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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

No two customers are exactly alike, and that’s a good thing. Your customer base is comprised of a multitude of personalities, needs, experiences, and priorities. Their individual paths led them to you. Now, it’s your job to figure out the best way to approach them and turn them into paying customers, and hopefully fans for life.

The first step in doing this successfully is knowing the different customer types and what makes them tick. From there, you can tailor your approach to highlight your brand and show off what makes you a great company to do business with.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the six common types of customers, how to identify them, and most importantly, how to speak their language.

How to Identify Customer Types for Your Business

How to Deal with Different Types of Customers

Effective Marketing Relies on Understanding Customer Types

Tip: Learn more about customer segmentation and customer segmentation software.

First things first: you must know the various types of customers. If you’re looking for an exact number of customer types, it largely depends on how broadly or specifically you define them.

Here’s how we break them down into six main types:

Call them researchers, tire kickers, or mildly interested – most importantly, potential customers are considered top-of-the-funnel prospects.

Consumer types at the top of the funnel need a bit more work to convert. They don’t know your business or brand yet. They’re not sure about your value or why they might need your product or service.

Some curious customers stumble upon you during their research. They have a specific problem they’re looking to solve and want to explore their options. Others might be exposed to your brand via advertising and want to learn more about what you do.

No matter how they found you, their top priority is to seek information so they can move forward, with or without purchasing.

Consumer types that know your value but aren’t quite ready to pull the trigger can still become paying customers. They just need a little help tipping the scales in your favor.

These customers are informed about your business and brand, to a degree. Maybe they’ve taken a demo of your software or sampled your product. They’re aware of their problem and that you have a potential solution to their needs. They just aren’t sure whether to choose you or a competitor.

Customers that are ready to buy need no further convincing. In many cases, these are need-based customers that have to make a decision. Many of these customers start out at the top of the funnel and move down with nurturing. 

They also don’t let obstacles get in their way once they’re ready to buy. If the price is a little out of reach, they will rethink their budget and find a way to afford it.

Some are impulsive customers. They know a good thing when they see it and don’t need to do any research. However, impulse buyers are usually not loyal customers. They buy on a whim, which means they might also buy from your competitors in the future if the right opportunity arises.

Consumer types that are ready to act on purchase decisions want to do exactly that: Buy! They have a specific need to fill. They don’t want to jump through extra hoops and prefer a seamless experience all the way.

Bargain hunters prefer to buy from companies that give them the best overall value for their money. They often won’t buy from you unless you offer a discount or coupon; in many cases, this deal needs to be pretty substantial compared to the regular price.

Upselling to this type of customer is challenging. Getting repeat business from this customer without offering future discounts is also next to impossible. But discounts don't have to be your standard business model. There needs to be high value involved, and it needs to be obvious to maintain this type of customer relationship.

The holy grail of all customer types, the loyal customer is arguably the most desirable. They love your company or brand so much that they will always buy from you, even when a cheaper offer exists elsewhere. They typically spend more with your company and will even become brand advocates and tell their friends and family to do business with you, too.

You don’t have to offer discounts and incentives to maintain their loyal business. Price becomes less of an issue, and a bad experience carries less weight with this type of consumer. They may be more willing to forgive and forget if they don’t have a perfect experience.

The opposite of a loyal customer, a dissatisfied customer is often viewed as a lost business opportunity. Maybe they had a bad experience. Maybe you quit offering the discount that attracted them in the first place. Maybe you didn't fully know their customer needs. Whatever the reason, they’ve shut the door on your relationship.

But don’t think that door is locked forever. Even with angry customers, you can find ways to provide them with better service. Your dissatisfied customers might want to come back and give you another shot. Those customers already know you, so use that to your advantage.

Every business has a patchwork of these six customer types. But how can you identify them on an individual basis? And more importantly, how should you approach each one along their customer journey?

You can learn a lot about a customer or prospect’s priorities based on their behaviors and interactions with your business. For example, a Curious Customer might look at your company’s About Us page to learn more about you, while a Ready-to-Buy Customer might visit your product pricing web page.

Here are some telltale signs to look for:

<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Type of Customer</th>
<th>Stage(s) of the Customer Journey</th>
<th>What to Look For</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>The Curious Customer</td>
<td>Awareness</td>
<td>Clicks on an ad; follows on social media; visits website; reads blog content</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The On-the-Fence Customer</td>
<td>Consideration, Purchase</td>
<td>Reads case studies; adds to cart or completes part of check-out but doesn’t finish; checks for online reviews; schedules a demo or requests a sample</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Ready-to-Buy Customer</td>
<td>Purchase</td>
<td>Completes the checkout process; signs up for service</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Discount Customer</td>
<td>Consideration, Purchase</td>
<td>Searches for a coupon code; visits an affiliate site before purchasing; signs up for a newsletter in exchange for a coupon code; only purchases during a sale</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Loyal Customer</td>
<td>Purchase, Retention, Advocacy</td>
<td>Makes repeat purchases; refers others to you; participates in a loyalty program</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>The Dissatisfied Customer</td>
<td>Awareness, Consideration, Purchase, Retention</td>
<td>Drops out of funnel with or without purchasing; leaves a bad review; asks for a refund</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>

The customer journey will look and function differently for every company. That’s because your customers (and their needs and expectations) are unique to your business.

Conduct market research to learn more about your potential and current customers and their priorities. Tap into your own website and sales data to get to know your audience. The more you understand why they choose you (or a competitor), the better you can adjust your approach and cater to their individual needs.

Knowing the different types of customers is an important early step in every sales strategy. Next, you’ll want to know how to use these consumer insights to approach each customer type based on what they value.

Keep in mind that each prospect or buyer is in a different place in the customer journey. You should aim to develop a customer strategy for each consumer type to increase your chance of making sales and valuable connections.

Here are some ways you can appeal to each persona:

Curious consumer types are information seekers. They want to make an informed decision but can’t do so if they aren’t able to find what they’re looking for.

The remedy: Offer rich, detailed content that makes it easy for prospects to get to know you. Show them the value you offer and what they can expect when they buy your product. Case studies, blog articles, landing pages, and some social media branding can all help the cause.

Also, make sure to let your curious customers know how they can contact you. Show them where they can find more information, such as a resource library, or reach out via chat, email, or phone to ask questions.

On-the-fence customers have gotten to know your brand. They recognize that you could be a solution to their problem. They’re almost ready to buy, but what will make them choose you over another?

The remedy: Nurturing. Lots of nurturing. Keep reinforcing the value you bring to the table and what makes you unique. Stay in touch with follow-up emails and phone calls. Share middle-of-the-funnel content like case studies or invite them to a webinar.

This might also be a good time to offer an incentive, such as a discount, free shipping, or free upgrade. Such an offer might just be enough to tip the scales in your favor.

When customers are ready to move forward, there’s no stopping them… or is there? Even when customers are certain of their purchase, a few things may still kill the deal.

The remedy: Make it easy for customers to complete their purchases. They should be able to take care of business fast without getting wrapped up in a thousand questions, opt-ins, upsells, or questions.

Simplify your checkout process – the fewer clicks, the better. Respond quickly when customers reach out for help or questions. Waiting too long can cause them to bounce to a competitor.

Offering sales and specials is a surefire way to appeal to the discount customer. However, if you want to build long-term loyalty without offering a discount with every purchase, you’ll need to focus on building up the value you offer.

The remedy: If you offer a discount, explain the terms in plain language to the customer. If it’s a one-time deal, let them know it. Make sure to add a cherry on top so the customer knows just how much better it is doing business with you instead of a competitor. This might be 24/7 customer service, a free birthday gift, or no-hassle returns, for example. The right value can sometimes feel just as sweet as not paying full price.

Loyal customers are rocket fuel for your business. They don’t need much convincing to buy from you or tell their friends and family about you.

The remedy: Give your customers an easy way to share your brand with others. This might be a referral marketing program or simply social sharing buttons on your product pages or website.

Also, figure out what it is that makes your loyal customers love you so much, then keep doing more of those things. Turn them into repeat success stories so you can continue earning more loyal customers.

Your relationship with a customer went south. It happens even to best-in-class brands. But the brands don’t take dissatisfaction as their final answer. They turn bad experiences into learning opportunities and consciously work to improve.

The remedy: Figure out what turned your customers away from you. If it’s your fault, admit it and aim to do better. Focus on the things you can control, such as improving your customer service, offering perks that your competitors are offering, or correcting an error.

Once you’ve made adjustments, you might incentivize your dissatisfied customers to give you another try.

Building an effective brand marketing strategy starts with understanding your customers. After all, they hold the key to your financial success.

Get to know each of your customer personas so you can meet them wherever they are in their journey and connect with them in their language. It’s the next best thing to reading their minds, and they’ll reward you for the effort in the form of sales, loyalty, and advocacy.

The 6 Most Common Types of Customers & How To Approach Them

Every business likes to think it has something special to offer. And when your customers agree, they’re more likely to refer you to others. That’s the foundation of referral marketing.

Referrals are the highest form of flattery. But more importantly, they’re warm leads that result in 3-5x higher conversions compared to any other channel. Hands down, it’s a highly effective way to get great results with very minimal (or no) effort or marketing spend.

People are going to talk about your business no matter what. But there are ways you can encourage more people to be proactive in referring others to your business. Let’s look at some specifics on referral marketing and how you can put it to work in your business.

What are the Benefits of Referral Marketing?

Referral Marketing Strategies and Best Practices (with Examples)

What is referral marketing, exactly? A good definition is this:

A proactive, organized, and strategic marketing tactic that encourages customers to refer others to your business, usually with the promise of a reward for a successful referral.

Many business owners see a referral marketing strategy as being synonymous with word-of-mouth marketing. There is some overlap, but referral marketing goes beyond word-of-mouth marketing in some key respects.

Word-of-mouth marketing is when people are talking about your business to others. Maybe a friend asks about the best Mexican restaurant in town or where to go for bicycle rentals. Their recommendation is based on their own experiences or knowledge. There’s usually no reward involved, other than the self-satisfaction of helping someone find a product or service they need or want.

Referral marketing is a little different.

When companies offer a referral program, they are proactively encouraging their customers (or anyone, in some cases) to refer people to their business. In return, they may offer an incentive for each successful referral. This could be a monetary reward or credit, gift cards, branded swag, or discounts, for example.

Having an official referral network can be a great way to keep your brand top of mind and build stronger relationships with your customers while also earning new customers with little effort.

Before we get into the nuts of bolts of how referral marketing works, it’s important to first understand why you should care. What are some of the top referral marketing benefits?

Word-of-mouth marketing is the difference between a customer and an advocate. It’s one thing to have customers contributing to your bottom line. But their recommendations to others can help you grow your bottom line even more.

Advocates can be one of your biggest sources of income simply because they introduce new customers to your company on your behalf.

Every time they refer you to others, they’re helping you grow your customer base. They’re providing “social proof” that you’re a great company to do business with and can help solve a problem or fill a need.

Taking customer advocacy a step further, referred customers are also 18% more loyal than customers acquired by other means. They’re also four times more likely to refer others to your brand, which keeps the referral cycle going strong.

Research shows that an impressive 92% of consumers trust referrals from people they know. Referrals carry a lot of influence. No one wants to refer someone else to a business that will deliver a poor experience because of how it might reflect on them, the referral source.

Your referring customers also do a lot of heavy lifting in the conversion funnel. They can answer questions and instill confidence in the buying process so that when your referral comes to you, they’re almost ready to pull the trigger.

This can mean a lot of things to a business: a shorter sales cycle, less money spent on advertising and marketing, and a frictionless customer experience, to name a few.

Businesses acquire customers in a number of ways. Sometimes, you’ll need to pay for ads or have multiple touchpoints with the customer before they convert. This can be an expensive process and might not result in a profit after the first sale.

For example, let’s say your average new customer ticket price is $50, and your profit is 20%, or $10. The average pay-per-click ad costs $1-$2. Maybe the customer signs up for your email marketing, which can cost small businesses with small audiences anywhere from $19-$29 per month. If your customer also reaches out to customer service with questions, that’s another added cost before you make a sale.

Having warm leads generated by word-of-mouth marketing and customer referrals can help to lower the acquisition cost. Instead of paying for ads, emails, and lots of salespeople interaction, your referral partner is doing a lot of the work for you.

A referral marketing program is owned media, meaning you have complete control over the what, why, and how. It acts as its own channel where you can interact with your customers on your terms and craft a well-branded experience.

What’s more, your referral channel is based solely on the performance of your referring customers. It’s a self-sufficient program that only pays when successful referrals are made. This helps you keep costs under control and makes it easier to calculate the ROI of your efforts.

A successful referral marketing program is built on customer relationships. When you create strong connections with your customers and earn their trust along with their business, referrals become a natural by-product – almost.

The key to any referral marketing program is intention. It’s important to give customers enough value in a program to get them to participate. You can also conduct social listening exercises to figure out what your customers really want in a referral program.

Using some clever referral marketing strategies can help you make your program more appealing to your customers and increase participation.

Let’s look at some referral marketing examples from companies that are doing it right:

Earth-friendly automaker Tesla (and one of the most popular referral program examples) credits much of its success to a standout referral program. It earned Tesla a stunning 40x ROI with a zero-dollar ad budget.

Using a unique refer-a-friend link, customers receive 1,000 free miles of supercharging. The customer buying their new Tesla will also receive a reward. The program follows one of the basics of referral marketing incentives: make the reward highly valuable and useful to the recipient.

The referral campaign has been tweaked in recent years but maintains the customer-centric rewards that fuel the program’s success.

Tesla sweetens the deal by making the reward available to both the referrer and the referred customer. It incentivizes the customer to take advantage of the referral channel rather than proceed directly.

Popular storage app Dropbox offers a similar approach to Tesla in that it rewards both the referrer and the new customer. For individual users, Dropbox offers 2 GB of free storage with the option to purchase more.

Customers can increase their storage without paying out of pocket, though. For every referral that signs up for a paid Dropbox Plus or Professional account, the referrer gets an extra 1 GB of storage (up to 32 free GB).

The program also rewards users that refer others to the free Dropbox option. For every new non-paying customer they refer, they can receive an extra 500 MB of storage and the potential to earn up to 16 GB total.

Referral Best Practice: Think Outside Monetary Benefits

Dropbox’s referral program proves that money isn’t the only driver behind customer referrals. It costs very little for Dropbox to increase a user’s storage and allows the company to quickly grow its user base.

In fact, referrals increased Dropbox’s customer base by 60%, helping it on its journey to becoming a $4 billion company.

Taking a chance on an unknown brand can be a bit of a risk, especially when similar products are available at a much lower price. But Girlfriend Collective decided that one of the best ways to stand out in a fairly saturated market was to give its product away for free.

The company made its recycled plastic leggings available for the cost of shipping. The goal was to have its customers who felt strongly about savings and environmentally friendly products tell a friend or family member to go claim their free leggings, too.

The other caveat: the program was only available for a few months.

The strategy paid off in spades. The company earned 10,000 orders on the first day and racked up thousands of social shares and coverage from top online blogs and publications that they could keep track of through social listening and media monitoring.

The free offer removed the barrier of spending a lot of money on an unknown brand and also helped the brand build trust with a growing audience.

The company now offers a different referral program. Anyone can send a friend a $10 off coupon via email, then receive a free pair of leggings when their friend purchases.

Referral Best Practice: Look at the Big Picture

Giving away a premium product sounds risky, especially if it doesn’t result in immediate sales. But Girlfriend Collective considered the overall value of doing so.

It allowed the company to build trust and confidence in its brand, get attention on social media, and see real user feedback on its social channels.

Also, the strategy arguably costs the same or less per customer than what it would have cost to use a professional advertising agency.

Answering, “What is a referral program?” is the first step. Now that you know more about its definition and value, it’s time to put your knowledge into action.

Let’s look at some best practices for how to create a referral program that works:

Some referrals will happen organically. But you can drive more referrals when there’s something in it for your customers.

Incentives span a wide range, from points-based systems to monetary rewards. Also, consider whether there needs to be a limit on the rewards a person can claim.

No one wants to jump through hoops to get rewarded from their favorite companies, even if the reward is highly valuable. Too many steps can discourage participation, which means you won’t get all the benefits of referral network marketing.

Once you’ve got a refer-a-friend program in place, it’s time to let your customers know!

Send out an email invite to show them how they can take advantage of your new way to earn rewards. Add a separate landing page on your website, share it on social media, and include it in all of your post-purchase communications.

Expand your program by connecting with an influencer or long-time client to help you promote it. 

Once your referral network marketing program is underway, make sure you track its performance. Dedicated cloud-based referral marketing software can be a helpful tool in tracking every referral email, referral code or link, and conversion rate at scale.

The goal of any referral program should be to grow your business. If your program isn’t getting engagement or otherwise increasing sales, you might need to point it in a different direction.

Using an experienced agency can help you make the most of your referral program to drive real growth and boost loyalty. To learn how Meltwater can help, get in touch today.

The Ultimate Guide to Referral Marketing

In celebration of Pride Month this year, we've been hosting a series of discussions with internal and external speakers. Our conversations have centered around the history of Pride, the challenges the LGBTQIA+ community faces in the workplace, and the ways we can foster an environment of inclusion & acceptance. 

For example, in the Americas, a lawyer spoke about the recent legislative activity to restrict LGBTQIA+ rights and why being an informed voter matters. In APAC, our team members organized a fireside chat with an LGBTQIA+ organization. 

We've also been sharing insights into the discussions taking place on social media and in the news around LGBTQIA+ issues.

Reading Tip: 5 of the Most-Shared Pro-LGBTQ+ Articles of 2023 So Far

And as a way of sparking even more conversation internally, we've been asking employees to answer the question: What does Pride mean to you? 

Here are a few of the answers from our team:

Pride is a celebration of existing outside the tidy boxes into which society expects people to fit neatly. It's a celebration of diversity and of being unique, of being part of a living culture sometimes very different from society's norms. It's also a celebration of survival for those of us who are here when so many of our friends, so many of the people who came before us, are not.

— Ruari O'Rourke (They/She), AR Specialist

Pride to me means being proud of who you are. Being your authentic self but also not putting others down for being their authentic self. Pride is acceptance of yourself and others who are different than you.

It means to be proud of who you are and to celebrate love. It also means to be proud of others who have faced discrimination and struggled to exist in their own skin because of how society treats them. For me, it’s also a reflection of the struggles the queer community has had and continues to have. It’s a celebration but also a commemoration.

— Hana Yagi (She/Her/Hers), Americas Director, Customer Development

To me, Pride is about celebrating love and embracing ourselves exactly as we are!

— Haley Forman (She/Her), Global Director of Client Experience
It means being unapologetically who I am! Queerness does not equate to unprofessionalism.

Pride to me is normalizing the diversity of the human condition under the pillars of honesty, respect, mindfulness, positivity, and collaboration. Pride is about living our human lives with dignity, integrity, joy, courage, and in community with others without fear of being judged for who we are.

— Adelina Doroftei (She/Her), Data Science Analyst

To me, Pride means freedom. By most dictionary definitions, freedom is roughly described as 'the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.' That definition is an excellent way to describe Pride as well. They're one and the same.

— Amberā Cruz, Marketing Director, Americas

For me, Pride means standing behind my own values, sexuality, ethnicity, religion/spirituality, and my own personality in general—no matter what other people may think about it.

Encouraging others to be themselves and helping everyone to see we support rather than judge.

— Niall Burkley, Principal Engineer & Team Lead

Pride means to be self-accepting, self-living, and 'being proud' of who I am, my achievements, my values, as well as who I have become, the good and the bad.

The Meltwater Blog

The 6 Most Common Types of Customers & How To Approach Them

The Ultimate Guide to Referral Marketing

Celebrating Pride at Meltwater

How Much Does Media Monitoring Cost?

How To Identify & Satisfy The 10 Most Common Customer Needs

The Ultimate Guide to Community Management

Misinformation & Disinformation: What is it and how do you protect your brand against it?

Employer Branding vs. Employee Branding: Definition, Differences & Examples

8 Social Media Challenges Clients Need Your Help With

Reputation PR: Definition, Strategies & Examples

Fighting Fake News on Social Media

How Social Media Challenges Become Wildly Successful