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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

The tell-tale sign of an effective campaign is one that still resonates with us no matter how many years ago they ran. Not only will their catchy slogans or iconic logos be preserved for years to come, but their impact on our collective identity as a nation continues to be profound.

Great marketing campaigns make customers feel like they’re part of a family, not just another sale. Although big-budget campaigns stemming from the USA and Britain have traditionally been more popular worldwide (think Nike’s Just Do It and Coca-Cola’s Open Happiness), social media has evened the playing field and there are now a growing number of Indian campaigns reaching international audiences.

Here – in no particular order – are some of the country’s best marketing campaigns (and what you can learn from them).

The “best car and bike tyres manufacturer in India” can also produce some of the best marketing campaigns.

In their marketing campaign, #ItHelps, CEAT illustrates that their tyres are the best to have in case of an unexpected occurrence while raising awareness about road safety in India. In the TVC, a jaywalker spontaneously runs across the street, causing a motorcyclist to screech to a halt, resulting in a series of ripple effects that essentially put everyone out.

What made their #ItHelps campaign so effective is that they tapped into a common issue that Indians throughout the country are affected by; that of the daily traffic struggle. Not only can the traffic situation in Indian cities be a nightmare, but the constant thread of cheeky and oblivious jaywalkers affects everyone too. The campaign captures the minute nuances of the daily traffic struggles of an average commuter and refers to the CEAT user as the good Samaritan.

Top Tip: Explore messages that are common to your country or city, that then can be related to your product (i.e. tyres to road safety in India). The #ItHelps campaign is shot on high-definition with high-quality equipment and uses freeze-frame features – this was no cheap project. If you have the budget, look into getting a talented agency on board and creating high quality and high-value campaign. If you’re anything like CEAT, it’ll be worth it.

CEAT MOTORCYCLE TYRES #ItHelps

No list of the top marketing campaigns in India without a mention of Brooke Bond Red Label, the tea manufacturing giant that focuses on social issues, including transgender rights and religious conflict.

Their latest campaign, under the Swaad Apnepan Ka and T for Togetherness campaign, “Forgotten,” is about a woman who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. The TVC, by Ogilvy and Mather Mumbai captures the loneliness that a number of elderly members of society are forced to live with, and touches all the right notes. 

Forgotten

The video Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg called one of the most powerful she’d ever seen, BBDO’s #ShareTheLoad campaign for Ariel Matic encourages men to do their fair share of housework.

The video story is told from the perspective of a father who watches his career-minded daughter come home from work and clean up for her husband. He then composes a letter to his daughter, in which he laments the fact that his own behaviour has contributed to her situation and vows to change it by helping out at home.

Top Tip: Ariel asked a simple question – “Why can’t the man do the washing?” This drew attention to the powerful global truth that there should be no difference between what is considered “men’s work” and “women’s work” and that it certainly isn’t the defining feature of what makes a good husband or wife. The objective was to launch Ariel Matic, a new premium detergent in the Indian Subcontinent, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, but the message went much further – going viral in 22 countries in 16 languages. Ariel used the content as far afield as Germany, Portugal and Spain. From this, we can take the lesson that sometimes simply questioning the status quo can go a long way to changing it.

ARIEL: Dad Share The Load (Best Thoughtful Ad) must watch

Bajaj Avengers, producers of the nation’s trendiest and most beautifully-designed motorcycles, created an advertisement for India’s Independence Day that went down as one of the greatest marketing campaigns in the country: #RideYourIndependance.

The commercial depicts a young woman, riding her Bajaj Avenger through the city; doing, listening to, wearing and going where she wants. Travelling alone with the wind in her hair, the air of freedom in the ad is almost tangible. Ending with Mahatma Gandhi’s quote rounds it all off, “The day women can walk freely on the roads at night, is the day we can say that India has achieved independence.”

Top Tip: There are so many different ways to portray and to celebrate the independence anniversary of a country. Bajaj Avenger decides to focus on the importance of empowering women in society and communicates their belief that only once women in India (or any country) are free, equal and independent, the country is. This is how to tell a story and connect with an audience. As a by-product, more Avengers are sold.

Bajaj Avenger Independence day Film | #RideYourIndependence | Bajaj Avenger

If you’re looking to make changes to your marketing strategy, then ensure you’re equipped with the social media monitoring tools necessary to measure whether you’ve hit the mark, or need to go back to the drawing board. For more information on how to better measure your return on marketing investment, get in touch with the Meltwater India team.

Tips From the Top: India’s Best Marketing Campaigns

What Social Community Management Used to Be

Social community management is an important part of maintaining a social presence for any organization. Using a tool with community management capabilities will not only make your social activities easier, but it will also maximize their effectiveness. Though usually used by the Community Manager, the community section in the Meltwater Buzz social marketing suite provides valuable insights to departments from marketing and PR all the way to the C-suite.

Many of the social management actions companies used to perform manually can now be completed using Buzz, such as:

Segmenting and organizing audience groups

Retrieving data and insights from a segment of your audience members

Manage and Organize your Audience Members with Social Profile Tagging

Within Meltwater Buzz, the Community tab offers a number of options that help you organize, track and gain insight from your audience activity. It allows you to locate your Twitter followers and followings and to see and select the Facebook users who have liked your page. The Community tab breaks down each user’s online presence and displays details such as:

Reach, Rank and Influence (how many people their individual profile is connected to and their social importance on a scale of 1-10, 10 being most important)

Relationship Source (where they first interacted with your Facebook and/or Twitter)

Methods of Engagement (options to retweet, post, share and more within the platform)

Tagged Group (your customized, segmented audience group or groups for each user, described in further detail below)

Social profiles will help you better understand the makeup of your social community members, as well as target your social efforts to specific subset groups. Here are a few examples of how Buzz clients have used tags:

In order to track customers within different product lines or segment their audience by relationship, many banks track both individuals and organizations in order to best understand how they can interact with their community. Common areas of segmentation include but aren’t limited to:

Product Lines – Personal banking customers, small businesses, small business loan customers, home mortgages, personal lending

Relationships – Brand ambassadors, customer complaints, satisfied customers, employees, partners, vendors, community organizations 

Universities in particular have the need to follow many different audience groups concurrently. After tagging users on their social profiles, go to the Community tab, select the Analysis dropdown and then “Contacts by Tag.” Here you can see a graphical list of community members, based on their tags. Within this list, you can click on any group to see individual users, take action, export a list or find the most influential people within any category. Popular ways to break out audiences for schools, universities and educational institutions are the following:

Alumni (by graduation year), current students, prospective students, parents, teachers, athletes, award organizations, departments/schools (i.e. business, dental, nursing, etc.) and more

The Community capabilities in Buzz are an excellent way to groom a new community manager, ensure the effectiveness of a social media director or translate the impact of your customer/audience engagement to C-suite executives.

Be sure to explore the many options within this area, including those not mentioned in this blog post, or get in touch with your Meltwater account manager to learn more.

Making the Most of Audience Engagement: Social Community Management

How much do you understand about Artificial Intelligence? Have you implemented it in your business yet, or are you using it to help your processes?

Simply put, it’s the technology making machines as capable as humans, if not more efficient in terms of speed and objectivity. Images of walking, talking robots may spring to mind, but actually, we’ve been using AI in much simpler ways for many years. Google’s RankBrain provides us with “Did you mean..” when we misspell something in Google search, and Facebook gives us the option to “Show translation” when something is written in a different language. Chatbots are also on the rise and with applications like Siri and Amazon’s Echo, almost everyone has a virtual personal assistant.

Tip: Learn why 2023 was the year of AI chatbots

With these examples, we can see how AI has been applied to our daily lives and how simple it can be. The question is, does this technology have the ability to be really powerful or is it over-rated? And most importantly, how can it help us in business?

Tip: Learn how to use chatbots to improve your sales

The Technical: We’re “Still Learning”

Machine Learning is a subset of Artificial Intelligence, that is designed to enhance all aspects of our daily lives. Machine learning is at play when Netflix predicts what we’d like to watch next, and when Spree finds the item we’ve been looking for.

Deep Learning, a subset of machine learning, takes inspiration from the human brain in creating algorithms known as artificial neural networks (ANN). The concept of deep learning existed years ago, too, but has recently become popular in the mainstream due to advancements in computing power. The difference, and what sets deep learning apart, is that deep learning algorithms perform better the more data they are fed, while other algorithms reach a plateau in performance.

Today’s leading corporations are implementing machine learning-based tools to automate their design process and they are starting to experiment with more advanced uses of deep learning for digital disruption. Investments in artificial intelligence are predicted to triple this year, becoming a $100 billion industry by 2025. In a recent survey by PwC, 30% of respondents said that they believe AI will be the biggest disruptor to their industry within the next five years. This will no doubt have major consequences on the workplace. Machine learning and deep learning is enabling companies to automate processes, increase their top-line growth, improve employee advocacy and enhance customer satisfaction. Here are a few concrete examples of how AI is creating value in the workplace:

The potential to improve customer service while lowering expenses makes this one of the most exciting opportunities for companies. 42% of consumers are already use digital assistants, while 72% of business execs and 53% of millennials are using them. By combining natural language processing, historical customer data and deep learning algorithms that continue to learn from interactions, these numbers will keep growing. Customer service reps can jump in to handle issues or exceptions, while the algorithms can look over their shoulder and learn for next time.

Algorithms can now mine customer social sentiment data in order to identify customers who are at a high risk of churning. This allows companies to optimize “next best action” strategies and decide when to focus on personalised customer experiences.

A good example is when young adults come off their parents’ cellphone plans often move to other carriers. Mobile communications companies can use AI in marketing to anticipate this behaviour and make customized offers based on the customer’s usage patterns, before they leave and go to a competitor.

Most recruiters say that finding the right people in a pool of equally qualified candidates is the most difficult part of their job. Today, certain algorithms are able to quickly sift through CVs and shortlist candidates who are most likely to be successful at a company. There is software available that can even combat human biases by automatically flagging biased language in job descriptions and detect highly qualified candidates that may have been overlooked.

Automated processes can now recognize products, people and logos. Advanced image recognition can now be used to track the position of a brand’s logo that appear, for example, in film footage at a sporting event, such as a rugby match. This is exciting for corporates for want to measure the exposure and return on investment of their sponsorships, with detailed analyses such as duration, size and placement of their logos.

On average, companies lose about 5% of revenue per year due to fraud.

Machine learning algorithms can use pattern recognition to spot anomalies, exceptions, and outliers. This helps detect and prevent fraudulent transactions in real-time, even for previously unknown types of fraud. These models are built based on historical transactions, social media information and other external data points.

Banks, for example, can use this historical transaction data to develop algorithms that can detect fraudulent behaviour. These algorithms can also discover suspicious patterns of transfers and payments. This type of “algorithmic security” can be enormously beneficial in the financial industry, and is applicable to a wide range of situations; including cyber-security, corruption and tax evasion.

Now is the time to start looking at the different ways that your business will benefit from using AI, specific to your industry. To avoid investing in cutting-edge technologies is to avoid development and growth. Meltwater is the global media intelligence company that uses in-depth machine learning and deep learning to cover a broad range of situations: from measuring media exposure, detecting fraud, improving customer satisfaction and getting air-tight security. If you’re interested in learning more about how AI can improve your business processes, contact Meltwater today.

Improving Business Processes with Artificial Intelligence

Around the world, retailers face a difficult challenge.

Consumer habits and behaviours are changing dramatically, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores battle for survival in an increasingly digital world. Indeed, many onlookers are speculating whether there will, in fact, be a place for physical stores in five to ten years’ time as more consumers are turning to the convenience of e-commerce and online browsing.

Like almost every industry in 2019, the retail sector has to consider digital transformation. For retailers, this will mean shifting from an inventory-led ecosystem to what many have dubbed a more “experiential environment” – whereby shopping offers some kind of unique, engaging and very personalized retail customer experience. Moreover, retailers have to begin to consider emerging trends such as cashier-less checkout, live shopping, social commerce, and data-driven merchandising. 

Top Tip: For more insights on digital disruption, watch this free, on-demand webinar on How Digital Transformation is Changing Our World with Accenture’s Digital Transformation Lead, Greg Cress. 

Notably, African retailers and brands have an opportunity to leapfrog traditional approaches to retail – and to embrace key shifts at an early stage. The first step, however, requires an understanding of what the customer of the future looks like.

To start with, brainstorm what the customer of the future will look like by asking yourself these questions:

How will they look to integrate technology and wearable devices with physical shopping?

Will they expect dynamic and tangible experiences?

How much personal / human-to-human interfacing will they really need?

Only once retailers and brands have explored and understood what these needs will look like, can they intelligently and adequately plan, design and build. Arguably, looking ahead to what the customer of the future will look like is absolutely imperative to future sustainability and growth. Standing back and simply responding to customer demands, as they evolve, is a surefire way to be overtaken by more nimble and agile competitors. 

With this in mind, we consider what the customer of the future will look like..

With the skyrocketing popularity of cash-free or cashless innovations such as Uber and Lyft, even credit and debit cards are beginning to look obsolete. Indeed, some market insiders are forecasting the evolution of an entirely cashless society – and consumers are increasingly demonstrating their keenness to abandon cash.

It’s not as far away as we think: Sweden is expected to become the world’s first cashless society by March 2023. Unsurprisingly, innovations around mobile and contactless payment methods have ballooned, with mobile transactions booming. 

In the United States, mobile payment transactions were valued at $49.3bn in 2017, but this figure was overshadowed in just a ten-month period by China, where they reached a whopping 81 trillion Yuan between January and October 2017. 

In South Africa, many are already leaving their bankcards at home as smartphones become the new [digital] wallet. According to a study by PayPal, 85% of respondents used their mobile phones to make a purchase in 2017, and 46% said being able to shop on their mobile phones has made them buy more. Tellingly, the majority of South Africans would rather leave home without their wallets than leave home without their mobile devices! 

Given the South African social media statistics and social media trends in Africa, the message for retailers is plain: the customer of the future will demand a mobile, friction-free, and almost invisible payment ecosystem.

According to agency We Are Social and Hootsuite’s Global Digital 2019 reports, internet users are growing by an average of more than one million new users every day. There are 5.11 billion unique mobile users in the world today, up by 100 million (2 percent) in the past year, notes We Are Social. Astoundingly, there are 4.39 billion internet users in 2019, an increase of 366 million (9 percent) compared to January 2018. It goes without saying that more internet users have massive ramifications for retailers in every market. The more connected people are, the more informed and tech savvy they become – which radically changes the nature of consumer expectations. 

Moreover, along with more people becoming connected, more ‘things’ will become connected – with devices of all kinds constantly generating and sharing data. This is the Internet of Things (IoT), which will become integral to individual lives and purchasing decisions. In homes, for example, connected fridges will automatically send notifications when certain basics are running low – and may even send a grocery list directly to the owner’s smartphone. Notably, the Ericsson Mobility Report forecasted that in 2018, mobile phones were surpassed in numbers by IoT devices, which includes connected cars, machines, meters, wearables, and other consumer electronics. 

For retailers, the rise of the Internet of Things and overall, 24/7 internet connectivity means that consumers will be very particular and focused in what they are looking for – and will demand that the retail experience deliver on their needs both seamlessly and instantly. Retailers will therefore have to harness technology, including IoT, to create a slick and ‘friction-free’ environment. 

For example, strategically placed sensors and connected beacons can inform shop assistants when inventories are running low, and the use of chatbots can ensure that when consumers are online they receive quick and data-driven feedback. Even a slight delay in response times could lead to eroded consumer loyalty and damaging feedback on social platforms. 

Indeed, as Facebook’s group director Martin Harbech commented to Wired UK, “companies will have to keep up with the standards set for customers by the top brand in the field. And the way to do so is to completely remove friction from the shopping experience – to become friction-obsessed.” 

Top Tip: Read more on how Augmented Reality (AR) in particular, is drastically changing and improving Customer Experience. 

With so much of the world’s attention being drawn to the grim predictions of climate change, consumers are becoming increasingly aware of their environmental impact – which includes their daily purchasing decisions. Arguably, this awareness and ‘earth consciousness’ will likely grow in intensity and fervour, making it increasingly important for retailers themselves to embrace sustainable and environmentally sound operational practices. 

According to research firm J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, ‘consumers expect brands to be sustainable and are willing to pay more to support those that are.’ In a 2018 study titled New Sustainability, the research team unveiled that 89% of those surveyed ‘care personally’ about protecting the planet; 92% said they are trying to live more sustainably, while 83% would always select the brand that has a better track record of sustainability. 

Notably, Millennials are at the forefront of the global ‘green consumerism’ movement, with research company GlobalWebIndex revealing that Millennials (aged 22-35) are more likely than any other generation to say that they would pay extra for eco-friendly or sustainable products. The market research company further notes that over 60% of Millennials have this inclination, compared to 55% of Gen X (aged 36-54) and just 46% of baby boomers (aged 55-64).

This shift, in itself, presents a clear opportunity for retailers and brands to connect with customers and build new relationships around the values of sustainability and green living. Indeed, as Peter Diamandis, executive chairman of the XPrize Foundation, has stated: “The world’s biggest problems are the world’s biggest business opportunities.”

With these three major trends in mind, retailers and brands can begin to incorporate new technology as well as new values into their product and service offerings. Only through constant innovation and a willingness to ‘disrupt from within’ can retailers ultimately survive – and thrive – in a rapidly changing consumer landscape. 

If you’re interested in learning more about how to thrive in the digital age, disrupt and transform with ease, cater for the customer of the future and take your business to the next level with media intelligence, reach out to the Meltwater Africa team today via the following form.

What Digital Transformation Means for the Future of Retail

Data is a sizzling hot topic these days. Marketers are learning how to use the right information to drive leads and close sales in record time. Data, refines strategy and optimizes efforts, driving your campaign to new heights.

But despite all the buzz data is getting in industry circles, most marketers are focusing on how it informs strategy rather than content. And we’re missing the boat. As Alexandra Samuel said in the Harvard Business Review, “Yet even as companies have embraced their new role as content creators, they’ve largely missed out on one of the hottest trends in the world of traditional media: data journalism.”

Not only does data allow for new insights and build authority, Samuel argues that “data-driven stories attract the kind of social media attention that publishers dream about: fresh data and infographics spread across Twitter, Facebook and other social channels precisely because they are able to tell a story in a concise, compelling and visually appealing way.”

Data storytelling hits an emotional and intellectual pulse that rivets your audience and keeps them coming back for more.

In 1921, a Guardian editor wrote, “Comment is free, but facts are sacred.” Almost 100 years later, the same holds true in content marketing. To gain a foothold as an authoritative brand, you need to build your content on data, not opinion.

Even if you want to craft an eye-opening opinion piece, facts will be the bones of your story. Sarah Slobin at Wall Street Journal reveals why data storytelling is the way forward:

We can paint pictures of our entire lives with our digital trails. From what we consume and browse, to where and when we travel, to our musical preferences, our first loves, our children’s milestones, even our last wishes – it all can be tracked, digitized, stored in the cloud and disseminated. This universe of data can be surfaced to tell stories, answer questions and impart an understanding of life in ways that is currently surpassing even the most rigorous and careful reconstruction of anecdotes.

Now that this kind of data is available to us, digital storytelling can be both energized and grounded in information.

Understanding the Different Ways to Conceptualize Data

Data storytelling means different things to different people. There’s no one way to tell a story. Data unlocks limitless possibilities — you can shape facts and statistics into any form. You can even create new content formats with data (check out the history of infographics).

As you start to see your data as a goldmine not only for your strategy but also for your storytelling, you open up your content production horizons – serving up formats your audience is asking for.

Here are just some of the many formats you can consider for data storytelling:

For more options, check out the Data Visualization Catalogue compiled by graphic designer Severino Ribecca. This ever-growing library of visual systems is an awesome resource for any content creator — it includes 60 form types, information about the best options for your data, and a list of creative resources that would make the best designers jealous.

Using data visualization as your storytelling method gives you the power to translate complex ideas and wide swaths of information into remarkable digital experiences.

Let’s take a look at five different narratives that showcase the power of data and how they work.

We’ll start with a seemingly simple infographic. Released as a summary of the Data Journalism Handbook Handbook, this infographic by Lulu Pinney gives the traditional table of contents a major upgrade.

Pinney used small circles to represent data floating in the digital world. As readers walk through each stage of data journalism, the circles morph into shapes or forms, until eventually, they are shared with the audience as finished stories.

Once dispersed into the world, data floats back to the beginning of the journey in the form of crowdsourced information. As readers move through each chapter, they gain the tools to apply new knowledge to the data at their fingertips. In other words, the journey through the handbook is a metaphor for the data-driven content creation process. Pretty cool, huh?

We can learn from the colour scheme as well. Bright orange and robin’s egg blue are snappy complementary colours that draw in the eye and act as the perfect backdrop for the graphic. According to a study from the University of Toronto, most people prefer graphics with two or three simple colours, so don’t get too complicated. Use this infographic as a blueprint for illustrating the steps of any process beyond the average listicle.

Ask yourself: what processes or steps could you illustrate with a graphic? How could you make the journey clearer through visualization?

Enlist the help of a talented designer to make your vision a reality.

Consider the color scheme – make it user friendly and easy to digest.

Don’t try to do too much! The best visualizations simplify complex ideas.

2. Use Data Storytelling to Illuminate Trends

Fried calamari is no longer the cool kid at the table — and it’s been replaced by brussel sprouts. (Yes, you read that right.) Neil Irwin, a senior economist correspondent for the New York Times, applied his analytical chops to measure food trends for the Upshot. He tracked the number of NYT articles using the term “fried calamari” as a proxy for its popularity over time.

Their graphic designer kept the calamari graph clear with one thin, purple line. Smaller charts in the article served dual purposes, showing the individual popularity of eight other foods over time, allowing readers to contrast and compare them against each other.

How could you use this in your own marketing? In some industries, measuring trends is itself a trend. Marketers that dig into their own data frequently discover interesting insights that might be worth sharing even outside their own four walls.

For example, Buffer recently conducted a study on their own blog traffic. What would happen if they stopped publishing new posts for a full month?

Their findings were fascinating and turned into an incredibly successful new piece of content for the Buffer blog itself. The team could have simply conducted this analysis, learned from it, and moved on – but they wanted to share it with their audience, who might want to apply those takeaways to their own strategies.

I love this example because the “data storytelling” element is so simple. Buffer is a fully transparent company, so they simply screenshotted their Google Analytics dashboard and inserted the graphic right into the post.

Next time, instead of mulling over your coolest finding at the water cooler with colleagues, share your off-beat finding with your community. They’ll thank you for it.

Identify a trend your audience cares about – that might mean digging into your own data.

Think about the “visualization” resources you already have – your technology dashboards can be a great place to start.

Share your insights with your community. Even if they aren’t necessarily earth-shaking, creating a show-and-tell can help foster customer relations and advocacy.

I stumbled on this epic piece of content in an article by Neil Patel on Quick Sprout. Patel’s findings are always gold — but this one surpassed all others by bringing data to a serious sports debate.

The question, “Who is better, Ronaldo or Messi?” has plagued soccer fanatics for years. FiveThirtyEight Sports decided to end the debate by breaking the question down to sheer metrics. Their findings: Ronaldo is a great player, but Messi is “impossible”. As Patel remarks, “He stands out so much on these graphs that no one can really make an argument against the conclusion.”

Neil Patel has a major point — FiveThirtyEight uses not one, but 18 different graphics to make the undeniable conclusion that Lionel Messi takes the cake…I mean, the cup.

If you ever need to make an argument, make sure to rely on visuals. Also, note how their graphic designer used the soccer field as part of the data visualization. Yes!

Identify the metrics you’re using in your persuasive copy and think of how you can represent them visually instead of just in numbers.

Whenever possible incorporate the subject’s theme into the design and display itself.

Provide variations on the data to show multiple perspectives and forms of evidence.

Data can end an argument, and it can also inspire people to action. George Washington University’s graduate program in health administration created this visualization about climate change to impart a sense of moral obligation.

Peter LaPuma, a professor at George Washington summarizes its impact, “This infographic helps to illustrate the environmental injustice issues related to climate change. The countries who have had the least to do with greenhouse gas emissions have the most to suffer from it.”

This piece of content makes a vast body of data absorbable for the average viewer. It uses the size of concentric circles as a metaphor for the injustice of the climate change crisis — the biggest emitters of CO2 are also the least vulnerable to the effects of climate change and vice versa.

A world map draws a second conclusion to the forefront, illustrating that most of the vulnerable nations are in Sub-Saharan Africa. The most amazing visualizations never leave you guessing — it clearly illustrates a point, and in the case of this infographic, move you closer to empathy and change.

Devote time to understanding your core audience and find out what interests them, what their pain points are, and what will motivate them.

Use data to inspire a connection that will resonate with them past the typical sales points, touching upon them as people and not just buyers.

The Meltwater Blog

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