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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

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

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

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

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

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

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

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

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.

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!

What Is Data Analytics?
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!

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.

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?

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.

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.

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!

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?

If you’re not prioritizing video in your content marketing strategy, you are missing out on a very fruitful engagement opportunity. There is ample research confirming the popularity of video content, from a viewer preference standpoint as well as a digital marketing stance. Here’s some stats for you numbers nerds:

Viewers claim they retain 95% of a message when obtained via video (social media week)

84% of people say that they’ve been convinced to buy a product or service by watching a brand’s video. (Wyzowl)

78% of video marketers say video has directly helped increase sales. (Wyzowl)

The benefits of video content are abundantly clear. But how do you get started? With so many channels and ever-increasing quality expectations from consumers, you’d be forgiven for being even a little intimidated about video content marketing, whether you’re just starting, or trying to get to the next level. 

Does your mouth go dry just thinking about standing in front of the camera? Or maybe you’re feeling a little overwhelmed by the pressure to “go viral”?

Hang in there. We've collected some of the best and most engaging video content marketing ideas for your creative marketing projects. If there’s a way to make video work for you, it’s on this list!

Metrics to Track for Video Content Marketing Success

Videos can help you lift your marketing strategy, but first, you need to outline and track some specific metrics to make sure you’re achieving your marketing goals. If one style of video is underperforming, take a look at if there are any common denominators. Are the scripts poorly written? Do they have sub-par lighting or sound? Is the content just not resonating? Maybe the style is lost on your target age group. Consider these factors and course correct.

In order to figure out what’s performing and what's not, the following video content marketing metrics are a good place to start:

Views - The number of views your video receives. Important to remember that 2 views don’t equal 2 people. It's more likely 1 person will view multiple times. Sorry!

Detail expands - If you’re sharing your video on Twitter, this engagement metric counts how many times somebody clicked on a tweet for more information or to expand media like a photo or video clip.

Drop off rate - For videos posted on YouTube, this is an important one to keep an eye on. The average drop-off is around 50-60% according to YouTube, so if you’re well outside that range, make sure you take steps to understand why.

Social shares - Your video will get exponentially more views if people decide they like it enough to share with their social networks. So if views is a top goal for the video, make sure it’s share-worthy.

Without further adieu, here are 50 video content marketing ideas to include in your marketing strategy:

You have a bunch of brilliant people on your team, so why not use that to your advantage? Of course, not everyone loves the spotlight…so you need to find a creative way to introduce both introverts and extroverts and let their personalities shine through on camera. You won't regret adding a bit of human charm to your website.

This type of video content is easy to repurpose as well. You could shoot a full video for YouTube, then cut up the employee highlights for short-form channels like Instagram Stories.

It’s a similar concept to team introductions, however, in this type of video, you should focus on the broader scope of the organization’s mission and vision, goals, and business philosophy. It’s a simple and easy way to give your prospective clients a great first impression. What makes your company unique? How are you better than your competitors? And why should they spend their money on you? Remember, authenticity always sells best.

Want to be recognized as an industry influencer? Then start building relationships with experts in your field. The interview format is a wonderful way to get unique, fresh angles and can top up your video library with valuable video content. Harnessing the potential of influencer marketing is a smart strategy for businesses that have ambitions to become industry thought leaders.

Repurpose these kinds of videos into a webinar or LinkedIn Live to keep your relationship with the influencer strong, and hopefully, you’ll be able to work with them again!

Watch out for bland customer testimonials – they can do more harm than good. The sole purpose of video testimonials is to showcase your relationship with customers in a believable and engaging format. Let them say what they want to say – using their own words and body language. 

A good video testimonial resembles a friendly conversation rather than a full-on serious interview. However, don’t be afraid to do a couple of takes, and work with the interviewee on ways to structure their answers for the strongest sound bites. 

Meltwater Customer Story: The Economist

Remember that your clients are a great source of content. Like you, they’re creating new projects, testing new marketing tactics, implementing new management methods. There are a lot of hard-won lessons to talk about! Find an angle that is most valuable to your audience and film a friendly tips & tricks interview that will help you nurture your relationship with the client as well as inject new content into your site as a customer story. This is also extremely valuable content for your sales team to leverage.

The power of case studies is indisputable. Combining both hard facts and client testimonials, you can win a lot of new business. As a medium, video is incredibly flexible – sprinkle it with elements of typography, design, photography, music, and special effects, and you have a strong, attention-grabbing piece of video content marketing. What’s more, it’s a convenient way to introduce your features and include screenshots of your product without coming off too salesy.

That said, case studies are a powerful sales tool, so make it easy for prospective clients to quickly browse a video library based on their needs. Use tags, clear titles, and obvious use case connections. Don’t make it any harder than it has to be for new business to get in the door!

You’re probably creating a lot of written content – everything from newsletters to eBooks to PDFs. Why not repurpose this content visually? Depending on the information, you may want to go for infographics or data visualization in a video format. One of the flashiest trends in the video content marketing world is something called video scribing or whiteboard animation. It’s a creative way to convey information using both text and images, but you may want to hire a professional to do it for you to avoid disappointment and a lot of frustration if you don’t have an in-house video editor.

How-tos are a pretty straightforward format that don’t require expensive props, acting talent, or complex scenarios to produce high-quality video content marketing material. They’re great for YouTube SEO (search engine optimization), as Google now favors video results for instructional queries - even going so far as to include the time-stamps of the video most relevant to your search:

How-to content can generate a lot of value for your company because there’s so much opportunity to represent your space. For example, say you’re a clothing manufacturer. Your products might not need an instruction manual, but you could shoot an entire series around how to accessorize a simple outfit. 

Or perhaps you make skis & snowboards - you could shoot a beginner, intermediate, and advanced series about how to pull off a picture-perfect jump. That’s tons of content at your fingertips! A quick repurpose opportunity is to turn these videos into IGTV posts for your audience on Instagram.

Who doesn’t want a peek behind the curtain? Tap into people’s natural curiosity with some behind-the-scenes video content. This type of video is great for giving your audience a sense of authenticity, breaking down the fourth wall. Lean into the off-the-cuff nature of these videos and show your personality - use handheld phone recording for example, as you prepare for a big meeting or campaign. 

Or perhaps compile a couple of months or a year of behind-the-scenes content as your product team works toward a new feature launch. Don’t be afraid to talk about your failures and hurdles, and how you overcome them – it makes you and your business more human.

A distinct workplace culture is important to business success, according to 94 percent of executives and 88 percent of employees. (Deloitte)

The proof is in the numbers. Company culture is a center stage decision-making factor for job seekers and a powerful source of inspiration for employees. When it’s positive, culture keeps spirits high, helps drive sales and customer acquisition efforts, and other important business ventures. 

Capture the soul of your business through videos designed around employees embodying your company culture. Everyone wants to be part of something cool and special and it applies to your customers, too. They’ll pay not only for the quality of your product but also for that lifestyle and vision you’re selling indirectly.

Have a lot of video content sitting in your library? Make use of it by pulling together your best work into highlight reels. This is also a great format for end-of-year summaries or when you hit a major milestone. Think of it as a montage sequence in a movie - these scenes often inspire a strong emotional response when they are well-edited and put to motivating music. Remember this when planning the marketing for your highlights reel!

50 Delightfully Simple Video Content Ideas for Your Online Business

At the heart of any marketing strategy lies content, and any marketer knows that in order to build a relationship with their target audience and potential customers, they need to effectively use content to capture their attention first before engaging with them to build a long lasting relationship that yields customer loyalty. But before this can all happen, step one of creating a strong content marketing strategy is getting to know your customers - their likes, dislikes, sentiment around certain topics and their behaviours. 

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

When it comes to the Middle East, knowing your customers is particularly vital if you want to see success with your content marketing efforts. The region is rich in diversity and is constantly on top of a number of tech trends. In the past, brands have tried using generic forms of communication to get their message across the whole region, with the results of their campaign strategies showing how they missed reaching full potential. So, if you want to learn how to master content marketing for the Middle East, here are some quick tips to remember: 

Content marketing matters in the Middle East

According to a survey done by Zeentree.com back in 2015, 60% of marketers in the Middle East planned on increasing their content marketing budgets over the next year. The survey revealed how marketers within the region were rapidly turning towards content marketing as a key focus of their overall digital marketing efforts. To add onto this, the survey found that 69% of marketers interviewed viewed content marketing as ‘very important’ to their marketing efforts. So, if marketers find content marketing important, so should you. 

Content marketing has a lot to do with answering your audience’s questions. You want to be able to build trust between your brand and your audience, and content is a great way of achieving this by addressing the very questions they have. What are the tourist attractions in Dubai that they can visit? What are some of the fashion trends that your audience in the region needs to be aware of? If these are just some of the questions that your audience is asking, create content that will answer them. You not only give yourself the opportunity to be top of mind for these topics, but you connect with your customers and, with consistent content, can improve conversions and generate leads. 

In 2020, "content marketing" was mentioned 1208 times on social media in the UAE, with the term engaging over 100 000 users and garnering a social reach of over 2 Million. Looking at the trending themes for "content marketing" in the region, the data highlights how social media users are interested in the topic, and marketers need to be too. 


But, you don't want to produce the same old, recycled content. Catching the attention of your audience in the Middle East means producing quality content that doesn't just inform but is entertaining and generates enough interest that your audience wants to share it with others. As the region continues to invest in technology, digital marketing and e-commerce, marketers who are considering content marketing for their strategies in the future should invest time and resources into optimising their content; think SEO and the right copy, if you want to start standing out from the rest. 

If you want to guarantee a successful digital marketing campaign, the focus of the content you create needs to be geared towards community. This simple rule has proven to be successful for some of the biggest brand names, such as Nissan. Below are two pictures of an advert for the Nissan Pathfinder. The first image is an ad for the Saudi Arabian market and second image is for the U.S. market. Notice how a key difference between the two images is that the ad for the Saudi Arabian market depicts the car as a ‘family car’ whilst the U.S. one simply highlights the specs and details of the car. This is because family and a sense of community is crucial when marketing in the Middle East. 

The content you create should also be written in a language that your consumers and target audience will understand - both literally and figuratively. Arabic is one of the main languages for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Egypt and even other GCC countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. This means that for your content, you should incorporate both Arabic and English. This will give you some of the best results when it comes to audience outreach, so make sure that you include these languages into your content. 

If you also are creating content that is at the top of the marketing funnel, make sure that these content pieces are easy to follow and linguistically make sense collectively. Additionally, the images you use also need to make sense so avoid anything that may confuse your audience.

With an increase in mobile usage in the Middle East, remember that when creating content for the Arabic market, ensure that it is optimised for mobile consumption. Most Arabs use their smart phones to use the internet, with Saudi Arabia ranking 3rd globally for smartphone usage. Make sure that your website is not just language friendly, but mobile friendly too. 

The shift in the Middle East's ability to adapt to technology has seen the users in the region continue to increase usage of social media platforms. This provides marketers with the opportunity to use social media as effective channels for their content marketing campaigns, and in turn, reach a wider audience and increase engagement. 

Influencer marketing is also quite popular in the Middle East, where the most popular influencers now have millions of followers on social media. In 2020, the term 'influencer marketing' has been mentioned 266 times in news articles and 751 times on social media in the UAE, based on Meltwater's Media Monitoring data. This is an increase of 57%, compared to last year, indicating that more people in the region are talking about influencers and the potential they have. Additionally, while there are still neutral feelings towards influencer marketing within the region, 17% of social media mentions on influencer marketing are positive as both users and brands begin to see the value and effectiveness that influencer marketing has.

By incorporating influencers into your content marketing approach, you'll soon realise how great of a fit influencers can be within the cultural and market tendencies. People prefer peer recommendations over impersonal brand campaigns, and the same is true for the Middle Eastern market. 

Whether you are a global brand or a local business, being culturally sensitive is important when coming up with marketing campaigns and strategies for the Middle East. Marketers need to learn and understand the Middle East’s cultural diversity, and how that can actually be an advantage. 

In September 2017, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman issued a decree that allowed women to drive for the first time. Ford Middle East celebrated the news by sharing a striking ad on Twitter that was positively received by a number of social media users in the region.

What can you take away from this? If you're in marketing, make sure that you study the cultural and consumer landscape before you create a marketing campaign strategy. A great example of being culturally aware with your content marketing strategy is to use the month of Ramadan to plan a marketing campaign that is creative but embraces and respects the importance of religion in the daily lives of Middle Eastern audiences.

Creating a content marketing strategy is one of the most important steps you can take for your marketing efforts in the Middle East. Try to audit your current content and see what has been working for your brand and where you might want to improve using the above tips. If you need a guide on what it takes to create an effective content marketing strategy, see our 9 Keys to an Effective Content Marketing post.

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

Both consumer and business audiences often respond more to visual communication than written content. Photos and videos tend to be more entertaining and visually stimulating, and consequently create longer-lasting audience engagement than written content does.  

While video has already told many brand stories, the platform started to get even more attention once COVID-19 hit. With a need to connect, audiences sought out video stories that could both inform and provide some comfort during an uncertain time. Although the intent of heightening brand authenticity remained the same, the video storytelling that’s emerged since COVID-19 illustrates how it can also be an effective crisis story management tool. 

Let’s look at examples of companies that created story videos during the COVID-19 crisis to support customers and grow their brands. Messages within these brand storytelling examples have evolved from what marketers developed prior to the crisis. They can provide insights into the strategy to take when producing platform-specific content during difficult times. 

Before exploring video storytelling in a time of crisis, it’s important to define the concept and understand how the tactic has previously been used. 

Brands have used visual storytelling to grow closer to a specific audience by sharing the story of the company and its product. Developed through marketing and sales efforts, the video’s narrative walks the viewer through a pain point or issue the audience experiences. 

The video story then uses the narrative to involve the audience by building an emotional connection. The combination of emotions, music, and visuals transforms the video into a personal story for the audience. The solution offered to the customer completes the authentic effect while never making the viewer feel as if they were just sold something.  

A crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic has demanded much of people, including isolation, while they wait and wonder what’s going to happen. The loneliness and uncertainty drive them to spend more time online, looking for connections. Video often becomes the missing human connection because it offers information and familiarity. 

User-Generated Content: Examples from VSCO and ADT

Launching a product in the midst of a crisis can be difficult. However, one brand found a way to use video storytelling to drive awareness of its new product. 

VSCO (Visual Supply Company) is already a popular tool for creating and editing visual imagery. The company wanted to introduce its new Montage tool, which allows the app’s users to compose video and use it as a storytelling tool. VSCO reached out to its audience to create and share with the tool, expressing how they felt during the current crisis. They encouraged relevant hashtags like #VSCOMontage and #VSCOCOVID19.

In this way, their target audience could see and experience what the tool could do, while simultaneously enjoying an outlet to express and connect in a challenging time. It led to extensive, creative user-content in the form of video storytelling for VSCO.

Security solutions company ADT also focused on user-generated content for its “Safe at Home” video marketing campaign. The company used the campaign to connect its brand to security and safety in the home year-round. It also served to remind customers that the shelter-in-place mandate is the best strategy to stay safe during the pandemic. 

In the video stories, viewers can see individuals and families coping with the stay-at-home order. The stories featured multiple demographics so audience members could connect more easily. This was intended to provide comfort, familiarity, and security, which also reflected ADT’s brand values. 

Shifting Perspectives: Examples from IKEA and Guinness

In a time of crisis, video can be a good way to shift the viewer’s perspective away from stress and anxiety to something more positive. This is something you didn’t see as often with videos produced before the crisis. Ikea did this with a series of videos that tell the story of a person’s house—with the house as narrator. The idea was to go from dread and isolation to the security and enjoyment of a home. 

In the process, Ikea was also able to align its values of helping its customers create a home that is meaningful to them with the experiences they will have there. 

The images displaying what a home means provided a way to redirect viewers to the comfort and connection people can have with their homes and families. 

Your house has something to tell you - Anuncio IKEA

Guinness took a similar approach with video storytelling to get its audience to refocus on positive perspectives. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations were essentially canceled around the world, so the beer maker created a video story that reminded its audience of resiliency and celebration. Using images that spanned the brand’s centuries-long existence, Guinness was able to show how it has survived many crises, including two world wars. 

This campaign tied the idea that everyone becomes Irish on St. Patrick’s Day with the reality that we are all human every day. It offered a touching message that connected St. Patrick’s symbols, including Guinness beer, with the ability to still celebrate, thrive, and be kind to each other. 

A St. Patrick’s Day Message From Guinness 2020

Here are some recommendations for engaging video storytelling during a crisis:

Acknowledge the crisis but build your video story off of it into something that is more positive and hopeful for the audience. 

Look for ways to see and show the crisis from the audience’s eyes. 

Align the narrative and story resolution to brand values you share with your audience.

Focus the video story on doing the right thing in the face of adversity or turning a challenge into a solution that benefits the community or society. 

Include user-generated content to diversify visual images and illustrate the array of personal stories.

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

COVID-19 has catalyzed vast changes in how we do business. Today, consumer behavior and activity has shifted almost completely to the digital space. eCommerce is up over 100%, social media usage has increased from pre-COVID levels on average 20% across channels, and nearly half of consumers believe that the changes in how they shop will sustain into the future. 

While COVID-19 certainly accelerated this “new normal”, these changes had been coming upon us before 2020, which suggests to those watching the trends that the new normal is here to stay, even as the world begins to ease lockdown restrictions.  

While budgets have been either preemptively or reactively reduced, and worried consumer bases consciously slowing their spending, marketers have been forced to quickly adapt to an unprecedented challenge with fewer resources. Fortunately, as the above stats show, people are creating and sharing content across social platforms at record numbers, and it’s these candid and intimate brand experiences - commonly referred to as user-generated content (UGC) - that consumers want and trust.

The trust consumers place in UGC is considerable - 90% of consumers reported that UGC has more influence over their decision making process than other forms of marketing, including search engine results. 

Looking ahead to a post-COVID-19 world, brands will also need to work harder than ever to earn and fortify consumer trust and the number one way to generate trust with consumers is through common, real experiences. Most customers will need validation that a larger base has re-engaged with a brands’ products or services before they physically step back into stores themselves, whether that means traveling, dining out, or enrolling in Universities. Authentic UGC can be a sustainable, cost-effective, and persuasive source of content that brands will need to help build trust, increase revenue, and strengthen their relationships with existing and would-be customers.

At the very least, COVID has afforded us a glimpse into each other’s lives. We see news reporters speaking from their home offices, we take zoom meetings with VPs at their kitchen tables, and this frankness and candor has allowed us all to communicate more directly, honestly, and openly, with each other and with customers. Marketers, through UGC, can leverage this shift in perspective and online behaviour through the content that their customers are already generating (at historically higher rates). This will not only reduce marketing costs but can also help to facilitate human connection, and will measurably increase conversions.

Meltwater has recently partnered with TINT, a UGC Management Platform to help brands humanize their marketing to build trust and increase conversions along every step of the customer journey.  With this partnership, Meltwater can now offer clients the option to publish UGC into any channel including websites, apps, screens, emails, or ads. Brands can now combine owned and earned in a curated way to display publicly across social channels, ads and other media types. Meltwater clients can source authentic user generated content across social media to generate new commercial opportunities and seamlessly handle rights management. And with Meltwater’s award winning AI and social analytics tools, brands can eliminate guesswork and manual processes by using image recognition and audience insights to surface highly engaging content curated to your brand that is most meaningful to your audience. 

If you’d like to learn more about incentivizing your customer base to create UGC that you can leverage for your brand, you can register for our upcoming webinar here. 

Leveraging UGC In a Post-COVID World

In the last few weeks, many marketers have struggled to pivot their strategies, revise their messaging, and figure out what content to create going forward (including us).

When your brand is facing a challenge, be it a global crisis or an internal restructuring, the natural instinct is to get “ahead” of it. But is that always the right move? Sometimes it’s important to speak up. Sometimes it’s more appropriate to stay silent. But it’s not always an either/or situation.

When you’re facing rough seas, what matters is knowing when to speak and what to say when you do. But that’s not always easy to figure out, especially in stressful times. Luckily, there is a way to gain more clarity.

To help you decipher what communication is worthwhile, and what might get you in hot water, we’ve found that a few simple questions can guide you in the right direction.

Whether you need to sanity-check your content strategy or know if it’s the right time to send that company-wide email, here are five helpful questions to decide if what you’re communicating is on-brand, worthwhile, and necessary.

When something happens, your instinct is usually to say something, but every situation is different depending on the timing, climate, or message.

Sometimes responding too quickly may seem reactionary, while responding too slow can seem out of touch. Sometimes saying nothing can seem avoidant or suspect, but unnecessarily inserting yourself into a conversation can seem like bandwagoning. (Honestly, we’ve seen too many brands create the same pseudo inspirational COVID-19 response commercial. It feels cheesy and unoriginal at this point.)

Before you say something, here are 5 steps to take to mitigate a crisis in your marketing. But if you want to say something during a difficult time, think carefully about how it may be perceived, as sometimes good intentions can be overshadowed by a bad (or poorly worded) execution. Ideally, your communication should be proactive, showing that you’re not just “dealing” with a situation but truly leading people through it.

For example, months before Coronavirus made headlines, the Magic The Gathering card game designed a new card for Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths named “Spacegodzilla, Death Corona.” Worse, it was set to hit stores in April 2020.

In light of the pandemic, the company made the responsible decision to issue a simple announcement to explain the situation, announce the card’s new name (“Spacegodzilla, Void Invader”), and detail how they would proceed going forward. By responding in a calm, proactive way, they were able to avoid fanning the flames and get back to business as usual.

In challenging times, everyone has their own unique feelings, fears, worries, etc. What you say can often help, hurt, or influence those feelings, so it’s important to be intentional about what you say, how you say it, and when you say it.

If you’re not sure what to say, this is the time to use your empathy. How are people affected right now? What are they experiencing? What do they want and need to know?

Before you speak to customers or vendors, think about your team, too. They are the face of your brand, so they need to be on the same page—and feel equally value. Whether it’s your employees or customers, sometimes it’s helpful to do the legwork to find out what people are feeling, and how your communication can best serve them.

For example, we polled our team to find out how they were feeling about our Coronavirus response. This helped us understand how we could support people, whether it was communicating more info on COVID-19 related policies or providing more transparency around how it’s affecting our business.

Oftentimes brands want to speak up just to feel like they’re “doing” something in times of crisis. But there’s a difference between stepping up and adding to the noise. Over-communication can be a nuisance when it’s clogging up your inbox. It can also be a sign of rocky leadership if you’re announcing policy changes every day.

Before you blast out that company-wide email or draft another tweet, ask yourself how this communication will contribute to the current climate. Will it provide much-needed information? Will it help people in some way? Will it confuse them, or make them ruminate on a problem they don’t need to worry about?

Content Marketing

50 Delightfully Simple Video Content Ideas for Your Online Business

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

Leveraging UGC In a Post-COVID World

5 Questions to Ask Before Your Brand Joins a Conversation

4 Brands Getting Content Marketing Right

But I Have Nothing to Share: The Clueless Marketer’s Guide to Repurposing Content

5 Editorial Calendar Content Types [infographic]

When to Use Sponsored Content

Content Syndication: 9 Tools and Strategies to Try

8 Extra To-Dos for Better Content Distribution

Boost the Wow Factor of Your B2B Content Marketing with Visuals

Content Marketing

50 Delightfully Simple Video Content Ideas for Your Online Business

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

How to Use Video Storytelling Effectively in Times of Crisis

Leveraging UGC In a Post-COVID World

5 Questions to Ask Before Your Brand Joins a Conversation

4 Brands Getting Content Marketing Right

But I Have Nothing to Share: The Clueless Marketer’s Guide to Repurposing Content

5 Editorial Calendar Content Types [infographic]

When to Use Sponsored Content

Content Syndication: 9 Tools and Strategies to Try

8 Extra To-Dos for Better Content Distribution

Boost the Wow Factor of Your B2B Content Marketing with Visuals

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