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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

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

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

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

As a hiring manager, you’re not only looking to fill your PR job requisition. You’re also trying to identify PR job candidates who will fit your company’s culture and the role’s demands.

Even when you’ve designed a solid recruitment process, including writing a job description that brings candidates an insider’s view of the job, you can still end up with a new hire that doesn’t work out. Like the PR director who lacks strategic planning and budget management skills. Or the entry-level PR person who can’t write a strong press release or backgrounder. Sometimes, a candidate talks a great game, but doesn’t have the practical skills to deliver.

If candidates who ace interview checkpoints lack what it takes to make the day-to-day job work, how do you filter them out before making an offer? Here are three ways to get a better feel for a candidate’s skills and capabilities before committing to bringing them on.

Conduct Skills Testing During the Interview

A PR professional needs to be able to communicate well at the moment, and on-the-spot. Unfortunately, when you evaluate a portfolio and writing samples, you can’t be sure how much third-party editing and strategy went into it. This makes having on-site skills testing an important part of the interview process. 

A few easy ways to test writing, editing, and business judgment skills include getting a candidate to:

Edit a messy first draft of a press release. Insert grammar and spelling errors that a PR pro should be able to zero-in on, such as deviations from AP Style.

Draft a media relations pitch. Provide a piece of industry thought leadership authored by an executive, and ask the candidate to compose a pitch, including who they’d target and why.

Vet social media content. Compile a collection of good, bad, and ugly social media posts from your company and competitors. Ask the candidate if they would post them or not and why.

Respond to social media complaints. Provide the candidate with a handful of actual social media complaints your company has received in the past and ask them how they’d respond or react to them.

It’s important to make sure the candidate knows this test is simply a way for you to get a read on their in-the-moment communications skills. It’s not an attempt to get free work out of them. 

Which brings us to the next testing tactic…

Give the Candidate a Paid Freelance Assignment

Once the candidate has passed your in-person interview and skills test with flying colors, it’s time for a freelance project. If your candidate is currently employed full-time, you’ll want to keep it small. Asking for an evaluation of a specific social media channel would fit the bill. Or, writing a piece of contributed content for a specific publication, with the abstract provided.

If the candidate is a consultant or currently between jobs, you can consider a more significant freelance project, such as putting together a PR plan for a survey or in support of an industry conference sponsorship. However, since your objective is to get the job req. closed, you won’t want it to take place over too long of a timeline.

I’m sure some of you reading this post just said: “No way would anyone agree to that!” But I can tell you from personal experience many people will—and have—done just that.

Before I took the full-time head of content role at Highwire PR, I worked as a contractor for them over three months to make sure it was a good fit. And I agreed to do that despite having been employed full-time. In fact, if they hadn’t asked if that was a possibility, I would have asked THEM for the trial run. You see, despite having worked as an independent consultant, I had never worked as an agency employee. I wanted to make sure it was the right fit for me before signing on permanently as a full-time employee.

While this may not be possible in all situations, it is a good way to give both the job candidate and the company to see if the fit is there. Often, companies are reluctant to give an unconventional job candidate a chance because the risk is too great. But by having a 90-day contract, either party can walk away at the end of the contract if the fit isn’t there.

There’s still no silver bullet to ensuring you don’t end up with a fly-by-night new hire who can’t meet their job requirements, but building in a series of skills testing into your hiring process decreases the chances of that happening. At the same time, it also helps you narrow your candidate pool. Giving you time to focus on those candidates who are interested in working for your company specifically, versus someone looking to make a quick career change.

3 Essential Ways to Evaluate Your PR Job Candidates

A few weeks ago I met with a young attorney who wanted to raise her profile and become famous. After 90 minutes of coffee where she produced her dream scenario of TV interviews and profiles, along with a strategy to promote her as a young leader in entertainment law and celebrity representation, she said, “You’ve given me some great ideas! Now I can get some media on my own.”

For PR agencies and consultants, this happens a lot more than we like, potential clients wasting our time, pumping us for ideas, taking copious notes, then attempting to act as their own publicist. With all due respect, they can’t represent themselves. If they try, they will probably fail.

PR professionals, smart entrepreneurs, and readers of this column for the past eight years know that public relations isn’t only difficult, in some cases, it’s nearly impossible. Reporters and other influencers aren’t going to spread your message, or promote you or your business just for fun. There’s got to be something in it for them—a great story, insight into a trend, or fascinating information that will entice their readers and make them look good in front of their editors.

You are not buying an ad. Remember—advertising is what you pay for, PR is what you pray for.

Think of it this way—you can probably represent yourself in traffic court for a minor violation. Small claims court? Possibly. But should you act as your own attorney for a civil lawsuit or big trial? No freaking way. (A lawyer should know better.)

So the next time you are tempted to represent yourself, or a client dismisses your expertise because they were smart enough to “pick your brain” and now they are cruising behind the wheel with Google Maps leading the way, please enlighten them. 

Tip: Learn how to hire a PR agency and how to hire a marketing firm to get the help you need.

Here are Five Reasons Why You Can’t Do Your Own PR:

Imagine hosting a party and sending out 300 invitations. 296 are ignored, three people respond “Not interested, ” and one says “I’ll let you know.” How does that feel? Welcome to PR.  With fewer reporters employed and more publicists pitching them, the odds are against you. I don’t tell most clients how often their stories get rejected. It’s too personal and too painful. An outside PR consultant doesn’t take these personally, he or she finds what’s not working, makes it better and finds an outlet to place the story.

Bad Writing is the twin brother of Rejection. Most emails aren’t even read. They are poorly focused or irrelevant, the subject headlines don’t get to the point, the main points are too self-serving, and they are often sent to the wrong journalist. Prominent journalists get 1,000 emails per day. Even bloggers for obscure publications receive dozens daily. Many professional publicists used to work in the media. They respect the journalist by sending them short, well-written and relevant pitches.

If you think emails get ignored, good luck going viral on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or SnapChat. There’s an excellent new book called Hit Makers by Derek Thompson that destroys “The Viral Myth.” Thompson notes: “Advertisers and producers have developed a theory of ‘viral’ marketing, which assumes that simple word of mouth can easily take a small idea and turn it into a phenomenon.” Thompson, a senior editor of The Atlantic, asks if ideas really do go viral. “The answer appears to be a simple no. In 2012, several researchers from Yahoo studied the spread of millions of online messages on Twitter. More than 90 percent of the message didn’t diffuse at all. A tiny percentage, about 1 percent, was shared more than seven times. But nothing really went fully viral – not even the most popular share messages.” Facebook noted in 2013 that 4.75 billion pieces of content were shared each day, in 2017, it’s probably much higher. Five hundred million Tweets are sent daily. That’s a lot of competition.

Sometimes who you know is just as important as what you know. Contacts with journalists, newspapers, bloggers, producers and other influencers are worth their weight in gold, wrapped in platinum, and sprinkled with diamonds. That’s why PR firms are hired, retained, and renewed. Our firm recently placed a big article for an academic client in one of the Big Three newspapers (Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Times). It was a great story that illustrated a trend, but it took three months of interviews, statistics, stops, and starts. Because I personally knew the reporter, the article eventually appeared, and it ran with a photo. No doubt there are countless other examples from PR agencies around the world where personal connections make the difference. For my latest book, I hired a publicist who works with authors. (If lawyers going to court can hire other lawyers, PR pros can hire each other too.)

How many meetings at corporations, universities, law firms, restaurants or auto companies start this way: “We’ve got the best sedan/pricing model/entrepreneur program/fudge-filled donut on the market. Our distribution strategy is second-to-none. Our customers and suppliers love the new product. Why doesn’t the media give a damn?!” Maybe the product isn’t so novel. Maybe the service hasn’t been explained properly. Maybe it hasn’t been inserted into a trend so the journalist can write something meaningful, instead of repurposing a press release. Maybe the fascinating anecdotes about users, the way it was invented or other novel factoids weren’t promoted. This is why PR professionals working internally for big firm usually bring in consultants and agencies. They can see the outside world. They know how the company, product or service fits into the media conversation, and they know who might be interested.

For more information about hiring a PR agency or discovering what they actually do, please see this previous Forbes column with more than 350,000 views.

In the meantime, don’t try this at home.

This article was written by Robert Wynne from Forbes and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

Why You Can’t Do Public Relations Yourself

In today's modern economy, a social media manager's contributions to an organization are vast. Beyond message broadcast duties, their reach extends into HR, sales, and crisis comms. And a superhero social media manager needs dynamic tools like Meltwater Engage and Executive Alerts to get the job done.

Snap pics, shoot a video, and add 140 characters of clever. While you’re at it, like the likes that liked your previous posts. At this rate, your energy will be zapped before you get into the office! After all, it’s only social media. While many outsiders find it hard to believe that you get paid to do something everybody is doing in their spare time, for free, you know the real deal.

Being a social media manager is the iceberg of marketing and communications. Your goals are set by the entire company, from HR to the CEO to the Sales team, and everyone in between. Your day is dictated by left and right brain demands, internal and external constituencies, creative campaigns and analytical assignments, simultaneously.

While your colleagues think you have it easy, more often than not, as a social media manager, your day is far from a day at the beach and more closely resembles the film, Groundhog Day.

With businesses now investing in a social business model, the social media manager is more important than ever. The scope of their work touches all aspect of what comprises a modern organization. This infographic details how much work social media managers contribute to the work of a company in their drive to fulfill business goals.

Share this infographic with your favorite social media manager. To learn more about what it takes to drive a social business, read our e-book, Social to Scale: How to Build a Serious Social Media Program.

Infographic: Is That All? What a Social Media Manager Does

Having a comprehensive PR content strategy to grow your audience should include an ad strategy that you can promote. This post is a good checklist for when you purchase social media advertising.

It’s no secret that a social media presence is important for connecting with consumers and getting the word out about your business these days. There are all sorts of important elements of a successful campaign, such as posting regularly, not being too self-promotional, including images and hashtags, responding and engaging with followers, posting a variety of content…of course I could go on. But another helpful way to reach your target audience, and increase and promote your social media presence is through advertising. Why is this important and how can you get started? Keep reading to find out!

Why is Social Media Advertising Important?

Running a social media ad campaign is a fantastic way to reach new users. When you create an ad, like a Facebook ad, you can determine exactly what type of user you want to target and place your content directly in their news or social media feed.

In addition, the cost of running a social media advertising campaign is very cost-effective; you can choose a daily budget or a set amount for the life of the ad, and then the platform will charge you a few cents to a couple of dollars per click. Compared to traditional advertising, the overall cost is much more manageable for small businesses!

However, is social media advertising really effective? Yes, it is! Here’s what recent research shows:

78% of social marketers surveyed said they’re either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the value Facebook Ads provide.

Users who saw Facebook ads were more likely to search and click through to an advertiser’s website, with campaigns experiencing an average 6.3% lift in mobile search traffic.

60% of participants in a study indicated they’ve purchased from a business because of something they saw on Twitter.

43% of surveyed Twitter users plan to purchase regularly from the businesses they follow.

According to LinkedIn’s Marketing Solutions Blog:

80% of North American brands agree or strongly agree that social media advertising is cost effective and provides ROI.

44% of small and medium businesses use social ads for brand awareness.

41% of small and medium businesses use social ads to drive revenue.

How to Run a Social Media Advertising Campaign

Before you buy your ad campaign, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

What are your goals? Make sure you have SMART goals in mind! They should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. So, for example, you may want to have a goal of 100 click-throughs or 20 new page followers.

Where is your target audience? Which social media platforms do they use? If you’re a business-to-consumer company trying to reach millennials, for example, you may want to invest in Instagram ads; if you’re a business-to-business enterprise looking to reach decision-makers, LinkedIn may be a better fit. This is where you can use Meltwater's Audience Insights to help you get a better sense of who and where your target audience is.

What’s your budget? How much can you invest in social media advertising? If you’re trying to decide between LinkedIn and Twitter and your budget is really limited, you may want to focus on Twitter as their cost per clicks are much lower than LinkedIn. Or, if you have some wiggle room, you may want to run ads on both social platforms for a week or two and then look at results to better-target future ads.

What sort of content do you have? Will you need to invest in professional photos or video, which may take funds from your overall budget? This is important to think about up-front.

Once you’ve had a chance to think through the questions above, it’s time to get started! Although each social media platform is a little bit different, the general principles and structure of a social media campaign stay the same from one ad manager to the next. When you log into your account, click on the “ad manager” and then follow the step-by-step instructions. Here’s what the general process will look like.

Select your goal. Are you trying to increase website traffic, page follows, etc? Choose the option from the list provided.

Select target audience demographics. In addition to choosing options like geographic location, age and gender, each ad platform will have a list of interests that you can select from. This data comes from information the user has shared on their profile or shown an interest in through their account and can be anything from job title, income level and relationship status to what the user eats or drinks, watches on TV or hobbies they do in their free time. The better you can specify your target, the more personalized you can make your ad and the more successful it will be.

Set your budget. Make sure you specify if the number you put in is the budget for each day or for the life of the ad.

Set your schedule. Put in the dates you want the ad to run. You can actually put in the exact time you want the ad to stop running, which is a great way to run a time-sensitive social media campaign, such as for an event or a special sale; this way you don’t need to remember to log into the ad manager and stop the ad at a particular day and time.

Double check everything. I always like to click through the ad previews and make sure the ad will appear the way I want it to when users see it in their social media feeds. The ad previews allow you to see how content will appear to users on their desktop, tablet or smartphone devices.

Review the results and compare. One of the best ways to figure out which ads work well for your business is to experiment with your strategy. Try running two ads for the same period of time. After a week or two, compare the results. Which one(s) received more clicks or engagement? Then try running another campaign with the one that performed best and a third ad, then compare and contrast the results. The more ads you can run, and the more results you can compare, the more you can start to see trends regarding which types of ads resonate best for your company.

Here are some helpful advertising tips and tricks to keep in mind:

Remember the call to action! If you can entice them with something of value (such as a special discount or giveaway), even better.

Update your ad content every several weeks; if the ads are showing up in the same users’ feeds, you don’t want it to get stale!

Put the most compelling information first since that’s what will draw users’ attention

Run split tests; in addition to comparing and contrasting ad results as I explained above, consider running a couple of ads with identical copy and different images at the same time for another way to discover which visuals resonate best

Don’t use too many words in your visuals – in fact, Facebook only allows you to cover 20% of the image with text

Consider including user-generated content to add a personal touch to the ads on different platforms – just make sure you have permission from the user first!

Include hashtags in your ads (remember each platforms’ best practices when you do this)

Keep the mobile user in mind! Remember more than 80% of social media users are accessing the platform on their phones and tablets, so make sure the ads are compelling on these devices as well to reach potential customers.

Create a landing page for your website specifically for social media users that click on your ad; creating a custom page allows you to target the first page they see on your website to reference the ad’s content or something specific they may be interested in

Remember to review analytics regularly to make data-driven decisions; if you don’t look at what works and fine-tune your ads, you’re wasting your hard-earned dollars.

This article originally appeared in Three Girls Media, was written by Emily Sidley from Business2Community, and legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com.

How to Run a Successful Social Media Advertising Campaign

Fake news is a real problem — and not just for journalists.

Look no further than a new survey that says 75-percent of Americans find it difficult to determine what news is accurate and what is not. Worse yet, when Stanford researchers studied the ability of students to analyze the credibility of information online — the same kids we all consider “digital natives” — the researchers described the results as “bleak.” They were “shocked” by how many students failed to effectively evaluate the credibility of that information.

So, what’s the solution? “The world needs the truth now more than ever,” says Hamish Nicklin of The Guardian. “In a world where the most important people on the planet are using fake news to undermine the values so many of us hold so dear,” she told a roomful of reporters at The Guardian’s 2017 Media Summit, “it has never been so important that we have a strong and vibrant media, and remember that facts and truth are sacred.”

Although she was speaking specifically to journalists, the same advice holds true for content marketers. As the audience grows more skeptical, content needs to grow more credible. Click bait, re-purposed press releases, and glorified commercials just won’t hold up to the tougher scrutiny, and they might even get you in trouble. In the past, the audience might just click away. But now that the audience is more skeptical, bad content runs the risk of getting lumped in with all of the other fake stuff — and actually harming your brand.

Do you really want to take that chance? Instead, focus on real facts and true stories. Be genuine. Be honest. Fight the fake news epidemic by using the same tactics that journalists use to bridge the credibility gap.

Use the principles of journalistic objectivity to build your credibility.

You’d be surprised how many newsroom discussions involve “Big J” journalism — the stuff we learned in journalism school. Most of those conversations involve integrity, or, in the words of the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics, the mandate to “seek the truth and report it.” Following that mandate, and showing it as transparently as possible, is the easiest way for journalists to separate themselves from fake news.

For marketers, I’d make the mandate even simpler: “Don’t BS your audience.” Content marketing is supposed to be all about answering the audience’s questions. Giving them what they’re looking for. When people click on a headline, they expect content that delivers. They expect relevant information that will help them. Try to manipulate them with ham-handed marketing messages and you’ll lose your credibility quickly.

For journalists, this means “follow the truth.” Don’t let advertisers (or anybody else) influence your coverage. That’s why there’s a separation of “church and state” in newsrooms — to keep the sales department and their advertisers away from the journalists. That independence breeds objectivity, impartiality, and credibility.

Marketers who force themselves to act independently will notice similar results. Nothing builds credibility like pure honesty. Avoid the temptation to act like a salesman. In fact, consider mentioning the competition as a way to showcase your objectivity. And don’t shy away from admitting they’re actually better on a few occasions. They’re going to find that out anyway, but when they learn it from you, your credibility will shine through.

For journalists, this is easy. Real stories should seem more real than the fake ones. For content marketers, it takes a lot more discipline. It’s tempting to repurpose a press release or brochure, but is that what your audience is looking for?

If you put on your journalist’s hat and focus on real stories and information instead of your marketing story, you’ll build credibility. Create content that fills a need or answers a question and then ask yourself, “what is the next step the reader needs to take?” By answering the reader’s questions and making it easy for them to take the next step, you’ll begin to create a relationship of trust and open up the doors for further communication.

I’m not talking about Woodward and Bernstein — they were dealing with confidential sources. I’m talking about the way content marketers can build credibility by simply citing source information properly. For starters, why should I believe you’re using a fact from a study in proper context if you don’t link to it? Same thing with a quote. Let me see where you got it.

Besides building credibility with your transparency, you’ll also add an extra layer of objectivity. When you link to the source, you’re likely to vet it further. If it doesn’t feel like something you’d want your reader to see (whether it’s out of context, not the original source, or anything else that doesn’t feel right), you might reconsider using it. That a level of extra thoughtfulness that’s guaranteed to elevate both the quality and credibility of your content.

Seeing is believing. It’s as simple as that. Showing a video instantly boosts your credibility because it allows the audience to see or hear for things with their own eyes and ears. Think of this the way you think when you look at one of those glossy hotel photos that’s just too good to believe. Now picture how you feel when it’s replaced by a short video. You see more of the room and you feel like you’re seeing it with your own eyes. It instantly starts to feel more credible.

Now think through the same thing with other examples, like a testimonial or case study where a recorded interview lets the audience vet the endorsement for ourselves. Same story for a demonstration or any other video. It simply feels more transparent and objective because there’s more information to process (both audio and video) and more access to it.

Make no mistake, fake news is a legitimate threat to all content creators. It muddies the waters of the entire internet. However, that threat also creates a giant opportunity for content marketers who embrace the principles of journalistic objectivity. With an increasingly knowledgeable and skeptical audience on the other end, producing “good” content will not only burnish your brand’s credibility but it will help distance your content (and your brand) from those who don’t.

This article originally appeared in The StoryTeller Media Blog.

This article was written by Gregg Litman from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@newscred.com

How to Boost your Content's Credibility

Following the kudos Wendy’s received by throwing shade on Twitter about McDonald’s current use of frozen beef, will more brands get bolder in calling out their competition?

Received wisdom is that it’s better to let the press and public opinion do the dirty work of negative PR. But, since Wendy’s was punching up in their rap-style Twitter-beef (pun fully intended), they may have been thinking they’ve got more to gain than to lose. Specifically, gains in Twitter cred, visibility, and followers. Given that’s exactly what happened, other brands are surely taking note. Let’s take a closer look at what’s worked.

Though McD’s 2016 revenue was close to 17 times that of Wendy’s and their worldwide locations outpace the redhead 6 to 1, on Twitter at least, the margins are slimmer, with Wendy’s at 1.65 million followers to 3.41 million for the golden arches. It’s important to note that Wendy’s didn’t use subterfuge, insults, or underhanded tactics. Instead, they seized on McDonald’s marketing language promising fresh beef by 2018 and with humor, pointed out the cracks in Mickey D’s business positioning. After all, bragging about the introduction of fresh beef means you haven’t been using it up until now. Wendy’s ran with it.

McDonald's on Twitter: "Today we've announced that by mid-2018, all Quarter Pounder burgers at the majority of our restaurants will be cooked with fresh beef.… https://t.co/W12JXwCpj6"

And with that reply tweet, a strategic trendjack—within three hours of a campaign that took significantly longer to produce — @Wendys sailed into a social media win with over 75k RTs and over 180k hearts. It’s not so surprising that social media is receptive to snarkiness.

Taking Off the (Social Media Gloves) During a Crisis: The Case of United Airlines

It would’ve been hard to miss the two scandals that recently rocked United Airlines, considering the volume of above-the-fold headlines. Both center around United policies that seem to leave the service out of “customer service.” The first might be called “Leggings-gate” concerning enforcement of their dress code. While gender discrimination may have come into play, as dress codes aren’t uniformly enforced, the issue might have blown over (as minor brand crises do), except for the United Express Flight 3411 passenger dragging incident.

Subsequent non-apology, leak of an insensitive internal memo, as well as the launch of a smear campaign around the dragged passenger compounded the crisis surrounding United, with PR pros taking note.

Royal Jordanian on Twitter: "We are here to keep you #united Dragging is strictly prohibited 🚫… "

Again, not surprisingly, the funnier the jabs got, the more successful they were. The Southwest Airlines crew included colorful commentary on some flights and were the beneficiary of a spoof ad that has gone viral.

Doug Haller on Twitter: "Attendant on my Southwest flight tells passengers: "We're going to need four passengers ... just kidding.""

Delta, on the other hand, took the opportunity to highlight brand values; striking a more straightforward note.

Rachel F. Elson on Twitter: "Trying to be the anti-United >> Delta just dramatically increased the $$ it can give to bumped passengers https://t.co/Jz2tQKVmrK"

United hasn’t come up for air yet as they try to stop the crisis spiraling, while ignoring the pile-on they’re receiving from competitors and consumers on social media.

Right now, while the United scandal is still fresh and public perception continues to tank, we won’t yet see the full benefits for the airlines employing this kicking-them-while-they’re-down tactic. But we do know that, so far this year, using similar practices have netted Twitter wins for both Wendy’s and Lyft.

Since January, Lyft has been subtly boxing Uber. As crisis after crisis befell the leader in hailing apps (including, but not limited to: employee gender discrimination, treatment of drivers, a seat on the advisory board of the current Presidential administration, and breaking a taxi strike in NYC), Lyft put out a statement that reinforced their principles, without ever mentioning their competitor by name.

Logan Green, Lyft’s co-founder and CEO, tweeted late January that, “Trump’s immigration ban is antithetical to both Lyft’s and our nation’s core values.”

Logan Green on Twitter: "3/ We are donating $1,000,000 over the next four years to the ACLU to defend our constitution. https://t.co/0umGOlkhSx"

To further emphasize differences, Lyft made a public donation of one million to the ACLU, an organization responsible for bringing immigration ban lawsuits against the current administration (an issue that the NYC taxi strike addressed). Though they never mention Uber, Lyft used the increased visibility brought on by these crises to position themselves as their rival’s antithesis. With the positive affirmations from their ACLU donation, Lyft continues on this path, donating 20% of rides to the @LeanInOrg on Equal Pay Day.

Lyft on Twitter: "This #EqualPayDay, we're partnering w/ @LeanInOrg to donate 20% of ride proceeds to orgs for women: https://t.co/y9cEYD0yaf #20PercentCounts… https://t.co/hWE9UDwVnt"

Lyft’s agile comms team and leadership have crafted a PR strategy that shows, by example, that they share the #deleteUber crowd’s principles.

While loyal presidential administration consumers attempted a #deleteLyft campaign, it didn’t catch fire like #deleteUber has. Even with a backlash, the media coverage and Twitter praise are likely worth the strategic play of throwing shade on social.

2017 has ushered in a social media strategy that uses a competitor’s crisis or newsjacking to broadcast your brand values and elevate visibility. PR is no longer only about protecting your brand and broadcasting messages; it’s also about going for the jugular in pointing out how much better you are than a competitor. This is especially true if they’re facing scrutiny because of a crisis or a well-financed marketing campaign. Being nimble and doing this well is the key to success. That’s why you’ll need a media intelligence platform that is always listening for industry keywords, so when something happens to a competitor, you can work on the perfect snarky @ reply.

Throwing Shade on Social: Newsjacking and Negative PR

There’s no shortage of inspiring content from fashion brands and retailers on Snapchat these days—from big initiatives surrounding fashion shows to ongoing posts throughout the year teasing new product lines and behind-the-scenes insights into some of the world’s most glamorous companies.

Snapchat today has 150 million daily active users globally, with 60% of that base in the 18-34 year old age bracket. Within that, 25-34 years olds are the fastest growing demographic. Otherwise known as Millennials, which are due to be the largest generational segment, not to mention one with the fastest growing spending power by 2018-2020, it’s no surprise fashion brands have looked to jump on board.

Snapchat itself, or Snap Inc as the parent company is now known, only supports a paid strategy—that being the decision to make use of any one of its three advertising propositions. These include Snap Ads, which appear between Stories and Discover content, Sponsored Geofilters, which are location specific overlays on images and videos taken, and Sponsored Lenses, which are augmented reality additions to selfies taken by users. While many brands have been jumping on board with these, including Burberry, ASOS, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, John Lewis and more, there are a multitude of others also looking to an organic strategy based on native content and a big push around storytelling.

Read on for 10 of the best examples of both for inspiration on individual campaigns as well as ongoing content planning.

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