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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

Meltwater looks at what Game of Thrones fans are talking about on social media in this fortnightly review as the fantasy series battle #ForTheThrone draws to a close in season 8. Disclaimer: GoT Season 8 spoilers ahead.

It does not take a decree by the Mad King or Bran’s prophecies to declare that the Game of Thrones has taken over the world by (both fire and snow) storm. This week’s post casts an eye over what the fans gawked about in the epic and brutal scenes of the Battle of Winterfell in Episode 3 and the melodramatic aftermath that followed in the subsequent episode.

This post also looks at the countless number of merchandise churned out to commemorate the fantasy series and the buying masses who are lapping them up like the Night King’s hordes of undead storming into Winterfell. With over 3.5 million mentions in social media since the broadcast of Ep 3, there is a lot of marketing that could be done to expand fanbases for brands.

Despite patriarchal tendencies of the houses in the Seven Kingdoms, the lineup of powerful women runs the roost after eight seasons and two episodes shy of the series’ end. It must be said that the series features strong female protagonists consisting of characters such as Cersei, Arya, Sansa, Daenerys, Melisandre and Lady Brienne (or Ser Brienne, after her recent knighthood by Jaime). With such a strong narrative on the fairer gender, even cosmetic brands have tapped into this fandom to create new products. For example, Urban Decay released a capsule collection for the series and there were more than 15,000 mentions on social media. A healthy 38% of the mentions reacted positively commenting on their excitement and the colours available while a low 8% griped on the capsule being hyped due to the series. Furthermore, during the same period, the capsule generated so much interest that it usurped Urban Decay’s bestselling mainstay Naked Palettes which only had 1,300 mentions.

Other brands such as eco-conscious jewellers, Alex & Ani, and handbag maker, Danielle Nicole, also pitched in with their unique Game of Thrones merchandise. Alex & Ani produced a special collection for the strongest women in the series, namely the Stark sisters, Daenerys and Cersei while the latter crafted a range of backpacks and pouches interpreting the series’ drama and sense of adventure.

This narrative on pro-feminism, however, comes back to haunt the producers of Game of Thrones. With the rising stock of Sansa and how she had developed as an integral part of the series, her encounter with Sandor Clegane or The Hound drew widespread criticism from fans. With over 21,000 mentions, fans were vilified with the conversation between the two characters and highlighted overtly sexist remarks from The Hound. Fans even called the writers sexists by portraying women “needed” to be abused or raped to become a “stronger” character.

Undoubtedly, the most talked about scene was when Arya ended the Night King’s march into Westeros. This highlights another example of female dominance in the series where a young female protagonist takes on the heroic role despite the images of hopelessness prior to that scene. This scene alone garnered almost 660,000 social mentions. There were countless videos of fans erupting in joyous fervour during mass screenings in pubs and halls. Arya’s representation of the underdog and the oppressed overcoming all odds went down well with the series’ fans.

After Arya stakes the Night King with her Valyrian steel blade, the realm of men obviously had to celebrate. And what do they have to celebrate with? Unsurprisingly, booze and unadulterated coitus. Even brands saw the affinity that the Seven Kingdoms had with their alcohol and no one could blame them. In tribute of the show’s unbridled success, three brands took up the mantle to brew and concoct the drinks inspired by the beverages the characters consumed.

Johnnie Walker, Diageo and the Ommegang Brewery launched special creations in light of the final season. A product of inebriation would be welcomed by many and fans poured their delight on social media. Johnnie Walker’s White Walker whisky topped the alcoholic trio with almost 6,000 mentions since the first episode aired while Diageo’s single malts garnered almost 3,700 mentions. Predictably, the lesser known Ommegang drew a respectable 1,900 mentions by fans but did manage to receive positive comments for its creations. In the long run, this will inevitably help to propel the brewery’s reputation and marketability.

Fans also got into the act by concocting their own wines and one French winemaker Thibault Bardet developed two wines to commemorate his favourite books and TV series. Despite getting decent reviews for his creation of The Dornish and The Imp’s Delight wines, HBO sent a legal warning letter for him to stop producing them. Although the broadcaster was kind enough to let him sell off whatever he had in stock. At least the broadcasting behemoth had the heart not to cut off his head just like Cersei ordered the Mountain to do to Missandei.

Another topic that had everyone talking was yet another sensuous one involving Jaime and Ser Brienne. This topic alone had 115,000 social mentions. The pent-up tension and most probably the copious amounts of ale consumed, the pair embraced through the cold night in the North. Many fans were initially delighted but this turned to derision when Jaime made the choice to return to Cersei in King’s Landing. This derision was fueled by comments that this was an act of male chauvinism and Brienne was just a pawn to Jaime’s insecurities to prove that he was a bad person despite her protestations. Fans were also annoyed that Jaime’s character development was completely destroyed in one act of passion as it highlighted a soft indiscretion in an extremely likeable flawed persona.

A Goblet To Rule & Shoes To Walk The Seven Kingdoms

A takeaway coffee cup became a viral sensation in a particular gaffe which three-eyed fans spotted in one of the scenes toasting the victory over the Night King. Fans went hysterical over the brown paper cup and instantaneously identified it to be a Starbucks one. However, upon further investigation, it was revealed that the cup was not from the coffee chain but a generic cup. This did not stop fans from linking Starbucks to the TV series and the topic had 166,000 social mentions. A financial analyst even went as far to say that the cameo appearance generated US$2.3 billion worth in advertising for Starbucks but this we all know remains to be argued.

German athletic wear giants Adidas also jumped into the fray with their iteration of the highly popular range of Ultraboost running shoes. The footwear range represented the various houses of the show and these truly caught fire (and ice) with the fans across the world. There were almost 23,000 mentions since the launch of the collection and almost 42% of them were positively anticipating the chance to “cop” the sneakers.

Arguably, the series has become a cultural phenomenon never seen since the intergalactic world of Star Wars. With it being part of the cultural folklore of our realm, marketing professionals around the world are unsheathing and thrusting their blades into the bellies of capitalism and making sure that they get their own shot at the Throne.

Disclaimer: All data and insights provided by Meltwater were analysed for the period between Episode 3 and before the broadcast of Episode 5

Game of Thrones: Brands Making It Reign

The social media environment is becoming ever more crowded, and users are increasingly bored by the large volume of marketing-focused content being created. In this precaairous environment, memes have become a popular way to successfully, but subtly, propagate brand messages.

The best ones are always entertaining, usually funny, and extremely sharable. So, for marketers targeting a Millennial audience in particular, what’s not to like? A successful meme strategy can leverage the multiplying potential of social media by going viral and reaching a huge local and international audience, whether on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp or even LinkedIn.

Visual content – like a meme – has been shown in some social experiments to be up to 40 times more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. The reason? It’s simply easier to digest a small amount of text with a relevant image attached. You’re competing for attention with millions of other users on social media, so you want to put your content in a format that will create that ‘thumb-stopping’ moment. 

Jonathan Long, founder of e-commerce brand-development agency Uber Brands, agrees. Writing in  Entrepreneur magazine, he emphasises that memes allow marketers to engage with the target audience without forcing an advertisement down their throats. “[Marketers] are able to experience  high engagement rates using memes because [the] audience doesn’t feel like they are liking, commenting and sharing an advertisement. They just see it as a meme,” he explains.

What is a meme, anyway? Is essence, it is a cultural idea or cultural commentary which is transferred from person to person. And, it grows exponentially in reach as it does so. In the Internet age, it is a phrase, illustration, photo or video – or a combination of these – shared via social media networks. Some popular (non-business) examples of memes include Grumpy Cat, Condescending Wonka, Evil Kermit the Frog, LOLcats and The Dress. 

Of course, it didn’t take long for innovative social media marketers to realise that they could use memes to promote anything from tomato sauce to sports teams. Many of these memes are custom-created, while others simply ride on the back of popular existing memes – a tactic known as memejacking.

Denny’s, the popular American diner brand, which recently opened in the UK, is an example of a corporate that successfully uses memes to target and engage consumers. One Denny’s campaign gained extensive coverage in the London-based Daily Mail newspaper and was liked/shared over 100 000 times and retweeted 76 000 times in less than 24 hours. It played on the popular ‘zoom in’ meme concept. Social media users were shown a photo of a Denny’s pancake and syrup, and each time they zoomed into a part of the photo they were redirected to another part.

Eventually they reached a seemingly silly punchline that social users obviously loved. “Whoever is responsible for this deserves a raise,” tweeted one fan. “I love the @DennyDiner social media team so much,” enthused another.

Last year, President Trump caused outrage in Britain by refusing to visit the country because he believed former President Obama had sold the old embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square “too  cheaply”. In response, famous waxworks museum, Madame Tussauds, created a meme that showed a wax figure of Trump standing in front of the embassy he had refused to visit. It was an instant social media hit!

Heinz, the tomato sauce manufacturer, created a successful meme-based social media campaign by leveraging the debate around whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. In an Entrepreneur magazine article, Razvan Romanescu of Memes.com, the company responsible for the campaign, explained the strategy: “We created original meme content that played off the fruit or vegetable debate and asked the audience to chime in by using hashtags. We were able to [achieve] four times the original goal, generating more than four-million impressions and 80 000 engagements across Instagram and Facebook”.

If you don’t have the resources or experience to develop your own meme-based campaign, experts such as Memes.com can help you – for a fee, of course. Most competent social media marketing agencies should also be able to assist. If you’re on a tight marketing budget, perhaps check out free sites like www.memegenerator.net and www.makeameme.org.

But creating a successful meme is far from guaranteed. As a rule of thumb, a business-focused meme must do the following:

Target a clear audience (you’re unlikely to resonate with everyone, everywhere)

Have a subtle marketing message. This is not the time for in-your-face marketing.

The last few points are particularly important for marketers. You may be able to create a meme that’s hilarious, shareable and reaches millions of people worldwide. But if it offends most potential customers, makes the company look silly or is inconsistent with your brand values, then it will do  more harm than good.

Also, the Internet is always weird territory, so you need to be very in touch with the landscape you’re sharing in. For example, one of 2019’s most popular memes is the no one: meme.

Once you’ve created a meme, be sure to apply basic marketing principles and analyse the response. If it’s successful, try to determine what made it so and use those same principles again. One of the advantages of memes is that they can be quickly updated, so consider taking the same concept and, by tweaking a visual or some wording, keeping it fresh and shareable for a few more days.

Memes tend to have a short shelf-life before the novelty wears off, so if one is successful you must work hard to prolong the lifespan. But accept the reality that even the very best memes will never be ageless classics. If a meme doesn’t work, drop it and move on quickly. It may be that the concept you’ve memejacked is no longer cool, or the idea you created simply doesn’t resonate with a very fickle social media audience. Don’t make your brand seem like it’s out of touch by flogging a dead meme horse.

To quote Romanescu again: “To increase the odds of riding the viral wave, make sure that you use memes that are trending. If you use older memes that have already run their course and exhausted their audience, your brand will appear out of touch and that can have a severe negative impact.”

In summary, integrating memes into your marketing strategy may be risky at times. However, it can also be an exciting and cost-effective way of reaching a large audience, while enhancing your brand in the social media environment.

How to Create a Successful Meme Strategy to Grow your Business

Disclaimer: All data and insights provided by Meltwater were analysed before the broadcast of Episode 3.

Meltwater looks at what Game of Thrones fans are talking about in this fortnightly review as the fantasy series battle #ForTheThrone and draws to a close this season.

Now that Daenerys’ dragons have breathed fire and the ashes of fallen folk have settled into the new season of Game of Thrones, what does the future hold for the different house banners in the land of Westeros? And what does the realm of its fans say about potential permutations of realpolitik to claim the Iron Throne in King’s Landing? Prior to the Season 8 premiere, many cast their Three-Eyed Ravens to predict the future but not one Little Bird across the Seven Kingdoms had leaked any detail of the series. Even a group of German computer science students made their own predictions but only time will tell if they were correct.

There was also great interest from Brazil, India and Nigeria and this showed the phenomenon transcended borders, traditions and cultures while captivating the audience with the story of power, political deception, international domination, familial bonds, and cultural representation that resonated with people around the world.

The return of Jon Snow inevitably topped the conversations amongst netizens, especially the scene where he takes the reins (or spikes) of Rhaegal for a joyride. This scene was significant to the fans as the development of Jon’s linkage to the Targaryen family grew stronger as no one could ride a dragon that easily. This topic had more than 5,000 social mentions and it was also poignant as the beast was named after Jon Snow’s biological father Rhaegar Targaryen.

Another topical discussion was the three-sided power struggle between Jon, Daenerys and Sansa in Winterfell. Having taken the stewardship of the house, Sansa faces off with Daenerys as they both display their differences (and literal disdain) to each other. Jon also struggles to balance his personal alliances between family and love and doing what he knows best for his house. And there is also the revelation, which he reluctantly reveals to Daenerys, of him being the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Fans continue speculating that even Daenerys might betray Jon as he becomes her direct rival to taking power of the Seven Kingdoms. This triangular psychological battle has sparked over 180,000 social mentions and fans are not slowing down with the different permutations of what will happen to the three of them.

The other Stark sibling Bran or the Three Eyed Raven sparked many conversations amongst fans as he is key to anything that happens – just because he foretells the future. Apart from Bran being a viral meme due to his lurking stare within the courtyards and his long-awaited reunion with Jaime Lannister, there were more than 35,000 Social mentions of Bran. The topic that led the discussions was a radical theory that Bran is the Night King. Fans are sieving through past seasons and are stoked that Bran wields a certain influence over the Night King. More revelations will be revealed and undoubtedly Bran will be front and centre of the story. Unless, he gets killed off in the next episode.

Expectedly, a sizzling topic that had every fan talking was Arya and Gendry’s consummation of their relationship. The pair first crossed paths at Night’s Watch and the attraction seemed to have not faded after seven seasons and the fans were elated with the union. There were more than 315,000 mentions of this topic in social media and sparked conversations spanning from whether it was an awkward moment for fans to watch Arya in the throes of passion to sexual empowerment of women where Arya had grown into a strong individual and taken a more dominant role in the relationship.

The King Is Nigh(t) and the Queen in the Red Keep

The impending doom of the Night King, flanked by his army of the undead and zombie dragon Viserion, is closing on Winterfell but fans are devising their own military tactics judging by comments on social media. There were over 235,000 mentions of the Night King on how he would take over the Stark stronghold.

The Night King’s epic and horrific message made from Ned Umber and the limbs of corpses dominated conversations. The grisly topic had 2,800 mentions and fans discussed what the spiral symbol meant and the significance it played in the folklore. Conversations also revolved on whether the Night King would raise the dead located in the crypts of Winterfell and how they would decimate the vulnerable population that were supposedly hiding there in safety. This topic had almost 19,000 mentions in social media and fans are waiting for the devastating end to the residents of Winterfell.

Cersei Lannister was also a main draw of conversations as fans were fairly amused with her fixation with elephants. There were more than 39,000 social mentions on the Golden Company’s inability to bring the leathery, lumbering creatures to the Queen in King’s Landing. Talk was also rife on the topic of her pregnancy – more than 7,000 mentions – fans were speculating whether she was scheming a move to name Euron as the father instead of her brother.

Away from the episodes itself, social media was rife with conversations on Sophie Turner, the actress who plays Sansa. Fans discussed about the troubles she had to go through playing the character and she revealed that she suffered from depression and even harboured suicidal thoughts due to internet trolls who were critical of her. There were more than 5,200 social mentions of this topic. Her issues with mental health while playing Sansa received attention from fans and ultimately this has become a good platform for celebrities to spread awareness. Sophie Turner also created quite a stir when she reacted on Instagram about her offscreen best friend Maisie Williams’ intimate scene with Gendry and fans were much amused by her hysterical comments.

Much has been revealed and the struggle for power continues in the land of Westeros. And as Varys and Tyrion had once discussed early in the series, power lies where men believe it resides and the power of the Game of Thrones is one that has left us fans subservient to the next episode.

Game of Thrones: Season 8 Buzz on Social Media

What comes to mind when you think about fried chicken?

But did you know the Filipino fast-food company is currently one of the fastest growing restaurant chains in the world? Aspiring to become one of the top fast food conglomerates, Jollibee has opened branches and gained popularity in many countries across Asia as well as in other regions such as the UK, US and Canada. However, having a foothold in multiple markets would mean that Jollibee branches are operating at the mercy of customers’ different tastes and preferences. This is where social listening can form an essential part of Jollibee’s market research mix to assist them in their expansion plans and business strategies.

With social listening, companies can identify any burgeoning trends and topics within each market by monitoring online conversations and gain a better understanding of how their brands and products are being perceived.

So if we were Jollibee, with a goal to be a globally recognised fast food chain, what would we be listening to?

1. Identify your brand’s trending topics

An important aspect of real-time social listening would be to monitor trending topics concerning your brand so as to understand what comes to mind when consumers think or converse about your company.

One company can spawn millions of social conversations online and it would be too time-consuming to look at every single one of them. Hence, it would be best to observe what are the common words that pop out on social media in relation to your brand, to get a sense of what these trending topics are.

For instance, a word cloud generated using Meltwater based on the February 2019 social coverage for Jollibee looks like this:

Figure 1: Word cloud for Jollibee’s global social coverage (February 2019)

Word clouds are also a great tool for spotting trending topics as they can help us visualise what the recurring keywords are at one look. From Figure 1, we can see straight away that “Tuna Pie” and “Nadine Lustre” are some of the more common terms found in social posts about Jollibee. This is because Jollibee recently held a marketing campaign for their new food item, the tuna pie, which featured Fillipino actress Nadine Lustre.

The high frequencies in these keywords could indicate that the campaign was successful in gaining attention from consumers and sparking conversations online. Jollibee could also further study the data to learn more about how audiences reacted towards the campaign through sentiment analysis.

By identifying trending topics in social conversations, Jollibee would be able to pinpoint which aspects of their business or which products are getting more attention than others.

Take note that trending topics can differ across markets due to the differences in tastes, culture and practices. Consider Jollibee’s market in Malaysia:

Figure 2: Word cloud for Jollibee’s social coverage in Malaysia (February 2019)

There seems to be significant coverage about the restaurant attaining a halal certification during February 2019, instead of the Nadine Lustre campaign, which could be due to the large Muslim population within the country.

Keeping these trending topics in mind, Jollibee would be able to better align their marketing and business strategies with the focus and priorities of each market.

During social listening, while it is essential to listen to your consumers, it is just as important to understand who is listening to you.

Determining and understanding the demographics of online users who interact with or mention your brand can affect whom you target your future marketing strategies to.

Social listening tools such as Meltwater’s Social Influencers tool allows companies to view the demographics of these online users at a glance. For instance, it can be seen that a large portion of users following Jollibee’s Twitter account in 2018 fell within the 18-24 year old category:

Figure 3: Age group and gender demographics for Jollibee’s Twitter followers (2018)

It is also interesting to note that 74% of these users were female.

Such demographic data can be translated into actionable insights which can influence our business strategies. It seems that Jollibee’s followers are mostly women who are 18-24 years of age. Hence, a possible marketing approach for Jollibee would be to post content on Twitter that would appeal to this group of users, hence, inviting them to like or share Jollibee’s content.

3. Look at who’s talking about your brand

Monitoring social conversations online can also help companies identify potential influencers within the industry or in relation to their brands. It allows companies to find brand advocates with a large follower base, within different markets, that can be included in future marketing campaigns and business strategies.

In 2018, the top Twitter handles which have mentioned Jollibee include those of Filipino actress, Anne Curtis Smith, as well as news and magazine companies such as Food & Wine Magazine and CNBC News.

Figure 4: Top Twitter Handles mentioning Jollibee (2018)

However, these Twitter handles are undoubtedly going to garner a high amount of potential reach considering how popular these celebrities, magazines and news suppliers currently are. Furthermore, the content from these more “famous” influencers need not always be authentic in nature or resonate well with audiences.

Instead, Jollibee could consider engaging with Micro-influencers to help generate buzz about their brand. Micro-influencers are not necessarily celebrities but they do have quite a large number of followers who enjoy their content and are usually popular within a niche community or market.  

To locate these Micro-influencers, Jollibee can also engage in Meltwater’s Social Influencer tool which allows companies to find social media users who either mention or follow their brands online, as well as categorise these users according to their level of influence.

Thus, it can help brands like Jollibee to target potential micro-influencers that may have gone under the radar:

Figure 5: Influence categories of Jollibee followers (2018)

From the graph, about 3% of Jollibee’s Twitter followers are Micro-influencers and hence, have a high chance of going unnoticed if the company doesn’t engage in social listening to weave them out.

It’s always easy to get caught up in who’s talking about you. But in social listening, it also helps to pay attention to where these conversations are happening at.

Conversations on one social platform may differ in another and taking note of which social platforms are most commonly being used can be beneficial in planning your next marketing campaign. It also helps to distinguish which markets dominate social conversations about your brand and which markets are lacking.

Looking at social coverage of Jollibee for the year 2018, Twitter appears to be the most popular social platform across all markets for Jollibee brand mentions.

Figure 6: Top Social Media platforms with Jollibee mentions (2018)

On that account, it looks like Jollibee should focus most of its online marketing efforts on Twitter.

As for locations, the highest volume of social posts on Jollibee occurred in its home country, the Philippines, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom, where volume is significantly lower.

Figure 7: Top Locations with Jollibee mentions (2018)

As Jollibee wishes to be as successful in the US and UK as it is in its home country, it could take a deeper look at why social coverage about its brand is lacking in these markets.

Depending on your objectives for social listening, it is useful to establish how often you will review the social data you’ve collected about your brand – be it on a daily, monthly, quarterly or even annual basis.

Other than that, we would advise tuning in during particular periods of times where insights from social listening can be more meaningful for your business plans.

For Jollibee, conducting social listening before entering a new market would help us learn more about consumers’ current perceptions towards the brand or find out more about local competitors or the local fast food scene.

After entering a new market, we would pay attention to social conversations in relation to Jollibee during the first few weeks or months to get a sense of what the reception towards the restaurant was like.

For instance, Jollibee opened its first outlet in the United Kingdom on 20 October 2018. Taking a look at Jollibee’s social coverage from 15 October 2018 to 20 November 2018, there was a drastic drop in volume immediately after its opening day, and the low volume in social coverage continued till the next month.  

Figure 8: Jollibee’s social coverage in the UK (15 Oct – 20 Nov 2018)

Hence, Jollibee could pay closer attention to social conversations when entering new markets in the future. To sustain their popularity in the long run, they could develop more engaging marketing content to increase word-of-mouth about their brand.

During social listening, companies should also take note of any unusual trends in their social coverage which could provide valuable insights on their brands. In some occasions, companies might discover potential positive coverage about their brand which they could leverage on to improve their reputation.

One approach to recognise positive brand mentions would be to investigate any sudden peaks in social volume.

For instance, looking at the social coverage for Jollibee in December 2018, there was a sudden spike in the volume of posts on 27 December 2018.

If we were Jollibee, what would we be listening to?

Wondering how to stand out from the crowd with your Twitter press release? Well, dyeing yourself pink only works for rabbits: read on.

My PR cohort, Marc Cowlin, has recently written a couple articles on press releases.  His first asks the simple question, “To release or not to release?”  His second studies the anatomy of a press release through PR’s glorious history of train wrecks, celebrity rehab and various corporate announcements.

As he and I were talking about his next article (Press release SEO, which is obliquely mentioned in the first article), we started talking about how much Twitter has come along as a PR channel since we first started using it for marketing in 2008.  And we decided that it would be a good idea to come up with a quick guide to the Twitter press release; after all, getting your target message to the right person in 140 characters isn’t always easy.

I’ll go ahead and assume that anyone reading this article has a good grasp of what makes a press release worth doing.  (But if you want some tips on that, or want to figure out a polite way to explain to your coworkers the reasons you’re not going to write a release on [insert random non-newsworthy topic], please see the article on press release evaluation.)  Determining whether your energies are best spent doing something is a consideration you should address with any business initiative, but most especially with one that’s asking an influencer – in this case, most often a journalist – to take some action on your behalf.

Twitter Press Release Distribution Strategy Tips

Ideally, you’ve been using Twitter to build up a list of journalists and influencers in your industry (and by this we mean a Twitter list, and/or an actual list that you keep locally).  If you haven’t been doing this, start now: reporters are on Twitter, and they’re using it as both an information distribution and acquisition channel.  Good PR is dependent upon good relationships, and following key journalists and influencers and engaging with them with RT’s and @ mentions are good ways to make yourself known to the folks that matter.

Look Beyond Traditional Media for Influencers

Journalists, bloggers and citizen editors can all be people who can get the word out about your press release.  An influencer is someone who has built up a level of trust with their followers, so don’t be afraid to think outside the borders of the New York Times.  (Check out Marc’s article on identifying PR influencers for more depth on this topic.)

Just because you can tweet to 1000 people doesn’t mean that you should; do your research and target the right people for your message.  Good Media Relations Tools like the Meltwater Media Relations Suitehave journalist targeting features that allow you to find the journalists that are most relevant for your message.  You can, for example, find journalists who have written positively about pit bulls within the last 6 months in New Hampshire.  These hyper-targeting features can get you a short but powerful list of the folks that matter, and you can also dig into their profiles and get a feel for how they position the topics that matter to them.

Now that you’ve found the right list of people, should you tweet @ them all individually?  Well, no: that looks SPAMMY and painful.  This isn’t to say that you can’t tweet @ a person or two, but any more than that looks bad.  If you’ve built up a good list (per #1), you can DM the influencers in your network with your release.  If you’re following them and they’re not following you, this can’t happen and you have to tweet @ them – or do you?  Actually, you don’t: Twitter ads have a “Tailored Audience” feature.  You can import a list of emails (Twitter will compare it with theirs, so there may be some breakage there from reporters who use different emails in their publication vs. their Twitter profile), and/or you can manually enter people’s handles.  You can also use a retargeting method and use a third-party app to target the ads for folks who have been cookied on your site: for example, you might want to display your ads to people who have visited a specific product or press page in the past.

Twitter Press Release Content Marketing Tips

A traditional press release often has a photo, especially when it’s distributed via online wire.  While logos are commonly included in a written release, that’s not the image to use on Twitter: choose something eye-catching that services to punctuate your tweet, rather than distracts from it.  If you can’t find anything and you’re lost in questionable stock photos, abort the mission.  Not every Twitter press release absolutely needs a photo.

…because 140 characters + optional photo is essentially a banner ad.  Asking a question is a good way to get people’s attention; asking a provocative question is a better way.  Put on your Don Draper fedora and think of something punchy.  Remember, your goal with this tweet is to get the click through, so use those characters wisely, soldiers.  Bear in mind that, in this model, your press release is your landing page – you’ll want it to have cohesion with your tweet.

Use Hashtags that Appeal to Your Target Journalists

Hashtags are how people search for topics on Twitter, so if your release has something to do with a larger topic, go on ahead and hitch your wagon to that star.  If you’ve built up a good list of influencers on Twitter, check what they’re tweeting about before you do your release – you may get an idea as to how your own release positioning can best garner exposure.

This sounds obvious, but because Twitter is such a short-format content channel and because of its twitchy nature, people tend to be a little laxer about reading before they Tweet.  Make sure that your tweet is 140 characters or less (RT’s are less likely when you’re doing an announcement, but you never know: you might leave some characters there), and make sure that you’ve included a link to the actual press release.  Test that link, too: sometimes, weird stuff happens with link shorteners and technology in general.  So check that tweet twice, then push it.

And there you have it:  4+4 Twitter press release tips to help you rock your press release in 140 characters or less.  If you have any more Twitter press release tips, we’d love to hear them!  Hit us up in the comment box.

4 + 4 Tips to Get Noticed in 140: The Twitter Press Release

Contributed articles have long been a staple in an effective PR plan. They establish your brand as an expert on a topic and fall under earned media, meaning the only cost is placing and writing the piece.

But as publications shift to more of a paid model in many cases, are the opportunities to contribute guest posts and articles dwindling?

Do Publications Still Accept Contributed Articles?

Some publications no longer accept any contributed articles. “Huffington Post, for example, shut down its op-ed section entirely,” said Natalie Stezovsky, vice president of Influence & Co. “Forbes has moved away from one-off contributors and just has their columns or councils that you have to be accepted into. Some require a paid membership.”

Why? As publishers shift to paid models, sponsorship packages can bring in more dollars than unpaid contributions.

While some are turning to paid contribution channels, many publications continue to welcome contributed content.

Which media outlets are offering contributed article opportunities? “Honestly, so many,” says Stezovsky. “Harvard Business Review, Inc., Entrepreneur, AdAge, Barron’s, Fortune, Business Insider, The Next Web, The Financial Times, VentureBeat, AdWeek, and Quartz to name a few.” 

Influence conducted a survey of 44 editors, only five of whom said they were decreasing guest-contributed content.

And if you don’t think your content is a fit for the big name publications, even less recognizable media outlets are a good target. Sometimes it’s the publications with a smaller audience that see the most engagement. For example, many industry vertical publications depend on contributed content to fill their pages. They may have fewer readers, but that audience can be highly engaged with content written by industry experts.

Contributed Content Brings Big Benefits to Brands

Whichever publication you choose, placing articles for clients can bring major benefits.

“You’ll enjoy better brand visibility, a more solid reputation in your industry, better web traffic, more online followers, an easier time recruiting talent, and possibly even interest from new investors,” said content marketing influencer Jeff Bullas.

In fact, 78 percent of customers prefer to get to know a company through articles rather than ads, while content marketing has six times higher conversion rates.

If 84% of marketers cite “brand awareness” as their most important content marketing goal, contributed content may be one of the best ways to help them get there.           

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