United States

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

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

Brands who are familiar with Instagram marketing will no doubt also be familiar with Instagram Stories. 

Instagram Stories popped onto the scene back in August of 2016. The 24-hour content feature quickly picked up, and soon Instagram users surpassed that of Snapchat. As their popularity grew, brands took notice and realized this was an exciting new medium that could be used for marketing and influencer campaigns. By 2019, 1 out of 3 sponsored posts on Instagram was an Instagram Story. 

Since the boom of Snapchat, short-form video marketing has slowly but surely become a fundamental aspect of any truly great social marketing and social media management strategy. And social platforms took notice, introducing their own features that make use of the vertical video and posting format, giving brands more opportunities to create engaging and interactive content. 

Stories are much more than just a tool for video marketing. Let's break it down...

Examples of What Brands Can Post on Instagram Stories

Working With Influencers on Instagram Stories

Instagram has over a billion monthly active users, 86.6% of whom post stories daily. This creates huge potential for brands looking to get their content out to the masses. According to a study conducted by Instagram, 39% of respondents are more interested in a brand/product after watching an Instagram story that features it. In addition, a third of the most-viewed Stories are from businesses. Consumers don’t just look at them either; one in five stories posted by businesses inspire direct messages from viewers. 

This goes to show that Instagram Stories can be a powerful selling tool for brands looking to expand beyond increasing their visibility on the app. 

Stories offer a personal touch, unlike more traditional social content formats. Where a Feed post or a video can feel curated and edited, Stories can offer followers a more off-the-cuff or behind-the-scenes look. 

This authentic, real-life connection makes Stories the ideal format for influencers and brands looking to provide their followers with a humanizing glimpse behind the curtain. We surveyed over 12,000 Stories with an #ad to identify trends and highlight the exciting ways you can use this feature. 

The number of daily active users of Instagram Stories, Facebook Stories and Whatsapp Status all surpassed that of Snapchat by 2019.

Instagram Stories are photos and videos posted on Instagram that disappear after 24 hours. These posts live in the account’s archives after they expire. They may also be hosted on the user's profile page as a Highlight with a customizable thumbnail image. Because of their short lifespan and the added functions within the feature (i.e., stickers, polls, GIFs, etc.), they can come across as more authentic and engaging to viewers. 

Stories live in a bar on top of your Instagram feed, and new posts are indicated by a colorful ring around a user’s profile photo. This content appears in full-screen once clicked and will play automatically in chronological order. 

Unlike Instagram posts, users are not able to publicly like or comment on a story, although private comments and reactions can be made via Instagram Direct Messaging. 

Interactions made on the feature, such as replies to questions and polls, however, can be publicly shared. Stories themselves can be shared by followers of an account, if a user has allowed it in their settings. You can also see who has viewed your Instagram Story in the bottom left corner of your screen.

Now that you understand what Stories are, let’s walk through how to use them:

Instagram Story Recommended Resolution: at least 1080 x 1920 pixels.

Instagram Story Size: video files should be under 4GB, image files should be no larger than 30MB.

Instagram Story Duration: 7 seconds maximum for images and 60 seconds maximum for videos.

Tip: In our Full Guide to Social Media Image Sizes you find more detailed sizes and tips.

Upload a photo or video from your phone. You may add multiple photos to a single Instagram Story by including them as a sticker. Otherwise, selecting multiple photos from your camera roll results in them being posted sequentially.

Taking a photo or video on Instagram Stories. To record a video or take a photo, click on the white circle at the bottom of the screen. You may toggle between different filters and functions (such as hands-free or boomerang) at the bottom of the screen. 

Reposting another story or feed post. You may repost stories and posts from other accounts that have allowed this in their settings. Reposted stories and posts appear as a sticker on your story. 

To upload multiple photos within the same story, select the Image sticker. Top left: Instagram Stories functions: download story, story filters, links, stickers, drawings, and text.

Regardless of how you choose to add a Story to Instagram, you are able to add text, drawings, stickers, gifs, filters, links, and even music (depending on your locale), making them fun and engaging for viewers. Simply toggle between these options on the top left of your screen. 

Stories are a great way for brands to engage with their audience and reiterate their brand values on Instagram. They allow brands to work with influencers and other key opinion leaders, showcase their culture and employees in a relatable manner, or advertise their products and services.

Most Stories features are available to all users, including:

Instagram Stories features (L – R): Question stickers, GIFs in Create Mode, and Memories

Stories Highlights on your profile page, which are collections of stories available even after expiration

Stickers, gifs, polls, live chats, questions, emoji sliders, and other interactive functions

However, if you’re on a business account, there are a few additional features you can tap into: 

Shoppable product stickers on Madewell’s Instagram Story

Outbound links from Stories, which is now available to all accounts — not just those with over 10k followers!

Instagram Stories Ads— accessible via Facebook’s Ads Manager 

If you’re wondering how brands come up with beautiful, consistent Instagram Stories time after time, look no further than Instagram Story templates. 

Brands often use templates to beautify their Instagram Story backgrounds and introduce branded elements and fonts. Looking to create your own templates? Here are some useful apps you can consider:

Apps like Over help marketers to easily create eye-catching Instagram Stories

Marketers can also simplify their Instagram marketing with tools that can help them to schedule their Instagram Stories. Some tools that offer this include:

Where traditional posts depend heavily on @mentions or #hashtags to build exposure, Stories are different. Text is not the main experience in this medium. Influencers and consumers will often still use text when promoting brands or generating UGC, but it is shorter and more to the point than a traditional Instagram caption. 

Our study found that on average an Instagram Story post has 9 words and 2 hashtags. Typically a sponsored story will include the hashtag #ad, as well as a hashtag relating to the campaign. 

Tip: Use a social media monitoring tool like Meltwater to identify the best-fitting hashtags and track your hashtag performance.

Check out some real-world examples of how brands are utilizing Stories on Instagram below!

This is one of the best ways for brands to showcase their products and personnel without coming across as too pushy. Behind-the-scenes footage can come in the form of:

Showing how your product is made and used in an informal or candid setting

Sharing tips and tricks on topics within your brand’s expertise (e.g. styling advice, marketing how-tos, or even addressing commonly asked questions via the Questions or Polls sticker)

Giving an office tour or involving your staff through an Instagram takeover

Utilizing stories about you: with an ‘Add to Story’ button now available, you can repost stories from your followers that mention or showcase your brand and products

One of the more straightforward means of using Instagram Stories involves publishing ads or promotions on the platform. 

The key part of running stories ads is creating the ad creative — the image or video itself. If you post your usual Instagram “feed” content on stories, the ads will likely look out of place. You want to create posts formatted with a vertical screen in mind. This will help to make your content look native to audiences on the app. 

Starbucks and Spotify’s collaboration highlights several prominent artistes and the charities they support

In the case of Instagram Stories, shorter is in fact better. The best performing story ads tend to be 1.3 seconds shorter per scene than lower-performing ads. As such, you should avoid jamming your ad full of information — stick to short phrases, eye-catching visuals, and a strong call-to-action.

Influencer marketing shouldn’t end with just sponsored feed posts. Influencers can publish short reviews for you, answer questions, showcase behind-the-scenes footage, take over your account, launch exclusive collaborations, or appear in your ads — all from Stories!

Everlane works with fashion influencer @himichelleli on a brand takeover

Influencer campaigns can also help lead interested users directly to a product page. For example, major fashion label Michael Kors made use of New York Fashion Week to invite different influencers to model their clothing. 

These influencers were photographed roaming the streets of New York City in their outfits, which the brand then added to their Stories.

Michael Kors’ Stories ads featuring prominent influencers

The Power of Instagram Stories: A Marketer's Guide

TikTok is famous for short, shareable video content, but since launching its LIVE feature in 2019 many users have embraced live-streaming on the platform. For creators and brands alike, going live on TikTok is a powerful new way to engage and grow your audience through social media management, so how do you do it, and what are the benefits?


Managing Engagement and Moderation on TikTok LIVE

What does it mean to go live on TikTok? 

When you’re watching a video on TikTok it’s usually pre-recorded, but TikTok LIVE is a feature which allows some users of the service to live-stream to their audiences, so the video content is shown in real-time. 

As well as streaming live video, creators can interact with their audience in real time, so viewers can post comments and ask questions during the stream. This creates a much more engaging experience, giving fans an opportunity to interact directly with the creators that they enjoy following. 

There are some great reasons for creators to go live on TikTok. Firstly, giving your followers a real-time experience can be more rewarding and engaging than the usual pre-recorded content, because being able to participate in an event as it’s happening is more exciting than watching the edited version of something that happened in the past. 

Another aspect to consider is that streaming on TikTok LIVE gives you the opportunity to interact with your followers directly, which can build loyalty and help you to grow your fan base. Part of the reason this works so well is that fans are seeing an unpolished, unedited version of you, which can really help to convey your authenticity. 

It could also be great for increasing your visibility, because although TikTok keeps the exact details under wraps, there’s some evidence to suggest that using the LIVE feature will give your content a boost from the algorithm, helping you to reach a wider audience.


Finally, because viewers are able to send you virtual gifts during a live TikTok stream, it’s a great way to monetize your channel. 

First of all, be sure that you meet the requirements for using TikTok Live: 

You must already have at least 1,000 followers. 

No recent violations of TikTok’s T&Cs. 

There are rumored workarounds which people claim will give you access to LIVE even if you have fewer followers, but it seems that most of them do not work, and it’s likely that TikTok shuts down such loopholes as soon as they are discovered. 

If you haven’t reached that threshold yet, it’s a good idea to focus on working towards it. You’ll learn a lot along the way, and by the time you’re able to use TikTok LIVE you’ll be a much better creator. 

If you do meet the requirements, starting a live stream is simple: just open the app and tap the Add Post button at the bottom of the screen, and then select LIVE. After that all you need to do is choose a title, filter, and any other options before hitting Go LIVE to start streaming. 

You’ll now be able to stream live for a maximum of 60 minutes. At the end of your stream, the Replay will be available in TikTok Studio for 30 days, so you can download it or delete it as required. 

If you do not see the LIVE option in your app, it’s probably because you do not yet meet the requirements. If you feel that you do meet the requirements, but the option is not visible to you, you should contact TikTok’s support team.

Can I Go Live With Under 1000 Followers? 

There’s almost no way to use the LIVE feature unless you meet TikTok’s requirements, but if you’re lucky there’s a work-around that might help you to try the feature out temporarily. 

TikTok LIVE has a multi-guest feature, which means that anybody running a stream can invite other TikTok users to join the stream as a participant, even if they do not have 1,000 followers themselves. So if you know somebody who has access to the feature, you might be able to persuade them to work with you on a joint live stream.

This won’t magically give you permanent access to the feature, but it will enable you to see how it works. Also, but running these kinds of joint streams, you’ll be exposed to a wider audience and this can help you get to that target 1,000 followers threshold sooner.

You can choose to allow comments on your TikTok LIVE stream, and should you enable them you’ll have a few options to help you manage engagement during the stream. This includes the ability to flexibly mute comments either for all viewers, or specific ones, for a length of time you choose. 

You can also filter and review potentially undesirable comments using TikTok’s own filters as well as your own chosen keywords, and setting up an automated message to let all viewers know that comments are being filtered. 

Comments can also be pinned to the top of your stream’s chat. You might find it a little tricky to manage a chat while you’re busy with whatever you’re doing on the stream, so you can appoint one or more moderators to manage the chat for you, and choose which features they are able to use.

During a TikTok LIVE stream, your audience can send you “Gifts” - virtual items which are purchased with TikTok’s in-app currency, called Coins, which they purchase with their local currency. When a viewer sends a creator a Gift during a stream, the value in Coins will be added to the recipient’s balance, which they can cash out in their local currency. 

You need to be over 18 to send Gifts on TikTok, and the feature is not available in every country. 

How do you convince people to send you Gifts on TikTok LIVE? Consistently create great content and build a loyal following. There are many online communities dedicated to helping TikTok creators grow their channels, but great content is always at the heart of it. 

OK, so you know how and why to go live on TikTok, but what can you actually use the feature for? For a platform which shot to popularity on the basis of short, shareable video clips, live streams of up to an hour might seem like an almost contradictory change of direction. But there are plenty of great things you can do with TikTok LIVE: 

If you’ve built up a strong audience already, or you’re a brand or individual that people are interested in, running a live Q&A session is a great way to let people get to know you better.

Whether you’re a brand or a creator partnering with a brand, a LIVE stream is a great way to showcase a new product. You can tease the launch event to create anticipation, and then generate extra excitement by unveiling the product live instead of using a pre-recorded video. 

If you’re a performing artist such as a musician, comedian, or dancer, TikTok LIVE is a great way to give your audience a raw, unfiltered experience, so they can see you at your best. 

If you’re an influencer within a particular area such as gaming, music, or other kind of fandom, you can use LIVE to jump onto big breaking news stories in your niche, sharing your initial reactions and getting feedback from your audience. 

Live streams can be a great way to give your audience a little peek behind the scenes of your brand, or if you’re an influencer, just a more unfiltered view of the real you and all of the work that goes into creating your content. 

Using LIVE’s multi-guest feature, you can run streams in collaboration with other TikTok users and influencers, so why not partner with creator’s in the same space as you, to benefit from your combined audience reach. 


How to Go Live on TikTok, and Grow Your Audience

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. 😭☹️"― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

If you’re Gen X or older, it’s possible you don't understand the full scope of emoji meanings, let alone the point of all of them. After all, people have managed to express themselves with the written word for centuries, so why do we suddenly need all these tiny images to illustrate our messages?

On the other hand, the post-Millennial generations can effortlessly communicate with each other using nothing more than a string of emoji. To them, nothing screams “I’m a hopelessly out of touch Boomer!” quite as loud as an incorrectly used emoji. That's why they're such an integral part of social media management.

So how did we get here, why are they so popular, and most importantly, with so many options to choose from, how do you decipher emoji meanings? 

Before computers had the graphical capabilities necessary to display emojis, people created emotional shorthand using plain old punctuation marks, like :-) or :-(  and :-/ to name a few.

These “emoticons” were invented long before modern computers, when typesetters in the 1880s began using various punctuation marks to create simple representations of human faces smiling, frowning, or showing other emotions. 

This image shows a selection of such proto-emojis from a German print publication in 1896: 

There are earlier recorded instances of simple punctuation-based smileys like :) in literature dating as far back as the 17th century, but in most cases historians cannot agree whether these are deliberate or just errors. 

The earliest modern example of emoticons being created by computer users were from the messaging systems used by the computer science department at Carnegie Mellon University in 1982. 

In 1990 Microsoft released its famous Wingdings font (still included with all Windows based PCs) which replaced alphanumeric characters with various graphical symbols, including smiling and frowning faces which could be considered early versions of emojis, even though they were never widely used. 

Graphical emojis as we know them today really began to take off with the development of mobile phones. In 1997, Japanese company J-Phone introduced a set of 90 monochrome emojis, and as phones became more sophisticated with better graphical capabilities, emojis became more detailed and colorful. 

By the time the first iPhone launched in 2007, western tech giants like Apple and Google were taking emojis seriously, looking at ways to standardize their implementation across different platforms. 

The following year, Apple added emojis to iPhone OS 2.2, and since then they’ve become an integral part of our digital lives. 

Conventional wisdom has it that emojis are used to add tone or emotion to a message, to avoid the sender’s intent being misinterpreted due to lack of context. But people have been using words to express their ideas and feelings just fine for hundreds of years without the help of emojis, so why would they need them now? 

Consider that emojis rose to popularity at about the same time as instant messaging apps, mobile phones, and short form social media like Twitter and Facebook. Suddenly people were communicating a lot more in short, rapid-fire written exchanges, whereas earlier forms such as email and blog posts afforded the writer much more space to make themselves understood.

Around the start of the millennium, an entire generation grew up chatting with their friends on MSN Messenger and AOL Instant Messenger, before moving onto smartphones and social media within a decade. They pioneered a new way of communicating, characterized by high volumes of short text messages, exchanged at high speeds - there was no time for flowery prose or long winded clarifications. 

Emojis offered a convenient way to quickly signify that your comment should be taken as a joke, or with irony, or that you’re confused, upset, or shocked. They can also be used to “react” to a message or post, often a simple thumbs-up is used to signify agreement, or just to let the sender know you received their message even if you don’t write a reply. 

Tip: For a detailed breakdown of the most-used emojis of 2023, check out our blog!

Emojis are now so ingrained into the public consciousness that we see them everywhere. They’ve gone from an almost underground phenomenon only understood by internet early-adopters, to a mainstream cultural trend. 

Beyond their function as a ubiquitous communication tool, emojis have also been great for commerce. A quick search for the term “emoji” on Amazon reveals a seemingly endless selection of emoji branded toys, games (including Emoji Uno), clothing, and novelty items such as the poop-emoji cushion. 

Emojis have even made their way into major Hollywood studio productions. In 2017, Sony Pictures released The Emoji Movie, with heavyweight names such as Patrick Stewart, Maya Rudolph, and Jennifer Coolidge voicing animated emoji characters. Critics almost universally panned the movie, but audiences rewarded it with $218 million in box office receipts. 

Almost everybody who uses a smartphone and/or the internet knows about emojis, even if they might not fully understand all of the emoji meanings, and probably use them at least occasionally. It’s fair to say that for better or worse, emojis have had a lasting impact on global culture. 

You may be surprised to learn that emojis have been the subject of some serious academic research, particularly in relation to how they are used in marketing, such as this 2022 study into how they impact conversion on social media. 

To save you a lot of reading through dense academic texts and marketing industry surveys, here’s a quick summary of what many of the studies seem to say: 

Emojis can increase engagement, in the right context.

Use them in fun, conversational copy, but not in a practical or informative context. 

Emojis used in the wrong context can damage credibility.

They work better for younger audiences (duh).

There are a lot of variables, more research is needed. 

You should do your own testing to figure out how emojis perform for you. 

So, if you’re a B2C brand, especially one with a younger customer base, it’s almost certainly worth using emojis in things like social content and direct emails, but take a scientific approach to understand how best to deploy them. For example, try A/B testing email subject lines with and without emojis.

Proceed with caution - while clever use of emojis could add some extra sparkle to your content, you don’t want to risk over-using them or, worse, using them in the wrong way and giving your customers a bad case of cringe. 

Social Media Marketing

The Power of Instagram Stories: A Marketer's Guide

How to Go Live on TikTok, and Grow Your Audience

Understanding Emoji Meanings

5 Brands Making Waves on Reddit

TikTok Influencers 101: The Questions You’re Too Embarrassed To Ask

Top 20 Instagram Influencers for Coachella 2023

10 Tips to Grow Subscribers on YouTube (The Organic Way)

How To Do Influencer Marketing On Facebook

How To Perform an Instagram Influencer Audit

How To Use WhatsApp for Business in 2025

Grandpacore vs. Mob Wife Aesthetic: The Battle of the Microtrends

How To Promote Branded Influencer Content As Ads

Social Media Marketing

The Power of Instagram Stories: A Marketer's Guide

How to Go Live on TikTok, and Grow Your Audience

Understanding Emoji Meanings

5 Brands Making Waves on Reddit

TikTok Influencers 101: The Questions You’re Too Embarrassed To Ask

Top 20 Instagram Influencers for Coachella 2023

10 Tips to Grow Subscribers on YouTube (The Organic Way)

How To Do Influencer Marketing On Facebook

How To Perform an Instagram Influencer Audit

How To Use WhatsApp for Business in 2025

Grandpacore vs. Mob Wife Aesthetic: The Battle of the Microtrends

How To Promote Branded Influencer Content As Ads

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