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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

Using X, formerly known as Twitter, to its fullest potential isn’t just about crafting the perfect 280-character Tweet. It’s also about understanding the people your original Tweets reach. You can learn a lot about who those people are with Twitter analytics. 

Like other social networks, X/Twitter builds social media analytics into its platform to help users track their performance. You can access a Twitter analytics dashboard that showcases various marketing metrics that are important for marketers to keep on top of. Let’s face it – every photo, quote, or video you post can have an impact on your brand. So using a Twitter analytics platform is the best way to choose every keyword, hashtag, and Tweet wisely, attract the right type of follower, and get the results you came for.

To learn more about your content performance and who your X/Twitter audience is, look no further than Twitter analytics. Let’s explore what analytics for Twitter can tell you and how to use those insights in your social media marketing and specifically in your Twitter marketing strategy.

What Are The Best Twitter Analytics Tools?

Getting More from Twitter Analytics with Meltwater

The built-in X/Twitter analytics app offers platform-specific insights into your audience and content. You can track key Twitter stats and metrics to make data-driven decisions about your Twitter marketing and branding.

These KPIs can be accessed with a Twitter analytics platform, and provide essential context to inform your strategy on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Twitter reach & impressions, and engagements

Twitter analytics data is available for business and personal X/Twitter accounts. It’s free to use, and its data can help you create better campaigns without the guesswork. 

To access Twitter Analytics, you’ll first need an X/Twitter account. You can then go to analytics.twitter.com and log into Twitter. This should take you straight to your Twitter analytics dashboard. 

The easy-to-read dashboard breaks down your insights into several categories:

The report card gives you a high-level overview of your Twitter performance. Here you’ll find your top-performing Tweets and a summary of your monthly activity.

Top follower (the person with the most followers who started following you)

Top media tweet (your best tweet that includes a photo or video)

Growth metrics compared to the previous period

The Tweets Activity Dashboard shows you individual Tweet performance. See how many impressions each Tweet received, how many times it was retweeted, and how many times people liked and replied to it. You also have the option of separating your promoted tweets from your non-promoted ones.

You can also view averages for several Twitter KPIs, including:

You can export your findings into a .CSV file and adjust your date range to look at a broader or smaller scope of metrics.

If you’re posting videos to Twitter, you’ll gain separate insights for those on the Video Activity Dashboard.

To access this page, click the More tab at the upper-right corner of the analytics page and choose Video from the drop-down menu.

You’ll find useful metrics and data on the campaign dashboard if you’re running paid Twitter ads. See metrics like impressions, results, engagement rates, and cost per result.

Conversion tracking metrics measure your advertising ROI by tracking actions people take after engaging with your ad on X, formerly known as Twitter. For instance, if a customer leaves Twitter to go to your website, you can see whether they signed up for a newsletter, made a purchase, or took some other action.

Similar to the video dashboard, you’ll access campaign metrics by clicking the More tab at the top of the analytics page.

For businesses using Twitter, you’ll have a separate Twitter analytics dashboard showing personalized business insights. This dashboard is often overlooked because it’s separate from the other dashboards. To access it, go to the Twitter for Business section under Advertising > Analytics. At the bottom of the page, click the Visit Yours Now button under the Business Insights Dashboard header.

Instead of numerical data, this dashboard gives you spelled-out insights based on your Twitter data. These are often tips for improvement and suggestions for your next best actions.

The X/Twitter analytics platform can be immensely beneficial if you know which social media metrics matter. Some Twitter metrics will be more important to you than others, depending on your goals.

We suggest starting with the following KPIs and growing from there:

Impressions refer to the number of people who viewed your Tweet. When paired with engagement metrics, you gain a better understanding of how compelling people think your content is.

For example, if impressions are high but engagement is low, then it might be because your hashtags, content, or CTA need some work.

Tip: Learn everything about Twitter impressions and reach.

Your top Tweet is direct insight into what your audience loves most.

Knowing your top Tweet (and other high-performing content) can help you build on that success and give your X/Twitter audience more of what they want.

This is an important metric in your Twitter follower analytics. The new follower count gives you an idea of whether your audience is growing month over month. Consistently adding new followers is a good indication that people find your content interesting and/or valuable.

This metric represents the number of followers you gain or lose over a specific time period. Month by month is a popular view.

Similar to tracking only new followers, the lost/gained perspective can help you see if you’re attracting more people than you’re losing. A high number of unfollowers could mean you’re not hitting the mark with your audience.

X/Twitter success isn’t just about your brand – it’s about the people your brand connects with. Your top followers are your biggest fans. They can help you get your content in front of more eyeballs, which can lead to higher engagement and faster audience growth. These followers might be prime influencer opportunities, too!

Engagement metrics can be a lot of things: likes, retweets, hashtag clicks, replies, follows, and more. Collectively, engagement represents the interactions people have with your Tweets. That’s the whole point of tweeting – you want people to engage with them! If they’re not, then something clearly isn’t working for you, and you need to adjust your approach.

You can dial deeper into each of these metrics on each of your Tweets. Having a holistic view of engagement rates can help you see at a glance which Tweets are performing well and which ones aren’t. 

Technically, link clicks fall under the engagement rate category. But this metric deserves a spotlight of its own because it’s a direct reflection of how interested your audience is in your offering.

A high number of link clicks could mean there’s strong interest in your product, service, or event you’re promoting.

Twitter’s native analytics are pretty powerful on their own, as they should be. They’re directly connected to the platform and offer a basic view of your audience and performance.

However, for a more well-rounded perspective, we recommend pairing the X/Twitter analytics app data with the following third-party tools and platforms:

How to Use Twitter Analytics: Hashtags, Followers, Demographics

Our modern society has developed over several industrial revolutions. And according to experts and current trends, we might be close to another one — the fourth industrial revolution.

The first industrial revolution dates back to 1760, when we first started using steam power to maximize production. The second came more than 100 years later and took productivity to new heights with improved transportation, mass production, and standardization.

Both of these examples helped to move modern society forward, allowing us to do more with our resources and change the fabric of our way of life.

Experts peg the third industrial revolution as "manufacturing goes digital." Computers, automation, and the widespread adoption of the internet have given us even more improvements to how we work and live.

Now, experts believe we’re on the cusp of yet another revolution that will once again change work and life as we currently know it. Dubbed Industry 4.0, this revolution builds on the previous one by making computers, automation, and digital technologies more of a core focus in our economy and daily lives.

Here’s how Industry 4.0 is poised to shape manufacturing and technology and why brands should take notice.

Industry 4.0 Benefits – What Do We Stand to Gain?

What Meltwater Brands Should Know about Industry 4.0

Let’s get some clarity first — what is Industry 4.0? The Industry 4.0 definition encapsulates a number of different innovations and technological advances businesses are using today to improve efficiency and better serve their employees and customers.

Industry 4.0 is characterized by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.

You might also hear it called Industrie 4.0, I4.0, or the 4th industrial revolution.

Some of the key technologies that are driving Industry 4.0 are:

The Internet of Things (IoT): This refers to the growing network of cyber-physical systems and internet-connected devices that can communicate with each other.

Artificial intelligence (AI): This technology is being used to create smart machines that can learn and work independently.

Advanced analytics: This involves using big data and sophisticated algorithms to gain insights that can help improve decision-making.

In short, Industry 4.0 brings digital transformation into manufacturing on a large scale. Companies stand to gain real-time insights into their operations and performance, better decision-making, and greater flexibility and agility to stay ahead of competitors.

Industry 4.0 is still in its early stages, but it is already having a significant impact on manufacturing. Manufacturers are using a range of new technologies to increase productivity, reduce costs, and improve quality.

3D printing makes three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file. Creating a 3D printed object uses additive manufacturing, where successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes. 3D printing is the opposite of subtractive manufacturing, which involves cutting out or hollowing out an object from a piece of material.

3D printing technology has been around since the 1980s, but it was not until the early 21st century that the technology became widely known and used by people outside the industrial sector. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in the use of 3D printers for medical, commercial, and personal use.

There are many benefits to using 3D printing technology. One benefit is that it allows users to create complex objects that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to create using traditional manufacturing methods.

Robotics is the study of autonomous robots and their design. Robots can be programmed to carry out certain tasks. They are often used in manufacturing and assembly tasks, but industries like restaurants are also exploring their benefits. Robotics has become increasingly popular in recent years, as technology has advanced and made robots more affordable.

Robots have the ability to improve productivity in a number of ways. For example, they can work faster than humans, they can work for longer hours without getting tired, and they can carry out tasks that are too dangerous for humans to do.

In addition, robots can be equipped with sensors that allow them to detect potential problems and make corrections before an issue arises.

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) have become prominent in popular culture. These two technologies allow users to immerse themselves in digital worlds or augment their real-world surroundings with digital content.

VR is a completely immersive experience where users don a headset that blocks out the real world and transports them to a computer-generated environment. On the other hand, AR overlays digital content on the real world, allowing users to interact with it.

Despite their differences, VR and AR are often used interchangeably because they both provide unique and powerful experiences. These technologies are rapidly evolving and are being used in a variety of fields, from gaming and entertainment to education and training.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the process of programming a computer to make decisions for itself, usually through the use of algorithms. Algorithms are a set of rules that can be followed to solve a problem or accomplish a task.

AI’s biggest opportunity is to automate decision-making. For example, if you were developing a budget for your manufacturing business, you could use an AI-powered tool to help you identify cost savings or justify spending more in certain areas.

Overall, AI helps to make human processes easier and faster. It also has the potential to transform many different industries.

Machine learning is a subfield of artificial intelligence (AI) that deals with the design and development of algorithms. To put it another way, machine learning enables AI to learn and make predictions from data.

Machine learning algorithms can support a variety of tasks, such as image recognition, speech recognition, machine translation, and more.

The main goal of machine learning is to automatically learn from data and improve the performance of predictive models. Machine learning is a powerful tool that can be used to solve many real-world problems.

There are two main types of machine learning: 

Supervised machine learning: Supervised learning algorithms are trained on a labeled dataset, which contains the correct answers for each example.

Unsupervised machine learning: Unsupervised learning algorithms are trained on an unlabeled dataset that does not contain the correct answers for each example.

Smart devices are becoming increasingly popular as people look for ways to simplify and automate their lives. Some examples of smart devices include smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. Each of these can make your life easier by helping you stay connected, stay organized, and even do hands-free tasks.

Voice assistants are software programs that allow users to interact with a device using natural language voice commands. Voice assistants can perform a variety of tasks, such as playing music, setting alarms, retrieving information from the internet, and much more.

They’re becoming more and more popular as they offer a convenient way to perform tasks or access information hands-free. There are many different voice assistants available on the market, each with its own set of features and capabilities.

One of the most popular voice assistants is Amazon’s Alexa. Alexa is a cloud-based voice service that powers devices like the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot. With Alexa, you can ask questions, get weather updates, control your smart home devices, and more.

Big data refers to the large amount of data that organizations have to manage. This data can come from a variety of sources, including social media, transactions, and clickstreams. Data analytics is the process of analyzing this data to find patterns and insights.

Organizations use big data and analytics to understand their customers better, make better decisions, and improve their operations. Big data can answer questions such as who is buying your product, what they are saying about it online, and how you can reach them with your marketing messages. Analytics can help you understand what these patterns mean and how you can use them to your advantage.

In the future, Industry 4.0 solutions are expected to lead to even more technological innovation, including the development of new business models and the creation of entirely new industries.

Experts predict the above technologies will lead to more streamlined operations across multiple industries. Here are a few examples of some of these technologies at work:

The automotive industry uses 3D printing to create prototypes and parts along with robotics to build vehicles. The result is faster production times, more cost-effective products, and fewer supply chain bottlenecks.

Automotive manufacturers (or any manufacturer making complex products) can also AR/VR to simulate the components of their products. Creating a digital twin of their machines and final products can help to train new staff and improve maintenance before performing these actions in real-time.

Tip: Read our customer story with Daimler Commercial Vehicles MENA to learn how our Meltwater Suite helped them grow their business.

The food and beverage industry is also fueling the growth of Industry 4.0. Food manufacturers are using sensors to track food quality, and robots for packaging and logistics.

This allows for a more efficient production process with less waste.

Hospitals are using data analytics to improve patient care, while pharmaceutical companies are using 3D printing to create customized drugs. Innovation in healthcare can have a ripple effect in populations around the world.

Sensors placed on machines can continuously monitor and analyze usage to predict maintenance needs. The Big Data collected by the sensors can anticipate breakages before they occur, which can help companies avoid costly downtime and order delays.

Autonomous robots in warehouses are picking and packing orders. Robots can work around the clock and may work to a higher level of accuracy.

Smart sensors connected to the internet (an example of IoT) can monitor things like room temperature, HVAC usage, and lighting. Machine learning can help building owners optimize these costly moving parts and automatically reduce usage when needed.

On-site building operators can use smart devices and voice assistants to log observations and notes, then share their findings at scale via cloud computing.

The smart factory is just one example of the innovation that is shaping the fourth industrial revolution. Society at large stands to benefit from the industrial internet of things (IIoT) in a number of ways.

What Is Industry 4.0? The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Over the past several years, influencer marketing has grown from a social media novelty into a multi-billion dollar industry. But as influencing and content creation for brands has become more professionalized, some major pain points have emerged. 

The fact is, if brands want to have recurring, successful influencer marketing campaigns, influencers need to want to work with them. And as more influencers and content creators are pulling back the curtain on the industry, brands that drop the ball can easily develop reputations for not being worthwhile to work with.

An Explore query of mentions of #influencerproblems, #contentcreatorproblems, #creatorproblems, and #branddealsbelike shows that, though these conversations are niche, they contain insights that are especially valuable for brands. The most engaged-with piece of content, reaching 1.8 million people, had this lesson to share: There’s no bigger waste of everyone’s time than when brands reach out to content creators without doing their research first. 

When RANDOM brands strike again 😳 #branddeals #creatorlife #creatorproblems #makeupart

When attempting to begin a partnership with an influencer or content creator, make sure that what you’re offering is relevant to them. Most importantly, make sure you’re reaching out to the correct person. The second-most embarrassing email for any influencer marketing manager to receive is one telling you you have your influencers mixed up.

The most embarrassing response to get from an influencer? One reminding you that you have worked together before. So, after your brand has worked with someone, make sure you remember them. Look through your interaction histories before reaching out to ensure this never happens to you.

Rule 2: Let Influencers Take the Creative Lead

Our Explore query found that, over the past year, there have been about 22 social media mentions a day about influencing and creating content for brands. One of the most engaged-with pieces of content is one influencer’s YouTube video about the things brands do that annoy him most. The most relevant section for brands explains how excessive content guidelines and micromanaging stunt his creativity and result in unsuccessful posts or campaigns. It’s a great point. The main reason brands choose influencers in the first place is because they like the creativity of their content. 

Things Brands Do That Annoy Me PT2 😅

If you hire an influencer or content creator but take away their creative license, they can’t deliver the kind of work that they know gets results. On the other hand, when brands trust creatives they can create something beyond what your brand’s marketing team could imagine. Offering examples and light direction is fine, but ultimately you should only work with influencers whose creativity you’re willing to trust.

Another top-performing #influencerproblems video, by the same creator as the above TikTok, makes fun of brands that go silent only to resurface demanding deliverables with an overnight turnaround. Doing this is a surefire way to ruin any potential, long-term partnerships. Avoid this faux pas by staying in regular communication with your marketing partners, even if it’s just a heads up that you’re waiting on more information. Staying in sync this way pays off down the line with top-notch deliverables and positive experiences for all involved.

Mentions of influencer pay gaps have spiked numerous times since summer 2021. This is thanks to a combination of more influencers speaking out about their experiences, more media coverage of their stories, and more studies confirming that brands pay white content creators more than Black content creators. 

The issue has gained so much attention that, this spring, UK advertisers’ organization ISBA updated its Influencer Marketing Code of Conduct to include added guidelines on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Multiple major brands publicly committed to following the Code, which urges them to “recommit to the principle of equal pay for equal work – and to be allies in addressing the unacceptable pay gaps in influencer marketing.” As more influencers continue to call for pay transparency, this conversation will only grow. Stay ahead of the curve and do right by your marketing partners by making sure you are compensating them fairly.

Influencer marketing is a great way to grow your customer base and tap into new audiences, but it does take some time and intentionality to get right. Follow these four rules and watch as your influencer marketing outputs yield higher ROIs. 

With tools like Meltwater's influencer marketing solution you can confidently scout, vet, and collaborate with influencers without overlooking crucial details. Schedule a demo to learn more about how Meltwater solutions can help you become a brand that influencers jump to work with.

4 Rules of Engagement for Influencer Marketing

Back-to-school season is all about preparing for the school year ahead. This is just as true for students, teachers, and parents as it is for marketers and brands. The final weeks of summer are when the conversations and trends that will take over the rest of the school year come to the forefront.

From social media posts to message board comments, consumers flood the internet with their concerns, desires, and preferences for the coming academic year.

This year, we used our social listening platform Explore to understand the top trends and topics currently on the back-to-school audience's mind. Our query, looked at mentions of “back to school,” “return to school,” #backtoschool, and #backtoschool2022 from June 1, 2022, to August 30, 2022. As a result of analyzing English-language keyword mentions during the North American summer and back-to-school months, the majority of results came from U.S.-based internet users, followed by those in Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Want to know what this year’s back-to-school season looked like? Check out our 2023 back-to-school conversation blog all about it!

Just as in 2021, #backtoschool was the top hashtag used in this year’s back-to-school online conversations. However, a new hashtag made it into the top three: #clearthelist. Educators have long used this tag to help them get donations to stock their classrooms with necessary supplies. But it and others, like #adoptateacher, are more popular now that others, like #covid19, have slipped out of the top 20 hashtags in this conversation. 

On Twitter, the author with the farthest-reaching, back-to-school content was NASA. Two of their Tweets sharing free lesson plans and other classroom resources reached more than 60 million people each. Aid and support to teachers — material as well as moral — will likely be a continuing talking point throughout the school year. 

For parents and educators, safety is always top-of-mind as a new school year begins. In the United States, COVID-19-related issues like mask mandates are still top concerns, but our Explore query shows that social and traditional media mentions of school shootings and gun violence in this year’s back-to-school conversations were up nearly 550% compared to last year. This increase is directly related to the tragic Uvalde school shooting that occurred at the end of the previous school year. Marketers in conversation with U.S.-based audiences need to remain cognizant of — and sensitive to — issues of gun violence and safety in schools.

Every back-to-school season buzzes with the possibilities of what’s to come. That’s what makes it so exciting. Social listening isn’t a crystal ball, but it does offer marketers the data they need to plan for the months ahead. Don’t get stuck in last year’s trends; stay on top of what matters to your customers right now with Explore, our social listening platform. Schedule a quick demo today to see what it can do for you.

What 2022 Back-to-School Trends Say about the Year Ahead

TikTok has become a leading player among short-form video social apps since its inception in 2017. With over a billion global users, the app quickly became the darling of Gen Z. What began as a place to share 15-second, user-generated videos, often focused on people dancing, singing, talking, or lip-synching to various movement and audio trends, has emerged as a powerhouse in influencer marketing, creativity, branded challenges, and advertising.  

The app’s downloads in 2019 surpassed Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat. By January 2020, users in their teens accounted for 37.2% of TikTok's active user accounts in the U.S. People aged 20 to 29 years were the second-largest user group. 

The demographics are shifting though. As of January 2022, the teen percentage has actually dropped to 25% — a fairly significant decrease from 37%. The 20 to 29 cohort is still the second-largest at 22%, followed closely by 30 to 39 age group at 21%. So safe to say the widening user base provides way more opportunity for brands to get in front of their target audiences. 

With this in mind, marketers looking to reach a younger audience can no longer afford to ignore the marketing opportunities that TikTok provides. 

Launched by Chinese-owned company ByteDance, TikTok is a video creation, discovery, and sharing platform. Content has since evolved to include viral videos, user-generated content (UGC), TikTok challenges, inspirational content, behind-the-scenes footage, and more. Creators have access to ready-made tools that add music, animations, original sound effects, and other features to the videos. 

Using the TikTok Creator Fund, anyone can be a creator. And unlike other social media apps, users’ feeds aren’t limited to just their friends or brands they’ve engaged with. The recommendation system is truly a place for discovery, and users never know what they’ll see next.

The platform is also increasingly being used by brands and celebrities to cross-promote their content and reach new audiences. It's a hot spot for influencer marketing and user-generated content, both of which are helping small businesses to grow their brand awareness affordably.

Also worth noting: Don't confuse TikTok with Douyin, another app in China made by the same company. Douyin is considered the international version of TikTok, but the two are separate apps and platforms.

TikTok videos (L to R): cute pets, challenges, dances, and effects

To date, TikTok has been downloaded from the App store more than 2.6 billion times worldwide and boasts more than 1 billion monthly active users.

TikTok’s massive success comes from a combination of...

The ease of use in sharing content with others, even outside of the platform.

Perhaps TikTok’s main selling point is its well curated "For You Page" (fyp in TikTok lingo) of short-form videos. Social media users are no stranger to this format. Vine, for one, arguably popularized these types of posts. 6-second Vines turned everyday people into overnight sensations and populated the meme community with fresh viral content.  

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