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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

Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

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

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

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

Immersive Experiences are the Next Frontier in PR and Brand Marketing

PR-driven immersive experiences are taking the art world by storm and it’s turning an entire industry upside down. 

You may be wondering… What could art possibly have to do with immersive experiences? And how do they relate to PR or brand marketing or even social media?

The days where reality and imagination are separate things are quickly coming to an end. Today, creativity is transforming reality in ways we never thought imaginable. Humans are looking for the next frontier in mind-blowing experiences and it has major implications for marketers, brands, and businesses across the globe.

The Top Examples of Immersive Experiences

What exactly is an immersive experience?

“Immersive experiences simulate our senses in order to create an illusion that transports us to another place and situation. Immersion should be realistic, engaging and satisfying. It can be experienced in different fields, it doesn’t occur only when you put on a VR headset.”

If you’re looking for the best examples of immersive experiences, look no further than the art industry.

Take one of the most popular (and talked-about) attractions over the last year, the Museum of Ice Cream. It’s a museum reimagined and built for Millennials – a generation that is using social media in a radically different way than other generations. 

@thepintshop OPENS IN 2 DAYS! 🍦 Non-ticketed and open to the public in NYC from JUNE 6 - August 2018, @thepintshop is an immersive grocery experience with pint INSTALLATIONS, a TASTING adventure and GROCERY aisles dedicated OUR DEBUT ICE CREAM LINE! ✨🍒 Want the INSIDE SCOOP? 💭 FOLLOW the @thepintshop to learn more 💗🌈🙌#museumoficecream #icecream #newyork #pintshare

Many would consider museums a “boring” industry or a PR nightmare, but if you peel back the layers and encourage audiences to use their imagination and creativity, you can change preconceived notions on just about anything.

That is until theatrical performances like Sleep No More began to appear. Sleep No More is an immersive (and quite realistic) play that takes place at “The McKittrick Hotel” in New York.

Immersive experiences like Museum of Ice Cream and Sleep No More point to a much larger trend in augmented reality. This trend is going to give people the power to “choose their own adventures” and brands the ability to provide them with incredible tools in rich environments and landscapes to do so.

One production company that is pushing the boundaries for immersive experiences is Meow Wolf and its CEO Vince Kadlubek. Meow Wolf is known for their art-filled venue, The House of Eternal Return, which has brought in an astonishing $6 million in one year. and is expanding to several locations throughout the southwest.

Meow Wolf’s is pushing for a whole new type of experience. Their goal isn’t just to get people to post to Instagram or other social media channels, Kadlubek explains, “We want to create something where I could put up a thousand images, I could put up video, but it doesn’t at all even capture the feeling of it.”

PR and Marketing Lessons From Immersive Experiences

Pixar is arguably one of the greatest storytellers of our generation. Their core mission is to tell a great story and it drove them to win 13 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 11 Grammys.

Brand and marketers looking to create immersive experiences for their audiences must understand the rules of great storytelling and weave that into everything they are creating.

Take Refinery29 – an online woman’s lifestyle brand – for example. Their team has created an experience called 29Rooms where they’ve “collaborated with a broad range of artists and brands to create an inclusive, interactive, and highly visual space meant to unlock visitors’ imaginations, spark dialog, and fuel self-expression.”

As we mentioned earlier, people are looking for the next mind-blowing experience to enrich their lives.

In order to create a mind-blowing environment, excite your audience’s senses. Allow them to see something they’ve never seen or felt before. Take them out of the ordinary. Leave them talking and reflecting on the experience.

That’s exactly what Color Factory does for their customers. And you can continue to be wow-ed, no matter where you are, by following them on Instagram:

Our ball pit in San Francisco had over 200,000 yellow balls and custom illustrations by @peopleiveloved. We can’t wait to share what’s in store for NYC! #colorfactoryco

The Color Factory with their Alaska Airlines room, as well as pop ups such as the Spotted Cheetah Restaurant from Frito-Lay and 29Rooms with their co-branded—Juicy Couture, Casper, Dunkin’ Donuts, Dyson, and Cadillac rooms—highlight examples of brands partnering to co-create, or wholly produce their own immersive experience.

Alaska Airlines on Twitter: "Brighten up San Francisco. The Color Factory opens tomorrow. Come see it for yourself https://t.co/cS17dq6tem #OnlyinSF #colorfactoryco… https://t.co/ZmJM634ZbG"

I'm here at the opening of #thespottedcheetah! Which dish would you want to try?

If you hope to create a truly one-of-a-kind immersive experience for your audience, put yourself in users’ shoes. Test, learn, fail, and experiment a ton. And don’t just rely on words to build the story.

Audiences crave sensory richness and every single detail is what will bring your brand story to life. If you’re interested in knowing what will delight your community, we can help.

Dip Your Toe Into Immersive Experiences

Digital takes the cake in the modern marketing world and social media is an important slice. But, they’re not entirely the same thing.

Digital marketing is a cool Generation X who knows the ropes of the internet and how to market your company in classic world wide web fashion. Social media is a more casual millennial, the product of the Gen Xer’s, who bucks against anything traditional and stays connected to the world 24-7.

You need both to spread your message effectively.

Let’s see how understanding the ways the two intersect and stand apart, benefit your business.

Digital marketing is any brand messaging or advertising you do on the internet. It includes creating or managing:

Social media refers to digital places where a small part of digital marketing happens, specific channels designed for social sharing and interaction. Each one has a different purpose, crowd, and rules you have to play by.

These are just a few of the major channels important to businesses and digital marketing:

While social media refers to specific websites, digital marketing on the other hand, can be both our digital marketing materials and the act of marketing ourselves online.

Even without an active, free profile, you can pay to run digital marketing ads on social media channels. No one really does that though, because who doesn’t want the free marketing power of social media?

In modern marketing, not having active social media profiles is sort of a red flag for consumers. It tells them you’re not modernized or accessible, and by not being open to publicly communicate with consumers it might look like you have something to hide.

Consumers want you on social media and not just in the form of ads. They’re trying to have a conversation with your brand, ask questions, review your business and even reach out to your customer service team.

Recently, a local news station near me featured a consumer tips and tricks segment. They advised airline passengers to report issues and problems on the social media pages of whatever airline they were flying, instead of waiting in line at the airline’s customer service desk in the airport.

This strategy is to address problems as they’re unfolding.

Let me say that again: it’s easier and faster to get help from big companies via social media than in person, from people literally being paid to help you.

Mostly, because the whole digital world can see what you say on social media and brands don’t want you sharing your unhappiness with the masses. It’s the equivalent of letting the public listen to every customer service interaction anyone has ever had with your company. It’s invasive.

Even for the world’s biggest brands, social media is a place to relax, have fun and communicate casually.

Consumers LOVE fun interactions with businesses online. And when you think about it, isn’t the point of marketing to make the world take notice of what you’re saying? When you’re interacting with consumers on social media, not just pushing a prewritten marketing message, people take notice.

The novelty of branded social media accounts is interesting. Since brands aren’t actually people, even adults love interacting with them as if they were people. We’ve all formed strong, long-term connections with our favorite brands, even without social media.

So, when we can understand and communicate with those brands on a more personal level, it’s a little bit like a kid meeting their favorite cartoon character. We’re getting to see the personalities of our favorite brands, in an uncandid, uncontrolled environment. It’s fun in a way that marketing usually isn’t.

Just take a look at Wendy’s letting their hair down, the TSA being hilarious on Instagram or even Old Spice being totally absurd on Pinterest.

If your digital marketing is working like it should, you’ll be creating brand evangelists. These ride-or-die consumers LOVE you and they want the world to know. Your branded social media channels give them a place to sing your praises, kind of like church.

Let your biggest fans do your marketing for you, with positive reviews, product videos, testimonials, how-to guides, hacking tutorials and more. All you have to do is provide the place to do it: your branded social media channels.

Social Media (Especially When it isn’t Free) IS Digital Marketing

Everything you do on social media becomes part of your digital marketing, whether you want it to or not. Social media is transparent, so there’s nowhere to hide. All of it falls under the umbrella of your branding and marketing.

In a broad sense, many people think of digital marketing as full digital marketing campaigns, with a budget, goals and strategy. Social media is almost always one of the many mediums and components of that type of campaign.

Supplementing your Social Media with Digital Marketing

You can do a lot more with your social media by adding some digital marketing elements.

Paid advertisements are an option to get your digital marketing message in front of an extremely targeted social media audience. Hypertarget your audience using social media’s wealth of personal information and data.

You can literally buy (a little or a lot) more control over your social media influence and reach. Straight-up digital ads aside, you can also pay to boost your social media and reach more people. Since social media algorithms severely limit the natural reach of most business accounts, we typically recommend paying to boost your efforts.

An extremely common use of social media is to support your digital marketing efforts through free promotion. Screaming your news from the digital mountaintops is as simple as sharing a link to your latest blog post on your Facebook page.

Take advantage of your most relevant social media channels for promoting new website content, blogs, videos, events, promotions, sales, new products and more. Most blog publishing tools, such as HubSpot, include an option to schedule social sharing in advance.

Just remember, when you’re using unpaid social media, talk like a human, not a business. Even loyal fans of your brand will be turned off to hear a formal marketing tone of voice in your social posts.

Basically, while there’s a lot of overlap, you need both digital marketing and social media for the most effective modern marketing. Ignoring any tool at your promotional disposal is a bad idea and both of these are lifelines for the modern marketer. So, understand how they work, how they work together, and how they can work for your business before you dive into either.

This article originally appeared in Impulse Creative. It was written by Danielle Rhodes from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

Digital Marketing Versus Social Media: What’s the Difference?

If there’s one constant in the world of public relations, it’s change. The profession is evolving at a dizzying rate.

One change on the radar of some PR futurists is a blurring of the lines between earned and paid media.

It once was that the two were completely separate. Public relations pros secure what is known as earned media, meaning no money changes hands. It’s purely editorial content. Then, there was paid media, also known as advertising. With ads, nothing appears unless it’s paid for the brand.

What we see now is a blending of the two, which some call native advertising or sponsored content. It differs from traditional advertising in that it isn’t relegated to the margins of the digital or printed page. Sometimes, the audience can’t tell the difference between the two. Recent examples include Porsche in The Atlantic, Airbnb in the New York Times, and Under Armour in Complex.

As they merge, we have the makings of a sea change in the industry.

How Does This Put the Role of PR Pros in Question?

Many in public relations have a degree in Journalism, so their roots are in earning editorial coverage. Now, with the advent of these paid options, it casts the role of PR in a different light.

Some view it as good news because it gives them another alternative to earn media for their client – which is undoubtedly tougher to garner these days. More public relations people plus fewer journalists equal more competition. Native advertising gives PR pros another way to get those stories out there. Another pro is that a paid placement provides more control over timing, leaving less to chance.

Others in the profession are slow to come around. They see it as going against the very grain of their journalistic training–never shall earned and paid mix. It muddies the water, without a doubt.

What Does This Mean for the Future of PR?

While there’s debate about who should own what, some ask if it should it be a conundrum. If PR people are equipped with the journalistic skills needed to communicate the client’s message, should it matter if there was a payment made for the placement?

Because PR pros excel at storytelling and writing, this should be a smooth transition. Some make a case for PR and marketing to work closely together on native advertising initiatives because marketers have complementary experience analyzing data which can help brands determine the best channels to get that story out.

“This blurring of media lines will underscore the need for more alignment between PR and marketing efforts in the coming years,” says Amy Osmond Cook of Osmond Marketing. “Paid and owned media, when not executed properly, can often come off as too promotional. PR, when not analyzed, can be an expensive endeavor with few results.”

Do the Lines Between Paid and Earned Media Need to Be Redefined?

Franco D’Onofrio, director at Twiga Communications, makes a case for redefining the line between paid advertising and PR. He believes content creation can still fall to public relations practitioners.

“If we consider the simple definition of PR – the practice of managing communication between an organization and its publics – the nature and intention of native advertising places it firmly in the domain of PR.”

Does this mean more ad agencies will partner with PR firms? Or bring PR in-house? Perhaps.

In the past, anything “paid” sat squarely in the advertising category, while anything earned was firmly in the PR camp. Now, however, we have public relations pros paying to promote social media content to further amplify earned media.

So, shouldn’t the content sit wherever it sits best? Native advertising isn’t an ad, in the traditional sense.

“Since native advertising is designed specifically to be part of the media narrative, rather than a banner on the right, then there can be no arguments about who should oversee this,” says D’Onofrio.

Of course, the world of advertising is undergoing massive changes, as well. Traditional ads don’t work anymore. 84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. It may make sense from both perspectives to have these two collaborate on more content.

Will PR Pros Get on Board with These Changes?

Some already are. Others are reluctant. But, as the song goes, the times they are a-changin’. Where will PR land when the dust settles?

This post was initially published on this site on November 2, 2017. We republish timely posts for our readers who may have missed them the first time around.

How Earned and Paid Media Are Merging—and How It Impacts PR Pros

Want to use Advanced Search like a pro? Use this guide to master the force of these Boolean Operators. Make this your go-to cheat sheet for searches on Google, Twitter, the Meltwater Suite, and elsewhere. While Boolean logic can be confusing, there’s value in understanding the basics. When doing a search, it’s important to adjust the Boolean terms to either focus on certain results or to open the gates to let more results into the search. In addition to narrowing or expanding a search, it may be important to exclude terms, as well as combining Boolean concepts. All great things to think about when applying Boolean logic to a search.

Meltwater Explore allows you to search for anything, from a simple keyword to a complex 6,000 character Boolean query with unlimited search with unlimited mentions. These queries can easily be saved and shared with you colleagues. Cut through the noise to make the best data driven decisions.

Learn more about Meltwater Social's Search today.

Boolean Cheat Sheet: Star Wars Edition

Every time I tell someone that I work as a ‘Marketing Data Analyst,’ I’m met with questions about the specifics of the job. Typically, people assume I’m a data scientist and work exclusively with code and database querying languages. While there is overlap between marketing analysts and data scientists, there are also distinct differences. As the name suggests, marketing analysts specialize within the marketing field, so engage with marketing-specific programs such as CRM and Marketing Automation platforms. The modern marketing analyst has evolved over the last ten years from a strict data-crunching role within the confines of a marketing department to a cross-functional position that influences product development and strategy decisions.

As the marketing analyst position has expanded, so has its responsibility. On any given day, I will analyze program performance using data-driven marketing and statistics tools, develop Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness of existing programs and success of recently completed campaigns, monitor marketing trends, forecast future outcomes, highlight areas for growth and improvement, and report findings to management through text and data visualizations. Additionally, I work collaboratively with marketing team members to provide quantitative findings that support qualitative and illustrative reports and presentations.

There are a variety of tools and resources to help accomplish these daily tasks; some of those tools are available for free or freemium. Many of my responsibilities are standard for 0marketing analysts; however, specifics vary as marketing analysts work across a wide array of industries. (I.e. A conference focused marketing department might wade into statistics related to conference attendance, geography-related budgets, and the efficiency of specific caterers.)

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, marketing analyst employment is projected to increase by 19 percent from 2014 to 2024, an increase significantly faster than the 7% average for other occupations. The expected uptick in marketing analyst positions is due to the widespread adoption of analytics across all industries, creating more need to quantify and measure the effectiveness of marketing departments and their effect on business goals. The expected demand for marketing analysts thus begs the question: what traits make an effective marketing analyst?

In general, analysts are scientifically oriented, driven by numbers, data, and logic. Marketing analysts are no exception, but they also possess an appreciation for data visualization, design, and collaboration. Strong math, statistics, and analytics skills are vital to success in this role, and, although not required for all organizations, there is an increased interest by employers placed on technical skill and expertise in statistical analysis software, predictive analytics, and SQL databases. Further, effective communication is a critical function of the marketing analyst role—it’s imperative to relay key findings to colleagues and decision makers (including non-technical audiences) in easy to understand language. It is this communication that is often the basis for future department financial decisions.

Overall, marketing analysts study information to help their company and team make informed strategic decisions and optimize processes. Marketing analysts have the ability—if utilized appropriately—to positively contribute to the health and progression of a successful marketing department.

If you’re considering implementing more data-driven processes into your marketing department, download our free ebook, The Keys to the Kingdom: Making Marketing More Data-Centric, to get started.

Why You Need a Marketing Data Analyst on Your Team

Content marketing is a newish role, and we can’t always find that person with a journalism background. So what do you do? Spotting and mentoring talent has become an important skill for content marketing managers.

Creating engaging content continues to be a focus for content marketers, with 2016 Content Marketing Institute research citing it as the top priority for B2B (72 percent)  and B2C (56 percent) marketers. Content as a priority is due, in large part, to the difficulty in having the resources to create compelling content that maps to the varying stages of the buyer’s journey.

Many marketers pursue increasing their freelance writing budgets or syndicating content to fill those gaps. And although those are great tactics, they overlook a frequently underutilized content resource: your current staff outside of the content team.

Early in my content marketing career, I spotted a departmental administrative assistant with some extra time on her hands who had a knack for proofreading and copyediting. In fact, it turned out she had been doing significant research and rewrites for one of our team’s writers on a regular basis. Like any smart content marketer would, I sat down to talk to her about career goals and asked if she was interested in pursuing a marketing career. Once I found out that she was, I gave her bite-sized writing assignments, kept track of customer praise for her work and met with her regularly to provide mentoring and feedback.

In a few months, I was able to make the case for promoting her to a writer position on the team. Not only did this broaden our team’s writing bench strength, but it also launched her on a career path she’s still on today. As the manager who saw that initial spark, that feels great.

Who are good candidates for content mentorship? Of course, not everyone is interested in joining your content team. Many employees are happy to be right where they are with a full plate of duties. Still, I have consistently found content rock stars in a few of the same roles:

Product Managers: With insight into your product road map and a knowledge of your customer’s key issues your customers bring up, these folks can help you identify the day-to-day problems your customers face and how to fix them.

Sales Reps: Your sales team spends every day talking to prospective customers. If they’re engaging in social selling, they can be a great resource for the latest trends and news that you can build off of for your content, not to mention insights on thought leaders to quote.

Data Analysts: Whenever you see a great piece of content that involves slicing and dicing an organization’s user or customer data in a meaningful way, you’ve likely been consuming the work of a data analyst. They can help pinpoint unique and exciting data while deriving insights your customers find interesting.

Customer Success or Community Managers: If you’re looking for stories to elevate and real life examples for how your product or service is making a difference in customer lives, these are the folks who can uncover the right stories to feature.

Executive Admins: These professionals often have a better sense of what’s going on in the company—from what partnerships are in the works to what the CEO said in his most recent media interview—than anyone else. And thanks to spending the bulk of their days on executive communication activities, they typically have sharp and efficient writing skills.

Ideal Buyer: In many cases, your organization has someone in the functional role that your company sells to (B2B), or has numerous people who make up your typical consumer base. If they have access to and experience with your product or service, they’re a valuable resource for your content team.

How to start mentoring new content team members

Once you’ve identified a couple of prospective content mentees, how do you begin a mentorship relationship with them? It all starts with a conversation. Set up a private in-person meeting to talk to them about the content team’s needs and ask them about their career goals. How do their goals and your content needs overlap?

This conversation will serve as the foundation for your mentorship road map. During your initial meeting, you’ll be looking to determine what sort of role, if any, this person is interested in and how to make the most of their time. By the end of the conversation, you’ll want to know:

Do they have an interest in writing for the blog or creating other written resources?

Do they have another skill or talent, such as photography, videography or illustration, that they can use to produce content?

What unique perspective or information do they have that you can amplify?

What expertise can they contribute to the content team?

While it may seem time-consuming, even daunting, to set up a series of meetings to recruit employees onto your team, this approach is more successful than sending out a blanket call for blog authors or another narrow, tactical request. Why? Because instead of framing your appeal through the lens of what team members can do for you, you’re approaching them from the perspective of how this opportunity can assist them in their career.

Your company culture will dictate if you will want to setup a more formal mentoring program, or if a casual approach is best. Regardless of which approach you take, a few common best practices will come into play:

Set clear expectations. How often will you meet? How long will the mentoring last? What is the result? Make sure both parties are aligned.

Define a goal, and how to get there. In this context, it could be writing a specific number of blog posts, completing an e-book, or creating a template.

Encourage and inspire your mentee. Invite them to content team brainstorms. Acknowledge their contributions in all-hands meetings.

Celebrate their success and attainment of their goals. Provide timely, constructive feedback.

For more ideas on how to increase your content team by nurturing internal talent, check out our e-book In-Sourcing Your Content Creation.

Non-Marketing Employees: An Untapped Content Resource

B2B marketers today certainly live in “interesting times” (in the sense of the not-actually-Chinese curse).

While search, social media, ecommerce and content marketing have dramatically altered the roles of buyers and sellers, a number of traditional channels (that is, pre-dating millennials) remain highly effective.

The collection of facts and staticts below shed light on this paradox, as well as other insights. Here are four key takeaways that we have included in this blog post from this research for Business-2-Business marketers:

Sales people won’t disappear, but their role is changing, and many are struggling to adapt. Statistics say that 82% of B2B decision makers think sales reps are unprepared; product demonstrations are among the least-valued types of information for buyers; and half of all B2B purchases may be made directly online by 2018. To succeed, B2B sales people need to focus on the three Rs—no, not reading, `riting and `rythmetic, but rather responsiveness, or the response rate (50% of sales go to the first salesperson to contact a prospect), relationships, and references.

Social media accounts are like seat belts; they’re only effective if you actually use them. 55% of B2B buyers say they search for product/vendor information on social media. Yet while 95% of B2B marketers have created corporate social media accounts, half are still not active on social media on a regular basis.

Don’t rely too much on advertising. Ads certainly have their place in a web presence optimization (WPO) framework, as the “paid” pillar in the paid-owned-shared-earned (POSE) media model. Search ads are effective for capturing immediate demand and display ads are useful for brand awareness. But 80% of B2B decision makers prefer to get information from articles rather than advertising, and 40% of millennials don’t trust ads—so strong organic tactics and strategies need to be part of the mix as well.

The classics still rock. Despite the tremendous growth in digital marketing, several basic old-school marketing channels remain highly effective. Trade shows remain the top source for B2B lead generation, with 77% of marketers saying they generate a significant quantity of leads and a better conversion rate. 59% of CMOs still say print marketing is an effective channel—and 64% of buyers cite print among their trusted sources of information—while 51% still see value in direct mail and email marketing.

Get more inspiration from these 20 B2B marketing and digital business statistical facts.

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