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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

As former US Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O’Neill would attest in his book, all politics are local. However, with the rapid rise of technology and intertwining relations of multilateralism, O’Neill’s adage is becoming harder to prove as the international sphere of influence becomes wider and more complex.

Foreign interference is a valid and subliminal threat in politics, especially in the realms of electioneering and realpolitik. Instances have been witnessed in the political arenas of the United States and Britain. Social media campaigns in those elections were plagued by Russian operatives who carried out large-scale attacks of disinformation, capitalising on issues such as race and equality, gun ownership, and abortion rights. Using fake accounts and bots, these operatives attacked deep-seated issues within the society, seeking to further divide the voting public.

With social media being intrinsically linked in election campaigns, every notion of carrying out a democratic process is threatened. Every nation is vulnerable to such an attack, including countries such as Singapore. Meltwater delves deeper into this to extrapolate narratives within the media and whether foreign actors are making psychological inroads into the politicisation of domestic issues.

On 10 July, Singapore held its General Elections (GE2020) and voters turned out in droves. GE2020, dubbed as Singapore's "first truly Internet election", materialised as restrictions on campaigning were put in place due to COVID-19. The sphere of rallies and meet-and-greets transcended from the physical space into the digital realm. On both sides of partisan lines, devising strategies based on online discourses and measuring audience reach became intrinsically part of their campaigns. 

Meltwater data revealed that social media volume in the run up to GE2020 increased four times, compared to the previous elections held in 2015. Singapore’s leading newspaper The Straits Times in July shared our findings which revealed that even though the incumbent People's Action Party (PAP) received the majority of social media mentions, the main opposition Workers’ Party’s audience engagement generated more sustained numbers of conversation.

Fig. 1 - ST Graphic on Meltwater’s findings.

Following the publication of this report in The Straits Times, policy makers and strategists in the public service have consulted Meltwater on whether conversations on social justice and inequality had affected voters. We also received queries on whether Singapore had experienced foreign interference in its election process – a legitimate worry after witnessing incidents in the 2016 Presidential Elections held in the United States and Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom.

According to William Evanina, Director of the US National Counterintelligence and Security Center, Russia, Iran, and China have been identified as the top three countries carrying out active foreign interference operations. However, in the recently-concluded  US presidential election, only China came 21st in the chart of the top 30 countries discussing the political process. Sophisticated encryption and bogus IPs are part of these operatives’ modus operandi and detection becomes an arduous task.

Fig. 2 - The Top 30 foreign countries discussing 2020 USPE from 20 July to 18 October.

Social media against foreign interference

The giants of social media recognised this threat, tweaking policy changes to ensure the integrity of public discourse on their platforms. Facebook introduced steps to combat foreign interference and to make elections fair and safe. The company has also worked extensively with governments and law enforcement agencies to detect and nip emerging threats.

In June, Channel News Asia reported that Facebook had established dedicated teams in Singapore to keep a lookout for malignant activity on the platform, such as identity falsification and sentiment amplification. Such preparatory work had been put in place since July 2019, and since then, accounts that showed signs of engaging in interference tactics have been removed.

Twitter also introduced its Civic Integrity Policy in May 2020, which states that the Twitter platform is not to be used to manipulate or disrupt civic processes, such as elections. Accounts in violation of its regulations will have to take down their tweets or face permanent suspension if related offences are repeated.

Knowing that measures have been put in place to curb the spread of disinformation and sentiment amplification in bid to maintain the integrity of elections is reassuring, and perhaps even comforting. Bots can be programmed to swiftly spread disinformation, and a particularly negative, intentionally-amplified sentiment could gain traction that endures long after its deletion.

How can we use our social media monitoring tools to identify instances of foreign interference, if any? There will be digital trails that can be picked up, and critically, prominent narratives that have to be identified to thwart amplification.

Using the recent Singapore elections, we assessed the data for these narratives which may have traces of foreign interference based on Meltwater’s geo-location technology. Based on what we discovered, while foreign-based accounts actively participated in discourse about GE2020, the accounts were predominantly owned by real users who expressed a genuine interest in Singapore politics and social issues. 

#1: Medium article, "The Dangerous Influence Of 'Chinese Privilege' In Singapore" by Donovan Choy

On 20 June, Donovan Choy had written an article on Chinese privilege in Singapore and published it on social journalism platform Medium. Choy's article had led to the emergence of other narratives, with netizens recounting their own experiences with racism in Singapore. Notably, one netizen had brought up that she had been rejected for a job opportunity at a clinic located in Paragon on Orchard Road because she did not agree to remove the hijab.

Subsequently, social media chatter on Choy's article garnered more than 12,000 posts. Most of it was backlash from netizens who alleged that Choy was denying the existence of Chinese privilege in Singapore. Chatter on the original article and subsequent narratives borne from it held largely negative sentiments. The chatter came from at least nine countries, with the bulk on it circulating on Twitter.

Interestingly, out of the nine identifiable countries, most of the posts originated from Malaysia. There were seven per cent more social media posts from Malaysia than Singapore. Twitter users that were engaged in the conversations on the topic appear to be genuine accounts and with no suggestion of bot-like activities.

Based on our assessment of the tweets as well as a sampling of these accounts, it seems that Malaysian users were genuinely interested in Singapore's race dynamics and actively partook in conversations about Chinese privilege in Singapore. Most of the discussions centred on the issue of race itself. While the issue emerged in the midst of GE2020 campaigning, there was no evidence that indicates that the discussions - in Malaysia or otherwise -  took on a political slant.

Examples of chatter from Malaysian accounts.

#2: Investigations into WP Candidate Raeesah Khan’s social media posts on racial inequalities in Singapore

On 5 July, 5 days before polling day, SPF released a statement noting that WP Candidate Raeesah Khan was being investigated after two reports were lodged against her for her comments on social media. In one of her Facebook posts, Ms Raeesah had written that law enforcement in Singapore seems to discriminate against people - citizens and migrants alike - based on their race and class.

Like Choy’s article, this incident spurred dialogue on race and inequality in Singapore. There were a total of more than 6,000 posts. Twitter posts on the issue surfaced with many netizens expressing their support for Ms Raeesah, sharing the hashtag "#istandwithraeesah".

On the other hand, some netizens had also called for Ms Raeesah to resign from the WP team contesting for Sengkang GRC, so as to not damage the team's chances at getting elected into Parliament. Overall, the chatter came from at least 17 countries, with the bulk of the conversations happening on Twitter.

Of the 17 identifiable countries, 20.5 per cent of the chatter originated from Singapore, 7.6 per cent came from Malaysia,  5.5 per cent came from the United States, and 1.1 per cent each from the United Kingdom and Switzerland. On Twitter, 50 per cent of the posts were retweets and 47 per cent were quoted tweets. Only one per cent of the tweets were original ones.

Naturally, given that the context of the incident is a political one, many of the social media posts took on a political slant. The phrase "Chinese privilege" came up often, as netizens compared the alleged unequal treatment between regular Chinese and Malay or Indian folk in Singapore, as well as the difference in attitudes towards political candidates of the various races.

Examples of original posts from foreign accounts.

#3: Support for WP's manifesto on lowering age eligibility for single BTO applications

On 28 June, The Straits Times reported on 10 proposals from WP's manifesto. WP suggested that singles should be able to apply for a BTO flat at the age of 28, instead of the current 35. The manifesto noted that young, single Singaporeans should not be denied an opportunity to own a home of their own.

Support for the policy change was expressed on social media. The news garnered a total of 1,099 posts on social media. Again, the posts largely originated from Twitter and discussions on the manifesto also took place on the subreddit, r/singapore.

Users from at least six countries partook in the discussions. While the location is unknown for a good majority of these posts, close to 30 per cent of chatter emerged in Singapore. Even then, 81 per cent of the total tweets were quoted ones, and 18 per cent were retweets.

No bot-like activities were detected. The conversations were mainly neutral, as netizens expressed their desires to own a home at a young age. The posts also did not carry any notable political slant.

In another aspect of our analysis, a series of "VN" Twitter accounts stood out. These account names had the same country prefix, VN, followed by a random string of numbers behind. There were at least seven such accounts, created only in June and July 2020. Six of these accounts are currently suspended.

The tweets posted by this series of accounts were extremely critical of some political office holders, with a few tweets devoted to calling for Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's arrest, and alleging that the Singapore Government publishes fake news. While these accounts exhibited questionable behaviour, its influence was negligible in GE2020.

These three topics serve as examples of the approach we took towards other social media chatter surrounding GE2020. Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) also reiterated this recently. However, the Ministry added a caveat that social media and online gaming may be utilised to spread disinformation and sway voters' opinions, noting that "the risk of foreign interference will only increase moving forward".

While social media platforms are taking a proactive stance against foreign interference campaigns, social media users must remain on guard against deliberate falsehoods and influence operations. As a society, we cannot afford to be complacent or risk the integrity of our politics.

Elections And The Threat of Foreign Interference

Social media's role in U.S. politics — and the presidential election, in particular — is undeniable. 

With the current global pandemic forcing the candidates to rethink how they conduct political rallies, drum up support from voters and even raise funds, social media has become an invaluable resource to both the Republican and Democratic campaigns. Politicians have embraced social media (for better or worse) because it provides the best virtual engagement that a person can address an issue or problem. 

Voters are also turning to social media platforms to discover news about each candidate, watch the debates via live streams and share their own political views. Using social media analytics, a myriad of topical sentiments can be gathered and strategists can raise pertinent issues drawn from the unadulterated opinions.

Analyzing Social Media Mentions of the Candidates 

Judging by the amount of coverage in social media — be it in a positive or negative light — most certainly the current Commander in Chief is on everyone’s lips and minds. Trump is mentioned almost four times more than Biden in the media. Volume counts in social media because staying narratively relevant within the voting public is important in getting a message across.

Less than two weeks until the final voting day, netizens are already focusing attention on the states that will play a key role in deciding the presidential election. Across both campaigns, the states of Wisconsin and Florida have continued to generate chatter in social media and forums. Many analysts have pointed out that the winner in the state of Florida has historically been a good indicator of the future president. This sentiment was largely echoed in the tweets and forum threads thus putting the state in the limelight and under more pressure.

The U.S. presidential election undoubtedly receives immense global scrutiny due to its international standing. Being the leader of the world’s largest economy, international diplomacy will always be high on its agenda. Social media is rife with international opinions on the elections, with neighbor Canada unsurprisingly contributing the most mentions. Longtime ally, the United Kingdom, maintains their high interest in cross-Atlantic affairs while their strategic Indo-Pacific partners Australia and India are also keeping an eye on the next POTUS. Interestingly, the people of India have developed an affinity with Democrat VP candidate Kamala Harris whose of Indian descent, while many are also enamored with Trump’s close kinship with their prime minister, Narendra Modi. 

Joe Biden’s nomination as presidential candidate for the Democratic Party was obviously open knowledge to everyone, but many rejoiced over his running mate's nomination. Kamala Harris created history as the first American woman of both African and Asian descent to be nominated as vice-presidential candidate. There were more than 1.2 million mentions of her nomination on the day. However, despite the overriding appreciation of her nomination, many still questioned their views on the police system and how Harris had grilled Biden during the Democrat primaries. 

President Trump received almost double the number of mentions than Biden after the first presidential debate. Netizens largely focused on a controversial moment where President Trump blatantly refused to condemn white supremacist groups during the debate. This top topic recorded 170,000 mentions, almost double of COVID-19 mentions. So, even though Trump did generate more mentions than Biden, not all of those mentions were positive. That said, the general social media community derided the whole debate as a calamitous debacle, filled with interruptions and constant digression from the questions.

The vice presidential debate was definitely a heated one. The tension between the candidates was evident when Harris shot off a terse warning to Pence for constantly interrupting her. Netizens responded with the fire symbol as the most used emoji on social media. Ironically, topic-wise, COVID-19 was mentioned the most by netizens in relation to the VP debate. COVID-19 was mentioned 63,000 times. Surreally, the next topic was about a fly, yes, an insect. A fly planted itself on the Republican candidate’s head. Once again, a platform to constructively critique the incumbent administration’s policies was sidetracked by an inane insect.

Undoubtedly, a wrench in the Trump campaign team's plan was him contracting coronavirus. A moment of schadenfreude erupted on social media as netizens highlighted Trump's predicament. Comments ranged from well-wishes to conspiracy theories to utter disdain for the outbreak within the Trump inner circle in the White House. There were more than 4 million mentions on the day when his condition was announced. Amazingly, Trump self-declared that he had made a recovery within the recommended two weeks of isolation. This further incensed netizens who felt he was being irresponsible and using his condition as politicking for votes. Social media sentiment revealed that users were as polarised as the president himself.

Despite the delay, the final debate between the presidential candidates served up an array of topics that left netizens discussing endlessly throughout the verbal spar. Once again, President Trump dominated based on 623,000 mentions. He took to task the topic of national security and foreign policy, pushing his victorious narratives in the Middle East and throwing inflammatory remarks towards Biden's close affinities with China, Russia and Ukraine. These narratives resonated in netizens' minds as more than 518,000 mentions of these topics cropped up throughout the debate. Netizens also discussed the topics of COVID-19 and race relations in the U.S., 457,000 and 342,000 mentions respectively, but again President Trump expectedly went on the offensive to debilitate Biden's stature.

Florida has historically been a bellwether state for a presidential election. The state has successfully voted in the next commander-in-chief since 1996. The nation’s third-largest state holds the key to swinging the vote from either party, and many eyes will be transfixed on the citizens making their way to the polls. On social media, the chances of a Republican win was widely discussed with more than 513,000 mentions by netizens. Much of the discussion was focused on voter turnout in the state. Many suggested a suppression campaign against African American voters, while the elderly vote also drew attention in the state. 

In contrast, the Biden campaign garnered around 358,000 mentions about a victorious polling day. However, it is interesting to note that a significant narrative within those mentions was about Michael Bloomberg pledging a vast sum of money to the Democrat candidate’s campaign to win Florida. This might lead to a counterintuitive reaction from Florida residents to shy away from Biden because people may be put off by a $100 million media blitz campaign during a tough time such as a pandemic.

In another spectrum of the presidential election, fashion mogul and Chicago rapper-turned-church minister Kanye West fully carried out his promise to run when he launched his campaign website. He has called for his fans and followers to write in his nomination in the ballot and insomuch called his journey to election as a religious motivation. Building his manifesto on biblical passages, West definitely perked some interest from the masses. There were more than 520,000 mentions of West’s independent push to lead America in October. However, the main message being sent across social media was that netizens believed West was just running for presidency to pilfer Biden's votes and help the Trump campaign. 

Public opinion is crucial in an election. Voters are undeniably susceptible to prevalent discourses within social media. If the medium is the message, social media during an election is a powder keg of opinion. Based on the sheer volume of mentions and narratives seen in forum discussions and Twitter feeds, President Trump certainly is in the driving seat, making the news and netizens revolve around him. 

Surprisingly, in such a critical and history-defining election, Biden has not been as “proactive” in making the narratives and gaining the media momentum during the most unpredictable year.

The Trump campaign has also lobbied hard on bread-and-butter issues during this campaign, such as boosting the local industries and bringing jobs back. The Biden team has gone for broader issues of the Supreme Court and foreign policies. Two distinct topical focuses for voters to debate. This is where one candidate will overshadow the other. But for the sake of diplomacy and cooperation, and especially America’s position as a major global player, hopefully, the shadow is not a long one.

The Battle for the White House on Social Media

Is there room for eSports to grow in the Middle East? That’s the question that gamers and digital sports players in the region are asking themselves who want to make it in the industry. What began as a simple hobby in countries like the United Kingdom has now become a global phenomenon and avid gamers in the Middle East are catching up to it. 

News media outlets within countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are also taking note of the rise of eSports within the region, as over 4000 news articles have mentioned ‘eSports’ so far in 2020, a total media exposure increase of 107% compared to 2019. What does this mean? That this niche form of entertainment is becoming more popular, and as individual gamers across the globe are making a mark in this phenomenon, can the same happen in the Middle East? 

The Current State of Gaming in the Middle East

Since January 2020, 'eSports' has been a keyword that consistently gets more than 100 000 mentions on social media in the Middle East, indicating how much interest there is in esports and continued efforts to sponsor upcoming gamers in esports tournaments both locally and abroad, as mentioned in the ESI Regional Esports Market Report for the Middle Eastern region. 

In February 2020, Forbes revealed ﻿that the creator of 'League of Legends', Riot Games made waves in 2019 for their 10 year anniversary as they revealed a new first-person game called 'Project A'. This announcement not only received high interest from the global gaming community but impacted eSports conversations within the Middle East. With just over 10 Million social media mentions on 'eSports' alone in the region during the month, gaming and digital sports presents itself as an opportunity to be leveraged not only as a hobby but as a competitive sport that has the potential to reach global standards yet still be highly valued within the digital entertainment industry. 

According to Statista, the shared revenue of the video gaming industry in the Middle East was evaluated to be at around $3 billion in 2017, with the biggest markets including Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. While this region may still considered a young market in the gaming industry, it also holds a lot of potential.

News coverage on gaming within the twelve MENA (Middle East and North Africa) countries has also been overwhelming positive throughout the course of 2020. From Acer seeing growth in the Middle Eastern market due to its gaming models, to Saudi Arabia launching a $10 Million esports charity tournament in an effort to combat COVID-19, it is clear that this industry is one that is on the rise and with a market that is ready to see it succeed. 

So, what potential do esports events and tournaments have to rise beyond MENA? 

The Future of eSports is Brighter Than Ever﻿

Prince Faisal bin Bandar of Saudi Arabia, a passionate gamer himself and president of the Saudi Arabian Federation for Intellectual and Electronic Sports, has put the gaming industry on a podium with hopes to take digital sports as far as the Olympics. “eSports professionals are the top one to two percent; they are absolutely athletes,” Prince Faisal notes in the Wired article. “I believe esports should be part of the Olympic movement. This really is the sport of the next generation.”

A player to look out for in the region are Mosaad "Msdossary" Al-Dossary, a 19 year old Saudi Arabian FIFA esports player who forms part of Shaun 'Jay-Z' Carter's Roc Nation Sports. Msdossary is the second player from Saudi Arabia to win the FIFA eWorld Cup and was named the eSports Player of the Year - both in 2018. 

Fifa eWorld Cup Final Highlights MoAuba vs Msdossary | ESPN Esports

Much like any other region, young people in the Middle East have a growing fascination and interest in video games. Some of the top video games that have been mentioned along with 'eSports' in MENA countries include League of Legends, Fortnite, DOTA 2, Counter-Strike and FIFA. But one of the negative perceptions around 'eSports' in MENA that adds to the negative sentiment in the above graph is questioning the role of the youth in eSports and seeing the industry as more of a simple game instead of being taken so seriously as the video gaming industry could be. 

As mentioned by Hossam Al-Salti, board member of recently formed Syrian eSports Association, most people consider eSports to be child-orientated entertainment even though professional players are above the age of 18 years and have similar mindsets to other athletes. Although this perception exists, it hasn't stopped players and officials from showcasing the gaming industry to the rest of the region in an effort to eventually take it to the world. 

Although it has been slow, eSports in the Middle East is moving closer toward a global stage. Tencent's League of Legends championship, which was viewed by having 60 million viewers, proved massive potential for eSports on a global market. ﻿In MENA, the same can be said for its potential to grow both in the number of players involved and tournaments. 

With the backing of Prince Faisal bin Bandar from Saudia Arabia, one can only hope to see more steps taken to build and ensure a future for esports in the region that is brighter than ever before and transforms the dream of seeing the gaming community in the Middle East on a global stage into a reality.

Here you can find more information about our Media Monitoring Solution in Arabic.

A Data-Driven Analysis: The Future of eSports in the Middle East

Traditional media monitoring is a long established PR and marketing practice, taking place in most organisations across the UK. In fact, the origins of media monitoring are considered to be as early as 1879, when an agency in Paris began supplying actors with clippings of their reviews across multiple publications, meaning they no longer had to buy multiple whole papers themselves.

This idea of selecting only relevant content and gathering it in one place used to be the soul purpose of media monitoring providers. However, with the invention of the internet, the rise of social media and the focus on analysis and data-driven decisions, times (and business) have changed.

Founded in 2001, ‘Magenta News’ was the first phase of Meltwater, as a traditional news clipping service. However our CEO, Jorn Lyseggen always had an eye on technology and the insights you can derive from the internet. In November 2016, Jorn published ‘Outside Insight’, his guide to breaking out of the ordinary and adopting an external data and analysis fuelled approach to decision making and strategising.

His idea focuses on the insights you can find in the data that consumers and companies leave behind online. Using this approach, you’re able to explore new avenues and get a richer picture of the audience, industry and competitor landscape you’re in. This hugely expands the traditional ‘brand mentions’ model of media monitoring, allowing Meltwater to use the vast amount of data produced across the globe to provide a fuller, rounder and more insightful picture for its clients.

In a previous article, we examined the impact social listening can have for any organisation: big, small, consumer-focused, B2B, nonprofit or government department. Building on this, however, is to use our software for research. Be it product, market, consumer, competitor, educational, or political, below are eight use cases which demonstrate Meltwater’s power as a research tool.

Tip: Visit the Meltwater Academy for courses and more detailed information about how to use Meltwater. Also, learn more about market research.

First of all, with 10 years of retrospective online news data, 15 months of social data, and the largest global online source base, Meltwater gives you access to a huge wealth of information. In using the platform, you can quickly and easily gain valuable market insights.

For instance, if you want to see the public perception of ‘plant-based diet’, you can search for mentions over the last three years and see the astronomical increase – perfect for a product proposal. Companies looking to enter new markets can identify what is already available and find a gap, or read what is being mentioned in a proposed new region.

Meltwater is also an effective tool for competitor research. Using the unlimited keyword search, organisations can track for competitors, products, individual campaigns and hashtags. Benchmarking their mentions against your own allows you an overview of the market and the share that your organisation occupies.

This then helps PR/Marketing/Publicity/Social/Digital teams to develop a strategy for the market based on the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor. By keeping tabs on competitors, you can use these breadcrumbs to inform your own business strategy. If a competitor lists a high volume of job postings when setting up a new customer insight team, you are able to make an educated decision on what their focus will likely be for the next year. This way organisations can keep informed of their competitors’ latest products, campaigns, stakeholders and share price – after all, knowledge is power.

This ‘listening’ can also be applied to your target audience as a form of consumer research. Using our social data, teams are able to build up a profile of their current audience, learning about the key influencers within the market, and common characteristics.

This analysis can also be performed on the industry as a whole, to help identify your target audience, and directly compare the customers you are reaching and those you wish to reach. This works just as well in B2B business as consumer focused ones, and ultimately leads you to create more effective targeted campaigns and content.

In discovering more about the consumer, or prospective client, you can target campaigns and individual products to different audiences or locations. For instance, if Coca Cola identifies that young people in London who like their product have a shared interest in online makeup tutorials, they can seek out appropriate brand ambassadors to maximise the efficacy of a localised campaign.

They may also find that an older demographic of consumers in the Southern United States choose Walmart over any other supermarket, and use this as a basis to produce promotional material catering to that audience.

Campaign research is applicable to any industry. Even pharmaceutical companies can use social listening to filter and access online forums, where patients turn to discuss their health issues. By creating targeted searches and examining the language customers use in these conversations, they can create relatable educational content.

Additionally, Meltwater can be used as an internal campaign analysis tool, to research the effectiveness of the campaign and prove the ROI. Using a number of metrics, such as reach, AVE, volume, social echo and many others, you are able to report on campaigns, past and present.

Media intelligence is also helpful in informing the product or service you provide. By researching the most mentioned pizza flavours, food manufacturers can gauge their popularity or find the opinions of their current customers and implement their feedback. Similarly, in tracking competitors’ products, product teams can identify gaps in the market and common complaints, making sure to improve and implement these in their offering.

Research for business decisions and partnerships can be easily achieved in the platform, whether this is stakeholder research and corporate tracking, pitching or researching a potential sponsor or partner. Banks can use the data in Meltwater to deliver insights to leadership teams on topics which could affect partnerships and investments, identifying the potential risks.

This can also be useful for sales teams, as a form of lead-generation. By creating targeted boolean searches for people who have a problem or a need for products or services, an approach can then be made knowing that there is interest. For example, a company which produces live chat bots, can identify energy and water companies who are being mentioned on Twitter for having no live chat option or poor customer service.

The software can be used in many creative ways. For instance, an insurance company uses Meltwater to keep track of regional news reports of break-ins to inform their ad-spend on bus stops, making sure to place their ads in affected areas for comprehensive home insurance. This is a further example of ‘Outside Insight’ – what information could help you with your business needs?

Meltwater can be of great help to universities and the departments within them, in keeping up to date with the latest research and developments in their field. For example, a department of physics looking to produce research in quantum computing can keep informed on academic developments in journals and blogs across the world, as well as industry news and the progress of startups in the sector.

Departments can also research new projects, examining how well funded research is at other universities, and look up individual studies. Associations and government departments can also keep up to date with academic and industry news as it happens – especially during crises such as the current pandemic. Organisations can receive instant alerts to track the latest vaccine developments and travel bans, in order to be informed and educated on how it will affect their business going forward.

Political research is also possible within the platform with access to Hansard, detailing discussions and the minutes of Parliament and filtering those which are relevant to your industry and employees. In situations such as the current COVID-19 crisis, the ability to create twitter searches containing only tweets by MPs, can help when following the trending themes and latest news from Parliament itself. Pressure groups and associations can also use our data to perform campaign research on public opinion around issues such as nuclear power, vaccinations, grammar schools and many more.

Drop us a line below if you’d like more information on how Meltwater media intelligence can improve the quality of your research.

How to Use Meltwater As a Research Tool

The recent innovation in artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the PR pros’ toolbox. Here we discuss how predictive analytics, sentiment analysis, and reporting will soon get an even bigger boost, allowing PR to concentrate on the work they do best.

In reality, you don’t need to wait long to see how AI can improve your personal life. From calling a rideshare to arrive in minutes or getting an answer from Siri, AI is already saving us all time and money while making our days more convenient.

But what about when it comes to our work?

When it comes to transforming industries, AI has (so far) received a bad rap for its potential to replace humans and take away jobs. And in some industries, this may very well be the reality. But in public relations and communications, our prediction is that it will be actually the opposite—that AI will pair with you to make you far more data-driven, streamline your workflows so you can focus on what you do best, and help you amplify your message at a scale far beyond what is imaginable.

Let’s take a look at three ways AI will enhance public relations, with a few you can already start using to make your work faster and more effective:

1. More Targeted, Dynamic Journalist and Social Influencer Outreach

We all know that the way we currently reach out to influencers (both social and news media) en masse leaves a lot to be desired. It’s a two-sided problem: PR professionals don’t have enough time to curate hyper-relevant lists or tailor their messaging to each influencer directly, so influencers often get hit with a barrage of generic pitches that they end up just ignoring.

Imagine a world where using an AI technique called natural language processing, we can analyze the messaging of the PR professional’s pitch to find out that it is a new product launch about golfing targeted at millennials. In the meantime, we can also analyze previous articles written by social and news influencers to find those who write often about product launches, golf, or millennial consumer tastes. We can automatically curate a list of these specific influencers to coordinate a much more relevant match and, thus, a much higher likelihood that the influencer will be interested in covering this story. Over time, as you maintain relationships with these influencers, the AI can even sort out which influencers have higher open and response rates to your pitches and suggest them for future, even more effective campaigns.

For an overview of how you can already use natural language and pitch analytics to automate pitch personalization, watch our webinar on media outreach best practices.

It’s no secret that our information world is becoming more and more visual; it’s rare these days to find important news or social posts that don’t contain images or video. In fact, think about the number of times your brand, product, or service may appear in an online photo without the article or post explicitly tagging you!

Cutting-edge image recognition technology cannot only automatically detect objects, scenes, and faces in images, but actually name the people, brands, and products within. Take this photo, for example:

Image recognition can ensure that in addition to monitoring text mentions on social media and news, you are capturing visual conversations about your brand. This is particularly helpful for visual mediums like Instagram and Pinterest, where consumers may be posting photos about highly positive or negative experiences with your company that you currently may not be aware of!

3. Automated Reporting with Smarter, More Accurate Sentiment Analysis

Today more and more PR pros are looking to make data-driven decisions based on campaign performance, social listening, and competitive benchmarking. However, building reports on these activities can require wading through data from a variety of sources, building spreadsheets, and turning charts into easily digestible graphs. Media intelligence tools are already here to automate these process. But what about the analysis and lessons learned. By detecting patterns and changes over time, AI already lets us translate trends into words, as in Meltwater’s new Insight Reports Builder (in just 15 minutes, we can give you a personalised tour!)

Tip: Read our blog about Meltwater's AI Powered PR Assistant

A key tool for understanding brand perception in any modern PR report involves looking at audience sentiment. Sentiment analysis, already an important part of any PR professional’s media intelligence toolbox, lets you gauge how customers are feeling about your product, service, or brand as a whole. However, traditional methods of sentiment analysis either rely on a ton of tedious manual work or inaccurately gauge an article based on its cumulative sentiment (think of it as essentially summing up all the positive and negative words in a document).

Luckily, new advancements in natural language processing will make sentiment analysis more accurate and actionable. We can now drill down to each specific person, product, place, or company in an article and analyze the surrounding sentence for how this writer feels particularly about this entity.

“That Subway commercial was annoying and too long, but the Doritos ad was amazing.”

Older techniques would consider this sentence negative, as there is one positive word (“amazing”) and two negative phrases (“annoying” and “too long”). But if you managed communications at Doritos, a negative tag on this sentence (if buried within one of many long articles) would’ve made you potentially miss a great endorsement and throw off your reporting. The next generation of sentiment analysis would discern that this sentence is actually positive in relation to Doritos (and a win for your team!).

As you can see artificial intelligence is an extremely helpful enhancement, not a mysterious looming threat. When we let the machines do the heavy lifting—the counting, the categorizing, the detecting—it frees us up to do even more of the strategic and creative work we signed up to do in the first place. Let’s look forward to the amazing developments to come in this field in 2018 and beyond.

Artificial Intelligence in PR: Where We Are and Where We're Headed

If data is King, then context is Queen and a sentiment analysis API holds the keys to the kingdom. During this article we’ll walk through the basics of sentiment analysis, the role of natural language processing, and how sentiment analysis APIs are used by companies to inform strategic decision making.

Before answering the above question, let’s first clear up what is meant by a sentiment analysis. 

Sentiment analysis is a research area examining people’s opinions, attitudes and emotions in written language through the method of Natural Language Processing (NLP). The Oxford Dictionary explains this as:

The process of computationally identifying and categorising opinions expressed in a piece of text, especially in order to determine whether the writer’s attitude towards a particular topic, product, etc. is positive, negative, or neutral.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology powers sentiment analysis by mining text with the aim of extracting subjective information from the data. Most sentiment analysis providers lean on advanced linguistic algorithms and machine learning to deliver granular sentiment detection and understand and derive meaning from human language. This helps sentiment analysis go beyond categorising data at face value, for example, tricky sentences like double negatives (e.g. not bad) and irony can be correctly categorised based on positive, negative and neutral tonality.

APIs enable businesses to blend data from their own applications with third-party business systems. Through the integration of data, executives can yield a representative picture of their business and the eco-system it sits within, both on a macro and micro level. But data needs context. Without context, professionals run the risk of looking at data from a vanity perspective. Here’s where sentiment analysis APIs help. Sentiment analysis prevents companies from looking at data with rose tinted glasses, and APIs ensure they gain a full 360-view of their business.

How are sentiment analysis APIs transforming business decision making?

The benefits of sentiment analysis APIs are vast, including helping organizations:

Understand motivations behind conversations

Connect the dots between disparate data types

Break down silos by offering a single source and centralized view of data

Let’s take a look at the benefits sentiment analysis APIs have on critical business decision making in more depth!

Connecting the dots between data types to add context to data and ultimately mitigate risk 

Don’t underestimate the importance of blending datatypes. It’s vital that data and teams don’t exist in silos. Lack of visibility can be hugely detrimental to businesses, for example, while your sales figures may be looking positive, if your customer contact centre sees a spike in negative language, the future may not look at bright as first expected. Perhaps new customers have been wrongly sold to or there’s a fault with your product, such insights are relevant to numerous departments.
 
Regardless of whether it’s a sentiment analysis API or standard API, APIs ensure you're fully aware of your surroundings by connecting the dots between disparate data types that usually sit siloed in different departments. More often than not, APIs are fed into command centres that visualize all business functions from one centralised platform. While data analysis looks different from company to company, one thing most businesses have in common is the need for accessing a unified reporting solution that has the ability to show one source of truth – a single and unified view of all business functions.
 
Sentiment analysis APIs are usually favoured as they tell executives the why (qualitative insights) and not just the what (quantitative insights), therefore adding critical context and guiding their decision-making process. 
 
Hopefully by now you have a better understanding of the role of sentiment analysis APIs and how they’re used to inform business strategies. Want to see what this looks like for your company? Fill out the form below and we’ll show you!

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How a Sentiment Analysis API can Transform Business Decision Making

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AI & Data Analytics

Elections And The Threat of Foreign Interference

The Battle for the White House on Social Media

A Data-Driven Analysis: The Future of eSports in the Middle East

How to Use Meltwater As a Research Tool

Artificial Intelligence in PR: Where We Are and Where We're Headed

How a Sentiment Analysis API can Transform Business Decision Making

How Data Can Inform Your Marketing Campaigns: The Lion King Case Study

3 AI Driven Lawtech Startups Changing the Legal Landscape

AI in Communications: A Peek Inside PayPal’s Playbook

Netflix: Data-driven decision-making

The hunt for alternative data in the finance industry

How to Use AI and Data for Supply Chain Risk

Interested in learning how Meltwater can help you? Fill out the form to learn more.