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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

Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Pride month is right around the corner. Every year, the month of June is a time for the LGBTQ+ community to both celebrate and raise awareness around important issues. June was chosen as Pride Month to commemorate the Stonewall Riots of June 28, 1969, which was seen as one of the most significant turning points in the Gay Liberation Movement.

Over 50 years later, it is still an important social issue with more brands and public figures getting involved.

How To Collaborate With LGBTQ+ Influencers

More brands use social, and especially influencers, to promote their stance on important social issues in order to elicit meaningful interactions with existing and current consumers. Now, more than ever, many consumers are driven by brand values and corporate culture when making purchases. Influencer collaborations are an authentic way to show your brand values, as it aligns your brand with someone who is viewed as a thought leader in their category.

Running a Pride campaign explicitly asserts your brand’s ethics, and inserts you in an extremely relevant conversation. Previously, pride campaigns were more visual, with companies incorporating the pride flag into a logo or a social media post. Now, pride campaigns have evolved to cross-channel campaigns, often involving influencers to drive the most authentic impact.

The first step of running any campaign, be it Pride or any other initiative, is determining the desired outcome of the campaign. 

To show support as an ally of the LGBTQ+ community

Highlight corporate culture of LGBTQ+ inclusivity

Support an LGBTQ+ organization or initiative

Determining the goal of your campaign will help you understand which influencers you should collaborate with. For example, if your objective is to promote a corporate culture of inclusivity, your influencers might actually be your employees.

Example: #ExtraShotOfPride with Starbucks

Starbucks’s 2019 pride campaign, #extrashotofpride, celebrated the diversity of the Starbucks community. The company created Pride-themed beverages for the month and asked employees to share what it meant to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community and a Starbucks employee.

There are no shortages of coffee houses around the world, but the #extrashotofpride campaign lets customers know that not only does Starbucks serve good coffee they offer an incomparable corporate culture.

An influencer is a user who is able to drive meaningful impact with their audience, and an LGBTQ influencer is just the same. They are seen as “thought leaders” of their space, and their audience connects with their ideology and content. If your brand is looking to promote brand acceptance and inclusivity, these influencers are the perfect bridge for connecting with users who care most about these social issues.

Who are some of the biggest names in the LGBTQ+ space? These influencers mesh their celebrity personas with their affiliation to the LGBTQ+ community.

Lavern Cox is a trans activist and actress, famously known for starring in the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black. She has over 4M followers on Instagram, alone, and has collaborated with brands including; Smirnoff, Ivy Park, Verizon, Olay, and more.

Megah Rapineo is an American soccer player and official team member of the US National Women’s Soccer team.  She is openly gay, and with 2.3M Instagram followers, has used her public persona as a platform for LGBTQ+ activism. Past collaborations have included; Smirnoff, Casper, Vitamin Water, Charmin, and more.

Billy Porter is an out actor, singer, director, and writer. He is a cast member of Pose and a main fixture on Broadway. With 1.5M Instagram followers, Billy’s had some major collaborations including; Kettle One, Tiffany & Co, Saks, and more.

Are you looking for more influencers? Take a look at these top LGBTQ+ influencers.

34% of LGBTQ+ influencers are micro-influencers

The majority of LGBTQ+ influencers are micro-influencers, and this is really no surprise. micro-influencers are a unique type of influencer. Though they do not have a high follower-count, they have an extremely focused and niche audience. Often driving higher engagement and the most impactful interactions.

Collaborating with an influencer is really about interacting with their audience. Working with an influencer in a niche field offers the ability to engage with a loyal following. LGBTQ+ influencers’ audience tends to subscribe to their values, which offers a great opportunity to introduce your brand values.

So, what demographics are typically found in an LGBTQ+ influencer’s network?

👩61% of users who follow LGBTQ+ influencers are Female

🍰The average age of a follower is 28-years

✈ The top interest shared between LGBTQ+ influencers and their audience is Travel

Tip: Learn how to make sure influencers align with your brand values.

Once you’ve identified the objective of your campaign and selected the influencers you would like to collaborate with, you must next figure out how to insert your brand into a relevant conversation with the influencer’s audience. Remember, Pride is a sensitive topic, and people are wary of brands using Pride to promote an agenda rather than showing real solidarity.

Collaborations should seem authentic. Discover how your brand fits into your influencer’s life or how your brand can show support.

@smirnoffus sent personalized vodka bottles to LGBTQ+ influencers for Pride month. The bottles fit seamlessly into the occasions of the influencer’s life. Influencer @kiyomivalentine is seen holding her personalized bottle with her wife at their wedding.

The true value of an influencer campaign is found in the audience of the influencer. LGBTQ+ influencers have an extremely focused, and loyal audience. If an influencer promotes your brand to their dedicated followers, they are giving you an automatic stamp of approval. Though Pride Month is in June, some brands have begun running their Pride campaigns in May, perhaps hinting at a new trend.

Pride Campaign Example: #ProudInMyCalvins

Calvin Klein’s 2020 Pride campaign, #proudinmycalvins, is a collaboration with a diverse spectrum of LGBTQ+ influencers to discuss what it means to be proud and live authentically.

Influencer: @iamjarijones, 25.7k followers

Jari Jones is a Trans model, actress, and activist. Her followers are 67% female, 51% between 25-34, and 56% are based in New York.

Reece is a London-based model. 57% of his audience is female, and though he is based in the UK, 43% of his audience is actually from the US.

Your next collaboration is right around the corner! It’s time to start planning for your Pride campaign. Schedule a time to speak with one of our influencer marketing experts and we’d be happy to guide you in the right direction!

How to Plan Your Pride Influencer Campaign

The buzzy agency office atmosphere was always part of what made agency life special. Bouncing ideas off each other, working together on campaigns, celebrating successful pitches, commiserating when it didn’t go well. It could be a lot of fun.

But the pandemic changed all that and, just like many businesses around the world, a lot of agencies began to embrace the benefits of allowing staff to work from home. There’s no doubt that giving people that flexibility can be great for the individuals as well as the agencies, but has something been lost in the process? Do agency teams still enjoy that mutual sense of purpose and collaborative creativity that were fostered in a shared working environment?

Let’s talk about the upside first of all. The first benefit of remote working is that it gives agencies access to a much wider talent pool, since they are no longer limited to hiring employees who live within commuting distance of an office.

Given the eye-watering cost of living in a major city these days, it stands to reason that a lot of people are choosing to live in more affordable areas, and agencies which are based in those large cities would previously have missed out on all that talent.

And that brings us onto the next advantage: happier, more productive staff. Working from home saves people a significant amount of time every day, not to mention money. It’s also easier for them to take care of all kinds of life admin and personal stuff that is so much trickier when you’re away from home for up to 12 hours a day. Net result, they’ve got more energy, they’re more focused and productive at work, they feel happier and healthier, which means they’re less likely to look for a different job.

It’s not just the agency employees who save money by working from home. Having fewer people working in an office can significantly reduce costs for the agency, especially if it’s able to downsize to a smaller place. Commercial rents aren’t cheap and, if your square footage requirements can be lowered then you can make big savings.

By decoupling headcount from office space, scalability also becomes easier. OK, agency growth isn’t often specifically limited by how many people you can fit into your office, but being able to scale up or down without worrying about whether you’ve got enough space (or you’re paying for too much) can make life easier for agency bosses trying to navigate through ever changing economic cycles. 

We live in a golden age of technology, and it’s easy to forget that being able to instantly jump on a high-definition video call with colleagues all over the world is incredible. But the unique magic that happens in a creative brainstorm is kind of lost on a Zoom call, it’s just not the same as hunkering down in a meeting room full of pizza and Red Bull and throwing ridiculous ideas at each-other until somehow, eventually, something brilliant happens. 

And it’s not just the big brainstorms that lose something through remote work. All those little interactions and casual conversations that used to take place in an office would often spark new ideas, which doesn’t happen in a world where you only talk to colleagues in a planned, deliberate way, when there’s a specific topic to address.

This also makes it hard to build and maintain any kind of company culture. Agency staff no longer go for lunch together, drinks after work, or any of the other social activities that helped forge stronger teams. In some businesses this might not be a problem - you don’t have to be friends with your coworkers - but in agencies there’s usually a strong social aspect to the working environment, and the resulting company culture is often part of what clients buy into.

Although not always the case, some remote workers report difficulties in creating a healthy work/life balance when they work at home, because at the end of the working day it’s harder to mentally switch off from work as they’re still in the same environment. This, of course, can lead to unhappy, less productive staff.

As always, there’s no clear solution to find the perfect balancing act: it really depends on the individual agencies to find a way that works for them. Hybrid-working is currently being touted as the best compromise, with workers being given the flexibility to work from home a few days a week and attend the office for the rest of the time.

The research organization, Gallup, has looked closely at this issue and concluded that remote collaboration is demonstrably less effective than working together in-person, and suggests that the best approach is to standardize two or three working days a week in the office, which it claims boosts team engagement and wellbeing.

Does Working From Home Work for PR and Marketing Agencies?

According to the World Federation of Advertisers, South African businesses need to reach the right audience on the right platform with just the right amount of creativity and clever advertising at exactly the right time to achieve marketing success.

Sound like an impossible feat? It’s not, really. 

To ensure great marketing results, you need to understand the current media landscape in South Africa. The digital world is constantly evolving, which in turn influences consumer trends, and your marketing practices need to keep up with the ever-changing landscape. 

Using reputable data, insights and marketing trends, Meltwater brings you the most up to date research on the current media landscape in South Africa to help keep your business in the loop.

The biggest South African media companies in 2023

Most prominent media trends in SA at the moment

Current challenges facing the South African media landscape

How to market effectively in the current South African media landscape

When we look at some of the biggest South African media companies, and their growth in annual revenue, we get a great overview of social media trends in Africa. The top three SA companies according to Owler’s competitive data are the following (in order):

Multichoice, South Africa’s largest media business, has over 7000 employees and a most recent annual revenue of $3.8B.

While YouTube, Netflix and other subscription-based streaming services are gaining popularity, DStv is still South Africa’s most popular service.

In fact, this particular tv company has over 9-million subscribers, while Netflix is sitting on approximately 3-million.

Media 24 (part of Naspers) is South Africa’s leading media company specialising in newspapers, magazines, ecommerce, book publishing and more.

The company owns more than 50 of South Africa’s most-loved newspapers, magazines and news sites (including News24).

Primedia is a media company with a large portfolio of broadcasting assets including radio stations like 702 and 94.7.

The other biggest media content delivery companies in South Africa include Showmax, OneCentre, SABC, Primedia Broadcasting and Kagiso Media.

Did you know? With the Meltwater Media Intelligence Suite, you can also monitor TV & radio broadcasts.

At the start of 2023, 43.48 million internet users, 25.8 million social media users, and 112.7 million cell phone connections were recorded in South Africa. With a population size of almost 60 million, these stats suggest that almost all South Africans have access to a cell phone, and almost everyone is an internet-user.

According to Statista, South Africa’s largest segment is still Traditional Media with a market volume of US$4.64bn in 2023.

However, the Covid-19 pandemic saw an increase in the demand for digital media and the need for digitalisation on a global level. South Africa is a follower of global trends and the steady increase in internet users, cell phone connections and new ways of consuming media will mean that traditional media channels will start to stagnate and there will be a market shift towards digital media in the future.

Tip: You find more digital media statistics in The 2023 Global Digital Report. You can also take a look at dedicated South African social media statistics.

When comparing media consumption in South Africa to Australia's media landscape, it’s clear that Aussies are spending more time on Netflix and other personalised, subscription-based media spaces (globally, this is the trend) while SA is a little behind.

TV is still dominating our local media space, with digital news and radio following close behind. However, continuous growth for video-on-demand platforms and streaming services is expected, with Showmax and Netflix being key players in the market.

Radio is still a big player in the South African media industry, however, there has been a shift towards audio providers such as Spotify that offer music, podcasts & radio content as an all-in-one package. These one-stop-shop providers will become increasingly popular as audio consumption and audio content continues to increase

Facebook is still an extremely popular media platform in South Africa, with 22.15 million users recorded at the start of 2023.

Twitter, TikTok and Instagram are gaining popularity too, making the social space one to watch out for.

With news and entertainment right at everyone’s fingertips, the role of media in South Africa is changing into a fast-paced, highly competitive information-provider and the migration towards online publications is a prominent trend in the current South African media landscape. This has some pros for companies such as a variety of platforms as well as the ability to personalise content.

This in turn creates options for highly-targeted advertising. However, it also comes with challenges.

An increase in the user-dominated media space has led to word-of-mouth advertising and user-generated review systems. This opens businesses up to fake news, untrustworthy information, and unfair reviews. Misinformation can damage an individual or company's reputation tremendously. Fake news in mainstream media has also led to the waning of consumer trust. This poses a challenge to media outlets as once consumers have lost trust in a publication, they will migrate towards alternative, more personalised sources and this relationship is hard to repair.

Reading Tips: A 101 in Online Reputation Repair Management, Business Reputation Management: Maintain a Good Reputation, Reputation PR: Definition, Strategies & Examples, The Best Online Reputation Management Services & Software

As South Africans start using platforms such as Netflix, Spotify and other user-dominated media spaces, funding for radio and television will begin to decline. This could negatively impact the media industry if organisations do not adapt to the new digital world. 

There’s a lot of information to digest here, but the most important takeaway is that your business can benefit hugely from this evolution into digital, social, and ever-available information. But it’s not an easy task to tackle single handedly.

With a great PR officer, or public relations team, you can create a long-term vision for your business and reach goals you never thought possible. This is because marketing in 2023 doesn't just happen organically, it's a process filled with calculated decisions and a unique marketing strategy.

Using a press release distribution service, media database and relationship management, as well as other important media tools like the Meltwater Media Relations Suite, your business can take its marketing to the next level.

Keeping up to date with trends is often the hard part as the landscape is continually in motion. With PR assistance from Meltwater, you’ll never miss a beat as we offer a media monitoring service that spans all media platforms.

Simply fill in the form below to get a free demo.

Media In South Africa: 2023 And Beyond

To put it simply, 2023 has been a harrowing year for LGBTQ+ communities all over the world, from the expansion of Russia’s anti-LGBTQ content laws to the surge of anti-transgender legislation across the United States. Online, LGBTQ+ people, communities, organizations, and their allies are using social media to share news, resources, and updates on those threats, but they are also using those platforms to share stories of progress and resistance. 

We used our Meltwater social listening and analytics platform to find the more hopeful stories of LGBTQ+ resistance that had the biggest impacts on social media. The following stories (from 2023 so far) achieved high social echo scores, which show the number of times the article was posted to, shared, or engaged with on Facebook and Twitter. With them, social media users around the globe are attempting to spread some hope. Because, in the words of the late politician and gay activist Harvey Milk, “The only thing [young gay people] have to look forward to is hope. And you have to give them hope!”

Ryan Murphy Honors LGBTQ Actors in Golden Globes Speech

This January blog post from CNN made a huge splash across social media, highlighting just how eager users were to share the news of a prominent gay figure in entertainment honoring his peers. When producer Ryan Murphy accepted the 2023 Carol Burnett Award at the Golden Globes, he highlighted the contributions of actors Billy Porter, Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Niecy Nash-Betts, Matt Bomer, and Jeremy Pope to LGBTQ+ representation in pop culture. He also offered them up as examples of progress, stating:

When I was a young person at home in the '70s watching The Carol Burnett Show, I never ever saw a person like me getting an award or even being a character on a TV show. It's hard being an LGBTQ kid in America, in fact all over the world then and now. And I have one word for you: Florida. You are often told you will never become anything, you have to hide your light to survive. But for those kids watching tonight, I offer up M.J. and Billy and Niecy and Matt and Jeremy as examples of possibility. There is a way forward. Use them as your North Stars. 

Transgender Day of Visibility: Minister Luan | Déclaration du ministre sur la Journée de la visibilité trans

Governmental press releases aren’t normally popular on social media, but this one posted to the Government of Alberta’s blog on March 31 stands apart. Social media users spread Minister of Culture Jason Luan’s statement recognizing transgender, nonbinary, and two-spirit Albertans for Transgender Day of Visibility far and wide. 

43-Year-Old Used Her Life Savings to Open a Bar that Only Plays Women’s Sports—It Brought in Almost $1 million in 8 months

Who knew bargoers were so hungry for a place to gather around women’s sports? Jenny Nguyen, a lesbian business owner from Portland, OR, that’s who! This CNBC story reporting on the success of Nguyen’s bar The Sports Bra — which only shows women’s sports on its TVs — was a much-shared, feel-good story in April. While the article focuses on Nguyen’s business, it also mentions the part her identity played in the ideation process:

Nguyen, who came out as a lesbian at age 17, says she doesn’t always feel welcome at most traditional sports bars. The Sports Bra could help her, and anyone else who’d rarely felt accepted in other sports establishments, feel like she belonged. “I thought about, if we can even get one kid in here and have them feel like they belong in sports, it’d be worth it,” she says.

Kelsea Ballerini and CMT Music Awards Drag Queens Explain Message Behind Performance (Exclusive)

This year, legislators in the U.S. state of Tennessee have passed multiple anti-LGBTQ+ laws, including a bill heavily restricting drag show performances. This has sparked many protests and demonstrations — one of which saw country artist Kelsea Ballerini highlighting drag queens during her performance at the 2023 CMT Music Awards. Entertainment news outlet ET interviewed the featured drag queens — Kennedy Davenport, Manila Luzon, Jan Sport, and Oliva Lux — to get their takes on that performance’s impact. Luzon told ET:

Just like all these amazing country music artists, we drag queens are also artists. And we deserve a space to be ourselves, express ourselves, and create something wonderful for everyone to enjoy.

Charlize Theron Warns She'll 'F--- Anybody Up' Who Comes for Drag Queens: 'We're in Your Corner'

People reported on actor Charlize Theron’s appearance at the Drag Isn’t Dangerous telethon, where she stated:

We love you, queens. We're in your corner and we've got you, and I will f--- anybody up who's trying to f--- with anything with you guys… There are so many things that are hurting and, really, killing our kids, and we all know what I'm talking about right now and it ain't no drag queen — because if you've ever seen a drag queen lip-sync for her life, it only makes you happier, it only makes you love more, it makes you a better person.

This article, like the others on this list, was shared by people celebrating the news, as well as those with hateful intentions. However, its popularity shows just how much impact mainstream stars can have when they make it a point to support LGBTQ+ communities.

These stories have offered glimmers of hope for progress across social media, but, sadly, anti-LGBTQ+ articles by far-right extremist outlets like The Daily Wire are also some of the most shared on social media. As GLAAD has noted, anti-LGBTQ efforts from white supremacists and religious extremists have been sharply rising over the past year. 

Sharing stories of LGBTQ+ joy and resistance is one small way that supportive internet users push back against the onslaught of hate. Along with protesting for, donating to, and voting for pro-LGBTQ+ movements, next time you see a story that gives you hope, consider taking a moment to share the good news. You never know who might need to see it. 

5 of the Most-Shared Pro-LGBTQ+ Articles of 2023 So Far

Part of what makes agencies special is their ability to keep one eye on the horizon and artfully guide clients through the shifting sands of technological change.

In-house marketers are usually focused heavily on the day-to-day job of keeping the wheels turning for their business; there’s always a new campaign to work on, or an unexpected problem to solve. Often there’s little time for them to take stock and reflect on what new trends and technologies they should be paying attention to. Today’s deadlines always take precedence over tomorrow’s possibilities.

That’s where agencies can add value. Sure, your creativity and ability to execute campaigns flawlessly is the main reason clients hire you, but at the same time they frequently look to agencies to be their finger-on-the-pulse, keeping them informed and inspired by new ideas.

The challenge lies in making sense of the perpetual hype-cycle; being able to identify which new ideas are genuinely innovative and useful, and which are dead ends. That’s not easy.

Those of us who are old enough (sorry, I mean those of us with enough gravitas) will remember the social media gold-rush of the late-noughties, when it felt like every agency was hurriedly trying to reposition itself as a social-specialist, even though the area was still only dimly understood. At the time, there were plenty of naysayers who wanted us to believe that social media was an overhyped flash-in-the-pan that would soon be forgotten about. We all know how that played out!

What people might not remember so clearly is that, around the same time, many agencies were jumping on the Second Life bandwagon, trying to convince their clients that building a presence in this new virtual world would be essential for any forward-thinking business that wanted to stay relevant. That fad lasted about a week before everybody quietly moved on and pretended it never happened.

Since then the new ideas have been coming at us constantly, many being proclaimed as the Next Big Thing on Monday, and relegated to obscurity by Friday. It only feels like a couple of months ago that NFTs were supposed to be the future, and now suddenly nobody’s talking about them any more.

The Metaverse (2022’s answer to Second Life) had a little more staying power, thanks to a lot of large tech companies throwing their weight behind it, but even that big idea finally seems to have fallen from favor before it came close to delivering on any of the hype.

And that brings us to today’s trendy new tech, Generative AI. Admittedly, this feels a little different to all the others. Large Language Models like ChatGPT and text-to-image models like Stable Diffusion and MidJourney feel like they could be transformational and are already creating noticeable disruption across various industries. All the same, there are plenty of voices speaking out against the technology, highlighting its shortcomings, and questioning its risks and long-term usefulness.

Walking the tightrope between misplaced hype and genuine innovation, the challenge agencies face is not only to discern which technologies will have a significant lasting impact, but also to build an understanding of how to harness their potential for the benefit of clients. Generative AI has potential to disrupt the PR and marketing industry, but only if we can understand and acknowledge its limitations as well as its power. 

Staying at the forefront of innovation while avoiding wasting resources dead ends is a challenge for all agencies. How do you strike the right balance?

Perhaps the way to ensure we offer our clients the best counsel, and continue to be their trusted consultants, is to maintain a healthy skepticism and cast a forensic eye over the potential flaws of new technologies rather than simply riding the hype train until its wheels fall off. 

Navigating the Hype: Agencies in the Age of Tech Whiplash

Influencer marketing isn’t just about cute outfits or hair and makeup tutorials. Business influencers have become a hot topic in recent years, lending their powerful voices to specific industries. They have an innate ability to sway their followers' opinions and buying decisions, not to mention a sizable audience who trusts their opinions. Leveraging business influencers gives companies an effective way to expand their reach and gain access to new audiences.

The process of working with business influencers is similar to that of traditional social media influencers. You can collaborate on sponsored posts, product reviews, tutorials, affiliate marketing, and even newsletter sponsorship. In turn, they can provide valuable exposure and authenticity to businesses as they increase their online presence.

The first step is knowing which business influencers to partner with. We’ve rounded up the data on the top business influencers around the world and compiled it into a neat and tidy package.

Check out the must-follow business influencers below:

US-based coach, motivational speaker, author, and business influencer, Tony Robbins has become widely known for his self-help seminars. He promotes the idea that people can change their lives if they can change their behaviors and that small steps can lead to larger goals (in lieu of expecting overnight success).

Tony has an active Instagram presence with more than 7 million followers. He’s also on Twitter, where he shares daily tips with more than 3.1 million followers.

Tim Ferriss rose to fame with the release of his book, The 4-Hour Work Week. A radical idea at the time, his book has inspired entrepreneurs to live more and work less. His name has now become synonymous with entrepreneurship and professional development. 

You can find Tim Ferriss on Instagram (1.2 million followers), Twitter (1.9 million followers), YouTube (1.24 million subscribers), and LinkedIn (2 million followers).

Average reach per post: over 2.6 million people

Gary Vaynerchuk (also called Gary Vee) is a Belarusian-American business influencer, entrepreneur, author, and investor. His company, VaynerMedia, specializes in social media marketing and has helped position him as a leading authority in digital marketing. 

Vaynerchuk has attracted more than 4 million YouTube subscribers, 3.1 million Twitter followers, and over 10 million followers on his Gary Vay-Ner-Chuk Instagram profile. He’s also among the top business influencers on TikTok, with over 34.7 million followers and an average reach of over 2.6 million people per post.

Facebook followers: Nearly 5 million (4.9)

A name synonymous with money and credit know-how, Dave Ramsey has helped millions of Americans achieve financial independence. His methodologies help his fans do more with their money regardless of income, allowing them to get out of debt and live within their means.

Dave shares his decades of experience in his books and on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.

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