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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

Authenticity is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the marketing world. According to a report by Stackla, 90% of consumers say that authenticity matters when choosing brands to support, from retail to healthcare to higher education and more. However, that same report reveals that less than half of consumers believe brands are showing their most authentic side. In a push to become more transparent and authentic, more brands are turning to user-generated content.

User-generated content (UGC) is the blanket term for customer-generated or employee-generated images, blog posts, social media posts, or other social proof. The content doesn't come from a professional marketer, but rather from ordinary people.

About 60% of consumers agree that UGC is the most authentic way brands can market themselves. Social media campaigns that include UGC see 50% higher engagement, and email campaigns that include it see 73% higher clickthrough rates. Consumers also find UGC to be much more influential than other kinds of marketing content, with 80% saying it impacts their buying decisions. 

Looking for more general information about UGC? Check out our User-Generated Content Guide!

Now that you know the value of UGC for social media, how do you go about getting it? 

Let’s look at 16 UGC examples from brands that get it right:

Loughborough University: #Lborofamily Golden Ticket campaign

Fashion blogging is huge on social media, where thousands of users post their #OOTD, or "outfit of the day." ASOS cashed in on this trend to create a feed of free advertising for their clothes! Back in 2014, ASOS launched a section on their website called As Seen on Me. It links to images of ASOS customers wearing clothes purchased from its website. Customers can upload photos directly to ASOS.com or connect with the page by using the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe on Instagram.

This strategy works well for several reasons. First, shoppers get a sense of what the clothes look like on regular people in regular situations, not just on models in carefully crafted, brand-generated content. They can see a wider range of body types wearing the same outfit and know how it might look on themselves.

Every customer can also be an influencer of sorts. Their photos inspire shoppers to create outfits they might not have come up with on their own. Knowing how to perfectly pair different clothing pieces can help them get more use out of their purchases.

Related: check out a list of the top 40 fashion influencers and the top 50 beauty influencers!

Launched in 2011, the Share a Coke campaign featured hundreds of the most popular first names on Coca-Cola cans and bottles. Traditional ads and in-store displays encouraged customers to find a bottle or can with their name on it and post a picture of it on social media with the #ShareaCoke hashtag.

From creative-directed Instagram posts to casual selfies, the campaign inspired great examples of UGC. Not only did Coca-Cola get more authentic content for its social networks, but it also let consumers engage with the brand while expressing their creativity.

Tip: Take a look at other great Instagram marketing examples to inspire your Instagram marketing strategy.

Chip brand Doritos has something of a cult following, which makes it a perfect match for UGC campaigns. In 2015, the company launched a separate website, dubbed Legion of the Bold (now Legion of Creators), which contained branded images of Doritos products. Users could leverage the images to create their own content for Doritos, and the results were pretty wild.

Fans crafted everything from fake weather announcements to photos of themselves sitting on thrones of chips. The brand continues to launch specific challenges that focus on everything from its best-selling products to the holidays and more.

This strategy works well because it caters to some of the brand’s most loyal fans (teens, college students, gamers, content creators, and others). But it also gives Doritos a chance to direct the content creation process. 

If you want a specific type of content or feature a certain product, give your fans everything they need to deliver.

Whether you're a branding expert or just a coffee lover, you'll probably be familiar with the old but gold Starbucks white cup contest. It's one of the most-cited UGC examples to date.

Starbucks invited its customers to decorate its coffee cups using the hashtag #WhiteCupContest. In return, the customers could win a $300 gift card and have their designs printed on a reusable cup.

The result of the campaign? Loads of visually appealing social media posts (and re-sharing of those posts) increased Starbucks' organic reach and user-generated product design!

And it doesn’t stop there. As a bonus, the campaign drummed up interest in the company's more eco-friendly, reusable cups. The contest itself is also a nod to an already-popular trend of users decorating their Starbucks cups. It’s a subtle way for a brand to show they really do see their customers.

While many brands run occasional customer-created content campaigns, Away relies on UGC content all the time. Scroll through their IG account, for instance, and you’ll see that the majority of their photos have been contributed by fans of the luggage brand.

Away built its fame on the idea that a relatively boring thing, a suitcase, could become a fun statement piece. To support the brand, Away focuses not just on the suitcase itself, but rather on the purpose it serves while its customers live their best lives. Their social media content inspires wanderlust by showing what real travel looks like. And who better to tell those types of stories than actual people who are going to actual places?

The reactions of fans when they get featured make the brand appear even more genuine.

Home goods brand Parachute steers away from the staged look of its products in favor of more realistic snapshots. Using the #MyParachuteHome hashtag, the brand encourages its customers to upload photos of how they’re decorating their living spaces with Parachute products. They have a very different look and feel from stock images of its bedding and bath products.

The biggest takeaway for you, the marketer? Not only does the brand use these posts in its social media strategy, but it also publishes them in traditional ad campaigns. Customer photos have been featured on insert cards included in customer orders, paid digital ad campaigns, and more. The campaign has resulted in a 35% higher click-through rate as well as 60% lower ad costs.

Loews Hotels wanted to bring more authenticity to its marketing content, so it launched its #TravelForReal hashtag in 2015. Five years later, it updated the campaign with the #WelcomingYouLikeFamily hashtag to learn more about what it’s really like to stay at a Loews property.

Loews collects these photos for its official marketing materials, giving customers the thrill of seeing their photos in a professional ad. With their UGC campaigns and slogan — "Because nobody tells our story better than you," — Loews sourced original content and emphasized its connection to its hotel guests at the same time.

When cell phone cameras first emerged on the market, they weren’t very good. But back then, the technology was so new and innovative that quality wasn’t the biggest perk for customers. Times have changed, and so has the quality of cellphone cameras. In 2014, Apple was eager to show just what its new iPhone camera was capable of, so it launched the #ShotoniPhone campaign.

By then, despite advancements in smartphone camera technology, iPhones had earned a reputation for having subpar picture quality. To win back the trust of its fanbase, Apple's marketing strategy features real-life photos and videos taken by iPhone owners to highlight just how powerful its camera can be.

Photographers and average iPhone users alike contribute their own high-quality photos to the campaign by posting them to various social channels. It was a great way to change perceptions, given that the hashtag generated more than 29 million Instagram posts!

Cellphone plans have become something of a commodity, but T-Mobile found a fun way to use UGC breakup letters to differentiate its brand from other carriers. This campaign dove into the reasons why individuals ditch their current cellphone carrier for another. 

Users answered a series of questions that were pulled from the brand’s social media channels. The result was a Mad Libs-style "breakup letter" that users generated themselves and posted to T-Mobile’s social media channels.

In total, the campaign earned more than 113,000 breakup letters, 2.7 million app page views, and 67 million social media impressions.

Intimate apparel and loungewear brand Aerie launched its #AerieREAL campaign in 2014 with a huge announcement: They would stop retouching the models in their advertisements. How's that for authenticity?

The company's first run of un-retouched ads was a call to action for its UGC campaign. Customers started flooding social media with pictures of themselves in Aerie products using the #AerieREAL hashtag. Meanwhile, the brand engaged with these posts on Twitter and Instagram. With this UGC campaign, Aerie highlighted the body-positive aspect of its brand identity and reflected the diversity of its customer base. 

Cancer Research's No Makeup Selfie campaign raised more than £8 million in six days. During the campaign, the organization encouraged followers to post selfies without makeup on, donate £5 to Cancer Research, and nominate others to do the ‘challenge’.

What you encourage your users to post doesn’t necessarily have to relate to your product. In this case, posting selfies without makeup on doesn’t relate to Cancer Research, yet was still hugely effective.

Collaboration is at the heart of Loughborough University’s strategy. In 2016, the university sent out personalized golden tickets to all of the year’s new freshers. Many then took to social media to post pictures of them with their golden ticket using the hashtag #LboroFamily.

Like Coca-Cola showed with its Share a Coke campaign, creating something personalized for your audience encourages UGC and engagement. The #Lborofamily Golden Ticket campaign drummed up excitement and helped the university expand its reach.

With its OPEN Forum website and app, American Express professionalizes UGC. The site features user-generated blogs and articles covering everything from company culture to money management to e-commerce. And, interestingly enough, the content is produced by American Express customers, not employees.

By giving small business owners a space to post and answer questions, create content, and connect with other entrepreneurs, American Express used UGC to create a community of its customers. Plus, the company now has a one-stop shop for understanding what matters most to its audience.

Calvin Klein’s “I ________ in #MyCalvins” advertising and UGC campaigns let customers identify with the brand's celebrity endorsers. In the ads, stars like Kendall Jenner, Justin Bieber, and Kendrick Lamar "fill in the blank" of the slogan with a few words about the role the jeans play in their lives.

The company also invited customers to post photos on social media of themselves in Calvin Klein products using the #MyCalvins hashtag. Then, select images are featured on the website with links to product pages where customers can buy the looks for themselves.

Taking the intimidation factor out of their high-fashion ad campaigns, Calvin Klein's #MyCalvins campaign helped make the brand's identity more approachable and relatable. Plus, featuring select UGC let the brand show appreciation for its customers while creating new sales opportunities.

LEGO Ideas launched in 2015. The concept? LEGO fans are invited to create an original build. That's step one. Then, the fan has to gain public support (similar to crowdfunding) on the LEGO Ideas website. If the creator gets 10,000 supporters, then the LEGO board reviews the creation and decides whether to make it into an official LEGO product to be sold around the world.

There are so many great things about this campaign. Firstly, it shows users being creative with LEGO's products. Secondly, to gain support for an idea, the user has to promote it (and LEGO) online, which expands the reach and brand awareness. Finally, having people vote on an idea shows LEGO what its users want to see in the shops. This campaign took UGC to the next level by turning customer ideas into an actual line of retail products.

Social media campaigns aren't the only kinds of UGC. Customer reviews and testimonials also fit the bill. In fact, Amazon makes customer feedback a central part of its shopping experience.

First, Amazon makes the reviewing process easy by emailing customers after every purchase with a reminder and link to leave feedback in the form of a star rating and optional written review. It features the average star rating at the top of any product page. 

Plus, it lets customers sort and filter products by rating, making customer feedback an essential part of the purchase process. Amazon knows that many consumers rely on reviews to decide what to buy, so they put feedback front and center. UGC is not only important for the marketing of each product on Amazon's website, it's a main feature!

In short, UGC works. It’s cost-effective, engaging, and more importantly, helps brands connect with their customers authentically. 

Sourcing UGC and managing UGC campaigns is a whole other story. Meltwater solutions let you aggregate content automatically and publish it across your media channels. Learn more about how Meltwater can help you capitalize on user-generated content — book a demo today by filling out the form below!

16 Examples of Excellent User-Generated Content

Salesforce has announced that it’s sunsetting Marketing Cloud Social Studio, the company’s social media management platform. What does this mean for current Social Studio customers, and what steps should they take before the product finally reaches its end of life? This blog covers everything you need to know. 

What Are the Key Features of the Salesforce Social Studio?

How will the Salesforce Social Studio Sunset Work?

How To Prepare for the Salesforce Social Studio End-of-Life

What Is a Salesforce Social Studio Replacement/Alternative?

Salesforce Social Studio is a social media management and marketing platform developed by Salesforce, a leading customer relationship management (CRM) software company. Social Studio is designed to help businesses and organizations manage their social media presence, engage with their audience, and analyze social media data to make informed decisions.

In the early days of social media, when businesses were just waking up to this revolutionary new channel, a SaaS platform called Radian6 was one of the best-known tools for monitoring your brand mentions on social. 

In 2011 Radian6 was acquired by the CRM company, Salesforce, which proceeded to integrate the platform into its own, eventually rebranding it as Salesforce Social Studio, and adding additional social media management features. 

Thirteen years later, it appears we’ve now reached the Salesforce Social Studio end of life, as the company announced the product will be sunsetted in late 2024 and no new subscriptions to the platform will be sold.

Social Media Publishing: Users can create and schedule posts for multiple social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and more. This helps businesses maintain a consistent online presence and reach their target audience at the most opportune times.

Social Listening: Social Studio provides social listening tools to monitor conversations and mentions of your brand, products, or keywords on various social media channels. This allows businesses to stay informed about what people are saying about them and respond to customer inquiries and comments in real-time.

Engagement and Collaboration: Social Studio enables teams to collaborate on social media management by assigning tasks and responses to team members. It also provides a unified inbox for managing social interactions, making it easier to engage with customers and followers.

Analytics and Reporting: The platform offers analytics and reporting features that allow users to track key performance metrics, monitor and measure the success of their social media campaigns, and gather insights to make data-driven decisions.

Customer Engagement: Social Studio helps organizations build and maintain relationships with customers through social media interactions, enabling personalized responses and customer support.

Social Advertising: Users can manage and optimize social media advertising campaigns within the platform. Social Studio can help target specific audiences and track the performance of paid social media ads.

Compliance and Governance: For regulated industries, Social Studio offers features for compliance and governance to ensure that social media activities adhere to industry standards and regulations.

With the Salesforce Social Studio sunset, all of these features will not be available anymore.

The exact date of the Salesforce Social Studio retirement is November 18th, 2024, when the platform will be permanently closed down and no longer accessible to all users.

The company has stated that if customers’ licenses expire before November 18th, 2024, they will not be able to renew them, so for many users the Social Studio end of life will actually happen long before the exact sunset date. 

For this reason, it’s important for current users to understand exactly when their license expires so that they can start planning for a Salesforce Social Studio replacement in good time, because you won’t be able to simply roll over your existing contract. 

Salesforce recommends that current users of the platform export all of their data at least 90 days before their contract expires. It’s important to keep backup copies of all your data following the Salesforce Social Studio retirement both for your own archives, and to be in compliance with any applicable local business regulations concerning record-keeping and data protection. 

It’s unclear whether you’ll have any access to your historical data following the Salesforce Social Studio sunset, so exporting and securing your own copy is essential.

Of course, data backup is just one part of the problem. Most users will need to find an alternative to Salesforce Social Studio to handle their social listening and management activities.

We recommend the Meltwater Media Intelligence Suite as a replacement for Salesforce Social Studio for a number of reasons:

Similar, But Better!
Meltwater’s social listening and social media management tools, Explore and Engage, can provide a direct replacement for all of the functionality of Social Studio, but in a much more modern and powerful solution that offers long-term stability. 

Salesforce Integration
Meltwater integrates seamlessly with Salesforce, making it easy for you to deliver excellent social customer service through your existing CRM system.

AI-Enabled
Meltwater uses Large Language Model AI to streamline social media management by helping you create engaging content quickly, and to make sense of your analytics by generating natural language explanations of insights in your social data. 

Built for Collaboration and Scalability
Meltwater is an enterprise-grade solution with workflows and customizable dashboards that make it easy for global teams to work together, while ensuring compliance with local regulations.

Meltwater Does More
As well as social listening and management, Meltwater offers an entire suite of solutions for PR, social media, consumer intelligence, and influencer marketing.

If you’re considering next steps following the Salesforce Studio end of life, we’d be happy to give you a demonstration of Meltwater and show you why it makes sense as the perfect replacement. Just get in touch for a demo:

Salesforce Social Studio Sunset: Everything You Need to Know

TikTok is the fastest-growing social media platform in the world (browsermedia.agency, 2022), so if it isn’t topping your business’s list of digital marketing priorities, it should be.

With over 1 billion users globally and over 6 million in South Africa, the app uses ever-evolving algorithms that provide users with nothing other than short, user-generated videos that they love. Because of the app’s unique targeting system, businesses can advertise to a specific audience using one of the most subtle forms of marketing - influencer marketing.

Consumers are responding better to 'ads that don't feel like ads', and the top 10 South African TikTokers 2023 and other famous TikTokers can provide just that.

With millions of views both nationally and internationally, famous South African TikTokers are creating unique video content that is said to be inspiring global trends (business insider, 2022). What better way to get exposure than with a well-aligned South African TikTok star creating viral-worthy video content featuring your brand? It’s a complete no-brainer but we get it, it’s no easy feat finding the right influencer to partner with.

We’ve put together a list of the most followed verified TikTok influencers in South Africa (in no particular order) for you to have a look at:

Tip: Take a look at social media statistics for South Africa. If you're looking for more TikTokers to partner with, take a look at the top TikTok influencers in Malaysia.

How to do magic 😂😱 #fyp #magic @starbucks_sa 

Snapping up first place out of the top 20 South African TikTokers, Wian is a 27-year-old magician that has taken the social media world by storm. His videos have accumulated over 100 million views, and he’s been seen by celebs like Ellen Degeneres, Siya Kolisi, AD Oppenheim and others. Wian has featured brands like Krispy Kreme and Ster Kinekor in his videos, giving them millions of views and increasing their exposure. 

No way she did that 😂 #xyzbca #fyp #viral #ometv 

Making it onto the list of top 100 South African TikTokers, Jeandre provides his followers with entertaining videos of his lip-syncing and Omegle chats. While his following isn't as big as other South African TikTokers, his videos get hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of views.

Brain Jotter? 🤣😂😭

Comedian, fashionista, and dancer - meet Lasizwe, one of South Africa's favourite TikTok stars. Posting videos of himself dancing in different locations, with a funny twist, is his specialty, and it has fans hooked. Lasizwe gets thousands to millions of views.

Why are people so rigid when it comes to #mensfashion ? Do you agree? #menswear #mzansifab #tiktokfashion

With videos labeled “can you spot the ‘cheap’ suit” getting over 16 million views, it’s no doubt that Sergio Ines is TikTok’s best men’s fashion and style advisor.

Sweet Melody ✨ please tag dc 🙏🏼 #uJonesFam #myDarling #dance #afrobeats #family #familydance #trend #sweetmelody @Gayle Jones 

Chad Jones, is a South African TikTok star with almost 2 million followers. ‘Watch how I teach my parents to dance’, Chad’s bio states, and we can guarantee that you’re going to want to watch. Funky and unique, this star features brands like Stimorol, Nescafe, and Spar (with some of these videos receiving more than a million views).

Im dropping this friday 😂 #GUSTAVO  #SAMA28 

Seekay_sa is a South African musician, model and skincare influencer. His TikTok videos include trendy videos to his own soundtracks, modeling videos and product promotions (skincare specifically). He has over 2 million followers and his videos reach millions.

Tip: Watch our free webinar to learn more about social media trends in Africa.

First half of Pilates chair workout. My core and glutes are vibrating like a 3310 🥴

According to Siphesihle's bio, she's a storyteller - but in reality, she's an actress, a voice-over artist, and a theatre director with a passion for storytelling. What makes Siphesihle unique is all of the above, coupled with the fact that she's only 23. In between starring on the Mzansi hit series GOMORA, she manages to post videos on her TikTok account, keeping her half a million fans enthralled with her daily life and life on set.

ROBONTLE X3  🚦🔥🐝   @ROBOTO X3  🎥: @kdontmiss_  #RobotBoii #BontleM #ManziNte #ManziNteDanceChallenge #Amapiano #Trend #Viral #FYP  #ForYou

Follow Bontle to see epic dance moves and choreography from her very own studio. This TikTok star keeps her 1.1 million followers engaged, sometimes reaching over 5 million views.

Did you know that your SPF wears off after a few hours?🤔Thats why re-application is essential for protecting your skin!💚💚💚 #garnierza #garniersuperuv #garnierskin #spf #GarnierPartner 

Posting funny lip-syncing and image-morphing videos, Andiswa is a content creator with over 600 000 followers. She mainly posts videos of herself, many of them reaching over a million viewers.

I went to hospital for this🤕 don’t let it flop #johnmarcvanwyk #￼basketball #comedy #lol

John-Marc, with a following of 8 million on the app, is a must-follow male TikToker. His funny videos are titled “3 Year Old Me At Dinner Time”, “7 Year Old Me Jumping On The Couches”, “7 Year Old Me Finding A Stick”, amongst many, many more.

Tip: Are you looking for the right influencers to partner with? Check out the top South African Instagram Influencers, the top South African beauty influencers, the top South African fashion influencers, and the top fitness and sports influencers in South Africa.

Start Collaborating with South African TikTokers

If you'd like to find the right influencers to partner with your brand, our tool can help. We provide you with a huge influencer database, a scoring system, contact opportunities, contracting and payment functions.

Did you know that these top South African TikTok stars can increase your business's brand awareness, sales, and overall performance? If you select the right South African influencers to market your brand at the right pricing, you can escalate your business quickly and efficiently. While it's daunting to select the right person to drive your influencer marketing, Meltwater is here to help you.

Meltwater's Social Influencer Marketing Platform is the place to start for driving engagement and delivering a great ROI.

If that sounds like something you'd be interested in, contact us - we'd love to hear from you! Learn more about how to create a well-rounded influencer marketing campaign, fill out the form below to get a free tour of our platform.

The Top 10 South African TikTokers 2025

Your complete guide to the latest trends in digital behaviour around the world

We’re almost at the end of another year, but the pace of digital change doesn’t appear to be slowing as we head towards 2024.

In fact, our new Digital 2023 October Global Statshot Report – published in partnership between Meltwater and We Are Social – shows that growth in many key digital metrics is actually accelerating.

That wasn’t what I was expecting to see this quarter, but that’s the very reason we produce these Global Digital Reports: to go beyond assumptions, and discover new truths.

And this final round of updates for 2023 reveals a wealth of important headlines and trends, including:

A change in direction for the time we spend online;

Essential insights into trends in social media referrals;

Some surprising stats on enduring behaviours and preferences;

A compelling collection of headlines for TikTok;

A big jump in Instagram reach – but with a caveat;

New milestones for Telegram, Pinterest, and Quora;

The outlook for digital in 2024 and beyond.

That’s just a brief taster of this quarter’s content though; our full October report is packed with more than 300 slides exploring what people are really doing on the internet, social media, mobile devices, and online shopping platforms.

In addition to thanking We Are Social and Meltwater for making these reports possible, I’d like to start by offering my heartfelt thanks our wonderful data partners, without whom the Global Digital Reports series would be a lot less informative:

Just before we explore this quarter’s data, note that we continue to see incongruous trends in the data published in the ad tools of various social platforms. We’ll explore some of these anomalies below, but please exercise caution when analysing trends in social media audience data.

If you need fast insights, the video below distils all of this quarter’s top headlines and trends. 

Once you’ve watched that, scroll down for the full report.

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