media channels or at the same breadth or depth. 

Technology: These days, best-in-class social listening tools offer AI in social listening insights, including sentiment analysis and visual brand monitoring.

Data Access: Having access to real-time and historical data is a must when using social listening for market research, benchmarking, and trendspotting. Also, keep in mind that some social listening tools charge extra for social listening searches that exceed a certain limit, while others offer unlimited ad-hoc searches.

Usability: Across the board, top social listening tools need to have user-friendly interfaces and offer easy-to-understand analytics. Customer service and support options are also important parts of usability that can't be overlooked.

Your choice of social media listening tool will come down to which one best supports your social listening strategy and marketing goals. Luckily, there are a number of competitive social listening options worth checking out. Let's dive in.

Tip: For a deep dive into social analytics, take a look at the best social media analytics software on the market.

Meltwater: The Best Social Media Listening Tool

Our social listening platform saves marketers time and resources by providing them with a consolidated view of traditional media, social media, digital media, and audience segmentation data in one place. It also monitors one of the widest ranges of platforms and networks, including:

Our powerful search and reporting capabilities feature unlimited ad-hoc searches, queries, mentions, and dashboard analytics hand in hand with unlimited shareable dashboards, PDFs, slide decks, and data exports.

Plus, our customizable, in-depth insight reports ensure that users can keep key stakeholders in the know with accuracy, precision, and style. 

Meltwater's Social Listening Solution

And though many listening platforms include influencer identification features, Meltwater's all-in-one social intelligence solution includes a dedicated influencer platform that helps you manage your campaigns from start to finish and identify macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and everyone in between. Compare this capability to other products that only show you social conversation authors with the highest numbers of followers.

Tip: Learn more about the Meltwater influencer platform, and check out the best influencer marketing platforms and influencer management tools on the market.

Finally, our easy-to-use interface combined with 24/7 global customer support, extensive knowledge base, and client community platform ensures no question you have goes unanswered.

An all-in-one solution that is scalable to businesses of all sizes anywhere in the world, Meltwater social listening is a must-have solution for data-driven marketers.

Interested in touring our platform? Fill in the form at the bottom of this post to get in touch!

Awario is a brand monitoring tool that offers shareable social listening reports and a social listening API.

And along with letting users track brand names and industry-related keywords across X (Twitter), YouTube, and Reddit (among other online sources like news sites), the brand tracking software also includes influencer and lead identification tools.

Its analytics dashboard even features a special feed for mentions from heavily-followed influencer and media accounts. 

Tip: For social intelligence suites that include more influencer campaign management solutions, check out Meltwater and BuzzSumo. We have listed the top social media monitoring tools for you as well.

Digimind's easy-to-use platform is tailored to medium and small businesses and offers social listening across 10+ social networks, including Facebook and Baidu. And unlike some other options on this list, all Digimind packages come with unlimited user access and data storage (though it does limit the number of queries and keywords you can track before you have to pay extra).

One feature that sets Digimind apart is its built-in reputation analytics drawn from Google searches about your brand or product. And like Meltwater and other options on this list, it offers customizable and automated reports to keep stakeholders aligned.

Brand24 is comparable to Awario in that it offers competitive social listening features, including sentiment analysis, alerts, social media analytics reporting, and a free trial.

The "Analysis" section of its social monitoring dashboard aggregates mentions from X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

One of Brand24's main social listening use cases is hashtag tracking and analysis to help you increase the reach of your marketing campaigns. However, if you're on the hunt for more in-depth analytics from a wider range of social media network sources, consider a higher-tier social listening platform.

Tip: Learn more about the top alternatives to Brand24.

Talkwalker is the next company that has to be part of any list of top social listening tools on the market.

It offers "Analytics," its traditional social listening platform, as well as a Quick Search tool for ad-hoc queries into 13 months of social data from 10+ social networks. 

Its data visualizations, including Virality Maps and Conversation Clusters, offer high-level overviews of how online conversations are trending.

Tip: Take a look at these data visualization tools.

One offering that makes Talkwalker stand out is the pre-built dashboards for different use cases like crisis management, competitive intelligence, brand tracking, and campaign tracking.

And like some other options on this list, Talkwalker integrates with the Hootsuite platform (We also have listed the best alternatives to Hootsuite for you).

Acquired by Cision in 2021, Brandwatch is a consumer intelligence platform that includes social listening and research tools like AI-powered image and sentiment analysis.

This social listening tool offers customizable dashboards and, with access to a ton of social posts dating back to 2010 (at an extra cost), it is a good resource for trendspotting and consumer research alike. And though that data isn't accessible through ad-hoc searches, you can dig into it with the help of a seven-step boolean builder.

Brandwatch's strengths include Vizia, its data visualization tool that lets users build and share real-time reports. And, like Meltwater, it has strong coverage of Asian social networks. Overall, Brandwatch is a good option for experienced social listening platform users at organizations of many sizes.

Tip: Take a look at the top Brandwatch alternatives.

YouScan's social media monitoring platform includes a number of social listening features and tools, including a mentions stream that highlights user-generated content about your brand or topic and automatically categorizes them based on sentiment.

Like Meltwater, YouScan integrates directly with Slack and Microsoft Teams so users can get alerts about mentions spikes even when they're not working right in the platform.

One of YouScan's newer additions is an AI-powered visual listening and insights tool (available as an add-on feature) that allows for tracking brand logos, objects, and more for added brand reputation assessment and trend analysis.

Overall, YouScan is a good choice for teams that need a listening tool to complement a more robust analytics and reporting solution.

Agorapulse is one of the social media management platforms on the market that includes some social listening capabilities.

Inform your marketing strategy with social listening tools • Top social media listening tools • Top social listening platforms • Tool comparison

The Top 13 Social Listening Tools for 2025

Learn more about Meltwater's Social Listening and Analytics Solution here: https://www.meltwater.com/en/suite/so...

For government agencies, social media is an all-too-often untapped avenue for public outreach. Though this sector faces high-stakes responsibilities — like aligning to official regulations, platform bans, and public spending accountability — it also has huge opportunities in social media for sharing important information.

Primed to seek out information on social media, too many internet users search for facts only to find misinformation from less-than-trusted sources. More government agencies could use social platforms and networks to give constituents accurate, official information straight from the source. This is particularly true during election season as the general public looks for information about voting.

Though many government agencies are still in the early stages of building their online presence, some are already experimenting and creating best practices with smaller audiences and local reach. Here are a few government social media accounts effectively building awareness and engagement around the upcoming 2024 U.S. Elections. 

The Boone County, Missouri Clerk’s Office uses trendjacking to prepare residents to cast their ballots. Using trending sounds and formats, the office slips voter registration information into the social media conversation.

This TikTok from August hopped on the “demure” trend to walk viewers through checking their voter registration, applying for an absentee ballot, and applying to be a poll worker. 

This TikTok generated a relatively high proportion of saves and shares, showing how trendjacking can prompt social media users to share and reference important information.

Beyond sharing information, the office also uses trends to build excitement. It uses popular sounds to countdown to ballot, absentee voting, and other election deadlines.

This TikTok used a popular sound from a Broadway show to share information about ballot deadlines.

Using trending formats and sounds on TikTok is an efficient and effective way to step into the platform’s language. Seek out creative ways to translate your information or call to action into the trend, but timing is everything. Consistently staying on top of viral trends is essential for picking and choosing the right ones for your organization or agency’s “brand”.

Discover the ins and outs of this social media strategy with our Ultimate Guide to Trendjacking.

On Instagram, eye-catching infographics are an effective way to get your messaging out into the world, even with limited resources. With graphics that are straightforward, informative, and easy to share via Stories, users have a quick way to stay civically engaged and share information with their networks. 

For example, the Dallas County Elections Department kept things short and sweet for its National Voter Registration Day post. 

Dallas County Elections switched up its image post with sleek gifs about how to register to vote.

The government agency also collected likes by formatting critical voter registration dates like an editorial-looking data graphic. 

This post from July is the Dallas County Elections Department’s most-liked Instagram of 2024 so far. 

When it comes to sharing more complex information, eye-catching images can be paired with longer captions, as Dallas County Elections Department did with this press release correcting spreading misinformation about voting rights.

This cryptic graphic makes viewers want to run to the caption to see what it means. This strategy helped make this the second most-liked Instagram post from Dallas County Elections Department in 2024 so far.

Bold, text-based infographics are a cost-effective way to educate the public while conveying authority on Instagram. Clear, valuable information presented in an eye-catching way not only grabs your followers’ attention, it encourages them to share the post and amplify your message.

The Maricopa County Elections Department in Arizona uses its mascot Phil the Ballot (get it?) to drum up voter participation. For example, Phil pops up in this much-liked, bi-lingual Instagram post to remind a couple of “yappers” to make sure they’re registered to vote.

This Instagram post generated likes using a viral sound and an IRL cameo from Phil the Ballot.

Phil does double duty as a graphic mascot, lending some personality and organizational recognition to this highly engaged infographic on X.

This X post from August was viewed more than 3,500 hundred times, generating 29 reposts and one quote post along the way.

And he, too, got in on the demure trend with great results.

The Maricopa County Elections Instagram joined forces with the County’s official account to drum up excitement around voter registration. 

Even though Maricopa County Elections has an ally in Phil, it doesn’t use him as a crutch. The Instagram account’s second most-liked post of this year was this one, which uses exciting camera work to deliver a simple message.

This Reel was the account’s second most-liked Instagram post of this year so far.

For Maricopa County Elections, consistency on social media has paid off in multiple hits for its voter registration and turnout campaigns this year. It posts almost daily, slowly but surely building a following and establishing itself as a trusted source for voting information on social media. While there’s no certainty as to how much social campaigns can boost civic engagement, this government agency is putting forth an admirable effort with creative and informative content.

The Contra Costa County Elections Department in California takes a multi-platform approach to building trust with the over 1.1 million residents it serves. On TikTok, the department uses trending formats to jump into the digital conversation. It joined the platform’s wave of trivia game videos to counter misinformation.

Using a popular TikTok format, the Contra Costa County Elections Department addressed some of its constituents’ most pressing questions about voter fraud.

Over on YouTube, the department used a short but sweet video to invite viewers to learn more about how ballots are secured and verified.

Election Security: 2-Step Verification? Try 48 Steps!

Though it has 80 subscribers, the Contra Costa County Clerk-Recorder-Elections Offices generated more than 277,000 views on this 30-second video.

Meanwhile, on Instagram, the department went the simple route to create a helpful, and shareable, voters’ resource.

This post was one of the Contra Costa County Clerk Recorder Elections most-liked Instagram posts of the year so far. 

Spread your strategy and messaging across multiple social platforms to reach different segments of your community. While Instagram and TikTok content are great ways to engage with younger audiences, don’t overlook YouTube and other channels when sharing informative, evergreen resources.

The United States Postal Service doesn’t exclusively deal with elections, but it does play a crucial role. About 31% of voters cast their ballots by mail in the midterm elections in 2022, while 43% did in the general elections in 2020. Throughout the year, the USPS’s social media accounts share informational content just as much as they do entertaining content. Take, for example, this Instagram account satirizing social media microtrends.

Clever trendjacking helped this Instagram post generate 2,100 likes since August 6, 2024.

Or this post on X referencing breakout pop star Chappell Roan.

This post generated about 83,000 views and 1,600 likes.

But when it comes to drawing periodic attention to important voting information, USPS opts for eye-catching consistency.

The USPS uses the same graphic of a white Official Elections Mail envelope against a blue background for posts with information about voting by mail.

Using the same simple image alerts followers instantly to voting information and links to more resources. And though USPS uses the same image repeatedly, it doesn’t sacrifice engagement.

This September 16, 2024 post was one of the USPS Instagram account’s more successful ones with 653 likes. 

Consider visual branding when creating a campaign about a subject outside of your regular content. On social media, attention-grabbing consistency is a great way to alert viewers to must-know information.

Government social media campaigns succeed with creativity

Government communications can often be impersonal and dry, but as these agencies prove, they don’t have to be. Agencies can use the language and culture of social media platforms to meet their communities where they are, scrolling on their digital devices. Whether looking to share information, combat misinformation, or inspire civic engagement, government entities have much to gain from developing and implementing social media strategies.

Our look at how U.S. government agencies engage with potential voters ahead of the 2024 general election reveals these important points for any official organization looking to build a social media presence:

Make your strategies platform-specific: While bold, shareable infographics do well on Instagram stories and feeds, trendjacking is more effective for generating engagement via Reels and TikTok.

Stay on top of the conversation: Being in the know of the latest social trends is the best way to identify new content opportunities.

Be consistent: Whether your organization posts monthly or weekly, set a cadence your followers can predict. That way they’ll know when to expect information, especially around cyclical processes like elections.  

Highlight local: It’s easy to believe that social media users don’t want to hear from government agencies, but you’d be surprised just how many are hungry for official, accurate information about their communities. For engagement-driving content, tap into that community spirit with regional references and cameos from local figures.

Looking for more examples of how government agencies can use social media for the public good? Check out our customer story with Tripepi Smith. The agency used Meltwater to help its public affairs client maintain good relations with residents during a large-scale public works project.

Creating a social media strategy from scratch, or revamping an existing one, can be a daunting process without the right tools. Learn how our social media management solution can help your organization do more with limited resources.

Learn how local elections boards and other government agencies are successfully promoting voting with social media content.

The Government Agencies Innovating on Social Media

Transforming Election Season: How Government Agencies Are Innovating on Social Media

Security is layered into every aspect of @Contra Costa County Elections & we take many steps – 48 steps to be exact – to protect elections. Check out all the security steps: bit.ly/4bw7PWM #CoCoVote #TrustedInfo2024

From reputation management obstacles to regulatory requirements to evolving consumer expectations, data-driven healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations certainly have their work cut out for them. 

No matter the objectives, an in-depth understanding of the market is essential for effective strategizing. With that in mind, we made our 2024 Consumer Insights: Healthcare report to give marketers in this industry a data-driven leg up. 

Using our suite of solutions, we analyzed online and media mentions related to three topics in this space: the patient journey, AI, and mis/disinformation. Along with highlighting notable stats and audience insights, our healthcare report offers actionable strategies healthcare and pharmaceutical marketers can use to:

Enhance their approach to reputation management

Build trust with consumers, patients, and healthcare professionals (HCPs)

Combat mis/disinformation with social marketing and PR

Download the 2024 Consumer Insights: Healthcare report for our full analysis and suggested strategies. In the meantime, here’s a quick overview of four need-to-know insights from the report.

Online conversations about finding healthcare are up 241% YoY

Our analysis found that mentions of keywords and phrases about finding healthcare have increased significantly, and many of those mentions are negative. 

Gain valuable industry insights with the Meltwater Healthcare Report. Uncover our key findings and stay ahead of the competition.

Ann-Derrick Gaillot

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