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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

PR can be a tough business. Whichever area you specialize in—investor relations, community relations, media relations, executive communications—the days can be long and fraught with the need to put out a fire or two.

All of this can get, shall we say, a little stressful. So, where do PR pros turn when they need to ask questions, learn something new or just need a little support?

Some have found that being a part of a community can benefit them in a myriad of ways. But which communities should you participate in?

Sometimes, communities originate on Twitter. Ragan Communications hosts its weekly #RaganChat, and many of the participants tend to turn to each other for various reasons, to ask questions or bounce ideas around. There’s a Facebook group for participants, as well as a LinkedIn group for PR Daily.

SpinSucks provides a free Slack channel for members of its community to congregate. On the welcome page, they mention that it’s for those in “modern PR” to share ideas and learn from like-minded pros.

For those going it on their own, SoloPR is a thriving community. It hosts bi-weekly Twitter chats and offers a LinkedIn group with more than 5,700 members. The community also offers options for paid members such as professional development, support for managing proposals and clients, and a directory where you can list yourself to find new opportunities.

For women in PR, the new community The Organization of American Women in PR USA recently launched. Billing itself as, “the only organization across the USA dedicated to advancing women in the field of public relations,” it seeks to provide opportunities for women to thrive in their PR careers. It has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as webinars, online courses and events for paid members. Its sister group, The Organization of Canadian Women in PR, offers reciprocal membership.

There’s also the National Black Public Relations Society (NBPRS). It has a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, as well as has chapters around the country that host live events.

Then, there’s the Hispanic Public Relations Association, a membership-based organization that hosts a Twitter chat and webinars, along with in-person events.

PR pros who do a lot of writing and content development may tend to hang out in the content marketing communities. For example, #CMWorld, sponsored by the Content Marketing Institute, hosts a popular weekly Twitter chat and an annual conference, along with frequent free webinars. They also publish helpful articles on their site.

A Meltwater contributor and marketing consultant, Erika Heald, also hosts a weekly Twitter chat (#ContentChat) to discuss anything content-related.

The Public Relations Society of America, or PRSA, offers members free webinars on a variety of topics, as well as in-person events. It also invites PR pros to join a specialty area when they sign up as members. Each of these offers an exclusive online community with specialized content and networking opportunities. There are 14 “Professional Interest” sections, including entertainment and sports, technology, public affairs and government, and travel and tourism.

Then, some pros are turning to Reddit, where there are communities such as PRpros, and PublicRelations. There is a learning curve with Reddit, so be sure to do your homework before jumping in.

Of course, LinkedIn offers many options that public relations practitioners gravitate toward. There’s the PR Professionals Group with 94,000+ members, the Public Relations and Communications with 295,000 members, and Public Relations Professionals with 64,000 members, among others. Here, community members post questions they may have and articles of interest to the group.

Beyond finding a community where your fellow communications professionals hang out, there’s value in finding communities that apply to the industries your clients are in. Specialize in fintech? Find a community where fintech pros gather. Are most of your clients in beauty or fashion? Look for a community to which industry influencers might gravitate. (Meetup is a good resource to find where local communities gather in real life.)

Keep in mind that being part of a community means more than just joining. Be sure to engage and participate in some way once you’ve committed and feel comfortable. Most communities are ready to warmly welcome new members, so don’t be shy about introducing yourself and getting involved.

This post was initially published on this site on July 23, 2017. We republish timely posts on Saturdays for readers who may have previously missed them. 

Niche Communities Where PR Pros Gather

“To get something from nothing, you need the validity that only third-party endorsements can bring.” – Al and Laura Ries, Ries & Ries

It got me thinking about the importance of third-party validation in the PR world.

We’ve probably all worked with clients who, while they understood the importance of having a third-party reference, were unable to produce one.

There are even clients that will ask, “Why does this matter? Can’t we just move ahead without a customer to speak on our behalf?”

While you can try to reach out to media without a customer reference, it certainly makes it more challenging.

So, why is a third-party endorsement important?

A journalist needs to hear from someone other than the company itself. When clients talk about themselves, of course, they’ll say favorable things. Reporters need third parties to back that up.

Read how to nurture media relationships for better outreach.

“Most of the time, there is no point in a press release about a new product without a customer reference,” says author and long-time analyst Josh Bernoff.

If you can’t produce any third-party references, the reporter may look for some on his or her own. Or he or she may just flat out refuse to interview the client. This makes it well worth the time to put together a short list to provide to them.

And, don’t wait until you’ve pitched reporters and they’ve requested references. Have your references lined up and ready to go BEFORE you pitch.

A customer, an industry analyst or a partner can make an ideal third-party reference.

If you’re looking at customers, your sales team may be a source of potential candidates. They’ll know who’s happy, and maybe more importantly, who’s not.

On that note, be sure to vet your references. If the last time you spoke to them was six months ago, it’s a good idea to check in to make sure all is well. Maybe they WERE happy – but they’ve experienced a problem. Until that’s resolved, it’s probably best to go to the next name on your list. The last thing you want is to provide a journalist with a reference who’s unhappy with your product or service.

Be sure to mention that talking with media benefits them, too, as chances are their name will also appear in the article. Beyond that, they may forge a relationship with the reporter, resulting in future opportunities.

If a customer agrees to be a press reference, it might also be a good time to:

Ask if they’ll allow you to interview them for a success story or case study. This could be produced as a digital and print piece, as well as a video. You can also use quotes from those interviews on your site or in other materials.

Ask if they’d like to be interviewed for a guest blog or a Q&A for your site. This meets needs on both the PR and content marketing sides.

The beginning of a new customer relationship can be the best time to ask. Some brands include it in contract negotiations.

Once you’ve secured the third-party references, you may want to prep them by providing some questions reporters could ask so they can be ready with answers. You can even offer some idea of how you’d like them to answer, i.e., what strengths or benefits to highlight.

It’s also a good idea to impress upon them how important it is to be responsive, should the media get in touch. For example, you don’t want to provide a customer who’s traveling out of the country for the next month as a reference. Journalists work on tight deadlines and may move on if they can’t reach your reference quickly.

Use care not to send too many requests their way. Of course, some references see it as a win-win and love to be interviewed by media, as it gets their name out there, too.

Lastly, be sure to thank your references. Let them know you appreciate their time and effort. Share published pieces with them and mention them when you post the pieces on social media.

Remember, your story may fall flat if you’re the only one telling it.

No one can sing your praises as convincingly as a satisfied customer, an enthusiastic partner or a well-educated analyst. If you harness the power of that praise for your benefit with the media, journalists may view you as a more attractive brand to work with.

In PR, There’s Power in Third-Party Validation

Strong writing skills are more crucial than ever in public relations.

As paid and earned media move closer together and we see branded content continuing to rise in popularity, PR pros who can write well are more in demand. We’ve even seen journalists make the move to PR, where they can continue to write stories, but with more job security and higher salaries.

One case in point is Elinor Mills, who, after 22 years as a reporter, went to work at a PR agency in a new role it created focused on content. This came about, Mills says because the agency recognized that PR is becoming more and more about content.

“PR is increasingly content and good writing,” says Mills, who is now senior vice president of the content studio at Bateman Group.

According to a recent report published by the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations, writing is the top skill PR firms look for in new hires.

While strong writing may be the skill most in demand, it may be the hardest to find.

“Please make sure they have good writing skills! That is so important and yet missing in most college grads,” said one of the survey respondents.

Further backing up this point of view, Dorothy Crenshaw of Crenshaw Communications says that as the PR profession evolves, writing skills are more important than ever for public relations practitioners. But not everyone agrees.

In an op-ed for PR Week, University of South Carolina’s Shannon Bowen, Ph.D. argues that as PR has evolved into a management discipline, college communications curricula must shift to make room for the teaching of skills like critical thinking and ethics. She believes there should be less emphasis on teaching writing skills, which she says can be taught in the workplace.

“Strategy must drive communications tactics, and critical thinking is a vital skill in our business, but I take issue with the thesis that advanced writing skills are no longer crucial for ‘real-world’ PR jobs,” says Crenshaw. “PR has surely evolved, but writing skills are more important than ever.”

Evaluating PR Candidates’ Writing Skills

Hiring a poor writer and thinking they’ll get better is a recipe for disaster. So, how do you know if you’re hiring a good writer?

Be sure to view examples of the candidate’s work. Ask them to complete a writing test or some type of exercise so you can get a feel for how they write “on their feet.” Are they able to write coherently and compellingly?

For more tips on evaluating a candidate’s writing skills, read 3 Essential Ways to Evaluate Your PR Job Candidates.

While many may believe they have the writing chops needed to excel in PR, it’s true that not everyone does. So, if you recognize you need to improve, what’s the best way to get better?

Write more: One of the best ways to get better at writing is—you guessed it—to write. Even if you can’t write as much as you’d like on the job, seek out other opportunities to write. Start your own blog. Ask to contribute to other blogs. Volunteer to take on writing projects that fall outside your usual responsibilities.

Take a class: If you want to check out an online course to improve your writing skills, Udemy offers some. There are also workshops and sessions offered by business writing pros like Ann Wylie or through an organization like the American Marketing Association or the Public Relations Society of America.

Read a book about writing: My favorite is Everybody Writes by Ann Handley. And what books does Ann recommend? Read her list, 12 Books That Will Make You a Better Writer and Storyteller.

Read more: Did you know that reading more also helps your writing? “Reading exposes us to other styles, other voices, other forms, and other genres of writing,” says Belle Beth Cooper of Buffer. “Importantly, it exposes us to writing that’s better than our own and helps us to improve.”

Follow writing experts: Lastly, follow writers like Wylie, Handley, and Josh Bernoff for examples on how to up your writing game. Contently and Copyblogger also publish great posts with writing tips.

Writing is a skill that will never go out of style. If you hone your writing (and storytelling) skills, your path in public relations can be limitless.

Why Strong Writing Skills Matter More Than Ever for Today’s PR Pro

Ten years ago, before media databases and Google-able phone numbers, the hardest task of any PR campaign was tracking down journalists’ contact details. Whether you had access to the infamous News Media Yellow Book or tried to MacGyver your way to a phone number, it was both a time-consuming and headache-inducing process.

Now, the tricky part isn’t tracking down journalists’ latest newsroom extensions. It’s figuring out when and how to engage with them in a way that’s professional, effective, and personalized to each one—especially when it comes to social media.

If you’re still wrapping your head around how to interact with journalists online, here are three questions to help guide an outreach strategy and bullet points to help you engage with journalists on social media.

First, pull out your trusty (and most updated!) media list and, line-by-line, figure out who of your top journalists are using social media and which platforms they’re using. (P.S.: Meltwater’s database search function makes this a breeze.)

2. Are they using social media regularly?

For those that are using social media, are they posting daily? Several times a week? If so, you’re in business. If not, stick to email. You don’t want to risk your messages being overlooked because they simply aren’t seeing them.

3. How do they interact with PR professionals and/or brands (if at all)?

This might take a little digging into their feed, but here’s what you want to get a feel for: Are they asking for sources or quotes on their platforms? Are they responding to pitches directly? Are they interacting regularly with PR people and brands? Are they telling those people to direct message them or are they having public conversations? Or are they simply linking to their own stories and not engaging at all?

This will help shape how you approach engaging with each journalist on their most active platform—whether you’re casually nurturing a relationship through sharing and commenting on their content or plan to use Facebook or Twitter as your primary pitching platform.

Once you’ve got your short-list, here are our top do’s and don’ts for engaging with journalists on social media:

Reach out through a personal account. Just like you prefer interacting with humans—instead of generic email addresses and branded Twitter accounts—so do journalists. It’s also easier to nurture an ongoing relationship when they can put a face to a name.

Still include a hook! In the same way that you’d look for a compelling hook when sending an email, you want to give the same thoughtfulness to your tweet, Facebook post or Instagram DM. Have something interesting to say about something they just posted? That’s a great place to start.

Ask for their outreach preferences. When they respond, direct message them and ask “I contacted you on Twitter; is that the best place to reach out to you?” That’ll help you figure out your most direct line to them moving forward.

Stalk. Meaning, it’s not necessary to like every tweet, photo, or post. Rule of thumb: If it would creep you out, it’ll likely creep them out too.

Join online journalist communities and/or events in the hopes of pitching your stuff. It’s absolutely fine (and encouraged!) to tune into a journalist-focused event (like the weekly #wjchat Twitter chat) to better understand them, how they work and what they’re paying attention to. But don’t show up and try to pitch your latest product or arrange for a coffee. It’ll feel inappropriate and out of context—and do way more harm than good.

Go straight for the pitch. Unless it’s a crisis and you need to get in touch with them ASAP, follow them, say hello, and like and share the content you find most compelling and relevant before you start asking them to write stories about you. (If you were on the other side of that screen, you’d want them to do the same).

Check out the mastheads of media outlets that you like, make note of the writers. When you find yourself enjoying an article, make a note of the byline. Check out other articles that the journalists you like may have penned and which other outlets they’re writing for. Look for them on Twitter and start following them. After a few rounds of this, you’ll amass a list of journalists that you’re tracking. If you want to quickly expand that list, use a media database.

How to Engage with Journalists on Social Media

The best executives become synonymous with their brands, and earn the status of respected industry thought leaders. Think Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Reed Hastings, and Elon Musk. These thought leaders spread their—and their company’s—point of view in countless interviews and speaking engagements across the globe. It’s every PR pro’s dream to have a bona fide influencer in-house and spend their time deflecting press requests, instead of pitching endlessly for them.

How to Identify an Executive Thought Leadership Platform

While some executives may come into your organization with their own built-in following and a knack for courting the press, that’s more the exception than the rule. For most of us, we need to put together a PR strategy to build their thought leadership profile, and help them become an attractive source for the media. While we don’t have enough room here to do a deep dive into the topic, there are a few key activities you’ll want to focus on.

As the first step, you need to evaluate the topics your executive is most interested in and experienced with talking about, and how they fight in with your current PR strategy. While it can be tempting to take all the opportunities you can get, contributed content and media coverage doesn’t link back to your organization’s purpose and business goals is fluff.

Once you’ve identified the target topics, flesh out talking points with messaging that relates to your value proposition without being self-promotional. Go over the messaging points with the executive, then schedule a 1:1 media training session for them where they’ll get grilled on those talking points. With the feedback from that session in mind, work with them to refine their delivery of the messages until they become comfortable with the subject matter, and no longer feel scripted.

After you’ve determined the right topical fit for them, you’re ready to dive into the following influence-building tactics:

Build out their social presence. Coach them on being present on social as a way to build their profile. Let them use a social media management tool like the Meltwater social media management suite to boost their success. Don’t take on too many social media platforms though—identify the ones that are most important for your industry and your customers and focus there. Help them identify your industry’s top influencers and analysts and follow them and start engaging over time.

Sign them up for (some) notifications. When they finally get a comment from a journalist they’ve been building a relationship with, you don’t want them to miss it. Setup mention alerts to keep them in the loop without overwhelming them.

Get them blogging. This can mean sharing their thoughts on your company blog, blogging on LinkedIn, or managing a Medium account. Consider a mix of content that’s exclusive to the channel and repurposing contributed content for a new audience.

Apply for speaking engagements. Look at local industry conferences first, and customer events put on by your key partners. Start building out presentations on your key topics, and pitch to larger conferences as the executive gains experience and comfort with presenting them.

These small steps will help your executives start building their public profile as a subject matter expert.

Some Executives Aren’t Ready for Primetime

Despite the communications team’s best efforts, not all executives are cut out to be thought leaders. Despite the careful crafting of talking points and hands-on media training, things like this happen:

One executive asked the marketing team to drive his thought leadership platform, but wouldn’t take meetings with them to work on content concepts. When he was given contributed articles for his byline, he refused to approve them, saying they lacked an “ah-ha!” moment. That’s right—he expected his team to manufacture ah-ha moments and substantial thought leadership pieces without his participation. Unfortunately for him, there need to be thoughts from the thought leader, otherwise it’s only marketing content.

An executive loved wooing the foreign press, despite the company’s revenues coming primarily from the United States. He was surprised when a Silicon Valley-based reporter asked him about one of those interviews, where he’d continually referred to his team as “the beautiful people” and had remarked that everyone the company hired was young and attractive. Some executives struggle with the understanding there’s no “off the record” with journalists, and that sexist or discriminatory comments aren’t going to be able to be swept under the rug.

Luckily, these sorts of examples are outliers. Most of your executives aren’t going to have significant liabilities—like being a serial sexual harasser or an alcoholic—you have to work around. At most, you’ll just have to temper their enthusiasm and expectations. Building a profile as an industry thought leader takes time. But with the proper planning and support, you can get your executive team on the road to being your biggest PR assets.

How to Make Your Top Executives Your Biggest PR Assets

How to show the connection between PR and website traffic?

ROI achieved through the communications department was traditionally difficult to measure, and because of this, many companies found showcasing true business benefit and ROI from Public Relations to be tough. Fortunately, since the introduction of PR tools such as media intelligence, the communications team are much better placed to measure the right metrics and prove our worth. Showing the connection between PR and website traffic can be a good way to do this.

From media reach to top publication placement, there are a number of ways to measure PR ROI and the metrics we use will vary depending on our campaigns overall objectives. A concrete metric or KPI that we strongly advise measuring, that many PR professions are not, is how PR is measuring and tracking the needle in terms of driving user traffic to our website.

Business leaders often forget that increased media visibility has a direct effect on the number of users and website visitors, and so it’s good to challenge their way of thinking! The more user traffic we drive to our website, the greater awareness created. High traffic volume can also improve our organic reach through SEO. All of which help us act more competitively!

Measuring Public Relations & Website traffic correlation

Meltwater understood the need for pros to track and measure their Public Relation's impact on site traffic, and to prove their PR ROI. So we recently rolled out a new Google Analytics feature within our media intelligence tool that can easily detect the connection between the two data sets. This new feature has greatly helped professionals speak in the language of their c-suite – numbers. Quantifying your PR efforts can improve boardroom buy-in and our communications budget is also less likely to be cut as a result.

The Google Analytics widget displays the sessions and referred sessions to a selected website against the media exposure for a Meltwater news or social search.

Exploring referral or direct traffic is handy for those wanting to understand which media outlets (e.g. press releases, blog posts, particular landing pages, social channels etc.) are driving the most traffic from earned coverage. We can use the data to tweak our content strategy based on the insights

So there you have it, a very simple way of measuring your PR efforts and determining how Public Relations is influencing other marketing initiatives.

If you’re interested in expanding your PR campaign reporting capabilities with this simple Google Analytics widget, fill out the form below and prove the connection between Public Relations and website traffic.

How to show the connection between PR and website traffic

Many of us PR professionals feel that securing editorial coverage is getting harder. We’re working in an extremely noisy industry and the volume seems to be cranked up a notch each day. In this blog, we’ll be looking at the biggest PR challenges right now. 

JBH (UK based content agency) recently interviewed key PR influencers to address some of the biggest challenges faced by those in the PR industry in 2017. During this blog, we’ll be looking at JBH’s research and discussing ways to overcome the difficulties uncovered. (Check out the infographic they created here) 

PR Challenge 1: Rapid technological growth

The first of the PR challenges we’ll be looking at is the constantly changing digital landscape. This can be particularly challenging for those working in more corporate industries. Being a digital company goes beyond creating a digitally optimised strategy. The implementation here is key. Digital disruption is something that must be embraced by all members of staff if our strategy is going to work, meaning that comms teams lose a little control – something they typically obsess over!

Beyond complete digital disruption, it can even be difficult for the most technologically savvy professionals and businesses to stay on top of updates constantly being rolled out across social media networks. By the time we’re aware of something ‘new’, it’s already old news.

Whilst knowing about the latest technology may not be in your job description, it’s good to be ahead of the curve as this macro trend can, and probably is, seriously affecting your goals. We don’t have to spend hours understanding the science behind new technologies, but it’s worth scrolling through a technology news outlet or following a handful of technology journalists on Twitter. We’d recommend taking a look at Wired or following Rory Cellan-Jones or Mashable tech on Twitter.

As Andy Barr, owner of 10 Yetis (PR, digital and social media agency) explains, one huge technological advancement to benefit the PR industry is the availability of software to track PR efforts. Media intelligence tools such as Meltwater allow PR pros to both track their existing coverage (to help justify their existence) and find new avenues to land stories. We can use Meltwater to track whether our press releases are being picked up, where they have been shown and the impact of our editorial footprint on social media. In addition, such tools also allow users to understand whether an article has led to an increase in positive brand mentions. Those working in PR can quickly and easily use the data to prove they’re meeting their KPI’s and benefiting the business’s bottom line.

Andy mentions ‘dark social’ in his section of the article. Dark social is creating fear amongst many PR & marketing professionals. Even the term is creepy! Dark social refers to private messaging apps like WhatsApp, Slack, Facebook Messenger and direct messages, often used be people to share articles. The trouble is, since they’re private forms of messaging there’s no way of understanding the true reach of our stories. According to The Drum, dark social has resulted in the inability to track 87% of content shares. 


Dark social isn’t all bad news though! Whilst difficult to track, the clickback rates of these kinds of shares are high because they’re coming from a trusted source. We anticipate that they’ll be a lot more discussion on the PR challenges of dark social in 2018 and beyond. Create shareable, engaging content such as videos to increase your chances of having content shared. Furthermore, keeping track of Google Analytics can help us understand if our content is resonating (even if we can’t see exactly how many times it’s been shared on dark social) Check out this article for more info.

With so much content being posted every single minute on the internet, competition for a moment in the spotlight is fiercer than ever. So how can we rise above the rest and get our message heard?

JBH recommends that we embrace creativity, weirdness and trends. Oh, and create lots of video content! New social media algorithms have filtered out a lot of content from appearing on the newsfeed of the typical social media user. Whilst this can improve user experience through relevance, it’s a nightmare for comms professionals. Up to 70% of content is now banished from our Facebook feeds are filtered out. This has caused an uproar in the industry, with many companies feeling they have been forced to “pay to play” on social media networks.

As Mike Love, PR adviser at Burson-Marsteller states “The challenge is to find out how our stories are best received. It’s not (just) about quantity, it’s about quality”. We should be regularly monitoring the result of our content, and adapting our strategy based on these insights. Check out our blog: Boosting Engagement on Social Media for more top tips on how to create content that is likely to resonate with your audience and not be filtered out by the dreaded algorithm.

PR Challenge 3: Harder to impress journalists

Another of our greatest PR challenges is trying to impress journalists who are bombarded by hundreds of pitches a day. This is making it near enough impossible for our stories to get noticed in the sea of emails flooding their inbox. As much as we’re frustrated by this, we should also be feeling sympathetic to the journalists who are increasingly frustrated at being spammed by irrelevant pitches.


As JBH suggests, personalise your pitch and target content so it’s relevant to the journalist and demographics we’re targeting. We should aim to provide value to the journalists target readers and not approach the relationship with only ourselves in mind.

We can use Meltwater’s influencer database, to discover journalists mentioning specific topics related to our brand. This allows us to ensure we’re sending our pitches to the right people. We should then send our list of journalists personalised emails, trying to make the pitch relevant to the themes they write about and the audience they write for.

As content online becomes more varied, authentic and bizarre, it’s difficult to show our audiences something new. Some demographics, particularly the more tech-savvy, are especially hard to impress. This is because by the time we catch onto the idea the buzz is over!

Quentin Langley, author of Brand Jack, suggests targeting particular demographics and segmenting our audiences. To surprise an audience and make them pay attention, we need to select an audience that will react to the content.

With help from a media monitoring tool, we can stay abreast of trends and ahead of the competition. This is sure to create a unique angle for messages and offer those more advanced members of our audience content that’ll interest them. But be aware, as Langley rightfully points out, segmentation is key. Our message shouldn’t be one size fits all. Some members of our target market may be reluctant to move with the times and blasting them with the same message as more advanced members may confuse them!

Social listening is a great way to get inside the minds of our audience. Marketing and PR teams should also have high alignment with the sales team to understand which clients fit in which category.

Many of us are familiar with the dreaded word ‘budget cuts’ or perhaps we’re a small company, non-profit or start-up with a limited budget. Either way, marketing, comms and PR professionals tend to do multiple job roles in our daily work. Jane Hunt, marketing director of JBH notes that: Marketing, PR, social media and comms are so linked these days, we can often combine strategy and activity. For example, SEO and PR are closely aligned.

Overcoming PR challenges around time could be solved by partnering up with other departments and utilising tools that take out the manual element of our work. Depending on the size of our departments, we may be able to partner up with those in other roles or with other skillsets to take off some of the pressure. We should also utilise technology to make our day to day roles easier. For example, rather than manually scouring the web for mentions of our press release, spending hours analysing the engagement around our brand on social media, or trying to prove the impact we’ve made on our KPI’s, we can use media intelligence solutions. Meltwater is an all-in-one solution that assists us marketing/comms/pr professionals in daily work life. With help from such tools, users can:


Understand whether their key messages resonating

Identify how PR has fueled social media engagement

Learn how the conversation around your brand is developing.

Track how many website views you’ve had off the back of an article

Another way to ease the workload is by creating evergreen content. Instead of constantly trying to reinvent the wheel, create content that is long lasting. Lists, top tips, how to guides and videos are great examples of evergreen content. Evergreen content can be shared again and again which also helps improve SEO! Winning!

PR & Communications

Niche Communities Where PR Pros Gather

In PR, There’s Power in Third-Party Validation

Why Strong Writing Skills Matter More Than Ever for Today’s PR Pro

How to Engage with Journalists on Social Media

How to Make Your Top Executives Your Biggest PR Assets

How to show the connection between PR and website traffic

The biggest challenges for PR pro’s right now

Mimrah Mahmood on Singapore’s Changing Media Landscape

3 Essential Ways to Evaluate Your PR Job Candidates

Why You Can’t Do Public Relations Yourself

Throwing Shade on Social: Newsjacking and Negative PR

PR & Communications

Niche Communities Where PR Pros Gather

In PR, There’s Power in Third-Party Validation

Why Strong Writing Skills Matter More Than Ever for Today’s PR Pro

How to Engage with Journalists on Social Media

How to Make Your Top Executives Your Biggest PR Assets

How to show the connection between PR and website traffic

The biggest challenges for PR pro’s right now

Mimrah Mahmood on Singapore’s Changing Media Landscape

3 Essential Ways to Evaluate Your PR Job Candidates

Why You Can’t Do Public Relations Yourself

Throwing Shade on Social: Newsjacking and Negative PR

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