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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

The lines between public relations (PR) and marketing can become easily blurred, even by professionals in the industry. In today's world the objectives, goals, and even some tactics used by both PR and marketing teams may be closely related. 

To keep it simple, marketing is focused on driving sales and doing so by promoting products, services, or ideas on channels like social media. Public relations (PR) is more focused on the maintenance of a positive reputation of a company, brand, or person through the media. 

Download our Ultimate Guide to PR and read our blog about The Basics of Public Relations to discover how PR can act as a champion for the overall marketing strategy and why it is an important part of the communication process to drive business results.

Day-to-day Tactics in Public Relations and Marketing

PR, or Public Relations, is a strategic communication and marketing discipline that focuses on managing and shaping an organization's image and reputation in the eyes of the public, including customers, stakeholders, and the general public. PR is not advertising, but rather it involves creating and maintaining a positive public perception of a company, brand, or individual through various means, such as media coverage, community engagement, and other forms of communication.

Media Relations: Building relationships with journalists, bloggers, and other media professionals to secure media coverage that promotes the company or its products and services.

Crisis Management: Addressing and mitigating potential PR crises that could damage an organization's reputation, and managing the communication during such situations.

Content Creation: Developing and distributing press releases, articles, blog posts, and other content that showcases the company's expertise, achievements, and contributions.

Event Management: Organizing and promoting events, such as product launches, trade shows, and charity functions, to generate positive publicity and engage with key stakeholders.

Social Media Engagement: Leveraging social media platforms to interact with the audience, respond to inquiries, and share company news and updates.

Employee and Community Engagement: Engaging employees and the local community to foster a positive image and build strong relationships.

Influencer Marketing & Relations: Collaborating with influencers and thought leaders to promote products or services to their followers.

Publicity and Awards: Seeking industry recognition and awards to enhance the company's credibility with proper reputation management.

PR is an essential component of marketing because it can help build trust, credibility, and a positive image for a brand, ultimately influencing consumer perceptions and purchase decisions. Effective PR strategies can complement other marketing efforts, such as advertising and content marketing, to create a more comprehensive and favorable image for a company or product.

Yes, public relations (PR) is a distinct but integral part of marketing. While PR and marketing are separate disciplines, they often overlap and complement each other in the broader context of promoting a brand, product, or service. PR fits into the marketing mix.

In essence, PR and marketing work in tandem to achieve an organization's marketing goals and objectives. They share the common aim of promoting the brand and its offerings, albeit through different strategies and tactics. When integrated effectively, PR and marketing create a comprehensive and cohesive approach to building and promoting a brand.

Each of these important areas serves wider business goals in distinct ways. While they can often be conflated, and it's true that PR and marketing are working more closely than ever as non-traditional media forms blur the lines — there are still some key differentiating factors.

How do the goals of PR and marketing differ?

While PR is focused heavily on reputation management and maximizing the reach for news stories, interviews, and announcements, marketing teams focus on attracting new buyers, retaining current customers, and storytelling. 

Both are deeply engrained in the process of building brand equity, customer loyalty, and positive perception for the brand.

Related resource: How to create & maintain a positive brand reputation

The goals for a public relations team revolve around:

Selling a product, brand, or person by managing a positive reputation through various communication channels with stakeholders and the general public.

The goals for a marketing team center on:

Reaching consumers and having them do carryout sort of a sales-focused action. 

Revenue is increasingly becoming a key metric that marketing teams are evaluated against﻿

How each team approaches achieving their goals also differs.

On a daily basis, you may find that a public relations professional is focused on the following tasks:

Building the company, brand, or individual’s reputation in media 

Managing media relations on behalf of their client

A PR agency may also help clients put together a communication strategy or crisis management plan.

On the other hand, a marketing professional is focused on:

Creating and managing advertising campaigns

Securing traditional and digital advertising placements

Conducting industry research to help drive the overall direction of marketing campaigns 

Developing collateral for websites and digital marketing efforts, sales pitches, and launches, brochures, PDFs, etc. 

Managing the company or brand's social media profiles

Tip: Learn how to hire a PR agency and how to hire a marketing firm.

Measuring success using KPIs and key metrics is the best way to prove ROI and plan for future campaigns and investments. Both PR and marketing teams need to report on these metrics regularly to spot trends and insights, but they often look at data in distinct ways.

When a PR professional is looking to measure the impact of their efforts, they assess:

The amount of positive press generated online, in trade publications, broadcasts and other media outlets

Awards that have  been won at industry events

The “buzz” generated from social media profiles, influencers, bloggers, and the public as a whole. 

See the 14 proven PR KPIs that matter most.

In another vein, a marketing professional gauges success based on:

Did the product or service being marketed either meet or exceed sales goals?

Assessing the overall marketing ROI of various marketing and advertising strategies and campaigns. 

Did buzz, or general traffic online increase for a product or service? Did a social media following grow after promoting content on different platforms? 

Generally speaking, there is a difference between the audiences that PR and marketing teams develop communications around:

The audiences that public relations teams may try to reach is very broad, and depends largely on the goal of a specific campaign. For example, an earnings report will be largely intended for investors' eyes, while a press release around a new hire or a DE&I initiative may be geared toward employees and/or journalists. 


The audience that marketing teams try to reach is usually based more heavily on consumer insight research — allowing their messaging to reflect the people who actually purchase your product — assuming that the PR team is handling all internal communications. The marketing team may engage in activities like ABM, digital advertising, or email marketing as well, that revolve around segmenting and targeting specific groups of either prospective customers or existing ones. 

Despite some very clear differences, public relations and marketing cannot operate in silos. To be successful in today’s world, the two departments must collaborate with one another.

If the product or service you are advertising has limited brand awareness, then you will have a more challenging time building a successful brand reputation, or relationship, with consumers. This will most likely result in a decline in sales. 

In this instance, both the PR and marketing departments could work together to increase brand awareness by securing press for the product or service and then creating social media ads and posts around to promote that press. 

Social media marketing and influencer marketing are two activities that are increasingly being managed by both PR and marketing departments. Social media and influencers can be used to convey brand-building messaging as well as help carry out targeted advertising campaigns. 

Although this requires greater collaboration between the two departments, there are several advantages to aligning PR strategies and marketing strategies, including the ability for greater content amplification across channels, additional optimization opportunities, maintaining and promoting brand messaging consistency, and much more.

Looking for ways Meltwater can help you hone your marketing and PR strategy? Fill out the form below to request a demo.

What is the Difference Between Marketing and PR?

Competitive businesses operate with an eye on what’s next, tapping into rising trends to better understand the future. But trend forecasting is downright impossible without first knowing that a trend is there. Enter trend detection, every successful organization’s strategic secret weapon.

New to the particulars of trend detection? Let this be your guide. In this blog, we’ll take a look at what trend detection is, how it’s done, and how algorithms make it more sophisticated than ever before. 

Using trend detection algorithms to solve business problems

Trends are shifts in patterns that develop in a particular direction. They can increase, decrease, or move horizontally.

You’ve most likely heard the word trend used to talk about temporary shifts in cultural preferences or behaviors, like fashion trends, marketing trends, social media trends, PR trends, Instagram trends, etc. Think bell bottoms in the 1960s or acid-wash jeans in the 1980s. However, trends can more broadly refer to patterns or shifts in sets of data, such as those gained via social listening, and they aren’t necessarily temporary. 

In business, organizations analyze data trends to extract information about what may happen in the future. Detection is the first step in understanding and analyzing trends.

There are many kinds of trends in data, but some of the common trend lines are:

Linear, which increase or decrease steadily

Exponential, which increase or decrease dramatically

Seasonal or cyclical, which develop in a pattern or on a particular, repeating timeline

Additionally, trends come in different magnitudes, from microtrends (like the short-lived cottagecore aesthetic) to megatrends (like the post-World War II baby boom or the rise of AI technology). They can also be at different stages of development, such as emerging or declining trends. The way trends are categorized, in business and beyond, depends on context and objective.

What is trend detection? Before you can analyze a trend you have to detect it to know that it is there.

Trend detection refers to the process of identifying those patterns, shifts, and developments.

In some cases, trends are so dramatic that detecting them is simple. Often, however, trend detection takes much closer examination and analysis.

In business, trend detection is the first step in trend analysis, in which organizations work to understand shifts. They may want to detect trends, like a particular product becoming more popular or growing customer service complaints on social media, so they can make better business decisions moving forward.

Organizations that don’t actively detect trends will, sooner than later, be negatively caught by surprise. They’re unable to keep up with evolving business demands and economic forces as a result. 

In general, there are two main trend detection methods:

Trend detection can take many forms, but in general, they look at deviations from regular data patterns. These deviations can include:

Ramp-ups or -downs, in which data trends up or down over a sustained period (like the initial rise or drop of a roller coaster)

Abrupt shifts, in which data goes from one steady trend line to another, maintaining that new value over a sustained period of time (like the abrupt rise or drop of a plateau)

Pulses or dips, in which the data values increase or decrease significantly before going back to the original value (like the heartbeat lines on an EKG machine screen)

These and other types of deviations and anomalies can point to emerging, or past, trends.

Methods of detecting trends range from manual to automated, but all rely on careful, complete, and accurate data collection and reporting.

The most basic way to detect trends is with a visual analysis.

For example, someone looking at an energy usage bar graph on their electric bills over three years may notice seasonal trends. The bar graph of their monthly usage may go up in summer when they use their air conditioner more, and down in winter when they use it less. This basic method may work well for situations like analyzing personal finances, but it becomes much more prone to error for larger, more complex data sets used in business, such as examining sales, media exposure, or social engagement over longer and more segmented periods of time. 

One more advanced method of trend detection involves statistical analyses, which use complex mathematical equations and models to detect anomalies in data patterns. They find these anomalies in numerical values, such as percentiles, averages, and means. Those statistical analyses can then be used to create projections of what future data values might look like. Scientists have long used statistical analyses to predict things like extreme weather events and global warming.

And while statistical analyses, when done right, can produce reliable insights, they are still manual processes that aren’t always feasible in business operations. Instead, organizations can use algorithms to detect data anomalies and trends for them.

Trend detection algorithms are tools for automating and refining the process of identifying data trends.

Commonly used via other complex systems or technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Natural Language Learning (NLL), trend detection algorithms often operate within platforms and software that present the results in easy-to-understand formats.

For example, our social listening and analytics suite leverages AI-powered trend detection algorithms to detect spikes in online conversations and send out real-time alerts. Algorithms within our consumer intelligence suite also use AI to extract consumer insights that uncover the context around trends so you can forecast where they are headed next. Both translate that data into visualizations with shareable dashboards.

In business, using trend detection algorithms saves time, turning complicated analytical processes into something any organization can achieve.

Start using Meltwater to make sense of your data and detect trends.

Businesses use trend detection algorithms across industries in many different use cases. Let’s look at a few examples.

Supply and demand: Trend detection algorithms help retailers forecast demand for particular products so they can adequately prepare their inventories. Fashion brands use them to spot and track the rise of emerging style trends (trendspotting).

Labor: Trend detection algorithms can help anticipate staffing needs. Healthcare clinics can use them to track seasonal illnesses and plan their hiring cycles around them.

Customer service: Trend detection algorithms within social intelligence solutions can track spikes in customer service complaints. Airlines can use them to anticipate service delays and proactively accommodate travelers, while tech companies can use them to identify bugs and needed software updates.

Reputation management: Organizations across industries use trend detection algorithms for brand tracking to keep track of developments in the reputations of their brands. For example, chain restaurants can use them to evaluate their reputations in different markets over time.

With clear objectives, the applications of trend detection algorithms are infinite. This is especially true when used with other advanced technologies that can break through the data noise. 

Leading organizations around the world are leveraging insight-driven intelligence to solve their business problems — yours should be one of them. Bring your organization to the cutting edge of trend detection technology with Meltwater’s data-rich platforms. Learn more about what our consumer intelligence solution can offer by scheduling a demo today.

Trend Detection Definition & Algorithm Guide

Your complete guide to the latest trends in digital behaviour around the world

We’re almost at the end of another year, but the pace of digital change doesn’t appear to be slowing as we head towards 2024.

In fact, our new Digital 2023 October Global Statshot Report – published in partnership between Meltwater and We Are Social – shows that growth in many key digital metrics is actually accelerating.

That wasn’t what I was expecting to see this quarter, but that’s the very reason we produce these Global Digital Reports: to go beyond assumptions, and discover new truths.

And this final round of updates for 2023 reveals a wealth of important headlines and trends, including:

A change in direction for the time we spend online;

Essential insights into trends in social media referrals;

Some surprising stats on enduring behaviours and preferences;

A compelling collection of headlines for TikTok;

A big jump in Instagram reach – but with a caveat;

New milestones for Telegram, Pinterest, and Quora;

The outlook for digital in 2024 and beyond.

That’s just a brief taster of this quarter’s content though; our full October report is packed with more than 300 slides exploring what people are really doing on the internet, social media, mobile devices, and online shopping platforms.

In addition to thanking We Are Social and Meltwater for making these reports possible, I’d like to start by offering my heartfelt thanks our wonderful data partners, without whom the Global Digital Reports series would be a lot less informative:

Just before we explore this quarter’s data, note that we continue to see incongruous trends in the data published in the ad tools of various social platforms. We’ll explore some of these anomalies below, but please exercise caution when analysing trends in social media audience data.

If you need fast insights, the video below distils all of this quarter’s top headlines and trends. 

Once you’ve watched that, scroll down for the full report.

The complete Digital 2023 October Global Statshot Report

You’ll find this quarter’s complete report in the embed below (click here if that’s not working for you), but read on past that to explore our in-depth analysis of what all these numbers actually mean.

As always, let’s start with the latest headlines for digital adoption and use around the world:

The United Nations’ latest population figures show that there are 8.06 billion people living on Earth in October 2023. That figure is just under 1 percent higher than the equivalent figure for the same time last year, with the world’s population growing by 72 million over the past 12 months.

The latest insights from GSMA Intelligence point to a total of 5.60 billion unique mobile subscribers around the world today, which equates to 69.4 percent of the total population. Mobile phone adoption increased by 2.7 percent over the past year, with the addition of 145 million new users.

Internet user figures have grown by 3.7 percent over the past year, to reach 5.30 billion in October 2023. This figure equates to 65.7 percent of the world’s population, although delays in reporting mean that actual internet penetration is likely higher than these figures suggest.

Kepios analysis shows that active social media user identities had grown to 4.95 billion by the start of October 2023, equating to 61.4 percent of the world’s total population. Active identities have increased by 4.5 percent since this time last year, thanks to the addition of 215 million new users.

That’s a great high-level view of the current “state of digital”, but what does the data tell us about people’s evolving behaviours?

Following the declines that we explored in some detail at the start of 2023, the amount of time that people spend using the internet has started to creep back up again over recent months.

The latest data from GWI shows that the typical internet user has increased their online activity by 4 minutes per day over the past 12 months, and by 6 minutes per day versus the lowest of the most recent lows that we saw 6 months ago.

However, that 4 minute increase in daily internet activity equates to a relative increase of less than 1 percent, and the amount of time that we spend online is still well below the elevated levels of activity that we saw in early 2021.

But – as we see so often with internet behaviours – the data still shows significant differences in internet activity around the world.

GWI’s research reveals that South Africans spend the greatest amount of time online, with the “typical” user in the country now spending roughly 9½ hours per day using connected devices and services.

Brazil comes in a close second, with the country’s netizens averaging 9 hours and 25 hours per day, while Filipinos rank third, at 9 hours and 7 minutes per day.

Japan still sits at the opposite end of the spectrum though, with the country’s internauts spending an average of less than 4 hours per day online.

Culture likely plays an important part in shaping this ranking, but the median age of the population is also a key factor.

Overall, average daily internet time tends to decrease with age, which may explain why Japan sits at the bottom end of this ranking.

Meanwhile, the amount of time that people spend watching TV content has actually declined over recent months.

GWI’s latest survey data suggests that internet users have reduced their TV watch time by 13 minutes over the past year, resulting in a relative 6.1 percent drop in the time spent consuming content across streaming and broadcast TV.

The Meltwater Blog

What is the Difference Between Marketing and PR?

Trend Detection Definition & Algorithm Guide

Digital 2023 October Global Statshot Report

Owned, Earned, Paid & Shared Media Explained

Safety and Ethics in AI - Meltwater’s Approach

How Meltwater Helped Track Earth Hour, the World’s Largest Grassroots Movement

Navigating the Hype: Agencies in the Age of Tech Whiplash

Why You Should Create a Centralized Competitive Intelligence Database

Forrester Study First Look: Meltwater and Brand Management

Consumer Insights for Fashion: How Top Brands Keep up With Consumer Trends

How to Improve B2B Customer Experience [5 Steps]

How to Use a Customer Data Platform to Master Your Data Management