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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

Arab News recently announced the Saudi Arabian editions of international luxury and lifestyle magazines, Harper's Bazaar and Esquire. The news brings much excitement within the world of fashion publishing, as this is the first time that these magazines will be published not only in the region but in a bilingual format as well. With 33% of social media users in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) feeling positive towards this announcements, and 5 news media mentions on what the luxury magazines could bring to the region, going public with big news to the media may seem like a daunting task for public relations professionals. 

However, that task can be made a little less daunting by using a media database. By finding the right journalists, the announcements and news you have to share - no matter how big or small - will reach the right audience.

In this blog post, we'll take a look into how you can use a media database in the Middle East as a tool to supercharge your PR efforts.

Tip: Learn more about media in Saudi Arabia.

In essence, a media database is a list of journalists, reporters, and other influencers, like bloggers and social media personalities. This list contains the contact information of these journalists and reporters, and allows PR and communications professionals to search and find the right people to reach out to when seeking earned media coverage.

In most media databases, you search for the right people by a variety of filters—like location, reach, media channel or topic of interest—to find the media contacts that would be most relevant and best suited for the news or campaign that you intend to share with the public. 

Before the likes of digital and online media came along, journalists were the primary source of information the people would turn to, as they were deemed credible and trustworthy. However, with the rise of fake news, the trust that people once had in journalists has started to decline, and instead, have turned to influential figures for information. But, it's important to note that while journalists can be influencers, the same can't be said vice versa.

When you think about what an influencer is, people often think about social media influencers, and the influential figures on social media platforms who have a large number of fans and followers. While influencers have the power to impact the purchasing decisions of their followers, journalists gather and present information in a news story to the general public. Each has their own allure and purpose as an advocate for your brand, and having the right influencer or journalist to spread information about you to their audience can make all the difference.

Why You Need a Media Database in the Middle East

Whether you are aiming to send out a press release or share an exciting company update, trying to execute a public relations campaign successfully, without the use of a media database, will feel a lot like talking to an empty room. Having access to a media database, however, will fill up that room with people who can spread your message to the public.  

Meltwater's Media Database helps you find the journalists within the Middle East who are writing about topics that are most relevant to your brand. You are able to build media lists and manage relationships by corresponding directly through the Meltwater platform to get the most out of tool. To add to this, your message gets delivered to audiences with credibility and authority. 

How to Use a Media Database in the Middle East

It's important to note that not all media databases will look the same or have the same list of journalists and influencers. Media databases tend to vary in size, locations, and available media channels. Meltwater's media database has an extensive list of global media contacts, the Middle East included, to provide PR professionals with the right contacts to help spread their message. 

When you log into Meltwater's media database platform, you’ll see a search dashboard where you can begin your search and start building your media contact list. Make sure that you select the particular country in the Middle East that you are looking to target first, before building your search via beats or topic of interest. 

Then, you can search for journalists by "beats" or a topic of interest that the journalist specializes in.  When you search for journalists like this, you essentially are able to find those journalists who primarily write about a certain topic e.g. Marketing and PR, Fashion and Beauty, or Information Technology. These journalists would be considered experts on the topic, and its very likely that their audience would listen to them on the particular topic. 

You can also search for journalists by the outlet or specific publication that they write for. Perhaps you are looking to share information in a national publication such as the Khaleej Times, or something that is a little more niche, like Martech Vibe Middle East. Either way, you can search for journalists on Meltwater's platform by choosing the outlet or publication that you want your message to be spread in. From there, you can take a look at all the journalists listed for that specific publication, and find the right one for you.   

Distributing to a Media Database in the Middle East

Getting proper media coverage will depend on getting your pitch right. Journalists receive a number of emails in their inboxes with varying media pitches; yours needs to stand out from the rest, and PR and communications professionals know just how much a tailored message will have a better chance of resonating with a targeted audience. If you want to learn more about pitching to journalists, read this blog post on How to Pitch Your Press Release to Journalists. 

A media database makes it quite easy to create multiple media lists that you can use for different types of pitches or having the same pitch shared differently in order to appeal to a more focused list of journalists. Just remember that segmenting your media lists into the niche topics that you are trying to cover will give you a better chance of getting media coverage. You always want to tailor your message so that it makes sense to your target audience, and the same applies to the journalists that you are trying to pitch to. So in essence, you want to craft unforgettable pitches that your media list will want to share almost immediately.

Meltwater makes it easy to distribute your pitches to the right journalists. After you have created your media list, you'll select "Outreach" to compose a new email to send to your selected media list. You can also create an "Outreach Template" so that you have a pre-existing email template to use every time you want to send a pitch to a particular media list, instead of creating one from scratch. 

Here you can find more information about our Media Monitoring Solution in Arabic.

Craft your Middle East Media Database Today

Hopefully, this post has made using a media database a little less daunting, because at the end of the day, it is important to have one if you want to get your message out there through credible journalists and reporters. Without one, engaging in public relations and ensuring success for your PR campaigns might prove to be the real daunting task. 

With Meltwater's extensive database, let our team help you get in touch with the right journalists for your brand.

Did you know? Meltwater's interface is now available in Arabic!

How To Create and Leverage Your Media Database in the Middle East

Rather than mining their data more deeply to identify market trends, organizations often rely too heavily on traditional out-of-the-box reporting solutions. And, this comes at the cost of missing out on surfacing the best opportunities for growth and success for a business. 

However, more and more companies are becoming increasingly aware of this opportunity cost and exploring ways to surface actionable insights from their data. Enter market intelligence, which synthesizes data about an organization's competitors, customers, and target market to provide evidence-based projections on the direction of the market and decisions that will help the organization best position itself for future success. 

This article looks at the difference between a real-time, data-driven market intelligence strategy and traditional business intelligence strategies. It will also discuss the necessary components of a market intelligence program and the best practices to implement it successfully.

How does market intelligence differ from business intelligence?

Many organizations will want to use both market intelligence and traditional business intelligence in some form or another. It's important to understand how the two concepts are different, where the concepts overlap, and how the two can work together. 

Business intelligence traditionally deals with a more quantitative transactional assessment of the sales pipeline (such as sales numbers or deliveries).

In contrast, market intelligence offers a more qualitative and externally-oriented assessment of an organization's sales environment: what are the relevant qualities of the business's customers, what is the competition doing effectively, what trends will the market adopt in the future, what product features will be necessary to adapt to changes in the market, and so on.

This kind of information can be used to drive a number of business decisions, including informing teams about which marketing strategies will generate the greatest return for the organization. As an example, inbound marketing (or the process of helping customers find services and products via strategic content creation) is known for being one of the most effective lead generation strategies, delivering 54% more leads on average than traditional lead strategies. 

One of the primary reasons why inbound marketing can be so effective is because of the data gained from a market intelligence assessment, as it encompasses information across the entirety of the organization's target market to help identify customer purchasing patterns or what kind of content they tend to consume. The data gained from a business intelligence assessment would be much less useful in this regard as it focuses more on the company, and less on the consumer.

Market intelligence is essentially the synthesis of four individual components:

Competitor Intelligence: Competitor intelligence, or competitive intelligence, involves collecting and analyzing data about your competitors' strengths and weaknesses in real-time, as well as information about how they are approaching the market and entering new markets. A competitive analysis platform can help you with this process.


Product Intelligence: Product intelligence uses real-time data to assess the performance of both your own products and services and those of your competitors. Are there product features that are particularly important to customers? Are there features they want that a product is missing? Is the pricing strategy working effectively? What are the explanations for pricing differentials between your product and your competitors?


Customer Understanding: Understanding who the customer is and the needs they are looking to fill is the purview of customer understanding. Customer understanding can be used to derive an ideal customer profile and assess the evolution of customer needs and wants. Consumer insights drive these insights and feed into your consumer intelligence strategy.


Market Understanding: Market understanding involves identifying an organization's target market before analyzing the size and structure of that target market, the needs of the market, the trends permeating the market, and the organization's place in the market compared to its competitors.

How to effectively use market intelligence

Established businesses should follow the practices below in pursuing market intelligence programs. But market intelligence is not limited to ongoing concerns — prospective startups can also effectively use market intelligence to assess the viability of their ideas in the marketplace. 

Specific, valid goals and key performance indicators

The first step in implementing a market intelligence program is determining the goals for the program and how the organization will assess whether the information the program generates is useful. This, in turn, requires specifying the exact metrics or key performance indicators it wishes to measure. 

Ask yourself: What questions is the organization looking to answer? Is the focus on developing particular customer segments? Or is the organization looking to expand its overall target market? 

Setting the right goals is necessary to analyze the data properly. The organization must then take the next step and drive business decisions based on these goals, modifying them as needed based on updated data.

Why you need accurate, specific, and real-time data

Marketing intelligence requires access to significant amounts of relevant and accurate data. The more data available, the more likely it is that the organization will be able to develop useful, actionable intelligence about the market. Insufficient data, on the other hand, will lead to inaccurate conclusions about market and customer trends. 

Many companies struggle immensely with data collection and analysis. Fortunately, it is not difficult to obtain sufficient data. Data can come from several sources, including an organization's internal databases, industry organizations, reliable marketing data providers, and social media. 

Surveys, including email and online surveys, can help obtain useful data on customers' needs and preferences. According to Ottawa-based software developer and online marketer Gary Stevens of Hosting Canada, email remains one of the most effective ways for gathering customer data. Stevens says, "Email marketing has evolved tremendously in the past half-decade or so and has quickly become one of the primary revenue drivers across every industry. Despite some outcries to the contrary, email is far from dead and is, according to all statistics and expert predictions, actually gaining traction as a marketing modality."

Social media and other online information sources, such as news sites and blogs, are also valuable data sources for a market intelligence program. However, effective data collection from these sources can be a time-intensive process, and organizations frequently seek out the assistance of reliable media monitoring service providers.

Not only must there be a sufficient amount of data, but the data must be as close to real-time as possible. Because so much of the world is sharing its opinions on every subject at all hours of the day, trends and markets can shift quickly. 

It is not just the customer of next year or next month that organizations need to consider — but the customer of the next day. 

Data analysis is only useful if those using it can easily grasp the results and apply them to business decisions. Without effective visualizations, all the data in the world can be meaningless. Organizations should first look at who in the organization is going to use the data. Will the sales department use it for determining how to strengthen relationships with current customers, or is it the C-suite for planning long-term marketing budgets? 

Defining who will be viewing the data helps define the presentation form. To most effectively present data, organizations should consider using self-service, user-customizable dashboards where an end-user can simply plug-and-play data modules based on their individual needs. Software like Meltwater offers custom reports tailored for your personal nees.. 

Data is one of an organization's greatest assets, so long as the organization puts it to effective use. Combining market intelligence with business intelligence to provide real-time analysis of your target market's current state will allow you to drive better business decisions and grow your sales pipeline and future revenue.

Market Intelligence: Using Real-Time Data and Generate More Leads and Revenue

Have you ever wondered what a social media manager actually does? Maybe you’re considering how to become one, or maybe you just need to prove to your grandparents that “no, I don’t sit around on Facebook all day!” (Which would explain why you didn’t reply to their last 20 comments on your pictures from graduation).

In any case, the job description of a social media manager is one that is constantly changing to keep up with the times. You're an integral part of the marketing team, managing the brand's online community, and balancing a multitude of channels each with its own dialects.

So while it’s difficult to pin down, there are some very clear skills and responsibilities that social media marketing managers possess. 

What Skills Does a Social Media Manager Need?

Keys for Success as a Social Media Marketing Manager

Infographic: A Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketing Manager

A social media manager is in many ways the same as a community manager. They are the leader who oversees your social media strategy from scheduling posts to reporting on performance. They are often responsible for managing a team and they check the quality of all posts, ensuring they adhere to the business's social media policies. 

They possess a special blend of “big picture, little picture” -- managing your online community, encouraging engagement & clicks, and running the social side of marketing campaigns. 

The role of a social media marketing manager is integral to a company’s reputation, growth, and brand image. Not only are they keeping their eyes and ears attuned to consumer conversations within your online community, but they are also creating and optimizing content that reinforces the consumer/brand relationship. 

A social media manager is responsible for ensuring the right information is shared with your company's online community at the right time.

It should be noted that social media marketing managers usually focus on organic social, while paid social is often handled by another person or department.

The day-to-day life of a social media manager entails checking the day’s scheduled posts, making any changes needed, editing copy, and meeting with fellow marketing team peers on upcoming campaigns, product launches, or other promotional opportunities — like a CEO interview or a new partnership that you'd like to announce publicly. These must all then be incorporated into your social media planning roadmap.

Your day will also include community management responsibilities such as liking, commenting, and sharing posts from your followers, partners as well as peers. 

Note: the role of social media is slightly different if you work B2B vs B2C. B2B social media marketing will require you to offer business-based solutions and speak as an industry expert. B2C social media management involves speaking directly with your consumer community, so your interaction with your followers will probably be more conversational.

As we mentioned, social media marketing managers need to be able to balance big picture social strategy with small picture details, communicating regularly with the wider marketing team. The below skills are essential to success as a social media and community manager.

Analyzing metrics is no small part of your job as a social media manager. 

This is how you determine your progress against your goals and assess the direction your channels should go from a high-level strategy perspective. (Feeling stuck? See our 10 step checklist for a social media audit). 

Successful social media is nothing if not creative! You need to think outside the box if you want to move the needle and stand out in your community. Consider the creativity that went into these brands’ April Fools posts for example. (I mean...who else was crestfallen that Find My Brick wasn’t real?!)

This probably goes without saying, but social media is just that: social. (Contrary to what your parents probably think). Social managers have to want to engage with all sorts of different folks in their community on a consistent basis. Being a people person is a huge asset for a social media manager.

You have a lot to keep track of when you’re a social media and community manager. From scheduling posts across multiple platforms to managing collaborations, community engagement, and campaigns, there’s very little room for error. 

You also need to pull regular metrics. Keeping them in a ship-shape spreadsheet will be essential for communicating your progress to the wider marketing team.

Cultivating a community is one of the key aspects when it comes to social media. As a community manager on social media, you need to be energetic but also strategic. 

Follow conversations closely and moderate community content, finding ways your brand can interact within various online communities, is a huge part of the job. 

Be ready to be quick thinking, light on your feet, and flexible with changes — sometimes up to the minute! Social media isn’t stagnant and the community is always shifting. 

Sometimes a crisis arises and you need to be ready to address it in a timely manner. And don’t underestimate the way social listening can influence HR.

To be successful in the job of a social media manager and community builder, and to drive a social media strategy forward, you should have a working knowledge of the social media space — in particular, the major channels like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook but also more niche communities like Twitch and TikTok.

You should feel comfortable communicating in a variety of ways, with sharp copy skills. Having a working knowledge of various marketing styles and advertising tactics won't hurt either.

Aside from the skills listed above, you'll shine bright in the job market with the below included on your resume or demonstrated in your portfolio:

To pull ahead in the field of social media management, you should have a thorough understanding of various social media software tools. These tools may involve the basics such as scheduling ahead, or they may be a bit more involved, with social listening capabilities and sophisticated data analytics.

A social media manager needs to be able to keep up with current and cutting edge trends across social media platforms. This not only helps you have a competitive advantage — it means you can communicate and respond on social media like a peer. 

Unless you’re in on the joke, you don’t want to run the risk of appearing out of touch and responding with a meme that is just so yesterday.

Social media is about communicating conversationally yet professionally — sometimes in a limited amount of characters! (Looking at you Twitter). 

People in the online community are all too eager to jump on mistakes, which is just the kind of interruption you don’t need in your day. So good writing is essential. Have your apostrophes, semi-colons, and spelling ducks in a row!

While your colleagues may think you have it easy, more often than not, as a social media manager, your day is far from a day at the beach and more closely resembles the film "Groundhog Day".

With businesses now investing seriously in a social business model, as opposed to approaching social as an afterthought, the job of a social media manager is more important than ever. 

The scope of their work touches all aspects of what comprises a modern organization. This infographic details how much work social media marketing managers contribute to the work of a company in their drive to fulfill business goals.

To learn more about what it takes to drive social business, read our latest e-book, Social to Scale: How to Build a Serious Social Media Program.

The way people communicate now has changed. Mobile phones are part of the consumer fabric. Digital social interaction has become synonymous to how we live, work and communicate every day especially with the burgeoning options of communication and social apps available. 

In light of this, consumers have taken to social media to voice their concerns, give constructive feedback, foster group dynamics and gather public opinion on brands and organisations. These public social channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn become the main purveyors of social media insight.

However, there is a growing segment which is usually left undetected by communicators and marketing professionals - the hidden realm of Dark Social. This segment is important to brands because if it is left unchecked, there is a public groundswell of opinion which may have an effect on your communication strategies.

This phenomenon of Dark Social is the “hidden” interaction between netizens within social media. These interactions can be described as the “invisible” shares that happen through channels like messengers, but also email and text messages. A common trait shared by these interactions across different platforms is that the data is usually encrypted and protected.

However, it is best to highlight this secretive pool of opinion as many consumers - especially the younger demographics who live on mobile interaction - are sharing information and opinion on Dark Social channels. 

A Global Web Index study showed that the majority of netizens now (84%) share information online while consumers are flocking to private messaging apps (PMA) such as Facebook Messenger, WeChat, WhatsApp and Telegram. Collectively, just these four private messaging apps have approximately 5 billion users.

Therefore it is imperative that organisations and their brands effectively manage their profile and image. This is critical because access to Dark Social is limited. Only a positively robust narrative of your brand will be able to counter this obstacle so as to transmit cognisant messaging within Dark Social.

Sharing of information on PMAs have become intrinsic in consumers’ daily lives and it can only rise as mobile penetration reaches new markets around the world. Every byte of information from describing the decor of a hipster cafe to the latest discussion of a government policy. 

The study also revealed that apart from personal photos and memes, netizens actively shared URLs and website links to their PMA networks. Other relevant anecdotes that consumers shared were social media posts, pictures of products, news reports and blog posts. Using Meltwater’s Explore, communicators can use measurement such as Social Echo to identify content which consumers are most interested in and sharing with their networks.

These interactions are pivotal in the narratives being shared on brands and organisations. These private conversations may coalesce to become socially accepted discourses on a brand. This is critical because a brand does not want to be immediately associated with any negative connotations that might affect their profiles.

For example, the UK lifestyle brand Fred Perry had to publicly denounce any association with far-right militia Proud Boys during the recent US presidential election. The radical hate group had adopted the brand’s iconic black polo tees as their uniform and there were more than 24,000 mentions of the brand in the last quarter of 2020. 

One can assume the conversations within the realm of PMA that the Proud Boys had to unilaterally select Fred Perry as their choice of attire. And this is why a good social media monitoring system is needed to counter the narratives emanating out of Dark Social which might affect brand image.

Undeniably, the use of PMAs have become our bread and butter. For the majority of us, Dark Social and PMAs are what we use for our careers and social lives. We wake up and catch up with our friends, video conferences with our colleagues and interact with customers through social media messaging. 

Furthermore, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this routine of life. The Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma succinctly describes our current predicament with social media and its affiliates - the platforms that rely on to connect with each other have made us rely on it so much and made that connection become virtual.

Recently Facebook announced that on 8 February 2021, the social media giant would be integrating WhatsApp’s data into its operations. This move would give Facebook uninhibited access to the PMA’s user data. The conversations would indefinitely boost the companies’ monetisation efforts through advertising their products while at the same time streamlining their business strategies. 

The notification listed details about the messaging app’s key updates including how it processes user data and its partnership with Facebook to offer integrations across the Facebook Company Product and how businesses can use Facebook-hosted services to store and manage their WhatsApp chats.

Through Dark Social, WhatsApp will update its operations to integrate data with Facebook. This integration gives a peek into the social media company’s plans to utilise WhatsApp user data to optimise its products’ marketing strategies. Brands can also leverage on Facebook’s move to tune up their strategies in tapping the Dark Social market. 

This also coincides with a finding by the University of Canberra that showed more people are turning to Facebook for their source of news. With more people within the Facebook ecosystem, the better coverage of their brands and tweaking their marketing strategies to widen their consumer base.

Every channel of communication is pivotal. Communicators are constantly finding new ways to reach out to their audiences. When consumer preferences change, it is essential that communicators find the causative sources that affect these changes. With Dark Social, there are several trends that become more pronounced in the ways people converse and exchange information. 

With the almost-instantaneous nature of social media, consumers generally expect to “chat" with brands. If not, their attention flickers to the next option.

There are so many platforms for people to engage in Dark Social. The speed of which content goes viral has accelerated so much, communicators need to prepare for every possibility.

This organic nature of conversations and the trust built between people play an influential role. Through Dark Social, this channel of information is expedited through close-knit social circles and micro-spheres of influence.

Anonymity is a motivator of spreading half-truths. Some channels of Dark Social work in the confines of anonymity and different stakeholders use this to enhance their messaging to audiences.

Understandably, people are more comfortable in airing their views in private as compared to typing grievances in public domains such as Facebook. This is where Dark Social becomes a social arena catering to opinions and narratives on brands.

Many brands and organisations have already taken the step of bolstering their social media presence to the next level. Customer service, e-commerce and marketing campaigns are now part of the social media arsenal that communicators deploy to connect with their audiences. 

So what can communicators do next with Dark Social? Firstly, they need to start a conversation with their stakeholders on the intrinsic link between media coverage and social media. Stakeholders need to know how crucial this link is to fully maximise the brand’s reach to its audiences. 

Communicators also need to track public social channels to extrapolate exclusive insights about their audiences and what they feel about the brand. Tools such as Meltwater’s Analyze are handy for communication professionals in extracting this intelligence from their social channels. 

Dark Social is fast becoming the communication mode of choice for many and communicators need to embrace newer methods and channels to not miss out on this opportunity. With that in mind, have communicators developed their capabilities to capture marketing opportunities and fresh audiences in Dark Social?

Dark Social: The Next Marketing Opportunity

Most businesses rely on data to adjust and optimize their strategy; but having said that, nearly 1 in 2 companies say that they struggle to access and break down silos between disparate data types. 

Since we talk with hundreds of MarCom professionals each and every day, we realize that the majority of businesses have a difficult time grasping the bigger picture because they do not have all the data they need to make informed decisions. Oftentimes, these businesses rely solely on internal metrics, such as sales figures, financials, and internal reports to check their positioning. While internal data is necessary, it is historical data. This means that it delivers insights into events that have already happened. As a result, companies end up making decisions based on a combination of lagging indicators, and intuition.

With 72% of PR pros saying that measuring business impact is currently their top challenge, silos in data is a problem.

No business is unaffected by what’s going around them, and they need to not live in their own internal bubble.

At Meltwater, we believe that having all the data you need, both internal and external, in a single location, is vital. That is why we have developed our own Meltwater API (or Application Programming Interface).

Worry not, I won't dive into the technical side of things here, instead, I'll explain how APIs work in general (and how Meltwater's API works as well).

What you need to know is that an API is used to transfer data from one application to another. In short, it helps tools to talk to each other without you - the end-user - having to code anything extra.

Here's an easy-to-understand example to illustrate this.

Imagine that you are sitting in a fancy restaurant, holding a menu. In that situation, the waiter acts as the API.

The API [the waiter] takes information [your order] from you [App #1], brings it to the kitchen [App #2], and comes back with your meal. A seamless experience.

Meltwater’s API allows our customers to input media data into third-party applications like Tableau or Microsoft PowerBI, thus enabling them to see the correlation between media data and other data sets, like sales volume, in real time.

This is the best way to see correlations between indicators from different sources, such as revenue and PR clippings.

To do this, Meltwater leans on smart AI crawling to track millions of media data sets, in real-time. That includes online news, social media platforms, job postings, financial filings, product reviews, image recognition,  and much more.

The Meltwater Blog

How To Create and Leverage Your Media Database in the Middle East

Market Intelligence: Using Real-Time Data and Generate More Leads and Revenue

Infographic: A Day in the Life of a Social Media Marketing Manager

Dark Social: The Next Marketing Opportunity

The Value of API and Analysing Different Data Types

How CPG Brands in MENA Can Benefit From Digital Marketing

Q&A with Prakash Senghani: Your AI & Transformation Questions Answered

How to Post on Instagram - The Full Guide

Growth Hacking for Marketers

Elections And The Threat of Foreign Interference

How to Master Content Marketing in the Middle East

Why Personal Reputation Management Is the Key for Your Success