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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

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.

For brick and mortar businesses, a significant addition to Instagram is a searchable map experience. Now you can attract new customers through geo-targeted posts and tags from other users.

The above example shows how a search for the "Stranger Things Experience" in San Francisco shows up on the map, accompanied by posts tagged with that, while also showing you nearby businesses such as restaurants, stores, and theaters.

Lastly, an Instagram trend that may or may not have a big impact on businesses is the return of the chronological feed. It’s the kind of feature that users commonly grumble about not having, but when it becomes available don’t tend to actually care about that much. But it’s still an important aspect that brands should be aware of — that could make it easier to get in front of your key demographics rather than having to depend on the algorithm.

It will be fascinating to watch how Instagram continues to grow in the next year. We've surely not seen the last of Instagram Reels trends and new features, and Instagram Stories trends. This author is particularly interested to see if we'll be getting some new photos updates.

The Meltwater blog will be here to document it all! 

Curious how Meltwater can help you strengthen your Instagram marketing strategy and to stay on top of Instagram trends using Social Listening? Fill out the form below to schedule a 15-minute demo.

Current Instagram Trends to Watch

At Meltwater, no senior leader will turn down a call about sales training — that’s not always true across the SaaS industry. At some companies, it’s just a line item in the budget no one thinks much about. Here, we’re willing to invest in it because we want to see people develop, and that ties into the core of who we are as a company. 

Yes, we are a business serving a customer whom we want to help be successful. But we also subscribe to the belief that if you take care of your people, they’ll take care of your customers. Investment in sales training and personal development ensures a person can get as much as they can out of this opportunity, which in turn helps the company grow. I know because I’ve seen and experienced it first-hand.

I’m an old-schooler at Meltwater, having joined during the great financial crisis when it was much smaller than it is now. I looked at consulting firms and other organizations, but Meltwater was the place where I truly felt like I had the quickest path to leadership and where my voice would be heard. 

One convincing piece to it was that the then-Executive Director of the Americas actually took the time to do my interview; it wasn’t only with HR. He wanted to make sure that those who came on board truly had the investment and backing they needed to succeed. That really reinforced the company’s promise of focusing on making people our most important asset.

I started as an individual contributor and quickly moved into sales management roles. I found a lot of success thanks to the strong leadership team around me. And as the company continued to grow, I was always able to tap into an entrepreneurial side by raising my hand for the biggest challenges that the company had. After leading a traditional sales team across North America, my next role in sales management was to start our self-serve division, which scaled to a global division. 

It is very rewarding when you see things that you work on be adopted across the business. But it’s the people who I got to do it with — who put their heart and soul into it — that made it successful. That’s why a lot of them are running these functions now as the leaders. And to be fair, they’re probably doing a better job than I was! Today, I lead revenue operations and sales enablement globally for the organization. My teams cover many functions, one of which is sales training.

One great thing about Meltwater is that if you find problems and are willing to raise your hand to solve them, you get an opportunity to be entrepreneurial. People here are not so stuck in their ways; we’re more focused on how we as a group can do better. The advantage of that is if somebody comes up with an idea for improvement, people are very quick and willing to listen. 

That’s very true with our current sales training program. There are people in the business who have said, ‘Hey, this is something that we need’ and made very compelling cases as to why we should invest in it. What makes the Meltwater program stand out is that as you advance in your career and competence, we offer sales training that scales along with you. It’s also ever-evolving: As the company moves upmarket and the sale becomes more complex, we adapt our sales training program in order to make sure that we can meet the needs of the customer. 

One focus is around helping new hires ramp up by getting product knowledge, fundamental sales knowledge, and truly understanding how to best meet the customer’s needs. A lot of really amazing people — including Global Head of Education Kelly Bebenek, Education Senior Program Manager Marion Wallace, and Senior Manager of Education Cate Stratton and Sales Enablement Manager Robin Blampied — worked to develop a bespoke sales training for wherever people are in their career. As people complete each of the paths of the program, we graduate them on to the next level. It’s not just sales training for the new hire or a blanket sales training approach to the whole business. The program sets people up to be successful here, or in the future whenever they choose to pursue something new, as well. 

The sales training program really reflects the Meltwater value of enere — the Norwegian word for “number one” that is company shorthand for celebrating our wins while always striving to be a better version of ourselves. There are many teams working on training and personal development at Meltwater — including those led by VP of Leadership Development Keely Merritt and Global VP of Culture Zubair Timol. We’re always working collaboratively to figure out what each other is doing and how we can accelerate our sales and personal development training together. That also is indicative of the Meltwater culture of figuring out the best way to go together as a team and leaning on each others’ strengths.

It’s really special to see your colleagues and people on your teams do things that change the organization when they have conviction in their ideas and work to bring them to fruition. They pour their heart and soul into whatever the project is and get a return on it. That’s something that I think everybody wants: To know that their work matters and that someone is advocating for them behind closed doors. I feel lucky that a lot of people have advocated for my success. That’s something that I hope to always do as a leader for people from all kinds of backgrounds, because at Meltwater that’s exactly what many others gave to me. 

Why Sales Training Is a Winning Investment

South African fashion is conversational and ever-evolving, thanks to consumer preferences and global shifts. Worldwide, we’ve been seeing an ongoing interest in the innovative use of sustainable and eco-friendly materials, while in South Africa, there is an additional trend towards locally produced clothing and bold African-storytelling designs.

Local South African fashion moguls create or promote these trends, using their influence on social media platforms to bolster their fashion-forward viewpoints and convert hundreds of thousands (sometimes even millions) of followers into trend-following fashionistas.

This means that South African fashion influencers on Instagram and other social media channels offer one of the most effective ways to gain credibility for your South African brand.

Using our social influencer platform, we've picked 5 of the top fashion influencers in South Africa (in no particular order) for you to check out and, of course, to follow:

Reading tips: Here's our list of the top global fashion influencers and the top fashion influencers in Singapore. Take a look at the top global beauty influencers, and the top South African beauty influencers to inspire your brand and learn more about Consumer Insights for Fashion. We also have a blog about the media landscape in South Africa and detailed South African social media statistics for you.

With over 1,9 million total fans across all channels, Kefilwe Mabote is one of South Africa’s biggest fashion influencers, best known for her luxury lifestyle.

Her posts on beauty, fashion, and her day-to-day lifestyle, which most South Africans aspire to, are what keep followers enticed. She is continually redefining herself, has written an autobiography, starred on TV in Savage Beauty and Smart Money Women, and is also a developer. She’s hard not to love, and her large following and high engagement rate, and influence is the proof.

This ‘skinny girl, fat dreams’ influencer has over 137K followers across channels. She is one of South Africa’s biggest influencers in the modest fashion space, with her husband being her manager and photographer.

Beautiful clothing and makeup, quirky captions, and top-notch photography keep wannabe fashionistas following Nabilah for inspiration. 

Rich Mnisi has been referred to as one of South Africa’s most beautiful men as well as one of South Africa’s top male influencers.

With a total fan base of 266K, Rich is the founder of the South African-based contemporary multi-disciplinary fashion brand named after himself.

He is known for his gender-fluid fashion, with his fashion brand rooted in his South African heritage.

 60% of his audience is from South Africa

Thuli Mola is a South African fashion influencer known for her focus on modern vintage clothing and passion for women's wear.

Thuli is the founder and creative director for the fashion brand STYLE ALERTSA. She has also launched Style Masterclasses to address the fashion-conscious and women who want to dress in a befitting manner.

Thuli Mola is a great example of how fashion brands can successfully use social media.

Nadia Jaftha is been crowned the Queen of content at the latest DStv Content creator awards. She took home three awards, including the DStv Content Creator of the Year Award.

Nadia is known for her funny and oh-so-relatable content as a South African female, with a focus on fashion and her daily life. 

42.6K engagement/post* (excluding YouTube)

* A true reach: The Klear True Reach technology uses machine learning to predict the number of real views an influencer gets per post. 

* Influence score: Klear's 1-100 score represents how influential the influencer is on social networks. It is calculated by machine learning algorithms that take into account thousands of features such as engagements, audience demographics and skills.

Tip: Are you looking for the right influencers to partner with? Check out the top South African Instagram Influencers, the top South African TikTokers, the top sports & fitness influencers on a global scale, and this list of the top South African fitness & sports influencers.

How Meltwater Can Help You Optimise Your South African Influencer Marketing Strategy

If you love these influencers as much as we do, why not work with them? Working with local content creators can supercharge your marketing; exposing your company to large networks of people who can discover you on social channels.

Sponsoring content and social postings with people who influence your target audience is a great way to attract and engage consumers who might not know about you or don’t respond to industry advertising.

Developing partnerships with the right social influencers can continue to deliver returns for your influencer marketing initiatives for years to come. We recently launched a report highlighting the top trends in influencer marketing to help solidify your influencer marketing strategy.

To find the trending South African Fashion influencers to work with your brand, get in touch with us at Meltwater Africa by filling out the form below to learn more about how the Meltwater Social Influencer Marketing Platform can find the best South African social influencers to drive engagement and deliver a great ROI.

List Of The Top South African Fashion Influencers

There's no denying it: an unhappy customer's Tweet is the "Can I speak to your manager" of the digital age. And while this might fill a poor social media managers heart with dread, using X, formerly known as Twitter, for customer service should be seen as an opportunity rather than a burden.

After all, this is not only your chance to speak directly to that customer and provide solutions (with the added benefit of being able to control and verify your message before answering), it also means that other customers and potential customers can see how you interact with your consumer base. In that sense, companies using X/Twitter for customer service can also be considered PR.

We've complied some of the best examples of customer service on X/Twitter to illustrate how you can use this platform to help solve customer issues and build respect as a brand.

Tactics For Finding and Resolving Customer Complaints on Twitter

Things to Keep in Mind for Effective Customer Service on Twitter 

4 Excellent Examples of Companies Using Twitter for Customer Service

Early Trendsetters in Twitter Customer Service

There are a few different ways you can choose to find and respond to customer complaints on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Many businesses create a separate profile specifically designed for offering support and fielding complaints. This is useful in that it means you can separate mentions of your primary account from those that you know are likely asking for assistance, which can help for reporting as well as making sure you don't miss these mentions. 

Whether you decide to establish a separate Twitter account for customer support or not, it is highly recommended to use a social monitoring tool to track when your brand is being mentioned. Remember that while most X/Twitter users asking for the manager, ahem, going to Twitter for complaints, will be savvy enough to tag you, some may not. 

So setting up a more sophisticated monitoring system that can flag specific keywords and queries will help you stay on top of things and ensure timely responses. Meltwater social listening pulls all your mentions into a shared inbox as well, which means you don't have to go natively through Twitter to respond to every @.

In addition to tracking your brand name, you could also track competitor handles and industry buzzwords. This helps avoid potential crises, but also helps brands find unique opportunities to take advantage of other companies customer service inquires.  

Every brand will have their own approach to using X/Twitter to answer customer complaints and questions, but here are a few tips to keep in mind as you get started:

An @ is still an @, regardless of follower count

Customer service isn't just about putting out fires

First and foremost, being timely with your response is key to starting off on the right foot. Even if you don't have all the answers right away, it's important to let the customer know (and those who may be lurking on the conversation) that you care about their issue and are invested in helping them resolve it. 

There is a fine line between being personable and appearing flippant when it comes to customer service in general, but especially through written text where certain inflections and facial expressions aren't available, so you do have to be careful with how you phrase your customer responses on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Assess the customers' tone and state of mind and the severity of their issue to see if injecting any humor or levity into your response will help ease tension, or make it worse. In every case, you should offer a solution or an actionable next step so they feel progress being made.

Tip: While being personable is effective, don't think that every single response needs to be original. Oftentimes directing customers to send you a DM with additional info is the best next step, and there's only so many ways to phrase that. 

While you may want to prioritize customer complaints based on reach, to stem the flow of a potential crisis, this does not mean you should let an @ from someone with no following fall by the wayside. 

If you start to see a trend in the kinds of issues your customers are running into, it's a good idea to compile these into an "FAQ" blog post or landing page that you can address users to. 

You should also have a doc of common responses you've used, tracking which ones have been most effective so you can speed up your response time to these questions.

When you conduct customer service online in a public forum like X/Twitter, it can sometimes seem like all your dealing with is trolls or people who feel extra-empowered being behind their computer screens. 

This is all the more reason that you shouldn't ignore positive comments! Responding to these unprompted compliments, recommendations, and other forms of UGC creates positive reinforcement, especially if you have a strongly developed brand personality. 

You don't even have to offer a gift each time, like shoe company Rothy's, who went the extra mile for this happy customer:

Just acknowledging that you or one of your employees made someone's day can be enough:

When you establish a pattern of replying, it encourages others to do the same and that's a self-fulfilling prophecy of establishing your online presence and brand awareness.

These companies take their customers' outreach on X/Twitter seriously (sometimes with a sense of humor) and work quickly to resolve the issues.

Nike has frequently been featured on lists of great examples of brands on X, formerly known as Twitter. Part of this comes from them having a solid understanding of their customer and their customer's needs, desires, and product use cases, whether it's living up to a pristine new shoe:

Or helping a mother of a quickly growing boy find the right size!

Nike does an exemplary job of addressing customer questions and complaints in a quick, professional, but non-robotic manner. While they do respond to customer inquiries from their primary corporate account they also have a specific support Twitter profile set up: @NikeService, which they also use for customer-specific announcements such as site issues and product availability.  

Twitter is one of the best platforms for Airlines to keep their customers in the loop on delays, gate changes, and other common headaches that arise in air travel. Even if airline customer service is not industry-consistent, consumers are now primed to request and importantly, receive, help before, during, and after their travels via social platforms.

Southwest Airlines is one of the best. While the airline has traditionally been known for good customer service, being on Twitter has only added to this brand perception and brand credibility.

They freely use the enhanced customer service features, such as the Send a Private Message link, making it easier to immediately help individuals with their travel arrangements:

They're also top tier when it comes to interacting with their customers and going above and beyond to provide excellent service, like in this case:

On X/Twitter at least, Southwest is showing other airlines—let alone other brands—how to endear themselves to followers. And with 2.19 million followers, they can broadcast flash sales, announce corporate social responsibility initiatives, and other important information, all while still helping customers with individual flights.

Dominos does an excellent job interacting with their customer base, always sticking to their conversational, caring, sometimes humorous tone. 

They do take advantage of using the same canned responses, likely assisted by a bot, however, the copy is still designed to offer immediate action toward a solution, via their DM system. 

Dominos has also used Meltwater to improve their social media strategy! Check out their customer story for more.

Charmin has a strong brand to begin with, leaning into the basic human need for toilet paper with levity, frankness, a great sense of humor, and of course their recognizable mascots. On Twitter, Charmin uses this reputation in their customer service, maintaining a cutesy tone, and utilizing several emojis as part of their online brand personality.

They even take a somewhat daring approach using the peach emoji like in responses like this and others:

Charmin takes customer service seriously, making sure their customers feel seen, heard, and taken care of. As a brand with a niche, needs-based product, they've carved out a unique space on X/Twitter for communicating with their audience. 

Early Trendsetters in Twitter Customer Service for Brands

These early adopters of customer service on X/Twitter were trendsetters, helping create the broader culture of brands responding to customers on the platform:

Heather B. Armstrong on Twitter: "RIP: OUR BRAND NEW MAYTAG WASHING MACHINE."

Back in 2009, well-known blogging influencer, Heather Armstrong, was pulling out her hair trying to get replacement parts for a $1,300 Maytag washer and asked a telephone service rep if it would help if she mentioned her woes on Twitter? Despite an assurance that it wouldn’t, she decided to broadcast her frustration to her 1 million followers anyways.

Heather B. Armstrong on Twitter: "That brand new washing machine from MAYTAG? That someone has been out to fix three times? STILL BROKEN. DO NOT BUY MAYTAG."

Soon a Whirlpool VP (Maytag’s parent company) was on the phone, ordering her a new repairman and the next day, her washer was back in working order - anything to avoid tarnishing brand perception! Maytag (and Whirlpool) learned a quick lesson that day; influencers have an engaged audience.

A new approach to getting social media customer service began to quickly take shape after this. It still began traditionally: emailing or calling the company to try to get a resolution. If you didn't received customer service within 24 hours, call them out on Yelp, Twitter, or via Facebook.

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