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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

From helping support Covid-19 relief efforts to raising awareness around social inequalities, we’ve seen a string of brands up their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and purpose-driven marketing in the past 12 months. The year 2020 was forced brands to reevaluate their relationship with consumers and the communities they operate within as people all over the world looked to politicians and brand to do better.  

But, today's consumers don't just want to read a polished corporate statement from a company's PR team — they want action. Social responsibility needs to be deep-rooted in the DNA of your organization to prevent audiences from perceiving you as ‘woke washing’, ‘greenwashing’, ‘good washing’, ‘armchair activists’, ‘slacktivism’ and the rest. Implementing CSR initiatives into your marketing strategy requires a willingness to help others, not only your bottom line. In this blog, we'll explain what an authentic CSR program looks like. 

But first, what is the definition of corporate social responsibility?

 If you are asking yourself, “what does CSR mean?” we like to defer to this CSR definition:

“Corporate social responsibility is a mechanism for businesses to assess the impact they have on society and put responsible, ethical policies in place to support individuals, the local community, the marketplace and the environment.”

Unfortunately, each company has its definition of corporate social responsibility, but there are notable common threads used to define what is CSR in business:

An aim of contributing to societal goals through philanthropic or charitable acts

An acknowledgment of the fact that corporate responsibility is a self-regulated initiative that helps a company to be more socially accountable through corporate governance

Acknowledgment of the fact that CSR assists relationship management between the company and its surrounding environment (e.g. stakeholders and local communities)

What is the Purpose of Corporate Social Responsibility?

Giving back to the communities you serve and helping protect the environment is the cost of doing business today. While why a company begins to focus on CSR should be driven by an internal motivation to do good, external forces are also making sure CSR in on the corporate agenda.

Audiences place a high value on social responsibility, in fact, 78% of people want companies to address social justice issues and 63% said they hoped businesses will drive social and environmental social responsibility change where government regulation lacks. By focusing on social responsibility, corporates are giving their audiences what they demand.

Also, it’s nice to be nice. Having a CSR strategy should come from wanting to be/ do better — and not from wanting to drive profits. Today’s savvy consumers can spot brands that partake in social responsibility from a ‘selfish’ standpoint from miles away. And if an organization is looking to begin a CSR campaign solely as a means of making money or improving the company's reputation, the truth is that this can actually end up damaging your brand rather than enhancing it. That’s not to say you can’t promote your CSR  initiative — you can, but you have to make sure you do so tastefully which we’ll discuss later in this article.

4 Ways Businesses can Kick Start CSR Practices

A company that wants to improve its social responsibility efforts may choose to focus on a number of different activities and approaches. Below we explain how a company can denote resources, change its products or services, give back to employees and contribute to supporting the environment. 

With a growing interest surrounding brands that take their earthly responsibility seriously, we thought it would be the optimal time to break down the 5 best environmental campaigns on social media in recent history.

Corporations can embrace corporate philanthropy by making strategic donations to causes. For example, you may wish to donate a percentage of your profits, sponsor an event or hold an employee volunteer day.

Remember, just because you’ve parted ways with some cash, that doesn’t mean that you’re putting your money where your mouth is. For that to happen, you need to embody the values of the nonprofit you’re partnering with, which in turn, means you need to walk the talk. With this in mind, it’s best practice to find a nonprofit that’s responsibility aligns with both your company priorities and that of your audience.

2. Make changes to your products or services

For CSR to work, it’s important for companies to look in the mirror and, as Gandhi said, “Be the change they wish to see in the world.” These changes could be anything from making your packaging eco-friendlier or, on a bigger scale, ensuring corporate social responsibility in global supply chains is closely monitored. 

If your business takes on the responsibility to evaluate, rework, or make the product more socially responsible, make sure this is communicated by business leaders. You can’t expect stakeholders to know what’s happening behind closed doors; communication plays a key role in how socially responsible a brand is perceived.

Adopting practices and programs that support employees is another way to demonstrate social responsibility. During the pandemic, research found 90% of consumers said that it is important to them that brands take care of their employees, with a further 49% expressing how businesses treat their staff as one of their top five purchasing considerations. Beyond ethics, workplace happiness helps productivity and employee engagement, so being socially accountable is a win-win situation for all! 

Check out Comparably's ranking of the top 100 highest-rated companies with the Happiest Employees to learn more about what defines being a great place to work. (P.S. Look out for Meltwater on the list!)

It’s easy to get swept up in the idea of grand changes on a global or national level, however, contributing to local social responsibility programs is equally as important. For many businesses, local customers are a key source of sales, therefore, company prosperity depends on favorable conditions within the community. Some local authorities also prefer to award contracts and tenders to businesses that take on the responsibility of getting involved in their community, so having them on your side is a massive win.

Community involvement is a great way to humanize your brand, this can take many forms including contributing financially to local projects or supporting nearby schools or community centers. 

What to avoid when it comes to rolling out a CSR strategy

Asserting commitment to CSR and actually adhering to practices are two different things. As mentioned earlier, companies that don’t walk their talk are at risk of being perceived as frauds, and there's a growing list of terms that people are using to describe such organizations.

Greenwashing refers to making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental social responsibility benefits of a particular company initiative or decision. In doing so, companies create the illusion they’re more ethical and environmentally friendly than they really are. 

You may remember Heathrow airport coming under fire for this a few years ago? The public slated its eco-sanctuary living wall and Garden Gate as merely an attempt to mask its expansion plans with a proposed new runway.

In our blog “5 Signs of Greenwashing—And How to Avoid Doing It Yourself,” we highlighted greenwashing signals to watch out for, including:

Making environmental social responsibility claims the company is already legally required to provide

Lobbying against measures behind the scenes—while leadership and comms regularly deliver pro-environmental messages

Putting inaccurate environmentally friendly claims on your labels

Wokewashing is a term used to describe when companies cynically prey on customers' social responsibility awareness by adopting the veneer of progressive values using progressive-orientated marketing for profit. 

Unfortunately, we’re seeing an increase in marketing pros commodifying social movements and piling on to the latest cause to “out-purpose” the competition without taking the time to check their own company values and culture. Who remembers Kendall Jenner's Pepsi ad which many claimed appropriated the Black Lives Matter movement? The drink giant's tone death ad failed at its attempt to position itself as both a protest drink for key challenges in the world and as having the power to heal tensions. 

In the wake of the brand crisis, we used Meltwater’s media monitoring tool to track the sentiment of Pepsi before the ad launched and after. As you can see, the reputation plummeted after the ad release and for some time after. Fortunately for Pepsi, judging based on their brand sentiment they recovered from the crisis, but not all brands are that fortunate.

The United Nations defined slacktivism as when people support a cause by performing simple measures, but they’re not truly engaged or devoted to making a change. 

The term is often synonymous with viral movements, which are coming thick and fast in the form of various social media challenges (The Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS, the no make-up challenge for cancer research, and the black and white picture challenge that helped raise awareness of femicide in Turkey, etc). 

The problem with armchair activism/slacktivism is that people often join in because they like the feeling of being a part of something rather than wanting to change something. For example, nobody really knew the foundation of the black and white picture challenge was linked to femicide in Turkey. Instead, many thought the challenge was more about girl power and used hashtags like #womensupportingwomen to accompany the photo. The message, like so many others, was lost.

Maybe slacktivism doesn’t deserve as bad of a rap as it has considering it does bring awareness, but these days a brand’s good intentions need to be exceeded by their CSR actions for them to be considered worth it.

CSR disconnect between your vision and your audience 

The social corporate responsibility areas you choose to invest in should align with urgencies in your wider macro environment (for example, climate change), your company's vision, and audience's interests. Swing too much either way and you risk losing company focus or interest from your audience. Understanding company focus is easy as it’s something you have control over, but getting to grips with the psyche of your consumers is a little more challenging.

How to make your CSR activities successful

Before you launch your own CSR program, make sure you are being transparent about your motivations & actions, letting your audience inform your actions and listening to the responses you are receiving.

1. Be transparent with your responsibility efforts

Audiences aren’t expecting a complete overhaul of corporate behavior overnight, but they do expect progress. So, define what corporate sustainability means to you and then identify pathways to effectively address this definition. Get all stakeholders involved to commit, establish goals and monitor corporate behavior and progress. Transparency is key here, so don’t forget to share results — both good and bad.

Invest in audience insights to ensure there is no CSR disconnect between your vision and your audience. As Khumo Theko, trend spotter at Flux Trends, discusses, there are new urban tribes that brands should be aware of. One of her stand-out points is that consumers are consciously diverse; there are various groups that are connected, and socially motivated, but all stand for something different. 

Meltwater’s Consumer Insights tool allows you to get rich insights into the different segments and communities following your brand so you can quickly identify what they’re passionate about and find the shared CSR value sweet spot between your brand vision and customer.

As Jeanne du Plessis, Corporate Affairs and Citizenship Leader at Procter and Gamble South Africa said in a previous Meltwater webinar, it doesn’t do any good for businesses to storm in and try to fix things before talking to those affected by the problem. For instance, before you rush in to paint a classroom, take the time to listen. You need to understand the root problem to make a real change. 

Today, it’s not just about having an impact on the bottom line, it’s about having an impact beyond business. Here are a few more examples of brands flexing their corporate social responsibility policy. 

Corporate responsibility angle: Environment sustainability 

Outdoor apparel and gear manufacturer, Patagonia, has been at the forefront of sustainability activism since the company’s 1973 founding. They even recently changed their mission from being product-focused, “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis,” to one that is even more sustainability led, “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” The mission goes as far as suggesting that financial performance comes second to the environment. In 2016, they proved this when they announced that they would donate 100% of Black Friday sales to sustainable organizations that benefit the environment. 

CEO, Rose Marcario, also recently announced the company would donate the $10 million it saved as a result of President Trump’s 2018 tax cuts to environmental protection groups. Patagonia then explained how this sustainability initiative allowed them to help “hundreds of grassroots environmental organizations”. Such a significant public action helped solidify the company’s CSR policy and reputation for genuine dedication to sustainable causes.

Corporate responsibility angle: Social injustice

In recent years, Nike’s ads have largely stepped away from traditional formats and instead looked further afield to tap into the current culture of social activism, standing up for what you believe in and proving you have what it takes to win. 

When American football star, Colin Kaepernick, was dropped by the NFL after taking a knee during the national anthem before a 2016 match in protest against police brutality, Nike launched a bold advertising campaign with Kaepernick as the star. The ad sparked protests and boycott threats against the brand, but their solidarity also won many over.

Fast forward to 2020, like many companies, Nike reiterated its stance on the Black Lives Matter movement, but more importantly, behind closed doors they also made changes. As mentioned on their site, during this past year, they’ve stepped up accountability initiatives in the areas of employee Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging to foster an inclusive environment and attract a more diverse employee workforce. What’s more, they’re driven by a commitment to transparency, accountability and impact and share their progress in these areas annually through the corporate responsibility Report.

Corporate responsibility angle: Employee welfare 

One of Starbucks’ main CSR areas is staff wellbeing. Through its very attractive health insurance benefits scheme, Starbucks is better placed to attract talent, build retention and improve morale. Their corporate website also refers to employees as ‘partners’ to emphasize personal relationships, despite how large the company is, stating: “Starbucks succeeds when our partners do, and we believe that success is best when shared.”

Corporate responsibility angle: Investment in supply chain stakeholders

McDonald’s recognizes the strength and agility of their supply chain is grounded in strong corporate collaborations and partnerships with stakeholders. Their ongoing responsibility commitment is to support both the future of farming and work alongside supplier stakeholders to introduce sustainable innovations. They do this by providing them with access to knowledge, tools and best practice farming methods. The result? Increased stakeholder efficiency, productivity and profitability, all while preserving the planet over the long term.

With an increased emphasis on social responsibility, businesses can truly give more attention to the people and communities that rely on them, and not just their stock price or investors. Shifting these priorities will help companies develop long-term, genuine support from audiences and ensure future profitability.

Hopefully, this blog has answered questions such as what is the concept of corporate social responsibility?, what is the importance of corporate social responsibility? and how can I kick start my social responsibility of business efforts? For more insights on The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in Marketing, click to watch our free, on-demand Webinar with P&G.

Psst. You may also be interested in Meltwater's Media Impact Analysis on IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report.

The Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), a series by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), looks at the current state of the climate, including how climate change is progressing and the role of human influence in this process. After a stark 'code red for humanity' warning was issued by IPCC, the Sixth Assessment report was highly covered by the media.

We wanted to better understand the media's reaction to this. Take a look a what we found here.

The Ultimate Guide To Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility

The world of social media and influencer marketing has proven to become an important part of any marketer's online strategy. There has been an increase in the consumption of digital media during lockdown, especially content types such as videos. 

According to a recent YouGov survey, KSA residents reported an increase in online activity during COVID-19, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. These activities included socialising online, browsing on social media, and watching online content. But where does influencer marketing come into play?

Influencers have taken a great hold of this increased demand in digital media, and we have witnessed the boom of TikTok and Instagram Reels. If your brand isn't doing the same, you will get left behind. 

So, to understand why influencer marketing has become so popular in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, let's first unpack what influencer marketing is and what it looks like within these two regions. 

Tip: Learn more about media in Saudi Arabia and media in the UAE.

The word ‘influencer’ has become increasingly commonplace in today's digital landscape and marketers should understand how they can be valuable to your business before running your next campaign. 

What was once limited to celebrities and well-known bloggers and content creators, social media 'influencers' have been on the rise as people started to listen to these individuals, who are considered as experts within their particular niche. 

Influencer marketing works and is highly successful because of the amount of trust that these social media influencers have built up with their following and community. The recommendations and advice from them are seen as a form of social proof to your brand’s potential customers.

Google searches for 'influencer marketing' have grown over 1500% in the last 3 years, with no sign of slowing down. To get a better sense of influencer marketing, and the value it can provide for your brand, download our ultimate guide to influencer marketing to get everything there is to know about influencer marketing.

A Quick Look at Influencers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

In the Middle East, there have already been just over 1 400 news articles that mention 'influencer' and over 1 500 social media mentions on 'influencer' in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia alone in 2020, a 34% increase as compared to 2019. In essence, more people in these two regions are talking about influencers and their emergence over this year. 

But how do people feel about influencers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia? Throughout the year, there have been mixed emotions from online users in the region.  

In March 2020, a Dubai-based influencer told their 42 000 follower base to ignore self-isolation regulations from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and to simply go outside. This was not received well, and contributed to the negative feelings that people had towards influencers and how they use their influence on social media. 

As reported by Arab News, a Dubai fitness influencer had their connection with Reebok suspended over comments the influencer made regarding the global pandemic. 

But it hasn't been all bad for influencers. In June 2020, the need for influencers was becoming more apparent to online users, as digital transformation and online pivoting of marketing strategies became necessary to adjust to the effects of the pandemic. 

From consuming more content to forecasting influencer marketing trends, many online users have seen the value of social influencers - and brands need to do the same. 

The Success of Influencer Marketing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

Social media influencers exist on a number of online platforms - Instagram, Facebook, Twitter; TikTok and more. But how does the presence of influencers look like in the UAE and Saudi Arabia?

According to a survey conducted by the BPG Group and YouGov, 85% of millennials in the UAE and Saudi Arabia follow at least one social media influencer, and “entertainment” is ranked as the most followed category on these platforms. When it comes to the trending themes surrounding 'influencers', these include:

'influencer marketing' which refers to online conversations that have taken place throughout the year to discuss influencer marketing in the region

'advice from influencers' which refers to how online users favour taking advice from an influencer over a brand

'campaign' which refers to Swarovski celebrating Ramadan for a campaign, as well as a Dubai-based influencer garnering negative attention after being disingenuous towards the UAE's  "stay-at-home" campaign 

But as the data shows, influencer marketing has quite the presence on social media, and can be effective when executed right as consumers and users tend to trust influencers more than traditional advertising.

Social media mentions of influencers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia have been predominant on Twitter, with 'influencer' have a consistent social reach on the platform of over 100 000. In April, 'influencer' had a total social reach of just over 4 Million, as online conversations in the two countries centered around the new challenges that influencers and influencer marketing were facing in light of the global pandemic., as mentioned by Arab News. 

According to the social media influencers survey by BPG Group and YouGov, 73% of consumers in Saudi Arabia and the UAE have purchased from a brand or tried a service mentioned by an influencer. The success of influencer marketing is there for the taking!

How to Find the Right Influencers in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

The social media influencer industry is about brands wanting to relay a message to their target audience by using a selection of influencers who fit within a particular niche. These influencers promote your brand to their community, creating a quick way to reach wider audiences and potential new customers. In return, influencers are compensated either monetarily or with free products and other benefits from the brand.

To find the right influencers for your brand, you need to evaluate social influencer marketing tools and influencer management platforms - for example, Klear's Social Influencer Software - to search for and start narrowing down your options based on the answers you get from the criteria you're looking to meet (such as target audience, niche and influencer following).  From here, you want to contact these influencers to ask for their media kits and rate cards, as a way of helping you gather more data and information about their followers’ demographic and the budget required to work with them. 

Once you have found the right influencers that you want to work with, make sure that you check analytics before, during, and after any social media influencer marketing campaign. Using a social listening tool, you can measure the performance of your campaign based on the number of mentions, engagement rate, potential social reach, and other social media metrics. 

From here, you can assess and analyse which aspects of your campaign worked well and which ones didn’t, in order to better optimise your influencer marketing campaigns in the future.

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

Want to learn more about how you can use influencers to take your brand to the next level? Request a free demo of Meltwater's Social Influencer Tool today!

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

The Rise of Influencer Marketing in the UAE and Saudi Arabia

While 2020 shook many industries to the core, the event sector was one of few that felt the impact of Covid-19 most abruptly. Event marketing was pretty much put on ice for the first few months of the global lockdown while organizers disrupted, digitalized and adapted their strategy to keep the sector alive.

93% of event professionals plan to invest in virtual events moving forward, meaning that event marketing will look starkly different from what it did in the past. However, that’s not to say it’ll be any less valuable in helping marketers establish relationships, get feedback from their audience, promote new products and increase brand awareness. And, with the right planning and strategy, you’ll continue to see ROI from your event-based marketing efforts in 2021. 

During this post, we’ll walk through event marketing tips to ensure you have the knowledge required to optimize your event promotion efforts, increase visibility amongst your target market and win more event-based marketing budget for next year.

Consider How You Want to Execute Your Event-based Marketing Strategy

3 Ways to Use PR & Content Marketing for Events

Before you decide on event marketing tactics, you’ll first need to establish event marketing goals. Your goals should be linked to your organization's overall business objectives, so there’s no one size fits all approach here. That being said, 55% of event marketing pros cite the following as the most common goals for their events:

Having clear event marketing goals doesn’t just guide your marketing tactics, your goals also help determine the type of event you should attend. As Bizzabo explains, “Intimate VIP events may help to win new customers, while thought leadership and networking events may help to increase brand awareness, and awards ceremonies may help to generate revenue from ticket sales and sponsors.” So, the type of event you organize will depend on the objective you are hoping to achieve.

Investing in the right event marketing access that also aligns with your marketing goals is the first step in your event strategy journey, so make sure you give this consideration time. If marketing budget resource is restricting you from investing in a full pass, you’ll want to look into other options, like gaining general press or industry access or only having a (virtual) exhibition hall pass. Remember, there’s always wiggle room to haggle on costs, so don’t take the price at face value. 

If the marketing budget only allows you to register as a regular audience attendee, roll up your sleeves and enroll in workshops or (digital) breakout sessions. Use your time wisely by attending the workshops that’ll help you solve your own business and marketing challenges.

Although it’s tricker, 'attendee only' access can still be used as a resource to drive marketing lead generation. Take a look at the exhibitor list and during the breaks make a beeline for any that could be potential prospects and start to promote your product/ services to them. You should also consider attending the workshops of prospects that you are keen to speak with.

Booths are particularly useful for sales product demonstrations, so if you’re launching something new, we’d recommend including this option in your marketing strategy. The good thing about booths is that they encourage 1-1 dialogue with attendees, so your sales team can really personalize their pitch. You can also ensure you’re being strategic with booth traffic by booking meetings with attendees and sales reps prior to the event, which will help generate organic footfall as crowds tend to naturally gather around busy booths!

If you have enough marketing budget to invest in a speaking slot, do it! Speaking slots help position you as a thought leader. They can also help you drive traffic to your booth if you have one. Most trade show organizers provide the details of people who have watched your talk, so it’s a great marketing lead generation tool. 

We’d recommend using the opportunity to collaborate with an influencer, this might be profiling a client or joining forces with a thought expert. Whoever you decide to put on stage, they need to be both knowledgeable and charismatic. Do your research beforehand by watching videos from previous talks and running a search on their name in your media intelligence platform. Doing so will help you understand what topics they’ve presented on in the past that have generated the most positive buzz.

Sponsorship options are great brand awareness boosters. This too can also help position your brand as a leader through association. Sponsoring doesn’t tend to drive attendee leads, so if that’s your event-based marketing goal, it’s better to invest in one of the alternative methods mentioned above. 

Whether you are just attending the event or you are speaking at it, there are several different ways you can leverage the opportunity in your content marketing and social media strategy. We'll explain how social media posts, press releases and blogs can be used to increase awareness around an event, expand your network and become a thought-leader. 

1. Increase awareness through public relations

PR is a great way to get the word out, create audience buzz, improve visibility and drive registrations & booth visits when it comes to promotional activities. As discussed in our blog 10 examples of effective press releases, a press release must be adapted according to the campaign, promotion and message. This means the format of a product launch press release will be different from one of an event campaign.

When putting together a press release around your event, keep your overall goals in mind and frame the press release around what you want journalists to do after reading it. For example:

Do you want them to promote your event to their readership? 

Do you want to personally invite them to come? 

Do you want to invite them so they can cover the event and relay this back to their audience? 

When it comes to sending out press releases around events, “what doesn’t work is writing the same old press release for the event,” says Vannessa Wade, Founder, Connect The Dots PR. “Add flare. Talk about the event with excitement. Have a clear call to action.” Olivia Adams, communications strategist at Byrum & Fisk adds, “Whenever possible I try to connect client events to a local community conversation or a trend. This makes media advisories, press releases, pitches, and social media content all that more relevant and impactful when the event is connected to a bigger conversation.”

Once crafted, you need to identify relevant publications to promote to and pitch your press releases. Don't forget to post the release on your website, circulate it via social media and issue the release on wire services. Then, when coverage starts coming in, share the articles on social media and feature them on the event landing page.

Tip: Another event promotion tactic you can use to help land coverage is by interviewing the keynote speakers before the event or arranging for them to speak with members of the press.

2. Use content marketing for event promotion

At this point, you may have an idea of how you’d like to promote your event and cover the conference. But during an event, especially one that is a week-long, it’s challenging to do anything other than focus on what’s happening in the present. Your marketing team will be busy networking, attending sessions, taking notes, watching exhibitor demos, and going to either happy hours or dinners in the evening. Attending a conference can feel chaotic, so having an idea of what your coverage should look like before the event is the best course of action. One way to ensure you are able to create and produce content during the event is by blocking out time in your schedule ahead of time. You'll already be planning out which talks and presentations you go to, so make sure to slot in time to create and post your social content. 

Leveraging content marketing before (or soon after) the conference is over will allow you to engage attendees while they are still thinking about the conference and searching for information. For example, you could post a wrap-up blog or infographic at the end of the day outlining your key takeaways from each session. If you share the content on social media, you'll also be able to interact with attendees engaging with the event hashtag on social channels. And, who says networking can only happen over a cup of coffee in the lobby before the event begins? You can easily begin networking with the other attendees who are active on social media during the conference. 

Here are some other event marketing coverage ideas to help promote your attendance:

Engage your target by creating interview videos to be used in daily Twitter updates 

Share photos highlighting speakers or attendees that reflect your target audience’s demographic

Post live videos to Facebook, Instagram ot LinkedIn from the conference floor

Create a daily blog post that recaps panels

Promote your attendance via live tweet with attribution (Twitter lists comes in handy here)

Share general coverage of the event on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram with hashtags, which will help other attendees learn about you during the event

Develop an infographic or blog post-round-up that includes lessons learned that can be used by your target, it’s also a good opportunity to include your favorite quotes

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