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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

Marketing teams are central to business success. They are tasked with everything from building awareness of your brand, promoting products or services, and providing customer service and engagement in public forums. But with the changing face of marketing, today’s team looks very different from the teams of 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. As you build your team, make sure to read our ebook on implementing consistent KPIs—so you can justify the budget spent on your hires and campaigns.

With the fast-paced evolution of modern marketing, your team needs the talent and knowledge to keep up. Could your current team members be lacking in must-have modern marketing skills?

For the purposes of this article, let’s focus on the marketing needs of mid-market companies (those with annual revenue anywhere between $10 million and $1 billion). 

Certain businesses may choose to combine or rearrange some of the following positions. But to best prepare your company’s marketing team for success you’ll need staff who can fulfill the following roles. 

Think of this person as part of the core of your marketing strategy. They’re tasked with data gathering and analysis, and they provide insights on current marketing strategy performance, vital for the modern marketing team.

Check out the ultimate guide to data management.

“Historically, marketing has always been a mix of art and science, and the 2020 marketing team has a more modern way of leveraging the ‘science,’ says Fortune 500 Product Marketing Executive Anndrea Moore.

Data scientists also play the important role of using data to identify strategies to improve marketing effectiveness, communicating with the entire team for maximized impact. 

Learn more about how data driven marketing works.

SEO (search engine optimization) is an essential component in marketing, and it's incredibly multi-faceted.  

An SEO strategist does more than just SEO analysis. They also develop inbound and digital marketing strategies as they relate to SEO.In the era of AI, they are also responsible to leverage AI for SEO and make things easier and faster. The person in this role works closely with the data analyst, content marketer, and PR pros on your team. They may also work in tandem with UX designers and web developers to ensure your site content remains SEO optimized during redesigns or other website changes. 

This person needs to be versatile and comfortable working across multiple channels, like blog writing, video marketing, social media, and podcasts. They facilitate, manage, and create the content that represents your brand both on your site and posted elsewhere — such as in guest posts or on social media. 

Your content marketer will collaborate with multiple other team-members, but likely their most consistent partners will be in SEO and design.

See top content marketing trends to watch this year.

Strong design and visual brand cohesion help bring your marketing messages to the next level. A talented visual designer will handle everything from creating ad layouts and social media graphics, to large scale projects such as expo banners, webinar slides, and ebooks.

If you're lucky you'll find a designer who is also adept at video editing, but given how important video is becoming in modern marketing, it might be a good idea to add a video marketer to your team as it's own separate role.   

Tech is the way of the modern business world! Don't get caught on your back foot without adding a savvy tech expert to you marketing team. This is someone who can write code, manage website hosting, and oversee website maintenance and marketing funnel optimization. 

Your PR person will handle brand management, as well as the public perception of your brand. This role works closely with all marketing team members to establish consistency in the brand image across all platforms. 

Learn more about using social media for PR.

Remember that these roles don’t all have to be in-house. Depending on your budget and needs, you may want to hire freelance or remote workers for some of these roles.

Rapid changes in marketing, and the technology now available to help make key marketing decisions, means you need a talented, cutting-edge team. Modern marketing brings countless opportunities for customer acquisition and retention. 

Chatbots, video marketing, and data-driven personalization are major marketing trends right now, and they give you the chance to strategically position your company. Equip your business with a team that can take advantage of new and evolving marketing trends. It’ll help your business stand out from all the noise and truly engage with your target audience. 

As you build or change up your team, keep in mind some top marketing areas that you should be focusing on: 

The focus of marketing is shifting, and there’s increased value placed on providing a quality customer experience. This means your team will need to have attentive awareness of what your customers and audience want in terms of brand engagement, the tone of your marketing copy, and the types of offers that hit their inbox. With improved customer experience through marketing, you can build brand awareness and loyalty in your audience. 

2. Numbers, patterns, and trends (aka data)

Our increased ability to gather detailed data on customers and audiences allows for greater marketing personalization. This may mean targeting specific ads to specific audiences, altering marketing messages and delivery forms according to past customers’ purchasing habits, and an increased awareness of pain points based on an audience’s spending habits. Data-driven marketing is closely linked to customer experience marketing. Data can be a powerful tool, but it’s only as good as your team’s efforts to ensure you’re collecting and using data to your advantage effectively. 

AI and automation are streamlining marketing while also making for more engaging interactions with audiences. For instance, chatbots can now provide prompt responses and even some customer service during times when a response from a team member isn’t possible. 

AI can also improve website performance. By monitoring customers’ actions in real time, AI can make personalized recommendations and even help to identify which customers may be more likely to purchase certain products or upper-level service packages. 

Modern marketing advances offer nearly endless potential whether you’re building a brand, unrolling a new product, or looking to increase customer retention, but you need a team who understands how to use these tools to their full advantage. By taking the time to build a modern marketing team, you can keep up with evolving opportunities and fully use these new technologies and trends to your benefit.

Curious how Meltwater can help take your marketing team to the next level? Request a 15 minute demo to find out!

6 Essential Roles of the Modern Marketing Team

Today's marketing and PR pros are well-versed in video production, and the importance of video as a content marketing medium. However the ante has been upped once again with more and more social platforms introducing livestreaming capabilities and features. So, savvy marketing professionals will need to start building livestreaming skills in order to stay ahead of the curve.

Why Should Brands Care About Livestreaming?

Example of Ways Brands Can Use Livestreaming

Live streaming is a great way to interact with your audience. More and more brands and influencers are using this medium to host demos, presentations, press conferences, and more. Often live streams are used in the entertainment industry to announce release dates for new TV seasons or movie premieres. 

When HBO announced the air date for Game of Thrones season 7, via Facebook Live, the stream attracted around 3.5 million viewers! 

(Just make sure your streamer knows how to use in-app live streaming. Mark Ruffalo famously live-streamed the first 20 minutes of Thor Ragnarok by accident at the films 2017 premiere). 

Through live streaming, marketers can do a better job at capturing the attention of today's traditionally "short attention span" consumer. In fact, according to IBM, "consumers watch live video 10–20 times longer than on-demand content". Couple that with the fact that "82% of viewers say they prefer seeing a live stream rather than a brand’s social posts" and it's easy to see why sites like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter are incorporating live streaming functionality, and why marketers should be taking advantage.

Not sure where to start? These live streaming ideas and goals can help you unlock your marketing creativity when it comes to social media live streaming:

Hop on a livestream to announce new product releases. You could boost conversions by offering special discounts or prizes to the first 100 people who join the stream, or use it as an opportunity to answer customer questions. When audiences can comment and interact, with each other and their favorite brands in real-time, it heightens excitement and brings them closer to the brand.

Live Q&A sessions can help you show that your brand is authentic, transparent, and therefore, trustworthy; all of which are vital ingredients of a successful marketing strategy. Q&A sessions pave the way for great customer service through problem solving, especially as many social livestreaming functions have an on-demand feature — meaning viewers can go back to the video later for reference. 

Live Q&A sessions can also help cut costs by freeing up manpower and allowing brands to address FAQ to a crowd of viewers rather than individuals; similar to how using Twitter for customer service can provide answers in a public forum, for those customers who are following the conversation, but not necessarily participating.

One common way companies and organizations use livestreams is to run a charity event. These livestreams are designed to raise money for a particular cause, and often run for several hours. YouTube and Twitch are popular social platforms for running a charity livestream. 

Some can even be ongoing, such as this Monterey Bay Aquarium live jellyfish cam. 

Live Jelly Cam - Monterey Bay Aquarium

The livestream is designed as a fundraiser - on the right side of the video there's a standing "Donate" button that viewers can use to support the aquarium, complete with the current amount raised.

If a picture says a thousand words, a video must say a million. Written messages can easily become lost in translation, causing damage to our brand. Video messaging offers brands the chance to better articulate their messages and build context through emotion, so our audience can connect with us more directly.

Influencer Partnerships & Thought Leadership

Collaborating with others who are in a similar industry is a great way to boost brand awareness and reach. Inviting guests to join you on your livestream not only helps with promotion, it helps keep your stream lively and dynamic, rather than a single person as a talking head. For collabs like this, LinkedIn Lives would be a great medium, since you're getting in front of a more professional and business-minded following.

Consider Q&As, AMAs, or panel discussions with industry experts and influencers.

Meltwater's social influencers tool can help you discover relevant people to connect with. Users are able to search through over 500 million profiles in 60,000 different categories, no matter the niche! The tool analyzes and locates influences on various platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Youtube in one go.

Interested? Get in touch by filling out the form below!

Tip: Learn more about the best influencer marketing platforms and influencer management tools on the market.

Ready to get started with your first social media livestream? Here's a few tips to keep in mind:

Even though livestreams do have a more "off-the-cuff" nature — that's part of their charm —  it's still important to have a loose structure for what you'd like to cover. 

Some ideas for selecting a topic for your live stream:

Look at what content has resonated in the past

Google Analytics can help to uncover what content is resonating on your website. If you have a blog or resources page, have a look at what posts receive the most traffic. Also, look at what posts received lots of shares on social media. 

These topics are likely to generate interest as they have done in the past!

You can also, check out your competitors content for inspiration.

Look at trending topics in your industry 

Find out the kinds of topics that are generating interest in your industry by using data-driven insights found through a social media monitoring tool. Social media monitoring tools allow users to track both qualitative and quantitative data points such as audience engagement, demographics, topic trends and whether something is receiving positive or negative responses.

Like we mentioned, it's a good idea to have a plan in place to structure how you want to run the live stream. However, you should be ready to ditch the plan to meet the needs of your audience. If you planned to discuss a particular topic but your audience is asking questions outside the topic, you should be ready to respond and adapt to this. 

Remember that today's consumer loves authenticity, so going with the flow of the conversation and showing flexibility as opposed to following a rigid script during your livestreams can go a long way toward endearing yourself to your audience.

If you’re collaborating with another person, consider creating an agenda with a few questions/talking points as a way to keep the conversation flowing.

One of the great things about livestreams is audience participation. Viewers can leave comments and questions in real time, and so it's good practice to incorporate responding to these in real time as well. 

You could also ask viewers to send in some questions ahead of the live stream, to encourage them to tune in on the day, as well as ensure your content is relevant.

Check your equipment and internet connectivity

Having technical difficulties won’t look professional and can lead to negative publicity. The time spent promoting and choosing a topic is wasted if our audience can’t watch without dealing with lags or glitches. We know that it can’t always be helped, but try and minimize background noise and ensure you have a clear image beforehand to avoid disappointing your community. If possible, do a test prior to the event.

Remember you don’t have to have high tech equipment to run a stream. Depending on your desired production quality, an iPhone has a good enough camera and microphone to produce a good quality live stream.

Like any marketing campaign, you need to take the time to analyze the data from your event. Analyzing the level of engagement during and after you stream can provide a good baseline for future events. 

Some livestream metrics you may want to consider include:

Lives allow for a more off-the-cuff, real, and authentic relationship to develop between brands and consumers, influencers and their audiences. They are a unique medium where viewers can communicate both with each other, as well as the hosts, cultivating a deeply loyal fan-base and community. Questions can be asked in real-time, certain incentives and gifts can be awarded and received, and products can even be purchased as live shopping becomes more common.

These are the leading live streaming platforms for live video in 2023 that PR and marketing pros should be aware of: 

Facebook Live began in 2015, as a "celebrity-only" option. Stars such as Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (one of the first adopters of Facebook Live) could use it to send messages to their fans, promote projects, and run campaigns. That's a far cry from the feature today, which allows anyone to go live on Facebook. You can choose between going live on a Profile, in Groups, Events and, if you’re a business or public figure, on Pages. Facebook Live works well for all devices. 

If you’re considering using Facebook Live, be sure you have the right tools to produce quality live videos, as 67% of viewers say quality is the most important factor when they choose to watch a livestream.

We reached 1Million Subscribers!

YouTube also offers their own live streaming option, which launched in 2011. Anyone can access this feature (though if you're streaming from a mobile device you do need 1,000 subscribers or more). YouTube Lives are a great live video option if you want to give your audience a different, perhaps more polished, kind of experience to an Instagram Live or Facebook Live. For example, YouTube Lives lend themselves to having more guests participating because they're designed to be shown in the YouTube video viewer, which is a traditional horizontal video, rather than a vertical video that might be shot on a phone.  

Viewers of YouTube streaming videos can participate in live conversations, and in some cases like the Cinema Therapy example shared above, users can offer monetary support for their favorite channels through comment section gamification features.

Like Instagram Live videos, YouTube Live videos can be saved as regular videos after the session has ended. This means people who weren't able to join live can watch at a later date.

YouTube Lives can also be up to 10 hours long which allows for more creative streaming topics and formats, such as what Team Starkid, the theater group behind the popular "A Very Potter Musical" series, did for their 10 year anniversary. 

Check out our blog to learn more about setting up a YouTube marketing strategy.

Although Twitter officially sunsetted its original live video feature, Periscope in early 2021, you can still go live on Twitter via their new version of live streaming: Twitter Spaces. Designed to look similar to Instagram Lives & Stories, Spaces follows the social audio trend, allowing for live audio recordings from an individual account, or a joint session between multiple accounts.

Anyone can join and listen in to a Space, and the host can Tweet out a link to let their followers know it's happening. Hosts can also invite guests to speak. Those listening in the audience can request to speak as well, which is a great way to encourage Q&A sessions. 

Can you view a Twitter Space after it ends?

Yes, but with a caveat. Currently, Twitter Spaces are only available for replay up to 30 days after they're broadcast.

Instagram started offering its live streaming service in 2016, and have definitely been among the more popular choices for public figures and brands. Instagram Lives live at the top of the apps home-feed page, at the front of the Stories line. Anyone can join a live on Instagram. 

You can stream live on Instagram for up to 4 hours.

LinkedIn was a bit later to the game when it comes to Live Video, launching their streaming service in 2019. Live videos on LinkedIn are similar to YouTube in that they're not exactly designed as phone-first. They may require better equipment, or at least better lighting if you're streaming through a computer camera, especially because they're geared toward the more business-minded, professional audience. This additional effort could end up paying huge dividends however, as LinkedIn Lives are a great medium for promoting your company, products, team and company culture. You could directly or indirectly attract talent, and put your company in a positive spotlight around various DE&I initiatives or employee perks. 

LinkedIn Lives can be up to 4 hours long.

No. Currently LinkedIn live streaming is only available to eligible pages and creators.

TikTok launched their live streaming feature in 2019. It's a similar set up, look and feel, to Instagram Live. Multiple guests can join, and creators set up an "Event" for TikTok users to register for. After a TikTok live is over, it's available for the creator to save and download, and they an also make it available for others to download and re-watch.

TikTok livestreams can be up to 60 minutes.

Unlike the other social platforms on this list, Twitch was specifically designed for live streaming. Their original core audience was gamers, carving out that niche which took off like wildfire. While the opportunities for brands on Twitch are relegated mostly to advertising and influencer partnerships, there are some brands and public figures who have managed to cultivate strong communities on the platform. Twitch streams are commonly reshared to YouTube playlists.

You can actually run a stream on Twitch for up to 48 hours.

Ultimate Guide to Livestreams for Brands

Is Instagram still worth investing in? Well, the short answer is yes. Instagram may be having a bit of an identity crisis as it tries to keep up with TikTok, but there’s no denying that it’s still a powerful social media platform to go to for building your online audience.

Throughout 2022 and going into 2023 there are a number of key Instagram trends that brands should be watching in order to get the most out of the platform in the coming months and years.

TikTok’s dominance clearly has Instagram shaken as they try to keep up with its popularity and features. Though Instagram risks losing its base — users have been vocal in 2022 about just how dissatisfied they are with some current Instagrams trends  — the the world of social media moves fast. If the below list of trends is any indication, Instagram still has some moves to play to maintain a powerful position with its loyal fans and new users alike.

Tip: Take a look at our TikTok-specific resources: What Is TikTok And How Did It Become So Successful?, What's trending on TikTok? And 54 TikTok Stats You Need To Know [2022].

Here are the biggest Instagram trends happening right now:

1. All Reels, All the Time: Instagram Reels Trends

2. The Pulse of Culture: Instagram Audio Trends

6. Cross promoting with other platforms 

While the rest of our list is in no particular order, there couldn’t possibly be anything else listed at #1. Perhaps the biggest and most impactful Instagram trend from this year, and certainly going into 2023 is the continued focus on Reels. 

Instagram has pushed Reels front and center as the primary content type favored by the algorithm, and this has definitely caused some disgruntled users. Many are lamenting for the early days of Instagram and its photo sharing roots:

But so far, Instagram seems reticent to listen, remaining full steam ahead on making Reels and video content their main focus. And on the one hand, by doubling down on short form video content, the app has developed a micro-culture, where Instagram Reels trends take on a life of their own. More on this below. And though the usability of creating Reels still lags, Instagram has made great strides toward improving the Reels creation flow. 

Tip: Read our blog to learn what Instagram Reels is all about and check out more Instagram statistics.

Collaborative Reels & expanded remixing options

Increased Reels maximum duration to 90 seconds

Templates to help you recreate popular trends

Achievement badges — gamification to encourage Reels creation

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

Like TikTok, Instagram Reels trends often start from trending audios, which are a great place to look for inspiration in your branded content. When an audio starts trending on Instagram, it often has a lot to say about cultural shifts, generational hopes, dreams, and nostalgia, pop culture phenomena, mental health mantras, and much more. 

For example, in response to Reels taking over the platform, this humorously defeatist tongue and cheek audio is often used by creators:

If you notice a trending audio that you’d like to use for your brand, the best piece of advice is: don’t wait! Trending Instagram audios have a way of disappearing in the blink of an eye, like memes, replaced instantly by the next trend.

The “old” sounds are still available of course, but using them after the trend has peaked will definitely be less impactful for views and engagements.

I mean, can you remember when Running Up That Hill was literally everywhere? Yeah, me neither.

Some popular audios that tend to be evergreen include Mr. Sandman, and this mashup of Abba and Britney Spears.

Instagram has made some significant changes to Instagram Stories which can be considered Instagram Story trends — some we’re thrilled about and some that have us scratching our heads a bit:

Links in Stories
Perhaps the most celebrated update has been the elimination of the “10,000 follower or more” rule in order to access a link sticker (what used to be the “swipe up” feature). Now anyone, regardless of follower count can include a link in their Instagram Stories. This is not-so-small change for businesses and micro-influencers on Instagram who now have more opportunities to provide links to other content such as blog posts, event signups, and other landing pages.

60 second snippet
This one we’re not so sure about yet. A recent Instagram update allows Story videos that are 60 seconds or less to be uploaded as a single piece, rather than split into the traditional 15 second snippets. This not only impacts granular engagement metrics like tap forwards and tap backs, but it’s also a lot to ask of users who are used to the tapping format of Stories to sit and watch a full minute.

Another Instagram trend to watch, of course, is the shopping experience. According to Sprout Social, 70% of people head to Instagram for purchases. And because of the popularity of Instagram for shopping and browsing products, Instagram has responded in kind, improving the ways that people can search for new products and complete transactions. 

Products can be linked from photos and even videos, meaning viewers and scrollers can learn more about things they see without a jarring jump from the app — great for influencers and brands alike. 

“Shoppable posts” like the one below from Sephora are indicated by a shopping bag symbol in the upper right corner:

Tip: Learn more about the social commerce trend in our blog post or download our social commerce ebook!

We mentioned this above briefly, but it’s worth expanding upon. One of the more interesting and impactful changes Instagram made to Reels has been the introduction of collaborative posts. Meaning that two creators can co-produce a Reel, each tagged in one line in the description.

This collaborative Reels style opens a lot of interesting doors for influencer marketing and brand partnerships.

In the below example, you can see “@ jimmy fallon and @ nick kroll” tagged together at the top of the Reel description.

6. Cross Promoting With Other Platforms 

Sharing between social platforms is also getting easier. Tweets can now be shared as Instagram Stories, which is a great way to subtly encourage people to follow you on Twitter, while breaking up your general Story content. You could also share popular memes from the Twittersphere to your Stories or grid:

You could also share influencer Tweets or industry Tweets and accompany them with an Instagram poll or other interactive element to increase engagement.

In a continued push to attract creators to the platform, Instagram is following a major trend among other platforms: offering a media kit option. Influencers can use it to streamline their brand partnerships, and find new opportunities. 

Officially called your “Creator Profile” this feature facilitates in-app profile sharing and promotion. A powerful way to cut out the middleman and simultaneously encourage users to continue creating Instagram content, rather than transitioning over to TikTok for example.

Marketers who want to tap into Instagram for influencer marketing will definitely want to keep this in mind in 2023. As recently as October 2022, AirBnB partnered with a number of influencers to promote their Hocus Pocus themed stay, in conjunction with the much-anticipated release of Hocus Pocus 2:

Tip: Learn how to build a successful influencer strategy for your brand.

The Meltwater Blog

6 Essential Roles of the Modern Marketing Team

Ultimate Guide to Livestreams for Brands

Current Instagram Trends to Watch

The CEO Echo | September 2022 Rankings | Categories: Communication, Social, Responsibility & Investor Excellence

Why Sales Training Is a Winning Investment

List Of The Top South African Fashion Influencers

Modern Customer Service on Twitter Is Also PR

What is Social Commerce? Definition, Examples, Tips

How To Use TikTok For Business

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