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Influencer marketing is evolving, and so is the way brands measure success. That’s why Meltwater is proud to announce a new partnership with YouTube, integrating YouTube’s Creator Partnerships API directly into our Influencer Marketing platform.

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

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

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

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

Content marketing combines the creation of valuable content with social media marketing and search engine optimization. It helps companies drive new leads, establish industry credibility, and stay top of mind with existing and potential clients. 

But how can you get more people to share more of your content on social media? Ironically, the answer lies in a 50-year-old psychological study. Fifty years before the iPhone and social media took over our lives, an Austrian-born psychologist and market researcher cracked the code on a marketing challenge every business faces today: How to encourage people to tell others about their products and services. Whether it’s called word-of-mouth or social sharing, getting consumers to share with others is the Holy Grail for any marketer.

In 1966, Ernest Dichter, who was trained by one of Sigmund Freud’s pupils, conducted research on what makes shoppers tick. His findings transformed the way the world looks at relationships between products and consumers. It was the first international and interdisciplinary study to reveal the hidden world of motivation research and insights into the way consumers think, feel and act. Since then, others (including The New York Times) have built on his findings.

What Dichter Discovered About Social Selling

Dichter discovered there are four motivations for consumer sharing, but they boil down to two primary reasons people share: You’ve blown them away with your product experience, or you’ve made them feel good in some way.

Dichter’s four motivations for social sharing include product involvement, self-involvement, other involvement and message involvement.

Product Involvement. 
About 33 percent of sharing is based on a good product experience. The customer found the experience to be so delightful or fulfilling they had to tell their friends - whether on social networks or offline. This is why some companies’ Facebook pages are filled with happy consumers. Take Starbucks, for instance, where people share pictures of their daily cups of coffee.


Self-Involvement. 
This comprises about 24 percent of shares. Users share the social media content that expresses their knowledge and opinions, and makes them feel smart — like breaking news and political issues.


Other Involvement. 
About 20 percent of sharing fits here. People want to help a friend by sharing, for example, coupons or product reviews.


Message Involvement. 
This makes up about 20 percent of shares. It’s triggered when someone finds a message so humorous or informative they want to share it. Cat videos and memes fall into this category.

In 2004, results from a study conducted by four researchers, published in the Journal of Interactive Marketing, referenced Dichter’s research and others, and added an electronic component to the analysis. While the researchers found eight factors that contribute to word-of-mouth sharing, they all strongly correlate to Dichter’s original findings, with three new incentives for sharing — venting negative emotions, receiving a positive platform assistance and gaining economic incentives.

But what is most insightful about this study is the discovery of four primary segments of users who share online. This insight could be viewed as a precursor to today’s buyer persona creation.

Segment 1 — Self-Interested Helpers.
These social media content sharers appear to be strongly driven by both concern for others and economic incentives. This segment is the largest group, representing 34 percent of audiences sharing this content.


Segment 2 — True Altruists. 
These consumers appear to be both strongly motivated by helping other consumers as well as helping companies, because all other motives are less important. This is the second largest segment, representing 27 percent of the sharers.


Segment 3 — Multiple-Motive Consumers. 
They are motivated by all factors, except economic incentives. This segment includes 21 percent of all sharers.


Segment 4 — Consumer Advocates. 
They seem to be motivated primarily by a concern for other consumers. It is the smallest segment at 17 percent of all sharers.

One of the most frequently distributed recent studies on the topic of why people share social media content online is a report compiled by The New York Times. The Psychology of Sharing revealed people’s motivations for sharing, six sharing personas and best practices for encouraging users and consumers to share content.

Regarding sharing motivations, the study concluded that the primary reasons for sharing were linked to relationships—improving others’ lives, defining themselves to others, enriching relationships and gaining fulfillment. This aspect of the survey correlated strongly to Dichter’s original findings.

The study also cited several statistics on what inspires and motivates people to share links, videos, images and offers on social networks, including:

85 percent say reading other people’s responses helps them understand and process information and events

84 percent share because it is a way to support causes or issues they care about

78 percent share information online because it lets them stay connected to people they may not otherwise stay in touch with

73 percent share information because it helps them connect with others who share their interests

73 percent say they process information more deeply, thoroughly and thoughtfully when they share it

69 percent share information because it allows them to feel more involved in the world

68 percent share to give people a better sense of who they are and what they care about

49 percent say sharing allows them to inform others of products they care about and potentially change opinions or encourage action

A groundbreaking aspect of the New York Times study was that researchers could determine which areas of the brain were triggered during the sharing process. From this insight, they formulated six online sharer personas defined by emotional motivations, desired presentation of self, and role of sharing in life. Along with two more sharer types than the 2004 study, this study also revealed more sharer insights.

Altruists. 
These sharers are helpful and reliable. They are motivated to share by being seen as thoughtful and connected. Their primary sharing vehicle is email.


Careerists. 
These sharers are valuable and networked. They are motivated to share by being seen as intelligent. Their primary sharing vehicle is LinkedIn.


Hipsters. 
These sharers are young and popular. They are motivated to share by being seen as cutting-edge and creative. You will find them using multiple social networks or sharing vehicles, but not email.


Collectors. 
These sharers are relaxed, thoughtful and always making plans. They are motivated to share by being seen as creative. Their primary sharing vehicles are email and Facebook.


Selectors. 
These sharers are resourceful and careful. They are motivated to share by being seen as thoughtful and informative. Their preferred sharing vehicle is email.


Boomerangs. 
These sharers respond to reaction, validation and empowerment. Their primary sharing vehicles are Twitter and Facebook.

The New York Times study also detailed seven best practices that contribute to encouraging more customers to share more content.

Sharing is how consumers connect with one another. Appeal to consumers’ motivation to connect with others, not just with your brand.

Trust is the cost of entry for getting shared. If consumers don’t see you as an authority they can trust, they won’t share your content.

Keep it simple. Publish content on a highly focused topic. This boosts your brand and helps you stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Appeal to their sense of humor. A little personality and humor can make a big difference.

Embrace a sense of urgency. If there’s an element of urgency in your content, it appears valuable. As a result, people are more likely to share it.

Getting content shared is just the beginning. One share is not the endgame. You need to continue to support sharing, and even reach out and say thank you now and then.

Email is still No. 1. In a world dominated by social media, don’t forget about email. It’s still the primary way people communicate. So consider making it easy for your readers to share your content via email with a click (unless they are hipsters, of course).

And finally, a study conducted by Ogilvy & Mather in 2014 condensed global insight on sharing into one primary takeaway—to encourage content sharing you must produce high-quality content.

The study also identified companies leading the way in producing shareable, quality content by country. In the United States, for example, companies taking the lead include: Huffington Post, Upworthy, Apple, NPR, Buzzfeed, The New York Times, Mother Jones, Humane Society, Amazon, Drudge Report, NPR, PBS, Kraft, ESPN and PETA.

While the world we live in today is very different than it was 50 years ago, a review of the research conducted since Dichter’s groundbreaking study shows that our motivations for sharing have stayed relatively the same. The biggest difference between the world then and now is how much content is created every day, how much content is shared and how frequently it’s shared.

To stand out in this crowded social world requires a strategy that takes into consideration the insight shared by leading voices on the subject. Understanding the motivational forces behind the act of sharing—and working with them in mind—is the best way to help your company get more of your content shared more often by more people.

How to Improve Social Media Shares of your Content

Social media plays a large role in content marketing as one of the key distribution vehicles for content. In addition to advertising and email marketing, social media shares of content via sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, Tumblr and other platforms allows good content to spread: the modern version of word-of-mouth marketing.

With that said, the spread of content via social media doesn't have to be left to chance. There are specific things that companies and organizations can do to either encourage (or inadvertently discourage) the social sharing of content.

Not all topics are created equal, so you need to develop a sense for what your topics your audience really cares about. Some ways to do that include looking at search keyword volumes (e.g. via Google Adwords or various keyword tools), asking sales what customers always ask about, or seeing what consistently gets shared and commented on on your blog, competitor's blogs and in social media in general (see this deep dive about business blog topics).

I hate to say it but 99% of business blog post headlines are accurate but extremely dull. "Why Your Company Should Use Encrypted Storage Solutions" may describe what's in the post clearly, but is not that compelling. Here are a couple of twists on the same content, with new headlines to increase interest, curiosity and share-ability: "5 Reasons Hackers Love Current Data Storage Solutions" or "Traditional Data Storage + Your Corporate Secrets = Serious Risk". You may be able to come up with better, but the point is to intrigue the audience who sees this headline in social media or on your blog.

Many industry influencers stay top of mind with their social media followers by curating valuable, unique or interesting content. In fact, they often won't read whole posts before they share. If your post is not designed in a way that makes it easy to quickly grasp the key points, they won't bother to skim it or share it. In addition, many of your regular readers don't have time to dig into large blocks of text. Think bold headers and key points (2-3 sentences) for each versus dense paragraphs.

In addition to skimmable posts, pictures are a very important element for increasing social shares. Sites like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest usually feature the main picture from your post. The visual elements are critical to getting attention for your post in social media, to communicating the key message, and often can make or break the social sharing of a post. Don't spend time on a great post and take 2 seconds to pick a very boring and generic picture or graphic. Worse yet is to completely skip pictures. Take the extra time and find a unique style of graphics or pictures that works for your company and your social sharing will grow (and yes, you can use stock photography but don't always go for the obvious).

Supermarkets make it easy to buy impulse purchases like candy and magazines by positioning them strategically at the check-out line. If you want people to share your posts, you need to position social share buttons right where any reader (or skimmer) will find them. I typically like to put them at the top or on the side (scrolling with the content) so they're hard to miss.

This refers to the fact that many companies will create content, have share buttons visible (with counts of shares), and the posts will have a measly 0 or 1 shares. Are you telling me that you can't muster more than 1 share across your whole company for that content? Having only a couple of shares per post communicates a lack of interest from both the company and readers. Having at least a few shares per post shows that there's some interest and makes other people more likely to share it themselves. Encourage the authors and others in the company to prime the sharing pump.

In order to maximize sharing of your content, it helps if you have a large set of followers on one or more social platforms that make sense for your brand. Each real (not paid for) connection, follower or fan can have 10's, 100's, 1000's, 100,000's (you get the point) of followers themselves. With great content optimized for sharing, you can potentially reap 100's of shares of your content from your own social base and their connections.

Don't expect people to be jumping over each other to share your content if you've never lifted a finger (or clicked your trackpad) to comment on, like or share other people's content. By building up some online goodwill, you'll increase interaction with your content, including shares. Don't forget to help others spread their great content well before you ask people to share your content!

Connecting topics that your readers care about with current events is a great way to create a relevant and interesting post. People love to share a new angle on a current topic or a creative addition to recent Meme. See some examples here: Big Data and the Superbowl, Justin Bieber and South by Southwest (SXSW). To connect with current topics in your content, you have to move fast or plan ahead!

So you can see, growing the number of social shares is not something that will "just happen". Savvy digital marketers, business owners, PR professionals or social media managers (including you) can be strategic about the content they produce, how it appears, how it's introduced into the world and who sees it.

Research Reveals Secrets of Social Sharing

Do you know how to win back your customers after a bad brand interaction or poor customer service? If the answer is no, fear not, we'll tell you all in this post.

Today, your business can’t brush a bad customer experience under the rug. You might choose to ignore less than stellar brand interactions, but the customers won’t! They’ll post about negative CX, on Facebook, Twitter and even write a blog about it. And unfortunately, we can’t stop people writing negative reviews.

But there’s always a silver lining that can save your brand, even if you do happen to experience a customer that's disgruntled about the CX they received. According to an Applied Marketing Science and Twitter Study, resolved negative tweet leads to 3x more revenue potential than a positive tweet. That means you can, and should, win people back. To successfully turn things around, you need to be proactive in understanding what customers are saying about your brand and let insights guide your customer experience strategy. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be superhuman and read thousands of tweets a day, the right media monitoring tool will give you relevant insights into how customers feel about your brand. For example, media intelligence can help you with keeping an eye out for brand mentions which feature negative keywords or check the sentiment of your brand to identify customers who have had a bad CX.
 
By using creative CX strategies to retain customers, you also increase your probability of higher conversions, and at the same time, safeguard the integrity of your business. So how do we win back your customers?

Win Back Your Customers by Encouraging Feedback

Asking questions is one of the best ways to start an interaction with your brand. Why was the customer unhappy with your service? Find out what’s gone wrong beforehand so that you are in a better position to ask relevant questions. People are much more willing to discuss a negative customer experience than a positive one. In fact, studies suggest we will tell 8-10 people if we have bad customer experiences in comparison to only 2-3 people if we have a good customer experience. Therefore, dissatisfied customers are likely to give you all the information you require. Simply allowing a customer the chance to express themselves might contribute to winning them back. One word of advice, try to take your questions out of the public eye. If someone is complaining on Twitter, discuss it with them via direct message. After all, you don’t want to air your dirty laundry to competitors!

Top Tip: Find more negative talk surrounding your brand by using customer experience software. Discover trending themes with negative sentiment as well as measure overall sentiment surrounding your brand. If you notice a spike in negative sentiment, chances are something is wrong.

Media monitoring helps you gain quality feedback.  These genuine opinions help improve the business foundations by identifying and addressing elements that are affecting customer experience. Making continuous improvements to poorly performing parts of your business and customer experience strategy is one of the best ways of dealing with angry customers. Use media monitoring to keep on top of brand mentions, this way you can discover pain points of customers and where your business/ CX can be improved. It’s good practice to communicate these changes to your customers so they know you take their feedback seriously

To apologise for a mistake is good, but overdoing it might be counterproductive. You don’t want to keep reminding customers about the mistake made. 

Win Back Your Customers by Creating a Campaign 

If you’ve experienced a surge of negativity, it’s wise to try and rebuild value for your customers. A good way to do this is with a marketing campaign surrounding the changes you have made, with hope this will spark positive interaction. Storytelling is a really powerful way to grow engagement. We'd highly recommend you showing that you’ve gone the extra mile to please your customers. A bit of a throwback example for you here – back in 2009 Domino’s Pizza used this principle to address the CX pain points of their customers. They received a lot of negative coverage after customers complained about the quality and taste of their pizzas.

After monitoring social media, they decided to work with their customers and staff in creating a better brand experience. This was conceptualised into a campaign called as The pizza turnaround. Today the Dominos brand is many people’s number one choice of Pizza takeaway, which teaches us that unhappy customers don’t have to mean the end of your brand and you can infact turn a poor brand interaction into something that attracts new clientele while keeping your current fans.

How Digital Transformation Drives Customer Experience

While the above tips are there to support you winning back clients from negative CX experiences, the following tips are here to guide you in the direction of ensuring it never has to come to that in the first place.

In 2020, brands simply have to be customer-centric and this means putting CX strategies at the center of the company. The fact is, customers are making more use of technology, and in turn, changing the relationship between businesses and customers. As technology continues to evolve, so will the digital transformation that businesses will experience; the most significant impact that this will have on businesses is on customer experience.

It’s in 2020 where customer experience will overtake price and product as a key differentiator. So, from gaining better customer insights and personalisation to automation and easier access to information, here is how digital transformation can drive customer experience for your business.

In our past webinar on ‘How to Create a Captivating Experience’, Certified Customer Experience Consultant, Julia Ahlfeldt, mentions how we are in an age of the customer, who are highly informed and have shifted the power from businesses and brands to them – the customer. On top of this, the digital age comes with Generation Z, who are a set of consumers that grew up with technology and access to information right on their fingertips. Because of digital transformation, businesses have found it beneficial for CX strategies and wider business needs to have the ability to store information online. With advancements in online storage and security, businesses have made it more convenient for customers to access the information that they are looking for.

For example, if you look at Superbalist or Takealot, customers have the ability to easily access information like their order history or tracking their current purchases. For customers, this is convenient in helping them to make comparisons with other brands on the things they’ve bought. For a business, this helps you see the patterns in brand interactions, spending habits of your customers as well as giving you the ability to optimize for a better customer experience strategy based on what your customer is interested in.

Gone are the days when a customer experience strategy hinged on manual processes. Now, instead of customers dialling into a call centre to get in touch with a business, chatbots and computer-based programs that provide 24/7 availability are the way to go.

According to Forbes, 80% of people who use chatbots do so for customer care. It’s thanks to digital transformation that has helped with making simple customer service requests easier, like updating personal details or navigating through an app. For the financial industry, FinTech applications have helped customer CX by allowing them to set up their own bank accounts or investments, and provide step-by-step guides on transferring money. This all eliminates the need for customers to physically go to a bank to speak to a consultant, and gives you the opportunity to focus on more complex customer needs.

If you aren’t using automation for enhancing customer experience strategies in your business, 2020 is the time to start implementing it. One of the first and simplest tasks that your business can begin automating is email marketing.

Jason Bagley, Founder of Firing Squad, shares how automation can better your email marketing strategy by not only being more personal but sending out emails on specific dates based on the customer’s behaviour (like their birthday) or business milestones (like celebrating your 100th customer). By reducing the amount of time that you spend on basic business processes, you now are better able to service your customers efficiently.

CX strategies involve more than just positive customer service or trying to win back customers after bad customer experiences. While this is a large and important component of the experience your customer has with you, it’s not the only one.

Relevant product or service offerings are also important to customer experience strategies. In this age, businesses and brands have access of much more data, which can provide insights into your customers and help you personalise your offerings and content according to each of your individual customers or customer segments.

Online shopping and e-commerce stores already feature a list of recommended items that aren’t tailored according to what’s popular for larger groups of customers, but rather to individuals and their own browsing history. Of course, collecting data like this means that you need to be transparent about it otherwise this could lead to bad customer service.

This is a strategy that can easily be adapted according to what your business has to offer but ensuring that you take a personalised approach will more than likely encourage a user to become a buyer.

It’s time to let digital transformation positively drive the customer experience of your business. Request a free demo now to see how media intelligence can take you to the top! 

How to Win Back Your Customers After a Bad Experience

Ever scrambled around to find PR pitch opportunities to raise the profile of yourself and your business to get media coverage?

PR News stories are a great way to get coverage in the press and media. But, creating news stories that journalists will love can sometimes feel like feast or famine – some months news stories might pop up all over the place, the next month – nothing.

The Key to Giving Journalists What they Want

So, how do some individuals and businesses manage to maintain a consistently high profile? Bigger businesses may well have considerable budgets and a dedicated Public Relations team, but that does not mean that such media coverage is out of reach for smaller businesses. The key is to have an understanding of what journalists are looking for and to give that to them consistently, in a way that serves their purposes as well as yours.

You probably have a number of news stories but you might not realise it. And, you’ll certainly have the potential to ‘create’ news stories to get noticed. That’s exactly what successful PR professionals do – they find a way to get noticed, they ‘create’ stories. So, you have to think about it from both perspectives. You need to capture the news stories you have and that you know will be coming along. And, you have to think about what you can do to ‘create’ a news story too.

Let’s be clear, “creating” doesn’t mean making it up. It simply means understanding what journalists want from you and then packaging what you have in a way that fits with that. So, where do you start?

First, have a good understanding of what journalists want. Second, list down the obvious news stories you have or you know are coming up. Third, think about the tactic of ‘creating’ a news story and how you will pitch it. Check out the list below for help to pin down the stories you might already have as well as those you can ‘create’ to get media coverage.

Media Pitch Ideas That Don’t Depend on News

Show a peek behind the scenes: Stories like “a day in the life of” or a behind the scenes look can be of interest to journalists, says business coach Joseph James, @JosephJamesMMS. Pulling back the curtain on your organization allows reporters to bring their audiences inside how things work.


Tell an origin story: “I always appreciate a good origin story, for example, how an established company grew or a profile of the owner,” says tech reporter Kelly McSweeney, @kellysimonsays. Talk about the history behind the brand.


Try custom-tailored media pitching: When your brand is having a slow news day, spend more time tailoring your pitch to a particular reporter. “The more tailored your pitch is to the publication (or to the writer), the more likely we are to move forward with it, regardless of how ‘newsy’ it is,” McSweeney says.


Give newsjacking a go: Can your company jump on a trending topic? If you act quickly, you may be able to achieve what David Meerman Scott refers to as “newsjacking.” Start the day by checking Google Trends or taking a look at what’s trending on Twitter to find some possible story angles that may present opportunities for your brand.


HR stories can be hidden gems: It’s more common these days to see pieces that focus on a company’s HR practices, as organizations try to change things up to compete for the best talent. “Often what PR qualifies as news doesn’t interest editors as much as routine things companies take for granted,” says journalist Jared Lindzon, @JLindzon. “Interesting culture quirks, productivity hacks and unique hiring practices that develop gradually are often hidden gems.”


Use data to create a compelling media pitch: “Make a story with interesting data,” says @ginarau. “Almost any hypothesis can be supported with data these days. Curate it in a new way for an interesting story about the problem your client solves.” What if you don’t have your own data? Try pulling some from Google. “Google has a really great rich library of micro bite-size data analysis, if you don’t have the ability to do the analysis yourself. Take a look at what other companies are putting out there and maybe put together a response piece to some of your competitors,” Katie Robbert co-founder and CEO of Trust Insights, @katierobbert.


Look to your employees or customers: Perhaps the media relations team can come up with a story about an employee or customer who’s doing something interesting, suggests PR pro Olivia Adams, @OliviaAdamsPR. “Share community service initiatives and personal stories of how employees, customers or volunteers are making a difference,” adds Mary Beth West of MBW Communications, @marybethwest.  


Feature charitable or CSR causes: Digital media strategist Sarah Clarke, @sclarkeOville, says tying in a brand’s involvement in a charitable event or effort can be a smart way to get press. If your brand is taking part in some sort of corporate social responsibility initiative, that can also make an interesting story idea.  


Celebrate a significant milestone: Are your employees, colleagues or clients celebrating an anniversary or milestone? Margie Dolch, @margiedolch, says that a company anniversary can be pitched to press. The longer they’ve been in business, the more compelling the story can be. How did they reinvent themselves to stay relevant through the years?


Tie a story into an “awareness” day: Gemma Birbeck, @LeulyPPR, says awareness days provide a great foundation for stories as there are some that most businesses can relate to. Meltwater runs a piece each month listing “awareness” days and other national days that brands can look to for ideas.

Try plugging a few of these ideas into your slow news periods to chalk up some media relations wins. And for a comprehensive guide to pitching stories, connecting to journalists, and getting your messaging right, read our ebook, New Strategies in Media Relations. 

Then, you then need to put it all into a calendar. It’s important too to do your research to find the right journalists who will be interested in your news story. For any news story you will need to tailor your approach to make it as relevant as possible. The news hook is one part of it; you also need to include other elements the journalist will want such as human interest.

So, if you are targeting local, national, regional, trade press and media then you will need press releases that are tweaked for each of those, tailored for their specific audiences.

Remember too, you don’t need to rely just on news stories to get noticed by journalists. There are other ways and those should be slotted into your Public Relations calendar too.

When you do have a news story then make the most of it by promoting it to your target audience that matter to you via your email subscriber list, your website, Slideshare, social networks, etc… You’ll want to present the story tailored for them. Don’t just send them the press release or send them a link to it. They need the information presented differently.

In a nutshell: Your news story has to add value and be relevant to a journalist’s audience. But, finding a reason for a story isn’t as difficult as you might think – you have very many news stories, it’s just a matter of spotting them and packaging them in the right way.

So, what’s your next news story coming up and how are you going to package that for your key journalists? 

Ideas for news stories can be found by looking at the social media chatter of your industry. Meltwater provides a platform for deep analysis and listening, ripe for mining story ideas. Contact us for a demo.

Boost your Media Coverage? Ideas for Creating News Stories Journalists Will Love

We've covered a few of the PR crises that have hit brands this year and the timing to reenter this discussion is important as a new app, Bodega, received condemnation on social media last week. This post on how brands should apologize can help you be prepared for a crisis, rather than scrambling after you're in the thick of it. Download our ebook, Media Intelligence for Crisis Communications and ensure that you'll be able to control the damage, no matter the situation.

2017 has brought us more than its share of communications disasters. Pepsi’s controversial Black Lives Matter ad featuring Kendall Jenner, Adidas’s Boston Marathon email campaign (“Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon”). And, of course, United Airlines, which made a series of missteps in its attempt to appropriately apologize for the forced removal of a passenger. And these are just but a few of the corporate communications faux pas we've seen in recent times. 

When these misfires occur — and of course, they do — it’s vital that brands are prepared to make amends. The first step in this process is the apology. And, it had better be a thoughtful apology. It’s not enough to simply apologize—it’s HOW you apologize that matters.

“Companies need to think carefully about their policies and their crisis communications, so they can quickly move from a defensive crouch to honest, heartfelt apologies,” says Andrew Winston, author of The Big Pivot.

“The biggest mistake is for brands to hedge their apology with phrases such as, ‘We’re sorry to those who were offended,'” says Brad Phillips, president of Phillips Media Relations and author of the Mr. Media Training Blog and the Amazon PR best seller The Media Training Bible. “Such language places the burden on the offended person and stops short of accepting full responsibility.”

Brands should also avoid denying any wrongdoing when they apologize.

“Denial is the simple thing to do, and people grasp wildly at the first straw to occur to them,” said William Benoit, Ohio University Communications professor, and author of Accounts, Excuses, Apologies: Image Repair Theory and Research.

Denial can hurt subsequent apologies. Sincerely owning the mistake is at the heart of an effective apology. There’s an appreciation for laying it all out there by simply saying, “We messed-up and we’re sorry.”

In the case of United, CEO Oscar Munoz did eventually offer a heartfelt apology. After his first two apologies created a backlash, he finally took full responsibility, promising to make it right with the passenger and pledging to put new procedures in place.

“The problem for Munoz is that he bungled the first two apologies, undermining the impact of his third one,” says Phillips. “Had he started with that apology, the incident would have played out far differently.”

The Situation Helps Determine the Tone of an Apology

Another factor to consider is the nature of the incident. “For example, it’s much easier to apologize in cases in which you, too, can be perceived as a victim,” Phillips said. “A medical supply company that couldn’t get vital medications to customers due to an unexpected snowstorm is unlikely to face long-term reputational damage, whereas that same company failing to make deliveries due to incompetence would.”

In some cases, explaining what exactly took place can help clear the air and help folks be more forgiving. For example, at this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, PricewaterhouseCoopers made a mistake with the Best Picture envelope, causing the presenter to announce the wrong film. Because the company offered an immediate apology with an explanation of how the mix-up occurred, they were able to keep the client.

So, what exactly should be in an effective apology? According to Dr. Beth Polin, an assistant professor of management at Eastern Kentucky University and co-author of The Art of the Apology, an apology should include one or more of six components:

An expression of regret — this, usually, is the actual “I’m sorry.”

An explanation (but, importantly, not a justification).

And what words should you choose when you apologize? Simple language is best. No need for flowery prose. An example of this is Adidas, who immediately took responsibility for its insensitivity with this apology from spokeswoman Maria Culp: “We are incredibly sorry. There was no thought given to the insensitive email subject line we sent Tuesday. We deeply apologize for our mistake.”

Need more examples? On a site called SorryWatch, you can find examples of apologies that worked—and those that didn’t. The founders, Susan McCarthy and Marjorie Ingall, write a weekly post that reviews poorly handled public apologies, giving tips on structure and language.

Their best advice? In the end, don’t make excuses. “Apologizing well means acknowledging that, at that moment at least, you were not good,” says Ingall.

After all, even good people (and brands) can make mistakes. 2017 Has had more than its share of communications disasters and as big brands like Pepsi, United, and Uber make big missteps, a simple statement that brands should apologize becomes a loaded PR strategy. If you’d like to be prepared for the next time you need to apologize, download our crisis ebook.

This Strategy in Practice: Wins versus Fails

By now it's clear that when a very public mistake or mishap occurs within your organisation, a public apology – and a commitment to right the wrong – is in order. 

A swift mea culpa, coupled with some affirmative action to make good and ensure that the likelihood of such an event occurring again is minimised, is the correct approach and will generally help an organisation win back the favour of its customers. Moreover, if the response can be injected with a little humour (where appropriate of course), so much the better. 

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