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Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Guide

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

Media monitoring helps organizations stay informed about what’s being said across online news, print, broadcast, podcasts, and other media channels. Whether you're tracking brand mentions, measuring PR performance, monitoring competitors, or identifying emerging trends, our expert guides, best practices, and industry insights will help you build a smarter media monitoring strategy and make more informed communications decisions.

Discover expert media monitoring guides, best practices, and industry insights to track brand mentions, monitor competitors, and stay ahead of the news.

Media Monitoring: Guides, Best Practices & Industry Insights

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

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

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

AI adoption is no longer the challenge—trusted context is. Most organizations have AI tools, but many still rely on disconnected, stale, or unverified data, limiting the quality and trustworthiness of AI-generated outputs. Meltwater MCP brings trusted, real-time intelligence into AI assistants.

Your Best Context is Already in the Room

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

For most of us, life revolves around a few major tech companies. It’s nearly impossible to spend a week without Google these days, and many social networks are the same story.

In fact, chances are you found this article through Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn. Unless you’re reading this from South Korea.

Because unlike most countries in the world, where Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon reign supreme, Koreans have developed their own digital economy giants.

So what are the main social media platforms? And do Koreans really prefer them over their western counterparts? This article explores these questions in details.

But first, let’s learn a little more about South Korea’s technical infrastructure.

Top social media platforms in South Korea

Are local social platforms or western platforms winning in South Korea?

Korean social media: a story of demographics

Korean social media: a battle of East vs. West?

To understand Korean social media usage, let’s begin with the technological landscape. The Internet has reached more than 95% of the country, the highest rate for any Asian country outside the Middle East.

As the home of electronics giants Samsung and LG, it shouldn’t surprise us to learn that the country is number one in the world for smartphone ownership. And as long as smartphone users have a web connection, they’re probably on social media.

Good news on that front, too. South Korea also has one of the highest rates of LTE coverage in the world. 4G networks are available essentially anywhere in the country. Whether you’re on the subway, in the middle of the countryside, or on board a high-speed train, it’s always possible to connect to social media.

Most South Koreans already use 4G, and have done for years. But the country’s top three service providers rolled out 5G access in April 2019, and speeds are up to 100x faster than 4G.

In fact, South Korea regularly ranks first globally in terms of internet connection speed overall (not just 5G): 

Coupled together, these are ideal conditions for social media users.

Tip: You find more interesting digital marketing and social media statistics in our Global Digital Trends Report 2023.

As a country with such good Internet infrastructure, we’d expect to see social media use at incredibly high levels. Which is exactly the case.

As of January 2019, South Korea had the third highest rate of active social media users in the world. (Interestingly, the top six countries are all in Asia).

85% of South Koreans use social media, far ahead of the United States (70%), the United Kingdom and Canada (both 67%).

But as we’re about to examine, the Korean social media landscape is a little more complicated than westerners might expect. All your favorite social networks are present in the country, and many are thriving.

But South Korea has its own set of platforms that have proven equally or more popular over the last two decades.

A crowded field: domestic social networks alongside American giants

As we’ve already teased, South Korea is home to several social networks that many readers won’t recognize.

Some look similar, of course, and many features were developed as a way to stay ahead of interlopers. Here are the big names in Korean social media:

The Daum/KakaoTalk universe, a merger of two major Korean digital service providers, has managed to carve out a sizeable chunk in the market. According to StatCounter, Daum is the 3rd biggest search engine in South Korea with a market share of approximately 6.5% (behind Google and Naver, with market share rates of approximately 66% and 25%, respectively). 

KakaoTalk, on the other hand, is a WhatsApp-style messaging service, which is actively used by 97% of all smartphone users in Korea and serves more than 43 million monthly active users. 

KakaoStory, with its plethora of services, is the equivalent of Facebook. Launched in 2012 by Kakao Corp, it was the most popular network among Koreans. Its popularity is particularly impressive given the prominence of similar tools like WhatsApp and WeChat.

Like the Chinese WeChat, Kakao has since engaged in a diversification strategy, for example offering online banking and taxi services. Kakao users are also able to send each other gifts.

For instance, a Kakao user can easily buy his friend a pizza by sending a bar code to his account, which then can be redeemed online or in store.

KakaoTalk continues to be hugely popular in South Korea, despite the intrusions of other powerful social networks. But as we’ll explore shortly, this may not last.

Naver is basically the Google of South Korea. Of course, South Korea has Google as well, but Naver operates in much the same way. 

The company has a range of different search engines (Blog Search, News Search), Knowledge In (similar to Yahoo Answers), as well as popular products Naver Cafe, LINE, and BAND.

BAND is a communication app for teams and groups. In the US, it’s marketed as more of a business tool - similar to Slack:

But it really became popular in South Korea through the gaming community. When users played online in teams, they needed an easy way to talk to one another. BAND made this easy.

It’s even officially used by the Republic of Korea Army.

It’s to Cyworld that Koreans owe their enthusiasm for social networks. Cyworld created the first major social network back in 1999, well before Facebook or Twitter, and it rapidly became a hit.

One unique feature is that it allows its users to organise, manage and prioritise their relationships according to a hierarchy consisting of three different ‘ranks’, thus matching the structure of Korean society.

For a long time, the company resisted the inexorable rise of Facebook. But eventually Cyworld recently experienced a sharp decline in use:

Number of Cyworld vs Facebook users. Source: The Realtime Report

By 2012, Facebook had overtaken Cyworld for user numbers.

The other networks, however, are still going strong. And as of very recently, they were holding off the outside invaders.

It wasn’t long ago that the Korean social landscape was dominated by domestic companies. But just as it has done in most of the world, Facebook has climbed to the top spot.

Over 60% of South Koreans now use Facebook, 24% use Facebook Messenger, and 39% use Instagram (another Facebook product).

Note: YouTube actually has usage rates even higher than Facebook’s, but this is not what most people think of when they picture a “social network.”

The statistics on social media usage can be confusing

It should be noted that the numbers aren’t exactly clear on all this. Based on one survey, BAND actually has the highest number of active users.

If we choose to follow this survey, Facebook and Instagram are next, with Kakao story coming fourth. And to complicate matters, another study found that Koreans spend more time on Instagram than Facebook, and Facebook may even be losing users.

But really, what’s most interesting is how popular these networks are in the first place. Compared with their American and Chinese counterparts, their overall usage is tiny.

But as a percentage of the South Korean market, each punches well above its weight.

Aside from the fact that Facebook is simply everywhere today, demographics seem to have a large part to play in this pattern. There’s an interesting difference in social media usage depending on age.  

Facebook is enormously popular with Koreans under 24 years old. These young people spend 29-34% of their social media time on the network (depending on their age), far more than any other platform.

The same group of youngsters also uses Instagram heavily - it’s the second-most popular network among them.

Facebook is also the most popular option for users in their late 20s and 30s. But they also spend a relatively even share of time on other networks, including locally-built offerings.  

By contrast, Koreans in their 40s and 50s heavily favor two options: Kakaotalk and BAND. This could be because they were already using them, or perhaps older Koreans prefer Korean-made products.

Overall, these changes could suggest that domestic Korean social networks are in trouble. As more young people get their first smartphone and create new social profiles, they’re likely to join their peers on Instagram and Facebook. 

On the other hand, it might mean that some social networks are simply better suited to certain demographics. BAND, in particular, seems to appeal directly to users who need slightly more professional elements. It includes a shared calendar, lets users create polls, and has an inherent organization that likely fits older users.

Most likely, it shows the slow creep of companies like Facebook (and Instagram) across the entire world. Even in a country that already had a thriving social networking culture, it was only a matter of time.

If you're interested in never missing a mention in Korean social media, fill out the form below to get a free consultation and learn more about social listening.

Explained: The Unique Case of Korean Social Media

Note: This blog is based on the Digital 2023 Global Overview Report – produced in partnership with Meltwater and We Are Social. See Simon Kemp's article about The Changing World of Digital in 2023. Download the Global Digital Report and the Global Digital Report 2023 for free.

Over the past twelve months, the world’s digital behaviors have shown some of the most profound changes we’ve seen in years, even compared with “the pandemic years”. The latest research reveals that these behaviors are evolving in a number of unexpected ways, too.

Fortunately however, our huge new Digital 2023 Global Overview Report – produced in partnership with Simon Kemp and We Are Social – has all the data and insights you need to make sense of the latest trends. In addition, we have now launched a report that focuses exclusively on the Swedish market.

Below we will present some of the digital insights and Swedish social media statistics contained in the report.

Swedish Social Media Statistics: Table of Contents 

Summary: Social Media & Digital Media in Sweden

Predictions for the Swedish Digital Landscape

Tip: Learn more about the Swedish media landscape.

The report reveals that Northern Europe is the region with the highest internet usage as a percentage of the total population globally. In Sweden, 97.2% of the population (10.28 million) were internet users in 2022.

On average, Swedes spent 6 hours on the internet daily in 2022; a decrease of 5 percent compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, Swedish people spend an additional 1 hour and 42 minutes on music and streaming services daily on average, and 55 minutes on podcasts. Does the average reflect you?

Main Reasons for Using the Internet in Sweden

There are many different reasons why people in Sweden use the internet.

The main reason is to find information (76%) followed by staying in touch with friends and family (64.7%) and getting updates on news and events (64.6%).

If you compare what Swedes search for most frequently on Google, it is:

In Sweden, 82.2% of the total population are active users of social media.

Furthermore, the Swedish population spends an average of 1 hour and 58 minutes on social media every day. Which actually is a decrease of 3.3% compared to 2021.

COVID-19 was more extensive in 2021 than in 2022 and this could possibly explain why the use of social media has decreased.

Swedish people used social media more when the pandemic restricted them from doing other activities.

Most Used Social Media Platforms in Sweden

Facebook is the most used platform by Swedes, with 77.1% of internet users aged 16-64 using the platform every month.

(Youtube was not included as an option in this particular survey, but more statistics on Youtube as a platform will be provided below.)

Favourite Social Media Platforms in Sweden

However, the favorite social media platform of the Swedes turns out to be Instagram, followed by Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

TikTok is still behind Snapchat in fifth place surprisingly.

Main Reasons for Using Social Media in Sweden

The main reason Swedes aged 16-64 use social media is to keep in touch with family and friends (59%).

Furthermore, 38.5% say they use social media to fill their spare time.

Perhaps surprisingly, only 14.5% claim to use social media for following celebrities and influencers.

Tip: Take a look at the biggest Swedish influencers out there.

Looking at the most searched words on YouTube, you will find at the top of the list "song" and  "music".

Digital & Social Media Statistics for Sweden [Updated 2023]

Every person is unique. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that the people who buy from you tend to share some of the same characteristics. Learning what these characteristics are — a process called customer profiling — can help you better understand who buys your products and what motivates them to purchase. 

Customer profiling is a data-driven approach to uncovering the needs and motivations of your customers. Let’s explore how to do customer profiling so you can attract more of the right customers.

How to Use Customer Profiling in Marketing

Customer profiling (also called persona mapping or marketing profiling) is the process of using data to discover your customers’ characteristics, buying habits, motivations, needs, and other details. These profiles, also called buyer personas, will guide your marketing efforts to ensure your messaging, offers, and products resonate with the right people.

Many businesses have different customer types. Learning what these types are allows you to market to each type in ways that will be well received.

Customer profiling improves the way you target and engage potential customers. You have a clearer picture of who you’re talking to in mind and can have more impactful conversations with them. 

Sales and marketing teams can avoid wasting time and resources on the wrong customers. Your marketing becomes more targeted to customers that fit your business model and products. This is key to creating personalized experiences that will help your advertising stand out.

Reaching the right customers at the right time can improve engagement and response rates. The more engagement you receive, the more audience insights you can gather to improve your customer profiling. You’ll be able to reach even more customers who share similar characteristics.

Speaking to a targeted audience can reduce customer acquisition costs. Spend more time on better-fit customer personas and avoid spending time and money trying to convert customers who simply don’t fit the mold.

Tip: Learn more about audience segmentation.

Better consumer profiling requires you to know their needs, wants, and preferences. When you can demonstrate this knowledge, customers are more likely to stick with brands and companies that “get” them.

Your client profiles can be as complex or straight-forward as you want them to be. Let’s look at a few customer profiling examples:

This client profile example contains basic yet helpful information, such as pain points, demographics, and products or services used. It also includes a photo, which may help you to humanize your customer profiling marketing.

This target customer profile example highlights three unique personas in a single view. 

Rather than give a customer name, it includes a description of each customer. You can also see demographic information, psychographic details like interests, values, and behavioral information.

At a minimum, your ideal customer profile should contain the following:

Demographics (age, gender, income, industry, etc.)

Buying behavior (including patterns and history)

Job-related details (helpful for B2B and B2C customers)

Additional items that might define your ideal customer include:

You can define your client profile and customer groups however you like. Just make sure you’re including only relevant information that will support your sales and marketing strategies.

Learning how to create a customer profile can be a worthwhile effort, especially if you have a diverse customer base or multiple acquisition channels. Customer profiling helps you learn the nuances of each consumer or client so you can tailor your strategy to meet the needs of each one.

Let’s look at how to create a customer profile, step by step.

To understand your customer base, take a look at your best customers. These are the ones who have bought the most from you, buy the most frequently, or have been buying from you the longest. These are the customers you want to attract more of.

You might even segment your customers between products or services. For example, identify your best customers for each service or type of product you offer. 

Dial deeper into your data to see common traits across your best customers. List the most important attributes that will help you to define your customer profiling.

The channel through which you acquired the customer

Offers, promotions, or discounts they’ve acted on

This isn’t a complete list, but this data can help you find connections between consumers and why they choose your company. 

You will likely have more information for some customers than others. Sending these customers a survey can help to fill in any gaps in information and learn more about them. Focus on the missing attributes that will help you to create a stronger profile.

4. Enrich the profiles with additional data

Other first-party and third-party data sources, such as CRM, email, social media, and website analytics, can help you learn more about your customers. For example, you can use email open rates to determine which types of customers are most likely to open and act on your email marketing. Website analytics can reveal more about the customer journey map and the steps that lead to a purchase.

As you learn more about the data and details that define your ideal customer profile, develop a template that captures all of this information. An ideal customer profile template systematizes the process so you can build new personas in the future with ease. 

The Meltwater Blog

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