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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

Influencer gifts offer a way to sweeten the collaboration with your influencer partners. (Who doesn’t love a free gift?) The influencer gifting process gets your product into the hands of content creators as quickly as possible, ensuring they have ample time to test, use, and enjoy it before sharing it with their audience.

That said, brands should put some thought into how they go about choosing and sending influencer gifts. Chances are your influencers are working with other brands and receiving gifts from them as well. How you send gifts gives you an opportunity to stand out and solidify not only your partnership, but also your brand image.

What’s more, adding a personalized influencer gift note makes the gifting package — and the collaboration itself — feel more personalized and valuable. It’s fine details like these that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Let’s explore how you can elevate the influencer gifting process plus take advantage of our free influencer gifting note template.

Why Do Brands Need to Know About Influencer Gifting?

Don’t Forget to Include an Influencer Gifting Note

Tips for Writing an Influencer Gifting Note

Improving Influencer Gifting With the Right Technology

Influencer gifting is the process of getting your products into the hands of influencers so they can share them with their audiences.

The idea is for influencers to have an authentic experience with your products so they can create high-value content on your behalf. It’s also a show of goodwill and appreciation for your collaboration.

You might also hear influencer gifting referred to as product seeding or product gifting. Whatever you call it, an influencer gifting campaign is a common practice in influencer marketing.

Tip: Learn how to use Instagram collab posts to increase your reach.

It’s not uncommon for brands to woo celebrities and mega-influencers with free products. However, brand ambassadors, macro-influencers, micro-influencers, and nano-influencers appreciate and benefit from gifts, too. They can use those gifts to create better content for your brand.

It’s hard to create a product demo video for TikTok if they don’t have the product to showcase. Having to purchase the product themselves may add friction to your influencer campaigns and make the partnership feel less valuable to the content creator.

Just as there’s an art to choosing the right influencers to work with, there’s also an art to the gifting process.

The key takeaway brands need to understand is how the gift supports a strong campaign. Start with the end in mind and work backward to make your influencer gifting strategy work for you.

As with any influencer marketing campaign, your first priority is to choose a select group of influencers to receive your gift. Your influencer partners should be able to showcase your product in a way that’s authentic to their brand and yours. It should look like real life, not a forced promotion.

You also want to take stock of the social media channels they use to reach their followers (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, LinkedIn, etc.). Consider whether your target audience uses those same channels and whether your influencer will be able to reach them.

From there, you can send free products to your influencers to use. Many influencer marketing managers send free gifts as part of a paid promotion. Others may send influencers a gift without a formal partnership in hopes of earning some free media attention.

Ideally, your influencers will use those products themselves and share them in social media images or videos. But keep in mind that influencer gifts are exactly that — gifts. Gifts come with no strings attached, so there may be times when your gifting campaign doesn’t generate an influencer marketing ROI.

It’s best practice to engage influencers prior to sending out free gifts. In your influencer outreach, you can send an influencer outreach email to confirm their shipping address, build familiarity with your brand, and start building the relationship.

To maximize your chances of gaining positive influencer marketing ROI, it’s best to engage with influencers before sending gifts. Using Meltwater Influencer Marketing, marketers can connect with potential partners and verify their contact details (including shipping addresses) before sending out free products. This is a great way to build familiarity before the gift and start nurturing the relationship from day one.

Once you have an influencer agreement in place, send the influencer the product(s) you want them to promote. If you have multiple products in your lineup, see which ones your influencer is most interested in. This allows them to create authentic content that won’t look like a forced promotion.

In some cases, free products are part of a guaranteed paid promotion. But it can also pay off to send free gifts to potential partners without a pro forma partnership. The influencer may feel flattered by your generosity and promote you on their channels as a courtesy.

Keep tabs on your influencer partners’ social media content to see how they’re sharing their gift with others. Pay attention to the types of content they’re creating (e.g., unboxing videos, demonstrations) and how many times they’re promoting your gift.

Ideally, your influencer partners will keep and use the gifts for themselves and share them with their followers. But keep in mind that gifts should come with no strings attached. Whether you’re entering a paid promotion or hoping to earn some free media attention, keep in mind there may be times when your gifting campaign doesn’t result in an ROI.

Influencer gifting has worked well for many of the world’s leading brands, helping them to create profitable collabs in a cost-effective manner. Let’s look at some real-life influencer gifting examples.

Activewear brand Gymshark grew its brand awareness through partnerships with brand ambassadors. They have a huge community of loyal followers on Instagram along with a unique style of photography for their posts.

As a small business with no capital, the brand needed a way to promote its products to relevant audiences. The company sent fitness influencers free apparel as part of its grassroots movement, which the influencers started wearing in their videos. The user-generated content sparked massive interest in the brand, helping the company to grow organically.

Beauty brand Glossier proves that anyone can be an influencer, regardless of nano, micro, or mega status. Since its launch, Glossier’s philosophy has been to treat every customer like an influencer. They’ve built a brand ambassador army of more than 500 individuals.

These small-scale influencers are part of an invisible marketing strategy, a nod to the barely-there products Glossier is known for. The ambassadors post content for Glossier, which can also end up on the brand’s own social media pages. Customers can also purchase products directly through the ambassadors, helping them to earn gifted credits on future products. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Sometimes, a “free” marketing campaign is the best idea for brand awareness. As a small business owner, Sarah Shaw didn’t have much to spend on a celebrity marketing campaign. But the fashion brand did have plenty of products, so it gifted products to big-name celebrities like Oprah and Jennifer Anniston.

Combined with the free press it earned from being seen in the hands of famous people, the company quickly grew to an eight-figure business.

As you’re planning your marketing checklist, make sure that a personalized hand-written note is part of the process. Adding an influencer gifting note is so much more than a formality. It also:

Allows you to show your appreciation.
Show how much you value the partnership and how much you believe in the creator to help you grow your brand.

Helps your brand stand out.
A free sample or product isn’t always enough on its own to wow influencers, especially as more brands start using influencers in marketing. A handwritten note goes the extra mile, showing you chose this product specifically for them.

It puts a smile on your influencer’s face.
Happy influencers are usually willing to go the extra mile if they know brands truly care about them. They’re more likely to treat your collabs as a priority.

Knowing what to include in an influencer gifting note can help you get more engagement and results from your influencer partners. Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing your note.

If possible, it’s helpful to connect with an influencer in the inbox first. This allows you to confirm their shipping details and the spelling of their name. It also helps you make a good first impression so they’ll know who you are when they receive your gift.

Tip: Learn how to scale your influencer outreach and how to approach influencers through emails.

When sending a note with the influencer’s gift, include their name in your message. Using names establishes the human connection and makes your note feel less generic.

3. Say something specific about the influencers' content

Have they engaged with you in the past? Did you like an Instagram post they made? Let them know you know who they are and how much you enjoy their content. This shows you’ve done your research and want to work with them.

Adding a handwritten note is simply a great way to do business. In fact, data shows that 81% of people believe a handwritten note is more meaningful than an outreach email or text message (or not including a note at all). These notes have almost become a lost art, and it’s a small gesture that can lead to long-term results.

Think writing a personalized note to each influencer sounds too time consuming? It doesn’t have to be. Using a free influencer gifting note template saves you time by not having to think about what to write each time.

Take advantage of our free fill-in-the-blank influencer gifting note template to save you some time.

Our team here at [your company/brand] loved the content you created for [mention a specific brand, hashtag, social media channel, post, etc.]. Your style and our brand seem like a great fit, so we wanted to share some love. Enjoy this free gift from us — hope to see you on [Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, etc.] soon!

A simple yet impactful message can be a great way to get influencer engagement and boost your influencer marketing in new ways.

The influencer gifting process is just one of many moving parts in influencer marketing. Ideally, brands can use an influencer marketing hub to manage all of those parts in a central place.

Platforms like Meltwater Influencer Marketing handle everything from finding and vetting influencers to product seeding to follow-up. House all of your UGC, deliverables, collateral, and influencer contract and agreement paperwork, track the engagement rate of each influencer, and calculate the ROI of each influencer partnership. Know which influencers have received your new product, which ones are still waiting on gifts, and which ones are making a real difference in your influencer marketing strategy.

With good management in place, you can spend more time growing stronger relationships and making influencer marketing one of your most powerful forms of business growth.

And, as with any type of marketing, the more you know, the better decisions you can make. You can empower your influencer marketing with Meltwater data to learn more about what your audience needs and wants from your brand. Find influencers who match your target audience, create content they’ll care about, and stay ahead of your competitors on an ever-growing battlefield.

How to do Influencer Gifting [+ Influencer Gifting Note Template]

Becoming a real influencer is not an easy game to play. Not everyone can organically build an audience of like-minded individuals and be regarded as a thought leader. Still, everyone can try. And when some realize the influencer cards might not be in their favor there are other options: Influencer Pods.

Tip: Learn how to quickly spot fake influencers, and learn more about fake followers, and influencer fatigue.

Influencer pods are public and private forums, mainly found on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram, where individuals exchange likes, follows, and comments to increase their social media presence. Each pod has its own set of guidelines that members must adhere to (i.e. number of daily likes, content limitation, follow for follow). Members of pods range from Beauty, Travel, Fashion, and even the Adult Entertainment industries, all exchanging engagement to give the illusion of influence.

What are Influencer Pods?

Every pod has a set of guidelines that members must follow, or they will be banned. Below are the description and guidelines of a popular Facebook pod called “Instagram Follow/Like/Comment Pod”.

Every day the group has a comment or like thread, which closes at a specific hour. The thread has clear guidelines and is aimed to help everyone in the group grow their following. Pod members promote their page, ask for likes and comments, and promise to return the favor.

Those who choose to keep their pod activity on the private side often turn to Telegram, due to the ability to send messages using a heavily encrypted, cloud-based server. Often users will announce the creation of a Telegram influencer pod on Facebook, and give instructions on how to join:

Within Telegram, these groups have their own set of rules that members must follow. Often, the main entry criteria is to follow the social media accounts of admins.

Below are rules from a girls-only Telegram pod called “Girls Support Girls -24H Likes <3”:

This pod requires comments to be 4+ words and relevant. Often, fake or bartered comments will maintain a neutral and irrelevant nature like “pretty” or “nice”, and can indicate whether a user’s following is real. Actions like this are to carefully hide dishonest practices.

So, who suffers from influencer pods? Brands.

Companies are willing to dish out some serious cash for influencers they believe will impact their target audience. Yet, when most influencers are only judged on their follower count, it’s hard to thoroughly assess the engagement capabilities of a potential partner.

Think back to click farms, where low-paid workers would sit and click on ads and links to alter a website’s traffic and value. Over time it’s been understood that these tactics benefit no one. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube even enforced purges of fake engagement. As more brands embrace influencer marketing as a strategic channel, it will be interesting to see how social giants and advertising platforms respond to these dark tactics.

Tour our influencer platform for free or learn how the Meltwater Influencer Marketing solution can help you identify real influencers by filling out the form below:

Influencer Pods: Secret Communities For Becoming A Fake Influencer

Using hashtags on social media gives you an easy way to get more eyes on your content. But choosing the right hashtags can also help you gain more followers. Once users start following you, they’ll see all your content regardless of the hashtags you use! 

The first step: choosing the right hashtags for followers.

When you use hashtags, your content shows up alongside other content and accounts using those same hashtags. This helps you get in front of an audience who is interested in those hashtags and therefore is more likely to be interested in you. 

Here’s how you can find the best hashtags for followers to help you ace your social strategy.

Common Hashtags to Gain Twitter Followers

Most Popular Hashtags for Followers on TikTok

Hashtags for Followers with Easy Difficulty

How to Find the Best Hashtags for Your Brand

Tip: Learn how to use hashtags on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and check out the most trending hashtags in Australia and the most trending hashtags in South Africa.

Brands and content creators use hashtags for a variety of purposes. When you use common hashtags, your content is categorized with other content using those same hashtags. So when people view content for that hashtag, they’re likely to see what you’ve posted. 

That’s a great strategy for getting your content seen. A better approach is to use hashtags to grow your audience. Your followers will see every new post, even if they’re not exploring a particular hashtag.

More followers means more views and more opportunities for engagement. The more people who like and share your content, the more chances you have of recruiting new customers, growing your revenue, and increasing your share of voice.

It all starts with using hashtags for followers. This helps you spread your content reach and encourage users to like your page, channel, or account.

There is an abundance of hashtags you can add to your social media posts, including branded hashtags you come up with yourself. But hashtags for followers are specifically for attracting new followers to your social profiles. These hashtags will help you grow your account better than general-use hashtags. 

To use hashtags, hold the shift key and type the number 3 to generate the hashtag symbol, then add your phrase with no spaces between the symbol and words.

Hashtags are usually included at the end of your social media post. You can also include them as text in a sentence, like this: “We had a great time at the #B2BExpo.”

Keep in mind these do count toward character limits, so make sure you save room in your posts and choose your hashtags wisely.

With these tips in mind, let’s explore the best hashtags for followers on popular social media platforms.

Before we get into specific platforms, let’s look at some hashtags for followers that you can use no matter which social media network you’re on: 

You can use these hashtags by themselves or add a few of them to every post. Some platforms (like Instagram) will allow you to use more hashtags than others. Know each platform’s limits so you can plan to use the best hashtags for each channel and post.

Twitter was the first social media network to introduce hashtags. The idea stemmed from the desire to show certain content to specific people or groups. The hashtag does exactly this (in addition to showing the content to the poster’s followers). When users click on the hashtag, they see content related to that hashtag. 

Other platforms have since adopted hashtag technology, but Twitter remains a great place to use hashtags to grow followings. Here are a few specific hashtags to use:

You can also turn to industry-specific keywords to include in your posts. This will help you find users on Twitter who are also in your industry or otherwise care about what you do. For instance, if you’re in the health and wellness space, you can include hashtags related to fitness, working out, supplements, or specific types of exercises like yoga or Crossfit.

Tip: Learn how to use hashtags on Twitter

Instagram has a lot more leeway when it comes to adding hashtags to posts. You have ample space to fill your Instagram posts with keywords to make your content more searchable. 

The top Instagram hashtags for followers include:

It’s best practice to use Instagram hashtags in “sets” rather than as standalone hashtags. Including multiple hashtags in each post can help you increase your visibility and align yourself with content creators interested in similar hashtag sets.

Tip: Read our blog about how to get more Instagram followers, learn how to use hashtags on Instagram and take a look at the most trending hashtags in Australia

TikTok also makes use of specific hashtags that help users find relevant content. Similar to Instagram and Twitter, TikTokers can click on a hashtag and find other content that uses that hashtag. You can add hashtags to your post or include them as comments.

Tip: Here you find the best TikTok hashtags to use in general.

Here are some of the most popular hashtags for growing your TikTok following:

Best Hashtags for #Followers

Alessandro Bogliari, Co-Founder & CEO of The Influencer Marketing Factory, shares the latest FTC regulation updates every marketer should have on their radar.

The success of influencer marketing in the last decade has created a new challenge for the 21st century. The prevalence of campaigns in a growing industry means that there need to be more stringent controls that protect consumers from unfair practices. The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is leading the way in reviewing the content and marketing initiatives of brands, with a renewed focus on influencers.

When discussing influencer marketing, it is any social media campaign that offers product or service endorsements. The influencer is often a celebrity or an expert within a specific niche that can add social proof to a product idea, helping brands develop equity. In a survey by Sprout Social, three-quarters of consumers will rely on social media when making purchasing decisions. A reliable influencer can reach thousands or millions of people.

Looking at some macro-influencers in 2020, Desi Perkins offers make-up tutorials to 3.9 million Instagram followers, fashion influencer Jette gets an 18% engagement rate per social post, and Eugene Lee Yang has over 6.5 million subscribers on YouTube. A product endorsement by any of these influencers is almost certain to get a strong response from their loyal following.

For influencers, the FTC rules state that they must be transparent regarding any brand endorsements they present to followers. If a follower engages with an influencer, it is essential that they are aware they are being targeted by brand marketing. According to the FTC, any influencer that violates the rules may be subject to penalties and fines.

It is often the case that in return for brand promotion, the influencer is given free products or services. While most will be upfront about this, it is challenging to tell whether they are being genuine or faking the endorsement to maintain a partnership with the brand. An FTC review at the start of 2020 discovered that the existing rules do not always have the desired effect.

In a statement by Commissioner Rohit Chopra:

When individual influencers are able to post about their interests to earn extra money on the side, this is not a cause for major concern. But when companies launder advertising by paying an influencer to pretend that their endorsement or review is untainted by a financial relationship, this is illegal payola.

There are already cases where brands have faced fines for a breach of the regulations, which we will talk about later in this post. For much of the time, those involved did not receive monetary penalties, and there wasn’t enough of a punishment to deter others. The FTC is now calling for more formal rules, which means violators could face civil penalties.

Brands and influencers must adhere to set rules from the FTC with marketing campaigns, covering several key areas of social media. 

With hashtags, any advertising should be disclosed at the start of advertising. Specific phrases like #sponsored, #paid, or #ad will show followers a partnership with a brand in place that may involve fees.

An influencer should be explicit in stating that they are being sponsored by a brand or that the product they represent was given to them for free (via influencer gifting). For example, they should say “Brand X gave me this product for free” and not something ambiguous or not completely clear and transparent.

Different social media platforms provide their own tools that help influencers’ campaigns adhere to the FTC guidelines.

In March 2017, Instagram added a “Paid Partnership With” tag. The tag aims to help influencers display content as sponsored advertising. The use of #sponsored, #paid, and #ad will disclose any partnerships as long as they are visible in the main text and not in small print via the “more” button.

When using YouTube, video creators can add disclosure text to campaigns. Influencers have video manager settings that let them select those requiring a disclosure statement, declaring that a product is paid or endorsed.

The FTC advises that videos should also have overlay messages to make the advertising incredibly clear for consumers. Statements should be added to the first 30 seconds of a video, allowing viewers enough time to see what it says.

In 2020, installations of TikTok have boomed during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers seek entertaining video content. To alleviate any security concerns, the TikTok Transparency Center moderates data practices. By nature, TikTok content is fast-paced and growing, making ads that don’t meet the guidelines tough to spot, but the FTC guidelines still need to apply. As a rule, TikTok experts will look into:

Ways that users and creators can raise concerns about advertising and how those are handled

The way that content is allowed on the platform and how it can align to the FTC guidelines

Methods to review the technology and why possible FTC violators are missed

The FTC regulations are not new, and high-profile companies have faced fines in the last decade. For example, a settlement was reached requiring a maker of detox teas to return $1 million to consumers after the rapper Cardi B did not disclose paid endorsements.

While influencer marketing is an excellent way to gain loyalty and revenue for a brand, they must do so compliantly. The FTC guidelines add security to a social ecosystem rife with fake news and media. Brands should note the regulations to maintain their credibility, avoid fines and legal proceedings, and mitigate online misrepresentation.

FTC Regulations and Influencer Marketing

Although Facebook has more competition now than it used to, it’s still the largest social media site, by monthly active users. So you can still reach and engage audiences on Facebook by sharing high-quality, relevant content. 

Eye popping imagery and video are extremely important content types for any brand trying to build engagement today. Image sizes on Facebook vary, so it’s always important to check and make sure that you’re optimizing for multiple devices, and have the correct aspect ratios.

Facebook Business Page Profile Photo Size

Your Facebook profile photo is the main, square image that represents your brand or personal profile. It appears layered over the cover photo. Facebook now offers bits of “flair” that you can add to your profile picture to show your support of social justice causes, celebrate seasons, and more.

The Facebook profile photo also appears when you post over page walls or when you comment on other posts. 

Social media dimensions for a Facebook profile picture:

On desktop, Facebook profile pictures are located 16 pixels from the left and 176 pixels from the top of your cover photo.

On smartphone devices, profile pictures are located 24 pixels from the left, 24 pixels from the bottom and 196 pixels from the top of your cover photo.

Business Page Profile Photo: 360x360 pixels

There are a few similarities between a personal profile picture and your Facebook Business Page but there are certain characteristics that will make your Facebook business page profile image stand out more on the platform.

Dimensions for business profile picture on Facebook:

360x360 px (minimum dimensions are 180x180 px)

The image will be cropped to fit a square

The Meltwater Blog

How to do Influencer Gifting [+ Influencer Gifting Note Template]

Influencer Pods: Secret Communities For Becoming A Fake Influencer

Best Hashtags for #Followers

FTC Regulations and Influencer Marketing

Ultimate Guide to Facebook Image Sizes in 2025

The Ultimate Instagram Analytics & Insights Guide

40 Top Global Fashion Influencers to Inspire You

Influencer Marketing Measurement: KPIs, Metrics, ROI

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