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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

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

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

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

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

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

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

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

Instagram has Stories and Reels. TikTok has Reels, For You page, and original sounds. YouTube has Shorts. And Snapchat has — Snapchat Discover?

It’s not enough to be active on social media channels. To get the most out of your social media management strategy, you need to know all of the features available to you and how they help you reach your audience. 

For Snapchat, you have more options than just posting content (and then watching it vanish in 24 hours). Snapchat’s Discover feature is a prime example of how social media platforms are evolving to help users find and engage with content they care about.

Here’s what the Snapchat Discover feature is and how you can use it to grow your social presence.

Types of Content that Perform Well on Snapchat Discover

Snapchat Discover vs. Instagram Stories & TikTok

Best Practices for Creating Engaging Content on Snapchat Discover

How Brands Can Get Featured on Snapchat Discover

Measuring Success: Key Snapchat Discover Metrics

Building a Snapchat Discover Strategy with Meltwater

Snapchat Discover is a section of the Snapchat app that features content from big brands and publishers. It’s kind of like its own feed, but instead of seeing a mix of single posts from various creators, you see “collections” in story format. 

Think about going to a newsstand filled with magazines. Each magazine comes from a certain publisher with a specific theme. Open it and you’ll find loads of content fitting that theme. 

This is the idea behind Snapchat Discover. It’s a collection of stories from top creators ready for you to explore.

Did you know you can easily track your brand mentions in Snapchat using Meltwater's social listening solution? Click here and fill out the form below to learn more!

On the Snapchat Discover page, you’ll find a few different types of creators and their content: your friends’ Snapchat stories, Our Stories, Publisher Stories, and Shows. 

These creators share similarities in terms of the type of content they create. Whether from a major publisher like Vogue or ESPN or a rising influencer, you might notice several key themes across their Snaps.

Snapchat’s emphasis on interactive content turns passive viewers into active participants. Engagement can help fuel the algorithm and potentially improve visibility on the Discover page. 

Mashable uses interactive polls and other visuals to engage its audience in different ways. In the above example, it discussed the Pixel Buds across a series of snaps, then asked users whether they’d make the switch from AirPods. It also added a fun maze at the end to keep things fresh.

News stories, round-ups, and other detailed content can be repurposed into a series snaps for a “highlights” reel. This gives users the gist of an idea without having to read full articles or watch entire videos. The snaps each contain a specific fact or point, which form a complete narrative when combined.

If you have a lot to say about a topic, break it into a rundown of factoids. These are quick, punchy, and easy to read, helping to hold the viewer’s attention to the end.

National Geographic is a prime example. The publication used fun, vibrant imagery to share quick facts on goldfish across a series of snaps, then ended with a call to action to swipe up to learn more.

TIP: AI can be extremely useful when breaking longer content into short, bite-sized pieces for social media. Check out our Ultimate Guide to AI for Social Media Management to learn more!

Learning how to do something is easier when you break it down, step by step. Snapchat is a prime candidate for this type of content, where you can show each step in its own snap and create a full series for the Discover page.

Similar to how-tos and quick facts, you can highlight various behind-the-scenes aspects across multiple snaps to share with your audience. This could be event highlights, how something is made, or even a peek at your content creation process.

Capturing before and after photos inspire users and show them what could be. People are drawn to transformation photos, especially if they think they can get similar results for themselves. Brands in beauty, hair, home goods, DIY, fashion, or similar industries are optimal candidates for before and after photos.

Testimonials are gold for showcasing the potential of a product or service. Typically thought of as quotes, case studies, or video reviews, Snapchat gives you another way to share testimonials – a series of photos or videos each focused on a specific piece of the story. 

In this example from Ritual Vitamins, the reviewer shares her progress using the vitamins and specific things she loves about them. Each snap is well-branded and walks the viewer through the experience.

TIP: Don't miss our Social Media Management Toolkit, full of resources to make busy social media managers' lives a little bit easier!

There’s a bit of overlap between Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok, as they each focus on short-form experiences. The key differences lie in how they serve the content, who sees it, and the types of content that perform the best. 

<table class="table-primary alternate-color">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Feature</th>
<th>Snapchat Discover</th>
<th>Instagram Stories</th>
<th>TikTok</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>Content</td>
<td>Curated by Snapchat; features publishers and creators</td>
<td>Follows-based and not chronological; not algorithmic</td>
<td>Algorithm-driven For You Page (FYP)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Audience</td>
<td>More closed, based on subscriptions and Snapchat's curation</td>
<td>Limited to followers unless shared widely</td>
<td>Global, viral potential even without followers</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Best-Performing Content</td>
<td>Quick facts, highlights, before and after, testimonials</td>
<td>Personal updates, behind-the-scenes, promotions</td>
<td>Viral trends, challenges, lip-syncs, storytelling</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Monetization</td>
<td>Ad revenue share for select partners</td>
<td>Brand sponsorships and swipe-up links</td>
<td>Creator Fund, brand deals, affiliate links</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Editing & Creative Tools</td>
<td>Professional-level tools for publishers</td>
<td>Basic text, stickers, gifs, filters</td>
<td>Advanced filters, transitions, effects, sound sync</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Viewer Interaction</td>
<td>Tap-through storytelling, swipes</td>
<td>Replies, polls, stickers, emoji reactions</td>
<td>Comments, likes, shares, duets, stitches</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Content Longevity</td>
<td>More evergreen in Discover tab</td>
<td>Disappears after 24 hours unless saved</td>
<td>Permanent unless deleted</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Creator Access</td>
<td>Select creators and publishers</td>
<td>Open to all users</td>
<td>Open to all users</td>
</tr>

Leaning into the nuances of the Snapchat Discover feed can help you create more impactful content for this channel.

If you have access to the Discover page on Snapchat, you’ll be creating content for a younger, mobile-first audience who appreciates visually rich and interactive content. To succeed, you’ll need to do more than just repurpose content you’re using on other social media channels.

Snapchat is a mobile-first social media platform, so getting your content to look good means designing for vertical screens (a 9:16 aspect ratio). Make it mobile-friendly with large fonts, bold colors, and minimal text. 

Keeping visual interest high is a must. Use transitions, zooms, and animations when possible to keep your audience’s attention. 

Snapchat users tend to swipe fast, so you’ll need to grab their attention immediately. If you don’t, they’ll move on. 

Put your most essential information up front, like a bold headline, a provocative question, or a compelling visual. Let them know what’s to come, then make sure the other snaps in the series deliver on that promise. 

Long-winded narratives don’t work on the Snapchat Discover feature. Instead, break your content into punchy story beats. Aim for 5-10 second segments and use cliffhangers or calls to action to move them to the next snap.

Think of it as creating content in micro chapters. Pacing is key here. You don’t want them to quickly tap through each snap, but rather consume it eagerly and thoroughly so they get the full context.

Tie your stories into what’s trending now, also known as "trendjacking". This might be popular TV shows or characters, viral moments, memes, or TikTok trends, for example. Even if you have a niche like wellness or education, framing your content through the lens of “what’s hot right now” can help you engage more viewers.

This doesn’t mean you need to chase every meme or trend. But at least be aware of what your audience is talking about right now and find a way to enter the conversation with them.

TIP: Download our free Ultimate Guide to Trendjacking for tips and tricks to help you capture the cultural zeitgeist and grow your brand's reach!

Use consistent branding that sets the right expectations

Snapchat Discover content thrives on good branding. Your brand sets the tone for what your audience can expect, and they can subscribe to your Discover content if they like what they see.

Beyond adding your business name, logo, and social media handles, the style of your snaps should feel familiar. This might be a recognizable opening scene, logo placement, or a recurring host or character, for example.

Not just any user can show up on Discover Snapchat. To earn a spot here, you’ll likely need to be a well-known publisher or creator, most of whom are handpicked by Snapchat. 

Become a Discover Snapchat official publisher

You can request to become a Discover publisher by reaching out to Snapchat and expressing your interest. They’re a bit hush-hush about the requirements, but Discover partners typically have large, established followings and consistently produce high-quality content.

Submit content to Snapchat’s “Our Stories”

You can share your content with Snapchat’s “Our Stories” for a chance to be featured on the company’s own Discover page. To do this, create your story as you usually would, then tap “Our Story” to request Snapchat to consider featuring it. 

Work with existing Discover Snapchat publishers

If you can’t gain access to the Discover page on Snapchat yourself, consider sponsoring content with a publisher who’s already there. Many Discover publishers work with sponsors to create relevant content to share with their audience. 

The key is choosing a publisher who shares your audience and for whom you can create engaging content that fits their brand.

If you’re successful in posting content to the Snapchat Discover page, your work isn’t quite done yet. 

Views (a top-level indicator of reach and exposure on the Discover page)

Unique viewers (number of individual Snapchat users who viewed your content)

Swipe-ups (which shows interest in your call-to-actions)

Drop-off points (where users lose interest or stop viewing)

These Snapchat key metrics can tell you a lot about how your audience responded to your content, allowing you to make tweaks to your approach and (hopefully) get equal or better results in the future.

Finding success on the Snapchat Discover page means creating swipe-worthy content people want to share and engage with. To do this, you need to know your audience like your own best friend — their interests, needs, likes and dislikes, and what drives them to act.

Meltwater's AI-powered social listening capabilities help you surface the fine details of Snapchat trends and how your customers use the platform. It unlocks insights from billions of data points across social media and other online channels, giving you a complete picture of your audience and the things they care about. 

Request a demo by filling out the form below to see how Meltwater's social listening solution can help you thrive on Snapchat and beyond.

What Is Snapchat Discover and How Does it Work?

You see your competitors crushing it on social media with tons of comments and shares, while you’re spinning your wheels trying to get a few likes. What’s their secret sauce? 

A social media competitor analysis can help you reverse engineer their recipe.

The truth is, your competitors might not make better content than you. They simply might be smarter about how they play the game. Analyzing your competitors can help you figure out exactly what they’re doing right — so you can do it, too.

This doesn’t mean copying their every move. Instead, in-depth competitive intelligence will help you uncover their playbook so you can outplay them. 

Maybe they’re posting at 7 a.m. instead of 9 a.m. Or maybe they’re using trending sounds or making content about specific topics. These clues can be your breadcrumbs to the strategy that draws your audience in, like a candy-covered house in an otherwise bland forest.

Here’s how you can create your roadmap to stronger content and better engagement with a social media competitor analysis.

What Is Social Media Competitor Analysis?

Why Is Social Media Competitor Analysis Important?

How to Identify Your Social Media Competitors

Key Metrics to Track in a Competitor Analysis

Best Tools for Social Media Competitor Analysis

Analyzing Competitors’ Content Strategies

Using Competitor Insights to Improve Your Social Media Performance 

The Role of Al in Social Media Competitor Analysis

Conducting Your Social Media Competitor Analysis with Meltwater

Doing a competitor analysis on social media involves looking at what your top competitors are doing on social media. An in-depth analysis includes:

Content format (e.g., photo, video, text-only content)

Engagement rates (e.g., likes, shares, comments, views)

The purpose of each post (e.g., does the post include a call-to-action and link?)

Brands can look at all of these things together to dissect and benchmark their competitors’ strategy on social media. This gives you an inside look at how they might be outperforming you, inspiring you to improve certain areas and boost your social media efforts.

TIP: Download our free Social Listening for Benchmarking Guide to easily gauge how to stack up against your competitors on social media, in the press, and more!

You could spend all day creating and posting content on social media and have nothing to show for it. Social media success requires more than being active; you need to know what your audience cares about and what they’re most likely to respond to.

That’s why a competitor analysis on social media can be so powerful. It’s an inside look at what others are doing and the results they’re getting.

Here’s why a competitor analysis for social media matters:

See what’s working and what’s not. It’s easier to spot trends, high-performing content, and even mistakes to avoid.

Get inspired. Find fresh ideas for posts, topics, and hashtags.

Get a better understanding of your audience. Learn what they engage with so you’re not wasting time and money on subpar content.

It’s all about gaining the insight you need to run a more effective social media marketing strategy. You can learn a lot by looking at your competitors, even if it’s discovering what not to do.

Before you can analyze your competitors, you need to know who they are. They’re not always as obvious as you might think, either.

You probably know your biggest rivals, but some of your strongest social media competitors might be brands you haven’t noticed yet. Here are some ways to find them.

Search your social media channels for keywords or hashtags you might use in your own posts. See who else comes up for those same terms, then dig into their feed to see what they’re posting. The accounts that show up consistently for these terms likely share your audience.

Take a look at the brands your audience is already engaging with. If they have your target customer’s attention, they might be worth watching.

Find competitors using social media tools

Social media monitoring platforms like Meltwater can help you surface your social media competitors based on audience factors or similar content. You can also use free tools like Google Alerts to see who’s publishing content on keywords related to your business, then check out their social channels to learn more about their strategies.

Read industry round-ups or “best of” lists

Articles or blogs that highlight brands in your niche can help you find top performers. If they’re getting media attention, it’s a good idea to watch them.

Click here and fill out the form below for a Meltwater demo to see quickly you can identify competitors and analyze their social strategies! 

Once you have a shortlist of social media competitors (aim for about 4-5 competitors to track), you can start benchmarking your performance. You’ll want to look at a few key metrics to compare:

Audience size: Number of followers who have opted in to see the competitor’s content

Engagements: Number of likes, shares, comments, and views per post

Posting frequency: How often an account is posting (e.g., per day, per week) and times of day they post

Content analysis: Types of content posted, hashtags used, post length, and messaging style

Top-performing posts: Posts that get the most attention and the common denominators between them (e.g., videos, product-focused posts, links to blog articles)

Social media growth: Number of new followers acquired (or lost) each day, week, month, or year

Keep in mind these metrics are constantly changing. Plan on doing a social media marketing competitor analysis on a regular basis to ensure you have the latest data.

You can collect some of your social media competitor data manually, but this can be a time-consuming process. It’s easier to use social media tools that can aggregate this data from multiple platforms in real time. 

Let’s look at a few of the best tools that will help you learn how to do a social media competitor analysis the right way.

Meltwater’s AI-driven intelligence suite combines social listening with audience intelligence to help you better understand social media conversations. The platform does the heavy lifting of finding your social media competitors. 

From there, you can do in-depth analyses on their content, including:

Meltwater’s social listening platform helps you connect the dots between competitors’ content so you can see how they’re holding an edge (or not). Knowledge is power, and you can use these insights to tailor your strategy to reach more people and deliver impact.

Sprout Social primarily functions as a social media management tool. It allows you to create, plan, publish, and report on content and campaigns across your social presence. 

It can also help you learn what your audience is talking about, which can lead you to new competitors. It includes a social media competitor analysis template to help you get started.

Sprout's listening tools use AI to learn the context behind conversations happening on social media. You can set up multiple keywords to track, then get alerts whenever someone mentions those terms. See who’s driving conversations and how they’re discussing topics to help you inform your content strategy.

Tip: Take a look at other Sprout Social alternatives.

Hootsuite also specializes in social media management, but it can also help you conduct a competitive analysis. You can set up “streams” for different social media channels to keep tabs on your competitors. 

These streams will show you new content, when they’re posting, and how their audience engages.

Streams can also track industry-related keywords and hashtags. This can help you spot new competitors on social media and gauge how they’re performing.

Tip: Take a look at other Hootsuite alternatives.

Once you have a list of your top social media competitors, you can start comparing your benchmark data and content to see how you stack up. 

Let’s review some key areas to pay attention to.

Look for common themes in your competitors’ content. For example, are they posting more videos or static content? What type of content is getting the most traction? What times of day are they posting, or does it vary?

Tracking content over time will give you the best idea of what your competitors are getting right and where they’re falling short.

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