Meltwater Summit NYC

Today has been great! Across the sessions my biggest takeaways from today include:KNOW WHO YOU ARE: with the search landscape changing, now more than ever is the time to fully own your category. It’s less about being for everyone and more about knowing that who you’re for, you’re for. This not only builds an authentic brand, but it also helps with your listening, insights and searches you create in meltwater.    CREDIBILITY MATTERS: as a piggy back to the first bullet, our audience has shifted to LLMs and this fully shifts not just how we support content but WHO expresses our content for us. It affects how we approach creators, employee advocates and even executive presence across social channels. the seasons today have already been so insightful and my wheels are spinning for what I can bring back and start implementing across the brands I work on. 

All of Summit has been great, but my favorite part has been networking with other comms professionals in the association sector to talk about they market to their members. It’s been so beneficial! 

Day 2 is started and “Fan Truths” from yesterday’s social listening session on the main stage is still sticking with me! I’ll be taking home this concept and telling anyone who will listen why social listening is a must-do. 

"celebrate fan truths" behaviors , shared memories, shared experiences all focused on guests. I love the idea of pocketing away little “nuggets” of brand truths from fans. Always have pockets full of ideas to pull from. bravo! 

Which was your favorite session?

I love all of the AEO insights and going to put them into place!

Summit was great and informative. I would like more walkthroughs of new tools though.

Your brand has a new stakeholder. It doesn't vote. It doesn't feel. But it answers the main questions that people have about you.LLMs are now narrating brand reputation at scale, without oversight, and most comms strategies were never built with that in mind. This was an amazing oportunity to see how Brands are tackling this new challenge and adapt to fast evolving technologies.

Data can only answer what you ask. How do we go beyond?

Understanding how placement coverage matters and there is a rising ride for AEO 

What signals or behavioral patterns have you found are actually predictive of narrative shift or reputational risk before it becomes visible in traditional sentiment tracking?

Learned so much about reaching your audience by tapping into culture moments.

My first Summit experience has been incredible! Not only have I met some amazing people, but I also learned a lot about my role as a communicator and what I can bring back to my team. I took too many good notes to name just one, but that’s a problem I’m grateful to have!

Agility is earned through preparation! - FIFA session 

superstars drive outperforming World Cup content!!  ~70% of top 25 highest engaged posts feature superstar players

When using AI plain language wins out over jargon and complexity so LLMs reference you for simple solutions to audience problems. 

How do you master storytelling when data integrity is a concern? 

Beyond the Campaign: Long-Term Creator Strategy with Lonely PlanetOften, the strongest influencer campaign performance comes from giving creators the freedom to share what they genuinely want to create and what they know resonates best with their audience. While it’s important to provide key details and direction through the brief and ongoing communication (collaboration requires communication!), creators should ultimately lead the creative concept. They know their audience best!

During Summit, I’ve learned that authenticity is key in building consumer trust!

It's been a more effective tactic to make sure you're continually refining your Boolean searches to be specific to your uncommon brand terms. That way you can catch vague references to your company and your market!

I am loving the learnings about GenAI and the best strategies for longterm LLM rank tracking. 

My learning at summit was that only 39% are excited for AI with more women less excited while men are more excited. 

Summit 2026 has been an incredible experience. My favorite takeaway has been from Battina and her advice to make a moment work for your business and your audience. Her insights were fantastic!

During the session with Deloitte Digital, I was struck by a statistic that only .01% of what a brand posts is what google shares — underscoring the importance of consumer takes and feedback. 

When building a Boolean search string for crisis monitoring, be sure to include terms in the local language!