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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

If you’re looking for the latest digital trends, you’re in the right place: our latest Global Digital Report is packed with momentous milestones for internet adoption, social media use, and the rise of AI.

Your comprehensive guide to digital in 2026

The Digital 2026 Global Overview Report – published in partnership with Meltwater and We Are Social – is the most comprehensive report yet in our Global Digital Reports series.

Weighing in at 700 pages, it has everything you need to know about:

Social media behaviours and platform preferences

Digital marketing trends, including ad spend and engagement

Top headlines and findings in this year’s report include:

More than 6 billion people now use the internet

Social media users have reached “supermajority” status

More than 1 billion people now use AI every month

Insights into what people are actually using AI for

Big new numbers for digital connectivity in India and China

Perspectives on the world’s most popular social media platforms

The state of advertising around the world

The outlook for search as AI gains momentum

How social media expectations are evolving

However, that’s just a fraction of what you’ll find in the full report.

But why are we publishing our Digital 2026 report in October 2025?

Over the past decade, we’ve published our flagship Global Digital Reports at the start of each year.

However, we know that many of you start developing your annual plans towards the end of the preceding year.

So, to better align with your planning cycles, we’ve brought our publishing cycle forward, bringing you everything you need to build the most informed digital strategy for the year ahead.

Our Digital 2026 Global Digital Overview Report is out now – read on below to explore that – and we’ll continue our Digital 2026 series with individual country reports starting in November 2025.

As always, we’d like to start by extending our heartfelt thanks to our wonderful data partners, who provide the world-leading data you’ll find in this year’s reports:

All of this analysis has been written by Simon Kemp without the use of generative AI, except for the five quotes overtly attributed to AI tools within the final section of this article [why does this matter?].

Simon has been producing the Global Digital Reports series for almost 15 years, so he’s intimately familiar with the global “state of digital”, and how people’s online behaviours are evolving.

If you’d like to follow Simon’s regular analysis, you can connect with him on LinkedIn.

As you explore this latest report – and especially as you compare trends over time – please be aware of the following:

We’ve historically published our Global Digital Overview Report using the latest data available in January of the respective year, but the present Digital 2026 Global Overview Report relies on data up to October 2025. Consequently, comparing data in our Digital 2026 Global Overview Report with Global Overview Reports from previous years will not deliver accurate year-on-year trends. As a result, we strongly encourage readers to rely on the data for trends over time published within our reports, instead of trying to calculate trends using data from different reports.

Please note that we’ve changed the sources we use for a variety of data points over the past year. Similarly, some of our data partners have changed their research and reporting methodologies, and some have changed the scope of the behaviours and attitudes associated with certain data points. As a result, please read each slide carefully in order to understand what the data shows, paying particular attention to chart titles, subtitles, and footnotes.

Since our previous report in July 2025, the ITU has made significant revisions to its internet adoption figures for China and India, based on new data published by those countries’ “official” reporting bodies. These revisions have had a significant impact on various data points in this year’s reports, most notably our figures for global internet use and global social media user identities. Please also be aware that these revisions may have an important impact on figures for change over time.

In addition to the notes above, please refer to our comprehensive notes on data to learn about other recent changes to data and sources in the Global Digital Reports series.

You’ll find our complete Digital 2026 Global Overview Report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to find an in-depth analysis of what all these numbers actually mean for you and your work.

The global state of digital in October 2025

Let’s begin with our usual look at the latest global headlines:

The United Nations’ World Populations Prospects data shows that there are 8.25 billion people living on Earth today, with that figure increasing by 69 million (+0.8 percent) since October 2024. The UN’s data also highlights advancing urbanisation, with 58.4 percent of the world’s population now living in urban centres.

GSMA Intelligence’s latest research indicates that there are 5.78 billion unique mobile users around the world in October 2025, which equates to 70.1 percent of the global population. The worldwide unique subscriber figure has increased by 108 million over the past 12 months, delivering annual growth of 1.9 percent. And for added perspective, data from Ericsson shows that smartphones now account for roughly 86.9 percent of the mobile phone handsets in use, and 83.7 percent of total cellular mobile connections.

Kepios analysis indicates that the total number of people using the internet reached 6.04 billion by the start of October 2025, resulting in a global internet penetration figure of 73.2 percent. Reported internet user figures have increased by 294 million (+5.1 percent) over the past year, but a large portion of this apparent growth can be attributed to revisions in adoption figures for India. Moreover, despite these impressive growth figures, 2.2 billion people around the world remained offline at the time of report publication.

Kepios analysis reveals that global social media user identities now stand at 5.66 billion, with that figure equivalent to 68.7 percent of the global population. The total user identities figure increased by 4.8 percent in the 12 months to October 2025, thanks to the addition of 259 million new identities [note that “user identities” may not represent unique human individuals.]

Those figures provide a handy overview of global digital adoption and use in October 2025, but they offer little indication of how people’s digital behaviours are actually evolving.

In order to make sense of those behavioural trends, we need to dig deeper into the numbers – and that’s exactly what this article will help you do.

However, despite clocking in at more than 12,000 words [ahem], this article still doesn’t contain all of our analysis of this year’s numbers, so be sure to look out for links to our Digital 2026 “deep-dive” content as you make your way through each section.

But even without that deep-dive content, you’ll still need a good hour to read this article, so you may want to grab some refreshments and get comfy before you read on.

Digital growth in context: population trends

In order to make full sense of trends in digital adoption and use, it may be helpful to start by exploring broader trends in the overall population.

The latest World Population Prospects data from the United Nations indicates that there are now 8.25 billion people on Earth, which means that the global population has increased by a quarter of a billion people in less than three years.

However, the UN’s data also indicates that global population growth is slowing, with the latest figures indicating a year-on-year increase of 0.8 percent.

For context, the global population was growing at an annual rate of roughly 1.2 percent at the start of the 2000s, while the annual growth rate was as high as 2.3 percent in the early 1960s.

Meanwhile, from an absolute perspective, the United Nations’ figures point to an increase of 69 million people over the past 12 months.

That still equates to an average of an additional 2.2 people each second, but that’s meaningfully lower than the average growth of 3.0 people per second that the world experienced in 1990.

However, despite this deceleration in growth, the size of the global population has still increased by more than 50 percent since internet adoption started to gain meaningful momentum at the start of the 1990s.

▶ Dive deeper: looking for more population data? Explore a wealth of trends in this dedicated article.

Kepios’s analysis of the latest internet adoption data reveals that more than 6 billion people are now online, with global internet penetration jumping to 73.2 percent.

This figure marks yet another impressive milestone on the world’s digital journey, and suggests that the global internet user figure has doubled in just under 11 years, having reached the 3-billion user mark in early November 2014.

And for added perspective, when the first website appeared on the “world wide web” back on the 6th of August, 1991, there were barely 5 million people around the world using the internet.

And despite today’s impressive figure, data indicates that internet user numbers continue to grow, too.

Changes in individual countries’ reported figures indicate that the global internet user total has increased by 5.1 percent over the past 12 months, thanks to the addition of 294 million new users.

However, it’s important to stress that significant revisions to internet adoption figures in India have played a major role in fuelling the current growth figure.

More specifically, a recent report from India’s National Statistics Office (NSO) indicates that 7 in 10 Indians are now online, with the latest 70.0 percent penetration figure more than 10 percentage points higher than the 58.4 percent figure reported by Kantar and the IAMAI just a few months ago.

It’s important to highlight that the NSO’s figure represents internet use amongst Indians aged 15 and above, and there’s a realistic possibility that internet adoption amongst younger age groups may be lower than this adult average.

However, the same study reports that 86.3 percent of all Indian households now have some form of internet connection, so – while younger Indians may not own the devices necessary to access the internet on their own – there’s a realistic possibility that Indian children below the age of 15 are regularly accessing the internet using family devices.

Moreover, the guidance we received from the ITU was to apply the NSO’s adoption figure to the population as a whole, because it is the most representative indicator of current internet use across the country.

And if we apply that 70 percent adoption figure to the UN’s current population figure, the latest data indicate that more than 1 billion people in India now use the internet.

Chinese internet adoption revised upwards

Meanwhile, China’s internet reporting body has also published significant revisions to its figures for internet use in the world’s second most populous country.

CNNIC’s latest (56th) report on internet adoption in China indicates that a hefty 91.6 percent of individuals in the country now use the internet or internet-powered services.

Interestingly, this particular figure is reported in an annex at the end of the main report, but based on our conversations with the ITU – the primary body responsible for collecting “official” internet adoption figures on behalf of the United Nations – it seems that this annex figure is indeed the most representative value for overall internet adoption in China.

We’ve also been able to “rebase” our internet user figures for China for the past year based on CNNIC’s published data, so these revisions haven’t impacted our most recent figures for annual growth, although you will see some more abrupt “jumps” further back in our time series where we haven’t been able to rebase the data.

CNNIC’s revised adoption figure lifts the number of internet users in China to almost 1.3 billion, meaning that China is now home to roughly 21.5 percent of the global connected population, equating to more than 1 in 5 of the world’s internet users.

And as a result, even though Eastern Asia also includes the world’s least connected country (more on that in a moment), the region is now home to almost a quarter (24.6 percent) of all the world’s internet users.

More than 2.5 billion people still offline

More than 6 billion people online; 2 in 3 people use social media

Digital 2026 Global Overview Report

Your brand is your reputation. From global corporations to small, local businesses, your success hinges on how others perceive your brand. With 17% of customers willing to walk away from a brand after just one bad experience, the role of reputation measurement cannot be overstated — your business depends on it.

Your brand isn’t just a logo or a tagline; it’s a living, breathing representation of your values, promises, and identity. It's the sum total of every interaction and experience people have with your business. And people are more willing to share their experiences than you might realize — even if they’re not sharing their feedback with you.

Here’s the scoop on brand reputation measurement and how you can start tracking it for better brand perceptions.

Why Is Brand Reputation Measurement Important?

9 Top Corporate Reputation Measurement Tools

How to Track Reputation Metrics with Meltwater

Definition of Brand Reputation Measurement: The proactive process of evaluating how a brand is perceived by customers, employees, stakeholders, and the general public.

Reputation measurement tracks various metrics, including:

Collectively, these insights can gauge a brand’s reputation. They also provide insight into where a brand may need improvements and can help assess the impact of marketing strategies on a brand’s reputation.

People already have an opinion of your brand, even if they don’t share that opinion with you. Brand reputation measurement allows you to play an active role in shaping those opinions to create favorable outcomes.

But you can’t manage what you don’t measure. If you don’t know what those opinions are, you’re in the dark about what to do next. You don’t know what you’re doing well or where you might be struggling.

Reputation measurement gives you a predictable, systematic way of evaluating your reputation which is essential for effective reputation management. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of how others perceive you in the market so you can make strategic adjustments to improve your image.

Having a process for online reputation measurement is critical at a time when a single review or Tweet can make or break a brand. Companies can stay ahead of potential crises by spotting emerging issues early on. With continuous reputation monitoring and brand monitoring and analysis, companies can mitigate reputational damage by stopping issues before they go viral.

Tip: Read our blog about crisis communications, learn how to manage a PR crisis, and take a look at tips for writing a crisis statement.

Brand reputation measurement has many moving parts and metrics, and no single metric will deliver the comprehensive understanding you need. That’s why companies turn to models that combine these insights to evaluate your reputation holistically.

Reputation measurement models use a combination of qualitative and quantitative data to assess a brand’s trust, credibility, and reliability. Examples include:

Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS measures customer loyalty by asking one simple question: How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend or colleague? The goal is to gain insights into brand advocacy and customer satisfaction.

Reputation Quotient Model: Developed by the Harris Poll, this model combines six key dimensions — social responsibility, emotional appeal, financial performance, products and services, vision and leadership, and workplace environment — to provide a complete understanding of a brand’s public perceptions.

Consumer Sentiment Analysis: This sentiment analysis method captures and analyzes the opinions, emotions, and attitudes of consumers.

These models use scientific approaches to assess and measure a brand’s reputation. By using reputation measurement models, brands can strengthen relationships with stakeholders and ultimately create greater success.

10 Top Corporate Reputation Measurement Tools

Brands have options when it comes to measuring their reputations. Let’s explore 10 of the top corporate reputation measurement tools and how they contribute to a better brand:

Radarly is Meltwater's AI-powered consumer insights technology that provides comprehensive insights into customer behaviors and perceptions. It's a great corporate reputation measurement tool because it takes into account social media, news, blogs, forums, and other sources to help you learn more about your audience’s preferences and opinions.

What makes Radarly unique is its ability to not only collect insights but also tell you what they mean. Rather than simply tracking brand mentions or behaviors, Radarly can connect the dots to show you why the data matters. 

Radarly monitors brand mentions and analyzes sentiments across different markets, regions, and countries. Brands can gain valuable cross-country consumer insights into how others perceive their products or services in different markets, which can help you improve localization strategies.

Would you like to learn how Meltwater can help you with your brand reputation measurement efforts? Get a free demo and tour our platform today.

For quick, one-off insights, Jotform is a great brand reputation measurement tool for collecting consumer feedback. This form-builder tool allows you to create a variety of custom forms and send them to customers of your choice.

This is an inexpensive option to deploy NPS surveys quickly. With no coding required and tons of customization options, you can create an NPS survey and send it to customers in minutes. Jotform also offers 150+ integrations so you can automate NPS surveys within other processes and functions, such as email marketing or online shopping.

Your brand reputation is shaped by your customers’ experiences, which is why Qualtrics’ Experience Management (XM) software can help you understand your reputation metrics. The platform includes survey capabilities to collect feedback from customers and stakeholders, customer sentiment analysis, and real-time data dashboards to track changes in perceptions over time.

Built-in dashboards are heavy on visuals to help you make sense of your data at a glance. For example, you can see what areas are helping or harming your brand reputation. Once you implement changes, you can visually monitor how those improvements affect your image.

Tip: Take a look at more customer experience software and platforms and at customer experience software.

If tracking brand reputation on social media is your goal for the year, Keyhole should be on your list. Apart from tracking your social media presence, it also tracks any hashtags and keywords for you. So, whether it's a branded hashtag campaign or a relevant keyword, Keyhole has got you covered.

The tool also offers sentiment analysis and trend tracking features that help you monitor your marketing ventures with great precision. And let's not forget, Keyhole also provides the ability to share live dashboards, download customizable reports, and access unlimited publishing on top platforms, among other features.

One of the best free (and informal) reputation measurement tools, Google Alerts is highly underutilized for reputation management. This tool allows you to track mentions of specific keywords, then receive email alerts when content using those keywords is published. 

Combined with other reputation measurement tools, Google Alerts can add context to every mention your brand receives online. Learn who is publishing about your brand and how they’re presenting you in the media. If you’re receiving negative publicity, for example, you’ll know it before it spreads far and wide and can prepare an appropriate response.

Dissatisfied customers aren’t shy about hitting businesses where it hurts most — right in the pocket. A drop in website traffic, backlinks, and conversions is sure to have an impact on sales, but Google Analytics can help spot potential problems.

Google Analytics is a free website analytics tool that monitors key metrics, including:

While not strictly for corporate reputation measurement, these insights can be very telling about how others perceive your online brand. For example, a decline in return traffic could mean your messaging, offers, or user experience aren’t compelling enough. The same could be true for low conversion rates. Or, it could indicate a bigger problem, such as negative publicity. 

You can use these metrics to provide context into insights from other consumer intelligence tools, like Radarly. These metrics can illustrate the effect consumer sentiments, online reviews, and other insights have on your brand.

Designed for corporate reputation measurement, SOCi helps you keep tabs on multiple locations from a central location. Monitor reviews, conversations, and surveys across each of your businesses to see how people in different markets perceive you. 

You can also combine these insights to gain a sense of brand appeal on a holistic level.

There are lots of ways to collect online reviews from your customers. But TrustPilot is purpose-built with the goal of instilling trust and confidence in future buyers.

More than 9 in 10 consumers ages 18-34 trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. These reviews are great sources of information and can make or break buying decisions.

Trustpilot aims to cut down on fake reviews by only connecting with people who have done business with you. This tool surfaces insights that users might not have shared with your brand otherwise, allowing you more insights into their experiences while presenting honest feedback to future customers.

Another great tool for collecting reviews 24/7, Reputology makes it easy for businesses to see, respond to, and analyze reviews. Get immediate notifications when someone leaves you a review so you see feedback and respond accordingly. This unique reputation measurement tool monitors reviews across all review sites, including big names like Google and Facebook, and even employee review sites like Glassdoor.

We. Communications' Reputation Forecast is a board-level reputation intelligence framework designed to help organizations quantify, monitor, and protect their most valuable intangible asset. Developed in partnership with Steel City Re, the system merges financial-grade measures of reputation value and risk with multi-stakeholder, multi-channel data, including media coverage, social sentiment, and audience behavior. Key features of Reputation Forecast include:

Reputation Value Metrics (RVM) and Reputation Value Volatility (RVV) benchmarking

Integration of financial and stakeholder signals in one unified view

Forward-looking insights to forecast reputation risk and resilience

Compatibility with social, media, paid, and survey data sources

Reputation Forecast helps you go beyond sentiment tracking to show you how reputation impacts enterprise value and decision-making. It enables communicators and executives alike to benchmark reputation performance, identify emerging risks, and tie communications outcomes directly to business performance.

The tool takes reputation measurement to the next level by transforming feedback into easy-to-digest insights. Sentiment analysis tools will show you what your reviews mean in the grand scheme of your reputation.

Tracking your reputation requires ongoing commitment. Public perceptions and consumer preferences change at a moment’s notice. It’s essential to keep your finger on the pulse of your brand perceptions and be ready to react and respond accordingly.

Brand Reputation Measurement: Definition, Tools, Models

In an age of AI-generated content and growing scrutiny in a fragmented media landscape,  audiences are increasingly questioning what is real and who they can trust.  

The Digital 2025 Australia report revealed that 75% of Australians are concerned about distinguishing real or fake content online - and more than half are turning to influencers and social platforms not just for entertainment, but for brand research and recommendations.  At the same time, the 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer shows trust in established institutions - media, government and business - has hit an all-time low.

What this tells us is that people are seeking out voices that feel real - relatable creators, peer communities and content that’s unpolished but honest. This shift is reshaping influence: audiences are gravitating toward micro-influencers and community-led conversations that reflect their own values and experiences.

So, what’s next for brands? It is no longer just about where you engage your audiences or who you partner with. The real opportunity lies in how you build trust - starting with your own channels as the foundation for all others to follow. 

From reach to relevance: the new rules of influence

As consumers are tuning out overly produced ads and seeking more relatable and honest storytelling that fosters meaningful connection, brands need to step back from chasing vanity metrics and viral trends to meet fleeting algorithms - and rather align their social presence with the brand’s core values. 

This not only includes their own social channels, but the influencers they partner with. While influencer marketing has long been a core strategy for brands to engage with audiences authentically, it is evolving fast - with creator-generated revenue expected to reach $184.9 billion this year according to WPP Media’s mid-year outlook. Today, fit trumps fame. Micro-influencers with smaller, values-aligned communities often generate higher engagement and deeper trust than polished celebrity endorsements. When brands co-create with these influencers and empower them to tell stories in their own voices, the content feels more genuine and performs better.

Using AI-powered insights, they can better identify the right creators whose content, audience profiles and ‘expertise’ align closely with their brand values and campaign goals. The best partnerships aren’t just about reach - they are about relevance.

Lead with insight and own the narrative for brand authority

The Meltwater Blog

Digital 2026 Global Overview Report

Brand Reputation Measurement: Definition, Tools, Models

Authenticity is the new brand currency

Narrative warfare: How AI is forcing a reset in corporate communications

10 Ways to Increase the Visibility of Your Online Content

Unified Dashboards Now Available for Meltwater Customers

Which Brands Benefitted Most from the Swift-Kelce Engagement?

Integrating Social Media & Customer Service

Meltwater Added to Microsoft Marketplace for AI Apps and Agents

The “Buy Local” Movement in 2025: Tariffs, Consumer Shifts, and Marketing Insights

What Is Brand Governance? Key Principles & Best Practices

What Is Media Relations? Definition, Tips & Examples