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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

PRWeek and Meltwater recently hosted an exclusive event at San Francisco’s EPIC Steak. 

Featured in this post are the highlights of a fireside chat between PayPal’s Amanda Coffee, one of PRWeek’s Women to Watch 2019, and Gideon Fidelzeid, managing editor of PRWeek. 

Coffee manages PayPal’s global corporate media relations as well as executive visibility projects for the CEO and CFO. She also supports programming for 10 social media channels. She shared a number of insights into AI and machine learning that PayPal currently benefits from. The global payment processor has become more prominent in AI since its 2018 acquisition of Jetlore, an AI-powered prediction platform for some of the world’s top retailers, including Nordstrom Rack, Uniqlo, LG, and eBay. Highlights and excerpts follow.

“The place we have the biggest wins with AI is in our risk portfolio.”

PayPal’s recent investment in companies and technologies that allow users to unlock the benefits of the digital world are already creating value for the company and its users. Coffee contrasts today with several years ago when people were commonly flagged for unexpected, big-ticket purchases. “Our data scientists wouldn’t let those go through. The algorithms weren’t sophisticated enough. Instead, they suspected the buyer of being a fraudster. Today, AI and technology can open the door and see things more comprehensively.”

AI’s role as consumer facilitator and security fail-safe

Customers want PayPal to know who they are when they contact the company, and AI allows customer service to do a better job of putting the pieces together. Security may be less intrusive, but AI is powerful enough to inform PayPal of when to step in and require more of the customer. Coffee says, “We have a new chatbot technology, and it’s smart enough to tell me when I have to supply a social security number versus allowing me to simply check something. So we often push our prospects and customers to chat.”

Using AI to turn customer data into smoother, safer commerce

Coffee spoke to the importance of regulation in technology and finance, and acknowledged the role PayPal plays. “One of our most winning recent acquisitions is this new tool called RegEd Tech. Regulation is really big in technology. It’s one of our key differentiators and why merchants want to work with us. If you’re in eCommerce and you want to start selling in Ukraine, for instance, there are all kinds of regulations you have to adhere to. That’s not something as a merchant you want to take on. AI helps us take all that data and synthesize it, look at the merchant and where they want to sell, and help them navigate that regulated environment.”

Transitioning from an audience of millions to a million audiences of one

PRWeek’s Fidelzeid noted that PayPal appears to excel at gaining a deep understanding of the individuals that use their platform—the holy grail for every brand. Addressing this high level of personalization, Coffee contrasted the present with the past. “Credit is the most powerful part of the business for how we understand our customers. If you think back to 100 years ago when you wanted a loan, you would go to the only bank in town. That one lender would dictate whether you got a loan or not. Even 50 years later, they might have some data, but the customer didn’t have transparency into the decision-making process. Now, due to technology like AI, a customer really feels like we’re seeing them in full. We’re seeing all of them.”

“Our credit product isn’t based on a FICO score, it’s based on your relationship with PayPal.”

Coffee spoke of a longtime PayPal customer short on capital looking to expand her afterschool business. “She just didn’t have that US$5,000 in disposable income she needed to switch her lease and move. In a situation like that, we can look at her history and use AI to determine that she really does have a healthy business and give her the benefit of the doubt. AI allows us to open the door and see things more comprehensively. It gives us more insight into the future.”

Optimizing video on social media for a greater return on investment

Journalists at Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal aren’t always focused on the same things PayPal wants to talk about, so Coffee’s team went elsewhere to tell their stories. “We talked to channel owners like Facebook and LinkedIn, and they steered us to video. Afterward, we had people listen to all of our podcast episodes and rate when they were the most and least engaged. We then took all of our data and put AI to work synthesizing it.

“We learned that when the questions were too long, people trailed off. We also learned that people aren’t used to being on Facebook for 20 minutes at a time. We were able to report that we tested using unbiased data and it returned these results. This makes it really helpful to manage across the organization.”

AI’s personalization paying off in greater loyalty and sales

Coffee confirmed that last year PayPal went on an acquisition spree and acquired four companies in six weeks, one of which was their biggest acquisition to date. “What’s interesting is they’re all focused on achieving the same thing. They’re all tools for merchants. Because a lot of our merchants told us, you guys know AI and risk and payouts, this really helpful when doing business in Europe. They said you know this better than we do, and we’d rather just have you deal with it.

“Our new acquisition Jetlore is a technology that uses AI for big merchants like Nordstrom Rack and Uniqlo to make extremely personalized decisions. Merchants and customers really appreciate that personalization, which leads to more loyalty and sales. If you’re a small merchant, that’s not something you can easily buy. Instead, we’re able to give this really valuable AI-powered technology to our merchants as an added bonus.”

In response to a question from PRWeek’s Gideon Fidelzeid about the conversations she has with her CEO about AI, Coffee says, “What’s interesting about anyone who works with the CEO is they’re always thinking five, 10 years ahead. And based on our M&A activity, we’re really investing in AI. When you watch our CEO Dan Schulman’s podcast, you’ll notice it’s built around the key tenet of Krav Maga, which holds that if you stand still, you’re waiting to get hit. 

 “In business, if you’re not evolving, you’re inviting someone to challenge you. Fintech is a huge market. There will always be winners and losers, and the winners are going to be the companies that really invest in technology and care first and foremost about their customers. And customers want personalization, which is powered by AI.”

The question above from the audience struck a nerve with both Fidelzeid and Coffee, with the latter noting that “This is a question people feel they can’t ask, but it’s a top-of-mind question at PayPal, because so many people are involved in operations and customer service. And yet, the way the smartest people in our organization answer it is to point out that AI can only go so far, and benefits so much from human oversight.”

Fidelzeid observed that it’s a question born out of fear, understandably, but expressed his belief that AI is only a tool. Added Coffee, “And it’s a really great tool. It helps communicators a lot. But one thing that always fascinates me is that events like this one today are often extremely popular. And that’s because, at the end of the day, public relations and communications is still at its heart a very people-driven business.”

AI in Communications: A Peek Inside PayPal’s Playbook

Cultivate Social Communities | The First C

In our social media blog series digging into The 4 C’s of Social Media Marketing, we’ve discussed social listening as the foundation of a strong social strategy.  Once that strategy is set, campaigns come to life, your brand will benefit by engaging target social communities in conversation, rather than broadcasting a message at them.  Content that goes unshared is lonely, long-format advertising.  Remember, the number one goal of any social media marketing manager is to inspire word-of-mouth buzz and to help grow your online communities on the side. 

With that framework in place, we can now dive into the first C: social communities (also known as social networks).

Social Communities are the New Target Audience

Those of us who grew up steeped in traditional PR and advertising principles (read: those of us who remember life before the 90’s) weren't plagued by constantly chasing engagement figures. We started at the basics and learned that any successful campaign has three components: a target audience, a message, and a channel.

Once we move from the one-way message of monologuing to the two-way conversation of social dialogue, our target audience becomes a target community and we provide them with more value.  Like advertisers, marketers can qualify communities with standard demographic and psychographic filters (e.g. name, age, gender, interests).  However, the nature of social media is that communities can also be evaluated by their member relationships, behaviors and profiles and extended network.  With this insight, marketers can determine what content they create that engages community members, and who the influencers are within that platform.

An audience, by definition, is a group of people who witness something.  A community, by contrast, is an interconnected group of people who participate in something together.  This is where we clearly see the difference: a monologue marketing campaign aims to influence individual audience members directly, whereas a dialogue marketing campaign aims to influence community members collectively by sparking conversation. We encourage you to explore the latter. 

Find the Influencers in Social Communities

Both audiences and communities are made up of people.  Evaluating communities as a sum of individuals allows us to examine participation and influence beyond the single target community into the other social communities where an individual may be a part.  The ability to spot and engage the most influential members on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (for example) is one of the big advantages marketers have over advertisers, and it’s why social analytics should focus on actions (shares) rather than intentions (impressions) - to benefit everyone involved.

Finding your influencers is much easier to accomplished with the right tools.  Community management has gone from the eBay model of activating an existing pool of people, who chose to engage on your message boards or with your service, to actively prospecting influencers within both your industry and within your frame of influence, whether or not those people have already engaged with your brand.  Having sophisticated community management tools gives the social media marketer an efficient, scalable way to build strong social communities around specific campaigns, topics and other criterion and to contribute to relevant conversations.

For more on building strong social communities, download The Four C’s of Social Media Marketing

Social – members interact with one another

Collective – members share a common interest

Credible – members share a foundation of trust with one another

Collaborative – members want valuable content to share, and will respond in kind

Spark Conversations in Social Communities with Content

In our recent SXSW wrap-up post measuring social media brand effectiveness, we noted the success of the Grumpy Cat campaign sponsored by social media publisher Mashable.  The cat’s appearance and consequent domination of social chatter was a great example of marketers knowing their audience – and in this case, that audience was a vibrant community.

The Internet loves its feline memes, and a picture really is worth 1,000 words.  Mashable set up a tent where people could come to take a photo with Grumpy Cat at a conference drawing 25,000 attendees, self-selected as both tech-savvy and tweet-ready.  By leveraging Grumpy Cat’s online popularity in person (in the fur?), Mashable gave the technorati a valuable piece of personal content to share on social channels and hijacked the social buzz, making Grumpy Cat was the most talked-about attendee of the entire show.

Mashable crafted its social marketing campaign with a target community firmly in mind.  Everyone who attended SXSW is a potential Mashable reader, and a large percentage of attendees are motivated to demonstrate their position on the bleeding edge of digital by sharing hot interactive trends.  In planning a campaign that would delight, engage and inspire this  community to share, Mashable demonstrated that cultivating strong social communities can really be as easy as flying a cat to Texas – and hey, cats fly free when accompanied by a human.

Social Communities | The First C of Social Media Marketing

Education and nonprofits often feel that their limited resources shut them out of innovative marketing opportunities. But having a strong community and strong mission opens up possibilities with influencer marketing. When you're ready to implement an influencer program that'll work for you at any budget, we have the guide.

Although much of the influencer marketing conversation centers around consumer brands and their partnerships, influencer marketing is also a valuable lever for not-for-profit and higher education organizations, especially when they inspire micro-influencers within their networks.

One organization that does an excellent job of enabling passionate advocates to get involved and spread the word about their organization is charity: water. They fulfil their mission to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing countries by encouraging everyday people to create giving campaigns in their name. This has resulted in couples raising funds in lieu of wedding gifts, to children asking for donations instead of dolls, to YouTube influencers celebrating follower milestones.

Social Media Can Build Awareness that Leads to Action

Another organization with passionate followers actively sharing the organization’s content on social is the Best Friends Animal Society. With over a million Facebook likes, and almost 200,000 Twitter followers, Best Friends does a great job of engaging with community members and making it easy for them to take action. This level of social engagement has, in turn, led to attracting the attention of pet-loving social media influencers, including one very popular french bulldog, Walter Cronkite, who threw a fundraiser for his birthday.

“I created a special hashtag for Walter’s birthday (#WaltersCheesyBday – ’cause he loves cheese!), and let our Instagram friends know that, for everyone who posted using the hashtag, I would be donating $1 per post to Best Friends, up to $100,” says Walter’s mom Carrie. “Much to my surprise and joy, not only did people post like crazy, but some even offered to MATCH my donation! The posting window was 24 hours, and we raised $636.00! Not bad for a spontaneous fundraiser.“

It’s interesting to note that this collaboration didn’t come about through outreach on Best Friends’ part—it was a byproduct of their overall community-building, influencer relations, and social media engagement. But they smartly noticed an opportunity to collaborate and further cultivated the relationship.

“This wasn’t an official collaboration, just something I decided to do completely off-the-cuff to celebrate Walter’s birthday,” says Carrie. “I reached out that morning to my friends at Best Friends letting them know what I was up to, and they were completely supportive.” In a continuation of this partnership, Walter and his mom partnered with Best Friends for their Giving Tuesday event, and have been actively involved in getting the word out about their 2016 Holiday Super Adoption.

GUYZZZ! my sassy playbuddy @rita_the_frenchie has ALSO offered to match donations today to @bestfriendsanimalsociety!! i'm so honored. this is the best bday ever. so happy to help all the animals in need! #WaltersCheesyBday 🎉

Although it may seem more difficult to appeal to an influencer without a big marketing budget or a sample closet at your disposal, there are a number of ways to identify influencers who will be open to partnering with you. Start by identifying influencers in your network, and creating low-time commitment ways for them to show their support. Amplify those efforts and activities conducted on your behalf, and create additional opportunities for these influencers to spread the word about your organization.

Even if your organization doesn’t lend itself to adorable instagrammable pets, if you’re regularly sharing your organization’s content on social media, it’s easy to start identifying influencers within your network.

“I work across several social media platforms and use tools to privately tag various groups of our constituents, including different types of influencers,” said Christina Sponselli, director of social media at the University of California, Berkeley. “I also watch our audience’s interactions with posts and our alumni network, which we’ve developed in-house.”

Sponselli and her team recently concluded a successful 24-hour fundraising campaign, Big Give, that used social media channels to drive over $11 million in donations. Key to this success was a highly-engaged community that was nurtured over time.

Get ready to join with other Haasies to change the world! Together let's go beyond ourselves and strengthen the student experience 💪. Give back on Nov. 17 #CalBigGive #Haasome

“We engage with them online, including resharing posts, privately and publicly messaging them, and we have a social media ambassador program, ambassador.berkeley.edu,” said Sponselli. “This program makes it easy for our constituents to share their Cal pride.”

Biggest thanks for your generosity and support in this year's #CalBigGive. Together we were able to raise over $1.2 million dollars for Haas. You've been able to prove once again that we are a dedicated community of doers committed to making BIG impacts. Thank you for making this a #haasome place to be!

With Meltwater's influencer marketing solution, you can identify social influencers based on their location, audience size, engagement rates, and audience demographics.

Using your analytics tool, take a look at your organization’s top twitter, Instagram, and Facebook mentions. If you see that mention has a significant amount of engagement, including likes/retweets, add the sender to your prospective influencers list as they have an audience that is shown to be receptive to content about your organization. LinkedIn doesn’t give you as much insight into how any one individual’s sharing of your content influenced the increase of its reach. However, LinkedIn’s profile inclusion of causes individuals are passionate about, and their volunteering history provides an opportunity to uncover supporters who have significant networks you may potentially be able to leverage.

A mix of in-person and online events and one-time volunteer opportunities are a great way to identify potential influencers within your network. That’s how Walter Cronkite’s mom, Carrie, got involved with Best Friends. “I was familiar with Best Friends Super Adoption events, and my friend @chloetheminifrenchie asked us to appear at their NYC Holiday Super Adoption in December 2015,” she said. “I love what Best Friends is doing—so many animals needs forever homes!—and was impressed with their hard work, dedication, and integrity. We stayed in touch, and they asked me to appear at and help raise awareness of their Super Adoption event this past spring as well.”

It’s likely that you have passionate brand-advocates-in-waiting already participating in activities related to your cause in the local community. By tapping into those activities and building relationships, you have an opportunity to work with influencers who will be eager to share your story.

“As far as pet influencers go, we are PASSIONATE about animals and committed to helping them as much as we can,” said Carrie. “Almost every friend I have in NYC contributes in some way to rescue organizations, whether it’s on a local or national level. We foster, we raise funds, we donate toys, we do as much as we can. When it comes to partnering with nonprofits, we definitely do our homework to make sure the nonprofit does everything they say they do. Plus, the social media pet community is very tight, so we can always get a reference. As far as pitching goes, I answer everyone who reaches out to me on social media. So long story short – reach out to us! We love getting involved!”

Higher education institutions have the benefit of a built-in community, but Sponselli notes that it takes a deep knowledge of that community to move them to action. “What are their interests and passions about your school? What school traditions resonate? Collaborate with your colleagues who meet with alums. Sharing information with one another is a great way to truly understand your alumni.”

Influencer marketing is an excellent opportunity to expand your organization’s audience and reach, while creating more content that engages the community. As you plan for 2017 marketing and communications activities, think about influencers in your network who could be future partners. By nurturing relationships with passionate fans and advocates, you significantly increase the chances of knocking your 2017 communications and fundraising goals out of the park.

No matter your mission or business goals, getting your audience involved in community activities is mission-critical in today’s business climate. To implement a robust influencer marketing program, download our Influencer Marketing Guide.

How Nonprofits Can Identify and Work with Influencers

We all remember the story about House of Cards – the big gamble that launched what would become a new powerhouse at Netflix: Original Content. The streaming giant purchased 2 full seasons of House of Cards in 2012 – a whopping $100M spend – without seeing a single episode. Instead, they’d looked carefully at data to determine how significant the audience was likely to be.

The company saw that fans of the original UK House of Cards also watched movies that starred Kevin Spacey and were directed by David Fincher, one of the show’s executive producers. Combining these elements with a stellar writing and production team created a recipe for success. The show immediately took off, with some indicating they would maintain their Netflix subscription for the sole purpose of watching House of Cards.

Now a major arm of its business, Netflix Original Content is heavily informed not just by its own user data, but by trends the team sees on social media, viewership in competing markets and predictive algorithms that draw correlations between elements of high-performing content – looking at combinations of talent, storylines, themes and directors.

According to Recode, today Netflix is worth around $140B, following a glowing Q4 earnings report in January that sent the stock soaring 42%. It’s now worth more than McDonald’s and GE, and is creeping in on competitors like Disney and Comcast.

The brand didn’t get here by accident. Every decision made at Netflix is deeply driven by data. According to a presentation by Jeff Magnusson, manager of data platform architecture at Netflix, and engineer Charles Smith, the brand’s data philosophy encompasses 3 key tenets:

1. Data should be accessible, easy to discover, and easy to process for everyone.

2. Whether your dataset is large or small, being able to visualize it makes it easier to explain.

3. The longer you take to find the data, the less valuable it becomes.

The team digs so far into personalized customer data that color breakdowns in cover designs for new original content are determined according to their impact on subscriber viewing habits, recommendations, ratings, and more. Everything is personalized, using their advanced machine learning to offer better recommendations and inform their own upcoming content.

With access to such in-depth data – both from existing customers and from reactions to what competitors are doing in the market – the Netflix team can ask better questions and make informed decisions, without using smaller focus groups and other previous forms of testing during the production stage. Instead they can rely on comprehensive data to inform every decision, large or small.

When they do user testing, the team goes big, often spending millions on a single experiment. According to Megan Imbres, Director/Product Creative at Netflix at the 4As 2017 Strategy Festival, CEO Reed Hastings encourages experimentation where everyone can learn something. “ If you think about it, all the time and energy you’re spending on testing – all the work that’s going into it with our data scientists – everyone is trying to read something. Something that I take to heart working at Netflix is really being able to take these big, aggressive testing swings in order to get that learning, get that hypothesis, and then taper back.”

Their first big original film, Bright, starring Will Smith, cost the company $90M and launched on the platform in December. The purchase of the film concept and subsequent marketing was completely informed by customer data.

Bright saw 11M viewers in its first 3 days, despite decidedly poor reviews from rating sites like Rotten Tomatoes. Ultimately, Netflix was able to rewrite the playbook for blockbuster filmmaking using data.

Netflix began subtly marketing the film to users in March, first categorizing and cataloguing it internally and then using carefully crafted algorithms to display tailored trailers, clips and visuals to individual users over time.

The platform’s internal marketing algorithms allow content like this to have a continual life cycle and reach new viewers over time, as opposed to trying to reach as many as possible on opening weekend as traditional box office premieres must do.

According to The Verge, “The company’s in-house tag phrase for the concept is ‘premiere night is every night.’ For users who don’t know Bright exists, its appearance in the browsing interface will be a moment of discovery, whether it’s December 22nd, 2017, or sometime in 2020.”

The Netflix team uses external data inputs like social media to inform where to focus marketing spend and attention. Imbres gave an example of the latest Gilmore Girls season that launched in 2016.

Testing the waters with a few tweets, they saw that anything posted about the show immediately took off virally like wildfire, indicating interest was strong. So they tapped into the excitement on this particular content, taking also to offline tactics like recreating the famous Luke’s Diner in select cities, to make the most out of the season’s release.

Their marketing strategy appears to be working. So much so, in fact, that in addition to increasing spend on content creation, Netflix is focusing dollars heavily on marketing. According to CFO David Wells in Variety, the company plans to increase marketing spending more than 50% in 2018, from $1.3 billion last year to $2 billion this year.

“We used to think every incremental dollar was best spent on content,” but it’s increasing spending on marketing because “we think marketing is a multiplier on the content spend,” Wells said.

According to Wells, the brand is set to spend upwards of $8 billion on content in 2018, with 700 original TV shows and 80 original films set to release globally. At the close of 2017, they had 117.6 million streaming members.

Today, Netflix spends more on content than any other streaming provider, as well as most TV networks. And it’s only just getting started.

Netflix: Data-driven decision-making

If there is anything executives want more than customers, it’s publicity. That's why every public relations team needs a solid public relations strategy and tactics that align with the customer journey. During this article, we'll show you 6 proven examples of how to leverage your PR outreach to increase brand awareness and improve your reputation.

Nowadays, public relation teams usually have a set of publications they want to receive coverage in, but here’s the catch: a single media mention isn’t going to have as big of an effect on your PR as you might think. Sure, some people might visit your site off the back of seeing the PR hit, some might even remember your brand name, but this effect will wane, fast.

In the long run, building a PR strategy and focusing on tactics that are centred on chasing media mentions is probably one of the least effective public relations means for small and medium-sized companies. If you’re wondering what your public relations team should do instead, keep on reading our 6 strategies that will help you increase brand awareness beyond press releases.

Strategy 1: Leverage connections with industry influencers

Influencer marketing is a big thing among marketers these days - and rightly so. Customers are more likely to trust a new company if it was recommended by someone they know and respect. Thankfully, it's not just the marketing teams focusing on influencers, public relations teams are noticing the impact.

It's no surprise that influencer marketing tops the list of the most cost-effective customer acquisition channels, especially when its used in combination with social media. According to Tomoson, businesses are making up to $20 per each dollar spent on influencer marketing and 51% of companies admit to seeing better results from influencer marketing than other channels, including public relations.

And here lies your first PR opportunity: aligning yourself with influencers your audience follows and admirers. This is a surefire way to get your company noticed and improve the ROI of your communication plan.

We use this strategy all the time here at SEMrush. We connect and slowly develop deep relationships with influential figures and this later results in coverage and promotion we could have never dreamt of from only using PR. Our word of advice here? Instead of trying to get an influencer to take part in a major promotional campaign, start off with a smaller project.

Strategy 2: Promote your company at important industry events

Industry events are an amazing opportunity to learn something new, keep up with new trends, and get inspired by leading figures. But they also offer a chance to promote your company and boost PR.

Events give you a chance to meet your audience, users, and influencers in person, build connections, and develop relationships you could take advantage of from a PR perpective in the future.

Here are 5 tips how to use events for public relations:

Always create an attendee profile, if an event’s organisers offer that option.


Pick a couple of presentations that relate to your product or brand, research their topics, and prepare questions you could ask during a Q&A session. This will help get you noticed by the influencers and allow you to connect with them later on in the lobby.


Schedule meetings with interesting people prior to the event. Reach out to them and ask for a couple of minutes of their time. Give a reason for a meeting that will be beneficial for them as well and you should have no problems with booking some meetings.


Interview people. Many industry leaders will be happy to elaborate on the topic of their speech and more than willing to do it if their advice will be later published online.


And of course, speak at events. After all, nothing beats speaking as a publicity opportunity.

Bonus: if you don’t have the budget to attend big events (and let’s face, those can be costly), seek out online events you could speak at. These events often have more relaxed rules for whom they invite to participate. Oftentimes, you don’t need to be a big name to book yourself to speak at them.

I’m sure you have heard every possible argument in favour of having a business blog already. You know it could help raise your authority, brand awareness, and generate leads. But there is another reason why you should leverage your company’s blog.

You see, a growing number of journalists review blogs on daily basis to find interesting stories, angles, data and stats. They scout the web, searching for new and up-to-date information to enrich their editorial stories. By publishing newsworthy content, you can turn your blog into a great pipeline directly into interested media outlets. In turn, your brand will be credited, therefore boosting PR ROI.

It's important that PR teams work closely with the marketing department to carefully plan and craft content based on a deep understanding of the target audience’s needs. One of the best tools you can utilise for successful content creation is Google Analytics. And don’t forget to distribute your content through all marketing channels rather than solely thinking of content with a PR hat on! You can read more about content distribution strategies in this article.

Try as you might, you can’t make a journalist cover your brand or product. Gone are the days of wining and dining journalists with PR in mind, in this ever-competitive world you need to provide them with so much value that they will be compelled to do so.

PR value could take the form of offering an expert opinion on industry trends, sharing personal experience, providing proprietary data, or even, converting it into an infographic, if they need visual content to enrich the piece.

Journalists are constantly in search for credible PR sources, and if you engage them with your response, they’ll most likely reference your company in return.

When you think of Kickstarter or Indiegogo, you probably picture new product ideas entrepreneurs need help bring to the market. But crowdfunding social media sites could also help you gain publicity and improve journalist relations. How? By presenting your new product to thousands of potential customers. That’s what startups like Mailpilot or Roost did. They first launched their idea on Kickstarter and then used it to develop massive media coverage off the back of it.

Strategy 6: Submit guest posts to popular websites

I admit, guest posting is one of the oldest tricks in the PR handbook - but it works. And that’s partially because guest blogging is mutually beneficial for both the publication and the company. Here is an article on how to find guest blogging opportunities.

By syndicating your content or guest blogging, you get the opportunity to increase brand awareness while sharing some useful advice with people who potentially could become their users. The publication, on the other hand, gets quality content written from a new perspective, adding something new to their site.

That’s the reason why Entrepreneur.com, Harvard Business Review, Inc.com, Forbes, Fast Company and many others still accept authentic and engaging content from outside contributors. Review their submission guidelines and submit valuable content. In time, you will see your name appearing on the largest sites, building your authority and spreading information on your brand.

Building PR strategy should start with research. In my previous post, 5 Ways to Turbocharge PR with Media Monitoring, we explored how monitoring tools enable brand, competitive and industry research – this is a great place to start.

“When developing a PR strategy, I use competitive insights to ensure my team doesn’t replicate a similar idea, creates unique messaging and finds specific audiences that aren’t currently being targeted,” adds Tanya Rynders, PR consultant. “Keeping up with media outlets that typically write about your brand or product will help you stay on top of current discussions and trends in real time.”

As you approach a new PR campaign use your monitoring tools to understand the micro and macro media landscape related to your pitch. On the macro level, monitoring tools will help you to understand your overall brand perception, your competition, industry and customer. On a micro level, you’ll want to use your tools to research press and social media discussions about products or services similar to those you’re pitching. You need to know everything possible about the media environment you’re entering before you pick up a phone or send a single email pitch.

Strategy 8: Clearly Define Your Campaign Goal

Too often we pitch for the sake of pitching; this is not strategic. Perhaps this is because our boss’ demanded “a press release each week” or perhaps we just tried to keep an active pace, but we all know it’s useless to pitch without a clearly defined goal. All PR campaigns need a clear goal and answering these questions will help you put one together without too much pain:

What message(s) do you want to deliver to that customer?

With the answers to these questions you’ll be able to develop a clear, one sentence campaign goal, which will lead your messaging and outreach strategy. If you know why you’re pitching and what you are trying to achieve, the next steps to completing your PR strategy will be that much easier.

Strategy 9: Hone Pitch Messaging Based on Research

By now you’ve done your research in order to better understand your customer, competition and industry environment and you’ve set a clear goal. Those two steps set you up for shaping your message.

Using a combination of your research and goal begin writing pitch messaging that will feel newsworthy to your target journalists, resonate with your customer and match your business objectives.

Youngstrom sums up the correlation between research and messaging nicely; “At the end of the day, great insights provide opportunities to tell unique stories that resonate with target audiences.”

A well-crafted pitch should be concise and easily digestible.  It should move your customer towards action and, as Youngstom points out, it should resonate. Once you have a first draft spend time trying to poke holes in it and share it with a colleague or two for feedback. If needed, edit, and edit some more.  By using your research and being thoughtful you’ll move on to step four with solid pitch messaging.

Strategy 10: Identify and Understand Media Targets

With your pitch messaging completed its time to decide on a distribution channel and find the journalists that will help you to reach your customer.

Determining distribution is largely based on the messaging you’ve developed. The question you need to ask is whether your message is best suited for a broadcast approach (press release) or more personal approach (individual pitching).  Does your message have mass appeal or will it get better pick up if you pitch to a more narrow, targeted list of journalists? For example, if you represent a tech firm announcing a merger with another firm you have a mass-appeal message in which case a press release may be best.  If you are the same firm announcing an upgrade to a current product your message has a more narrow appeal in which case you should focus on select journalists and influencers.

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