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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

Is there any simpler pleasure than finding a forgotten $20 bill in the pocket of last winter’s coat? Although occasionally it may seem like there’s nothing to post, sometimes the perfect piece of social media content (like that cute sweater you packed away) is already in your collection.

Tip: We have written a full guide to repurposing content that will give you even more information on this topic.

Taking a look at your content with fresh eyes and dusting off previously produced content can help you reach new audiences while making the most of your efforts. So say, “As if!” to writer’s block and start dressing up previously produced content using these Clueless-inspired tips.

Just as students have learning styles, different platforms and users gravitate towards different mediums. Try transforming a written story into an infographic or audio story (and vice versa) until the possibilities are exhausted. Have a great how-to video? Write the instructions out and make that into an infographic, list, or deck. Have a fantastic SlideShare about a product? Use the language as a script for a Facebook Live video. Remember that great webinar you hosted? Even if registration was off the charts and the turnout successful, not all interested people will be able to attend or watch the replay. Write a quick recap that can double as a blog post. Repurpose content until it’s been optimized for every possible medium; refining language and tone as necessary.

 Think you should only post a story or blog post once on a social media? Think again. Why put so much time and energy into something you’ll only use once? Different times of day and different audiences open the door to totally different audiences. If you originally posted a story on Facebook in the morning, share it on Twitter in the evening, or LinkedIn at lunch. Be sure to distribute each post 2-3 times within the week of original publication (depending on the subject matter) to extend the lifespan of the piece. You can even use this to cross-promote your social channels by redirecting followers to the other posts (“Love our latest blog post? Head over to our Facebook page to check out the live video.”) To get it right, make sure that posts make sense and are appropriately targeting, so as to avoid alienating your audience.

Make statistics your content superstars. Did you know that more that 80% of marketers wish they could better evergreen their content? No, this is not a verified number, but it goes to show that nothing grabs a reader’s attention like a compelling statistic. Use media intelligence and social media analytics to conduct research, then comb through your results to find the most interesting numbers. Round up findings into an infographic and then break up data tidbits into individual social media posts, such as Twitter cards, Facebook images, a Pinterest board, or Instagram posts. Use the statistics as a jumping off-point or supporting data for a case study, whitepaper, or LinkedIn post.

Sometimes stories are hidden in plain sight. What is it that makes your company tick? Does your organization have a great origin story? What is your brand mission or philosophy? Are there interesting characters or even office dogs that contribute to the overall culture of your team? Take a look at the people you see every day but through a storytelling lens. Create an online archive by interviewing seasoned employees in a podcast, video, or blog post. Encourage coworkers to share photos of past events or current key moments and leverage that user-generated content for social media.

Rollin’ with the Homies (and Trending Topics)

Always be on the lookout for topical opportunities to share content. Is it #NationalBossDay? Share that old profile of your CEO. Do you have a great infographic about how to select a Halloween costume? Be sure to schedule it around the last week of October. Although social media holidays may seem silly, they are an easy way to jog your memory and reshare content relevant to a trending conversation. Capitalize on opportunities to trendjack by monitoring hashtags and conversations important to your industry. 

So next time you think you have nothing to wear (or share), don’t pull a Cher Horwitz. Try mixing, matching, and repurposing content to outfit your communications with winning posts appropriate for every—and any–occasion.

But I Have Nothing to Share: The Clueless Marketer’s Guide to Repurposing Content

Content creates exposure, builds trust and captures leads. But what does the future hold in store?

All good content marketing campaigns begin with a strategy that’s planned well in advance. If you want to stay one step ahead of your rivals, now is the time to put together your content marketing editorial calendar for the new year.

Organic reach across most social media platforms is decreasing. It’s as low as 1% for some Facebook pages!  ….Scary stuff, but it just means you need to up your content creation game and find better points of contact with your customers.

So where are the content opportunities for the next few months? In this article, we’ll take a look at the content types you have to include in your next editorial calendar refresh, along with why and how to use each type.

Editorial Calendar Content Types Infographic

Long form content is any content that’s at least 1,200 words, and which offers in-depth analysis, answers and solutions.

Use it to boost rankings: According to research from SerpIQ Google prefers long-form content. Your audience prefers it, too, with data showing that shares of 1,000+ word content have increased by 11.3% since 2017.

Not just this, but Google has updated their algorithm (again). The result of this being that longer content is favourable to the algorithm. You should be writing longer content that offers more depth and value. The benefit of using long-form content is that it offers more value to the end-user, which as a result increases the chances that you’ll secure more backlinks (backlinks are awesome for SEO).

We get it, long-form content sounds tricky because, well, how do you come up with ideas for 2,000+ words topics?

If you’re stuck for an idea, and not sure how to create great content that works, the best thing to do is produce a skyscraper post. This is when you take an existing, well-performing piece of content in your niche – and do it better.

For example, you would start by finding popular articles in your niche and then work out how you could take these existing pieces of content and make them even better. What new angle can you come up with? What weakness does the existing article have? What has the author missed out?

Then, add more words, more data, more research, more answers – more value.

The next step is to then reach out to those who linked to the original piece of content (you can find these websites by using an SEO tool) and show them that you’ve got an even better piece of content.

This technique works because, unlike creating a long-form piece of content from scratch, you already know that a particular piece of content on a particular topic is performing well. The audience is there. Rather than waste all week creating a long-form article that no one wants to see, you know that you’re working on something that there is demand for.

Quizzes might not have come onto your radar yet, but get this: more and more businesses are exploring this rising content type.

The Elephant Pants were a totally unknown brand before they used their eye-catching quiz “Which Pair of Elephant Pants Are You?” to kickstart their launch. Just 5 short, easy-to-answer questions made up the quiz, and when the results came in, the quiz took the user back to their Kickstarter page. This is where the conversions would happen.

Then there was Cloud Sherpas, a software company that created a quiz called “How Mature Is Your ServiceNow Instance?” to generate more leads. The idea behind the quiz was to improve the way the user engaged with the brand’s offerings. Due to the way the questions were presented, Cloud Sherpas were able to separate higher quality leads from lower quality ones.

And let’s not forget Disney, a huge corporation that has made quizzes a key part of its site’s content. Quizzes such as “Could You Be a Mouseketeer” are massively popular with their target audience and help to keep engagement strong.

When you think about it, it’s very hard for a B2B business to produce content that jumps out at people. As a result, we often fall back on content that’s cliched, lifeless and disengaging.

Quizzes are the perfect antidote. They generate more engagement, and people just love filling out short quizzes. Interactive content is the way to go.

Not just that, but quizzes can help you gather more leads by helping you learn more about your customers.

Each time someone signs up to do a quiz, make sure to grab their email address. Include a CTA at the end of your quiz, too.

There are a number of different types of online quizzes you can choose from, including outcome-based quizzes and trivia quizzes.

Quizzes can include images and videos, and often they can be about your brand or niche.

Simply use existing quiz creation software, such as TypeForm. Whatever quiz you make, always keep your audience in mind and make it as fun as you can.

Videos have been super popular for years, but they’re growing in popularity all the time. According to Cisco videos will make up over 80% of all online traffic by 2021. In 2018, the number of businesses using videos on their landing pages has risen by 49%, with videos increasing conversions by as much as 80%.

The landscape has changed slightly, however, as social videos – such as live streaming – begin to take precedence. Indeed, stats show that 77% of businesses now use videos on their social media channels, while more than 2 billion people have watched live videos on Facebook.

This means that you need to take to platforms like Facebook and Instagram and produce engaging video content.

A video can be an interactive live stream, but it can also be a video that explains what it is that your business does. It can also be a Q&A or an interview.

80% of social audiences would rather watch a live video than read a blog, while Q&A videos work because they’re interactive and help to position yourself as the expert in your niche.

Interviews, meanwhile, also help to position yourself in the market better, and because you’ll be interviewing an expert, you’ll also gain more exposure and traffic.

Then there are videos on Instagram Stories, which 1/3 people watch each day. Meanwhile, Instagram recently launched IGTV, which allows you to put content out on your very own channel. Here, you can create how-to videos, host interviews, and answer your customers’ most pressing questions. And now that Instagram has finally surpassed 1 billion users, this is a trend to jump on ASAP.

Facebook, of course, should still be the platform of choice for marketers. Over 100 million hours of video are watched on Facebook each day.

Live streaming sounds easy enough – you just film yourself on your phone, right?

Most new smartphones have fantastic cameras and are made to film good quality videos, so, on the technical side, most of the people should be covered.

Then, just choose a topic you know people will engage with and focus on delivering as much value as possible. To do this, you can use your analytics – such as Facebook Insights or Google Analytics – to determine what content and topics your users prefer to see. What’s got the most engagement in the past? What questions are people asking on your page?

Interact with your audience throughout the video and give them a reason to keep watching to the end.

When you decide to produce video content other than live streams – such as a pre-recorded Q&A or an interview – it’s important that you add subtitles. This is because 85% of Facebook videos are watched without sound, while only 12% of people who watch Instagram videos actually turn the sound on!

A podcast is a digital audio file that your audience can download and listen to when they want.

A podcast can be a bunch of episodes released as a series, and you can interview guests and offer a crazy amount of value to your audience.

In 2018, Apple confirmed that there are “over 525,000 active shows” available to download from iTunes. Meanwhile, a whopping 44% of the U.S. population claims to have listened to a podcast at least once, while 50% of all homes are “podcast fans.”

 Source: Nielsen Q3 2017 Podcast Insights

This means that podcasts are a great way to reach your audience with a different kind of content to what we’ve covered so far.

Podcasts help you reach new audiences because they’re a great alternative to videos when your followers can’t watch something visual (perhaps they’re driving!), and they help you to grab more leads via subscribers.

Plus, podcasts are a great way for you to engage with your audience, position yourself as the expert and build a proper relationship with them.

Podcasts are easy to create and don’t require a lot of cash. All you need to get started is a good pair of headphones and a good microphone.

Podcast editing software can be totally free and easy to use.

Once you’ve created your episode(s), you need to upload the files to your website and promote it. To promote it, put the word out on social media and make the most of the different distribution channels.

A contest is self-explanatory and you can host it anywhere on social media.

Facebook has primarily performed best for contests, but Instagram works amazingly well, too – according to research, Instagram contests can grow your following by as much as 70% – as does Twitter.

There are numerous types of contests you can create

There are numerous success stories involving brands using content to generate more leads. Take KFC, for example. Back in 2010, the fast-food company held a Twitter contest centred around creative answers. It worked like this: Applicants had just 140 characters to explain why they deserved to win a $20,000 scholarship and had to include the #KFCscholar hashtag.

2,800 people took part, which means that KFC was effectively spending $7.14 to “buy” new leads who engaged with their brand. When you can get this kind of engagement from a contest, it’s nothing other than wildly successful.

And how about a branded contest? Eggo is one such brand who once held a two-part brand contest on Facebook called The Great Eggo Waffle Off with the aim of improving their brand exposure. The first part involved their followers submitting a tasty recipe for waffles, while the second part involved their followers voting for the best recipe. The winner received $5,000.

This is a type of brand-related contest because Eggo asked their fans for user-generated content centred on Eggo’s waffle product. As a result, they managed to generate a wealth of photos of their product on Facebook!

Contests are absolutely brilliant for engagement. They boost the awareness of your brand and you can even start to build a community around them.

Moreover, you can also collect more leads. Because who doesn’t like to win things?!

It’s pretty easy to run a contest. All you need to do is pick the contest you want to go with, decide a prize and choose a theme.

Before you run a contest on either Facebook or Instagram, you need to know the rules. For example, on Facebook, you need to make it absolutely clear that your content isn’t in any way sponsored, endorsed or administered by for associated with Facebook.

There are also rules for collecting entries. While it’s forbidden to ask entrants to share a post on their profile to enter your contest, you can collect entrants by asking your followers to like or comment on a specific post on your page, send you a DM or publish to your page.

If you’re planning a Facebook contest to get more traffic to your website, Facebook contest rules are the best source of information.

Instagram has rules that you need to follow, too, but there are also things that aren’t rules that you need to know in order to increase your chances of success. For example, if you make following your account necessary in order for someone to participate, you will noticeably boost the number of followers you have.

And while asking people to ‘tag a friend’ isn’t against the rules, it will annoy those who haven’t asked to be tagged. This can harm your brand.

What is against the rules is “inaccurately tagging content or encouraging users to inaccurately tag content.”

And like Facebook, you need to include the “acknowledgement that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated, with Instagram.”

These are the 5 content types you have to include in your editorial calendar. All 5 can boost engagement, leads, and conversions. Because there’s a lot to do, the time to start is now.

5 Editorial Calendar Content Types [infographic]

Businesses are racing to transform their customer experience (CX), with 80% of organizations expecting to compete mainly based on CX this year. 

This approach is taking hold in direct response to evolving customer desires, with 67% of customers saying that their standard for good experiences is higher than it has ever been, and 75% of customers expect that companies understand their needs and expectations. 

With our world more connected than it ever has been, businesses are in a prime position to understand their customers, their emotions, and the various touchpoints at play in any buying decision, also known as the customer journey, to then deliver on this ideal customer experience at each step of the journey through various sales or communications activities.

The problem, though, as recent CMSwire and Treasure Data research I collaborated on found, is that many companies are relying on the “easy” data to model their customer journey, and fewer than a third of companies are using a multi-touch attribution strategy. And, perhaps worse yet, nearly half of companies aren’t using any formal marketing attribution strategy.

Companies that are trying to cut corners—or those that lack the skills and resources to understand their audiences truly—are just gambling their marketing budget, hoping their activities may resonate with their buyers. While some of these attempts may succeed, your company is just falling further behind the pack without an accurate, data-driven customer journey map.

A customer journey is the accumulation of every step a customer has taken before purchasing from your company, and the various emotions they felt each step of the way. These steps are often signified by touchpoints, or moments where the customer interacted with your brand in some way. 

Customer journeys are relevant for any company, regardless of the product or service they sell. Two examples of what a customer journey could look like include:

B2C: You’ve moved cities and need new weather-appropriate clothes. You’re scrolling through Instagram and see an ad that you click on. You decide not to buy anything, but you sign up for that company’s email list. After you receive an email coupon, you go to the site to finally buy the item that initially caught your eye. 

B2B: You need to get new software for your PR team. You Google the options, see the top results, and click through to a G2 Crowd report. You find reviews on some of the options, and then go straight to their respective websites to schedule demos. Due to budget constraints, you wait a few months and then eventually purchase your top choice. 

These may sound relatively straightforward in writing, but tracking this process is often not so simple. Understanding these complexities requires a customer journey map, which companies can approach a few different ways (check out this article for more details and examples):

Current State: The most common map, and where most companies should start, these maps visualize how your customers are currently interacting with your company

Day in the Life: This takes a broader view approach by detailing everything your customers do as they go about their day, regardless of if your company is involved. This map will detail pain points and is best for identifying and addressing unmet needs and fleshing out your buyer personas

Future State: These maps are more aspirational, and describe what you believe the future customer journey will be for your existing customers 

Service Blueprint: Building on a simplified version of the Current State or Future State, these maps layer the different systems that are involved—people, processes, policies, technology—to either identify existing pain points or to identify the ecosystem that needs to exist to support the intended experience

Why Comms Pros Should Care About the Customer Journey

Sales and marketing teams are not the only departments in your company that should be actively using your customer journey to drive business activities. 

Customer journey maps are also a necessary communications tool for a variety of reasons. They help you:

Target Your Efforts: PR and comms pros need to understand how to reach their company’s target audiences effectively. Budgets are often tight, and every activity needs to deliver a proven ROI. If comms professionals keep pitching publications that their ideal customers are not actually reading, then you’re just wasting resources, or vanity pitching top-tier publications to feed the ego of your client

Uncover Content Ideas: Responsible communication activations should keep customer needs and pain points in mind. By keeping your comms team versed in the customer journey, you can more easily identify the best storylines to pursue

Enable Cross-Functional Collaboration: Any customer-facing or customer-targeting department in your company (so, arguably everyone) can benefit from some version of a customer journey map. More specifically for comms, your marketing and sales teams are likely creating resources to help move customers along their journey and down the sales funnel. Comms teams need to know about these resources to ensure they’re not duplicating efforts, take the lead in using them to secure more backlinks to the company’s website alongside company interviews in those earlier-determined key publications

Building and maintaining your customer journey maps is time-intensive, and there are countless ways that pros can lead their team astray with inaccurate customer journeys:

Assuming Journeys Are Linear: Customer journeys are messy, and most don’t follow a straight path from awareness to purchase. Nearly 71% of companies say that the time between first customer engagement and purchase takes a month or longer, and 61% of companies have at least three pre-purchase touchpoints, with 32% reporting six or more. Adopting a multi-touch attribution strategy is essential to capture and track the intricacies of how your customers are interacting with your brand.

Working with Siloed Data: Multi-touch attribution is a data-intensive strategy, and many companies simply don’t have the skills or foundation in place for a smooth process. One significant issue is that almost 47% of companies cite data silos as their biggest challenge. Address this by hiring data-driven talent and training your existing team to know how to access and analyze your company’s data. Assess your technology needs to find where you may need more integrations to make your data digestible.

Relying on the “Easy” Data: If you don’t address the two points above, it’s likely you are going to rely on the “easy” data—whatever it is easiest to track through first and last touch attribution. The problem, as was illustrated with the complex customer journeys, is that first and last touch are often just a minor piece of the puzzle. There is a lot of activity that happens between those two points. If you can’t track those points through your technology, you can still get at it the old fashioned way—by asking. In your lead form, ask how your prospects heard about you to get more insight, since your website probably wasn’t their first stop. 

Investing in your customer journey takes the right mix of dedication, skill, and technology, but the result could be the difference for beating out your competition for customers. While multi-touch attribution strategies may feel daunting, by breaking down your silos and getting your team up to speed, you’ll be working with the accurate information you need to make smart business decisions. 

Your customer journey maps should be accessible across departments, and be viewed as living documents. Your cross-functional teams should meet regularly to review your customer journey maps to see where new touchpoints or pain points may have arisen.

The best way to keep up with these real-time changes is through social listening, which is already part of your charter as a PR pro. Social media and related platforms are a goldmine of qualitative data that you need to understand your customers. Before starting your customer journey mapping, check out these other resources from Meltwater to learn how to uncover this vital information you need from your customer’s social activity.

For a comprehensive overview of the customer journey, check Meltwater's audience insights solution, and read our latest ebook. You’ll get a full breakdown of the 5 steps—and how communications can make the most of each. 

Why Marketers and Comms Pros Get Their Customer Journeys Wrong

There’s no need to convince you that Facebook is one of the best places to engage a massive audience. No matter what type of business you have, you can be sure that many of your existing and potential customers are on Facebook. Yet, the very size and scale of Facebook also creates certain challenges.

Saying people are on Facebook today is almost like saying they’re on the internet. It’s true, but this doesn’t tell you how to target specific niches on the platform. Facebook, of course, does provide some useful targeting tools. However, it’s gotten so competitive that you really need to hone in on some clever strategies to get the most out of your efforts. One thing that’s imperative, no matter what your social media marketing strategy, is to use effective analytics to create, distribute and measure the success of your activities. This is will enable you to determine if you’re reaching the right audience and provide insights into how to get the results you want.

Understand Metrics Like Impressions, Reach and Engagement

When you buy ads or sponsored posts, it’s important to understand the difference between the impressions, reach and engagement metrics. These are not always defined in exactly the same way. For our purposes, we’re going to focus on how these terms are used on Facebook.

Impressions refer to the number of times something is displayed on someone’s feed. This doesn’t mean that the person actually paid attention to the post or ad, only that it appeared on his or her Facebook page. One thing to know about impressions is that they aren’t necessarily unique. One user seeing the same content 10 times counts as 10 impressions.

Reach refers to the number of unique people who see your content. For this reason, reach is more meaningful than impressions.

Engagement refers to people interacting with your marketing content. This includes liking, sharing and commenting on your posts or ads. While you should track all of your Facebook analytics, engagement is the metric that matters the most. You can waste quite a bit of time and money seeking a large audience on Facebook. If people aren’t responding in some way, however, there’s no benefit.

Facebook differentiates between organic and paid reach. Organic reach refers to people who see your free content. Paid reach refers to people who see your ads or sponsored content. Facebook also recognizes viral reach, which occurs when someone shares your content. One reason you need to pay attention to engagement is that Facebook’s algorithm favors pages with high engagement.

When people engage with your content, they’re more likely to see it in the future. The reverse is also true. If your Facebook engagement is low, fewer people will see your content. This means that your organic content can easily get drawn into either an upward or downward spiral. When you’re doing well, Facebook makes it easy to do even better. When your content is performing poorly, it risks sinking into oblivion as Facebook shows it to fewer people and therefore a smaller portion of your audience.

Some businesses rely on paid advertising on Facebook, which is a fast way to increase engagement. However, it’s also good to focus on organic engagement on the platform. This is often a good test to see how people are reacting to your content. If you only use paid advertising, you risk spending money on ineffective campaigns. As we’ll see in the next section, it’s often most effective to balance a paid and organic approach.

There are a number of ways to boost Facebook engagement. 

Engagement is a two-way process. If you want people to engage with you, it helps if you return the favor. When people comment on your posts, always reply, even if it’s just posting to say “thanks”. Another way to keep your audience engaged is by leaving comments on their posts too, such as "I'd like to get your thoughts on...", or asking a question. If you notice certain people consistently supporting your pages, check out their pages as well.

In general, social media engagement is best at night. However, it’s best to test your metrics and identify when your audience is online and engaging. For example, an audience of college students and young adults is likely to be up later than one made of seniors. According to Sprout Social, here is the general rule for posting on Facebook.  

For global engagement: Wednesday, 11 a.m. and 1–2 p.m

For consumer goods engagement: Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m.

For media engagement: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 5 p.m., Friday from 8–9 a.m.

For education engagement: Wednesday at 9 a.m. and Saturday at 5 p.m. 

For nonprofit engagement: Wednesday and Friday at 8–9 a.m

For tech engagement: Wednesday from 9 a.m.–noon

For healthcare engagement: Wednesday from 10 a.m.–noon

For finance engagement: Wednesday at noon

For recreational engagement: Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 11 a.m.

Just as a call to action is essential on a sales page or blog post, it’s something you can use to increase engagement on Facebook. This may be a request to click on a link or share your post. It can also be as simple as inviting people to reply. Asking questions is also a good way to encourage Facebook engagement.

 If you pay attention to what kind of content your audience responds to best, you can improve your engagement rates over time. They may favor certain topics and tones, such as businesslike or humorous.

Images and other visual content are more popular than ever. This also means that everyone is now posting photos, videos and even memes! To stand apart, create professional and appealing images, such as quality photos and creative illustrations. Don’t rely on low-quality stock images. Photos are especially good for personalizing your content. These can be of yourself, your colleagues, your business or your region.

Facebook video is one of the best ways to engage your audience. Because If your current video strategy is to post videos from YouTube, consider making a change. Facebook is really focusing on video right now, so it’s only natural that their algorithm will favor their own videos. Don’t overlook the possibilities of Facebook Live, as streaming video gives you a powerful way to engage with followers of your page.

These are some of the best ways to improve Facebook engagement. Remember that the rules are always changing as Facebook introduces new features and alters its algorithm. That’s why it’s important to keep up with the latest news and trends. It’s equally crucial to do your own testing and experimenting on the platform, as the same rules don’t always apply to every audience.

How to Improve Engagement on Facebook

Does it feel like no matter how hard you try your business just isn’t getting the traction you expected from social media? Sure, maybe you’ve amassed a few thousand followers and your posts regularly get favorited or re-tweeted, but brand recognition hasn’t improved and sales are still stagnant. Or maybe sales are up, but you have no idea whether that’s because of social media, or simply due to increased marketplace demand. On the flip side, top brands like Coca-Cola, American Express and Johnson & Johnson (to name a few) seem to have mastered the art of social media marketing. So, what gives?

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