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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

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.

As the lines between communication platforms began blurring, it seemed more efficient to go straight to social media. Maybe it was because early adopters/influencers were getting better service in less time, while regular consumers felt left out. (Everyone wants customer service right away.) What had seemed like a luxury of the few, started looking attainable to more and more consumers who saw the power of complaining on public channels.

Tip: Take a look at these social media customer service examples to get inspired.

The first time Comcast was mentioned on Twitter, it was in the form of a complaint about waiting in line.

To address complaints that were organically appearing on the platform, their marketing/ PR team set up @ComcastCares in March 2008. Making them an early corporate adopter with a dedicated service channel. (Contrast that with the launch date of November 2009 for the brand account, @Comcast.)

Comcast pioneered acknowledging a complaint and asking if it can be moved to 1:1 interactions via direct messages. This practice was enabled by X/Twitter, which added direct messaging and separating out public @ replies. Comcast illustrates how customer service is often built into an identity of a brand. 

ComcastCares on Twitter: "I'll be happy to check on the status of your services. Please send a DM with your full name, name on the account (if different), and account number so I can look into your concerns. Thanks! -KW… https://t.co/QU3XF52lIh"

@SFBART social media (Facebook, X/Twitter, and forums) sentiment according to Meltwater media intelligence platform, Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2016.

Creating a groundswell of positive kudos on social media can feel impossible for marketing and PR pros in today’s climate. It might feel like all you can do is try to keep the crises at bay. 

But, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system found unexpected acceptance by doing away with auto-responses on X/Twitter, and instead opted for a frank conversational tone. It happened on March 16, 2016, during the evening commute, in response to a complaint about massive delays. An electrical issue took out a portion of track and required the system to borrow buses. 

In the moment, the cause behind the delays had not been shared. Christopher Chappel (@shakatron, now private) may have thought he was yelling into the void with this tweet:

But instead, he received a very thoughtful, very human response. Riders and social media reacted with excitement. Suddenly it became a BART system AMA (Ask Me Anything) as questions, thoughtful answers, and opinions were lobbied back and forth.

SFBART on Twitter: "@shakatron BART was built to transport far fewer people, and much of our system has reached the end of its useful life. This is our reality."

On that night, BART social media history was being made. Prior to this evening, the transportation system’s Twitter account was automated and didn’t directly interact with customers, let alone discuss the challenges of the system’s infrastructure. Later, articles proposed that the exchange(s) were the result of a social media manager "going rogue”.

Emily Wood on Twitter: "@SFBART and tbh part of my comment was admiring. Rare for orgs to keep it real. (also am a loyal rider)"

SFBART on Twitter: "@Thecommich Platitudes don't work. Government must communicate clearly about its shortcomings so democracy can work toward fixing them."

Turns out this new frank tone signaled a change in how the comms team would approach their Twitter interactions with the public. And while the thumbs behind @SFBART that evening decided to take his commute elsewhere, the humanity behind the account is still in place. The team, managed by Alicia Trost, still helps individual users, broadcasts community wins, interacts with other transport agencies, and even apologizes for problems on the system.

There is no way to avoid dealing with customer service issues or complaints on X, formerly known as Twitter. To protect your brand, it’s essential to keep up on the platform to make sure you're utilizing all the features they offer to streamline processes and ensure customer queries don't get ignored.

If you’re new to dealing with customer service on Twitter, learn from the examples above and make sure you have a system in place to see all incoming mentions, such as using a social listening platform like Meltwater. Interested in seeing it in action? Fill out the form below to schedule a 15-minute demo!

Modern Customer Service on Twitter Is Also PR

The global pandemic undoubtedly excelled its exponential growth but social commerce as a buying channel is showing no signs of slowing in a post-pandemic world. In fact, the social commerce retail industry is expected to reach $79b by 2025.

What does this mean for businesses? Well, quite simply, the opportunity is huge and growing, social media has become so much more than just a place to connect with friends.

Social media has become a place of discovery for its users. People can learn about new products, services, and brands. They can get direct feedback from others about their experiences, and read and leave reviews, all in the same space. Many social networks have also made it possible to purchase items directly within the platforms.

With less friction throughout the buying process, it’s no surprise that more customers are hopping on the social commerce trend. Fewer clicks give customers fewer drop-out points across the customer journey, fewer reasons to abandon their carts, and more opportunities to complete a purchase.

That's why you should include social commerce into your social media marketing efforts.

Social Commerce Tips: How To Get started on Your Social Commerce Strategy

Let's start with a social commerce definition:

We define social commerce as the intentional act of selling products or services on social media. The entire shopping experience — from discovery and research to purchase — takes place on social media, not your own website.

Social commerce is different from social shopping and live shopping. While online shopping /social shopping is a collaboration of online shoppers networking with one another, social commerce makes online vendors part of the conversations.

Now, more than a decade after the launch of Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest, then the subsequent appearance of Snapchat, social media has become central to the customer shopping experience online from discovery all the way to purchase.

Additional studies suggest that 8 in 10 businesses are considering selling on social media within the next three years. This creates a classic FOMO (fear of missing out) scenario, where not doing something your competitors are doing allows them to take all the glory and leave you on the sidelines. 

Social commerce is for everyone - whether you're a small business, direct-to-consumer, or a multi-million dollar enterprise, it can help you create an online-only social experience for your audience and potential customers.

But apart from FOMO, why should brands and marketing teams invest in social commerce? Put simply, it's one of the most effective ways of generating direct ROI from Social Media. Social commerce also makes sense from a numbers perspective. As marketers, we’re all about tracking KPIs and metrics that show us where we’re moving the needle. Adding social commerce to the marketing mix creates another way to boost those social media metrics, from impressions to conversions, to engagement data, and more.

Naturally, you want to go where your customers already are - it’s becoming harder to get noticed online and cut through the noise. But when you can connect with customers in places they already know and trust — and make it easy to buy from you — a big part of the battle is already won.

There’s more than one way to approach social commerce, especially since there’s more than one platform to support it. Let’s look at how brands are using social commerce in practice.

2. Using User-Generated Content for Social Commerce

3. Influencer Marketing Cooperations to boost Social Commerce

As with other types of social content, brands can create posts with the goal of direct purchases. These take the form of Shoppable Posts (organic) and Shoppable Ads (paid), both of which allow users to check out within the social media app.  

Organic posts appear on your brand’s page and are displayed to your followers. In turn, your followers may share that content with their own audience, helping you to get more eyes on your posts. You can pay to promote your shoppable content, too. Paid promotions allow you to reach a wider audience faster, and target your offers to people who are most likely to be interested in your products. 

User-generated content (UGC) makes a powerful statement. It’s pure flattery for brands, as it means that your customers love you enough to create their own content starring you! It also shows they’re willing to recommend you to others — another testament that you’re doing something right.

UGC can help you get more recognition and more sales on social media. For example, a customer might post a photo of the new outfit they bought from you or a video of them using your product. When their audience sees it, you gain instant credibility and visibility.

The big question is - how do you keep on top of user-generated content? Our favourite approach is to use a social listening solution for identifying UGC. Meltwater’s Social Listening platform helps you capture these mentions and turn them into marketing opportunities. Get a free tour today.

Its also a good idea to keep an eye on the creators of user-generated content, especially if they are raving about your product, these people are almost raising their hand to become brand ambassadors. These are great people to seek out and start building your community by utilising their influence.

It wouldn’t be a conversation about social commerce if we didn’t touch on one of the biggest accelerators of the distribution of content to a buying audience. Influencers. 

But how much of a role do influencers play in actually getting your audience to take action and BUY your product? 

A slice of the UGC pie, influencer marketing relies on the followers of social media influencers to expose your products to more people.

Instead of creating your own shoppable posts, influencers create content on your behalf. They use the products you specify, then promote them to their followers with the goal of immediate sales.

More than 9 in 10 consumers say they trust influencers more than traditional advertisements or celebrity endorsements. They appear more authentic and honest, plus they know the real problems and challenges their audience is facing - and can suggest better solutions. Since most influencers are niche, they can better relate to a certain audience. What’s more, 33% of consumers use influencers when making buying decisions or asking for shopping recommendations! But before embarking on an influencer marketing strategy...

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