The Top 22 Social Media Monitoring Tools 2026

As generative AI reshapes how people research, learn, and make decisions, a new discipline is emerging: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Just as SEO helped brands get discovered on Google, GEO ensures they appear accurately and positively within AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. With millions of consumers now turning to generative engines instead of search engines, GEO is fast becoming essential for marketing and PR professionals looking to influence how their brand shows up in this new discovery layer, where conversations, not clicks, determine visibility.

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Why Should Marketing & Insights Teams Care About GEO?

How Does GEO Work? Key Mechanisms & Signals

What's the Difference Between GEO and SEO?

Increase Your GEO Readiness with Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of ensuring that AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Llama, etc., provide accurate, positive, and up-to-date information about your brand when users ask questions. These platforms are referred to as Generative Engines, Answer Engines, or Large Language Models (LLMs). They are increasingly used by consumers to research purchases and make decisions.

GEO is a way of making sure that AI platforms give people the right information about a company’s brand and products. 

For example, if a person asks ChatGPT: “What is a good family car for camping trips?” then the auto manufacturers would want ChatGPT to suggest their SUV models, and list the benefits. To make sure that happens, the auto brands need to use GEO.

GEO ensures your brand shows up correctly within these AI-generated responses.

The practice of GEO involves several steps, but it is mostly focused on creating, structuring, and publishing content in the best way to influence the responses given by AI Generative Engines. 

In this article we’ll go into the detail of how GEO works, why it’s important, and how you can use it to make sure your brand is featured positively in AI platforms.

Sometimes, generative engine optimization (GEO) is referred to as answer engine optimization (AEO). Learn more about the differences and similarities of GEO and AEO, and take a look at the best AEO tools.

For a long time marketers have been able to rely on the fact that consumers almost exclusively use Google to research buying decisions. So they have been able to use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to ensure their brand’s website appears in the organic search results, or use paid search advertising to buy ads on relevant search results. 

This is a highly effective way of targeting the right audience at the right time. But now things are changing.

LLMs aren't just another channel. They sit on top of this ecosystem. They synthesize everything into a single conversation.

Allie Konchar, Partner & Chief Client Officer, Omniscient

Changing user behavior: AI + conversational search

Increasingly, consumers are using tools like ChatGPT to research their buying decisions. Data from Meltwater’s 2026 Global Digital Report shows that ChatGPT.com is now the fifth most visited website on the web.

While search engines remain popular, many search queries now produce an AI generated summary that often provide enough information to divert users away from clicking through to websites, because their question has already been answered. McKinsey reports that around half of all Google search queries already produce AI generated summaries, and that number is increasing all the time. 

With conventional web search, consumers are performing research manually, trying to find trustworthy sources and sifting through information to reach the answers they seek. But with Generative Engines, the AI is performing the research automatically, using its existing base knowledge alongside supplemental information pulled from more recent online sources. A search engine shows users where to find answers, while a Generative Engine just gives them the answer. 

For marketers, the key takeaway is that few top-of-funnel consumers are visiting your website, because during the awareness phase their information needs are being met by Generative Engines. This makes it more difficult to move them down into the consideration phase. 

TIP: For more data around growing AI usage and online consumer behavior, download our 2026 Global Digital Report, featuring nearly 700 pages statistics to help inform your GEO strategies next year.

You already know that everybody is talking about AI, and all of your competitors are having the same discussions as you about what it means for their marketing strategy. Those who move decisively to implement GEO, ensuring their brands are represented clearly and positively in Generative Engines, will capture the largest share of those consumers who start their buying journey with an AI query. 

Those who ignore GEO will lose ground, as growing numbers of consumers turn from search engines to Generative Engines, the size of the audiences that can be reached through conventional search marketing will decrease. 

How do generative engines (LLMs) surface content?

It’s important to understand that while Generative Engines are based on similar technology, they all work a little differently. Broadly speaking they all use two different sources of knowledge to provide an answer to a query: 

<table class="table-primary alternate-color">
  <caption>How Generative Engines (LLMs) Surface Content</caption>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Generative Engine</th>
      <th>Primary Retrieval Method</th>
      <th>Sources Most Often Cited</th>
      <th>Sources Less Likely to Be Cited</th>
      <th>Notes on Behavior</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>ChatGPT</td>
      <td>Bing search + internal training data</td>
      <td>Reuters, AP News, Wikipedia, Encyclopedic sources</td>
      <td>Social media platforms (X/Twitter, Instagram)</td>
      <td>Prefers authoritative, neutral, structured sources with high trust signals.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Google Gemini</td>
      <td>Google Search + YouTube + Knowledge Graph</td>
      <td>Reddit, YouTube, Google-indexed blogs</td>
      <td>X/Twitter</td>
      <td>Strongly favors user-generated content, community threads, and Google-owned properties.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Perplexity</td>
      <td>Real-time web crawling + citation-first retrieval</td>
      <td>News publishers, reputable blogs, research papers</td>
      <td>Low-trust UGC</td>
      <td>Most transparent engine — always cites sources and updates in real time.</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>Claude</td>
      <td>Internal training data + selected retrieval</td>
      <td>Academic sources, reputable news, long-form articles</td>
      <td>Short-form social media</td>
      <td>Prefers long-form text and well-structured explanatory content.</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

Training Data: All LLMs begin by being trained on a huge volume of existing content and data — we’re talking about dozens of terabytes (a terabyte is 1,000Gb). This training data comes from a wide variety of sources (including your website), and gives the LLM its base knowledge about the world. The LLM does not have any knowledge of anything that happened after its initial training. 

Live Web Search: To overcome the knowledge cut-off problem, the training data is supplemented with fresh information gathered from the internet. If the Generative Engine thinks that a user’s query would benefit from more up to date information than it already has, it fetches new content from trusted online sources and works that into its response. Google uses its own search engine to find fresh information, while ChatGPT uses various sources, including Microsoft Bing.

It’s also important to note that AI does not quote any of this content verbatim in its responses. Much like a human, it uses the information it has learned to inform its own answer, and that can include information from various sources, including the press, competitors, consumer reviews. So don’t expect it to always be on-message!

Another key point is that unlike a search engine, an LLM does not have an index of content which it searches to find answers. It would be impossible to search ChatGPT for all mentions of your brand — that’s simply not how it works. 

An LLM is more similar to a human brain, in that it has a lot of knowledge stored in patterns and relationships between words and concepts. It is extremely difficult, verging on impossible, to examine and understand the detail of an LLM’s learned knowledge because of the sheer scale and complexity; this is a challenge referred to as Black Box AI. 

But we do understand how Generative Engines work at a high level, and we can analyze the kind of responses they produce for relevant queries, which gives us insight into how we should optimize our content for increased visibility.

What content features improve GEO-visibility?

Bear in mind that when you’re optimizing content for Generative Engines, the goal is to write copy that is easier for AI to digest and incorporate into its responses.

Clarity: Avoid overly elaborate language. Do not use corporate-jargon. Keep it simple, professional, and to the point. Leave no room for ambiguity. 

Authority: Wherever possible back up your statements with data from reputable sources, quotes from experts or industry leaders, and reference-able proof points. 

Structure: Organize your pages well with clear titles, headings, and subheadings. Use heading tags (H1, H2, etc) correctly to specify the hierarchy of your content. 

Recency: AI platforms look for more recent information from trusted sources to supplement their base knowledge, so in both owned and earned media, aim to publish fresh content recently.

In many respects GEO shares principles with good SEO practice. If you write consistently high quality content which addresses the needs of your target audience, and structure it correctly on well designed, standards compliant web pages, you will succeed.

First you need to understand your starting point. Meltwater’s GenAI Lens is a tool that gives brands insight into how they are discussed by all major Generative Engines, including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, and Deepseek. 

With GenAI Lens you’ll be able to understand how your brand is already featured in LLMs, what source websites are used in those responses, and whether outdated or inaccurate information is being used. 

We know that LLMs pull content from the web, which they use to inform their responses. So whatever is said about your brand online will significantly affect how Generative Engines talk about your company. 

Start with your own website, this is the first place LLMs will look for information about your organization. But also focus on trusted, high authority third party sites like the mainstream news and specialist media within your industry, because these are the kinds of sources that LLMs will use. GenAI Lens can show you which websites the leading LLMS use to source information about your brand. 

Once you have a comprehensive audit of how your brand is currently portrayed online, you can perform a gap analysis against your desired messaging, and build a plan for how to reach that objective.

Tip: AI brand monitoring, AI media monitoring, and LLM monitoring will help you understand your online footprint. Learn how to track your LLM visibility and how to track LLM brand mentions.

An important difference between GEO and SEO is understanding how people search differently when using Generative Engines. Users interact conversationally with AI, and are likely to ask more complex questions in natural language, compared to simple keywords or short queries in a search engine. So it’s useful to get an idea of what kind of questions people will ask about your brand or industry, to help plan your GEO content.

Tip: Learn more about AI visibility for retail brands.

Unlike search engines, at present the leading Generative Engines do not share data on popular user queries, so it’s not easy to find out exactly what people are asking about your business. But you can look at popular keyword searches associated with your brand, and brainstorm the most likely questions people will ask Generative Engines. 

You can also use a social listening platform, like Meltwater Explore+ to analyze social media conversations around your brand and industry, to gain insight into common questions. Once you have mapped out all of the most likely questions people might ask, you can start creating content that answers those questions.

Tip: Learn how to connect social listening with generative engine optimization. 

Conventional SEO was built around search queries but GEO requires thinking in concepts, context, and authority — you need to focus on the intent of the query, rather than simply trying to match keywords. 

LLMs prioritize sources that provide comprehensive, well-structured, and contextually rich content. Focus your content strategy on:

Educational depth: Long-form resources that answer questions end-to-end. Publish explainers, FAQs, and data-backed insights that answer “how” and “why.”

Credibility signals: Citations, quotes, and data from reputable sources (analyst studies, thought leadership, or trusted media).

Rich media: Generative Engines pull information from videos and images as well as text content, so make use of varied content formats. 

Consistency across channels: LLMs learn from media, social, and owned content together; ensure your narratives are aligned across them.

The key thing is to ensure that your content is genuinely helpful in answering those questions you mapped out. If your content is too focused on sales messages, it’s less likely to be used by the LLMs.

TIP: Discover innovative AI-generated content examples to enhance your digital strategy.

You can optimize the content published on your website and owned channels, but LLMs also source information from trusted third party websites. That means PR has a key role to play in ensuring your brand is featured in high authority earned media, including news features, expert comment from your spokespeople, product reviews, and any other kind of brand story traditionally generated through a media relations campaign.

Tip: Learn more about the importance of earned media for GEO and about PR Pitch GEO optimization.

The tricky part is that unlike advertising, which can tell exciting and attention grabbing stories, PR professionals are limited to working only with the facts. But while you cannot always control the outcome of media outreach activity, ensuring that PR and GEO are aligned will help increase the volume of third party sources that feature the right messaging.

Tip: Learn how GEO is reshaping PR strategies.

Meltwater’s GenAI Lens gives you the ability to track your GEO performance over time, so you can understand whether your strategy is working well and spot areas where you need to improve. The tool provides visualizations that show brand sentiment, emotion, key phrases, people, products and things mentioned, alongside citations.

Armed with this information you can identify gaps in your GEO strategy where you might need to create more or better content. You can also discover which third party sources have the greatest impact on your GEO performance, and use that information to optimize PR outreach to focus on the most important media. 

Like SEO, this is a process of constant iteration and improvement. GEO should not be seen as a one-off project that will generate positive results in perpetuity, but rather an ongoing activity that needs to be integrated with the broader marketing mix.

Tip: Learn How to Measure PR Performance Across LLMs and Generative Search, and understand how to report on LLM visibility.

Which Media Sources to Prioritize for GEO

When an LLM processes a user query, it can often detect that the response might require more recent information than it has access to in its original training data. In that situation it will look online for more up to date content that will help it to form a more accurate answer, but where exactly do Generative Engines look for this information?

At Meltwater we used GenAI Lens to research which content sources the leading AI platforms were most likely to reference in their responses, and there were distinct differences between them all:

Open AI ChatGPT: Heavily favors text-based news and newswires (Reuters, AP, PR Newswire) and reference sites (Wikipedia). Much less likely to cite social media and UGC. 

Google Gemini: Leans towards high quality UGC from sites like Reddit and YouTube, as well as other online sources within the Google ecosystem. Does not index X/Twitter content. 

Google Search AI Overviews: Highly focused on UGC from Reddit and YouTube, as well as Facebook, Yahoo and LinkedIn. 

xAI Grok: Strongly skewed towards conversational UGC from X and Reddit. Less likely to cite traditional reference sources like Wikipedia, YouTube or academic sites. 

Unlike SEO, where most practitioners were happy to optimize only for Google, in GEO we have to consider the nuances of several different platforms; at the very least ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. In short, it’s good practice to ensure you have up to date content propagated across a wide range of platforms where LLMs might look for supplemental information.  

In terms of which online sources are most likely to be referenced overall, we looked at several categories and charted the most frequently cited websites:

<ul class="medium">
	<li><b>Social Media & UGC</b></li>
    <ul>
		<li>reddit.com: 43.1%</li>
		<li>youtube.com: 17.9%</li>
        <li>facebook.com: 11.1%</li>
		<li>linkedin.com: 9.2%</li>
        <li>quora.com: 5.6%</li>
	</ul>
	<li><b>Consumer Reviews</b></li>
	<ul>
		<li>glassdoor.com: 21.6%</li>
		<li>indeed.com: 20.6%</li>
        <li>trustpilot.com: 15.7%</li>
		<li>bbb.org: 9.9%</li>
        <li>yelp.com: 8.0%</li>
	</ul>
	<li><b>Travel</b></li>
    <ul>
		<li>tripadvisor.com: 83.2%</li>
		<li>expedia.com: 10.0%</li>
        <li>booking.com: 6.8%</li>
	</ul>
	<li><b>News & Media</b></li>	
    <ul>
		<li>yahoo.com: 26.5%</li>
		<li>prnewswire.com: 10.8%</li>
        <li>reuters.com: 9.0%</li>
		<li>forbes.com: 6.7%</li>
        <li>usnews.com: 6.7%</li>
	</ul>
    <li><b>Academic & Science</b></li>	
    <ul>
		<li>nih.gov: 53.6%</li>
		<li>researchgate.net: 14.5%</li>
        <li>sciencedirect.com: 10.0%</li>
		<li>jhu.edu: 7.5%</li>
        <li>cdc.gov: 5.8%</li>
	</ul>
    <li><b>Market Research & Consulting</b></li>	
    <ul>
		<li>statista.com: 18.8%</li>
		<li>mordorintelligence.com: 16.3%</li>
        <li>gartner.com: 14.9%</li>
		<li>mckinsey.com: 13.5%</li>
        <li>cbinsights.com: 13.0%</li>
	</ul>
    <li><b>Business & Financial</b></li>	
    <ul>
		<li>investing.com: 14.1%</li>
		<li>morningstar.com: 13.2%</li>
        <li>nasdaq.com: 11.4%</li>
		<li>nerdwallet.com: 10.4%</li>
        <li>seekingalpha.com: 8.8%</li>
	</ul>
    <li><b>Government & Public Sector</b></li>	
    <ul>
		<li>weforum.org: 20.6%</li>
		<li>europa.eu: 17.8%</li>
        <li>canada.ca: 12.7%</li>
		<li>imf.org: 11.5%</li>
        <li>sec.gov: 10.1%</li>
	</ul>
</ul>

Many teams focus on keywords, backlinks, and meta tags, but LLMs prioritize context, authority, and relevance. GEO requires content that answers full questions with clear, verifiable information, not keyword stuffing or link chasing.

2. Ignoring source credibility and transparency

AI models reward trustworthy, well-cited content. Publishing unverified claims, outdated statistics, or missing citations can lower visibility or lead to inaccurate AI summaries of your brand. Always include reputable data sources, authorship, and dates.

3. Failing to monitor how your brand appears in LLMs

Without ongoing media monitoring, brands miss when GenAI models misrepresent their products or replicate misinformation. LLM tracking tools like Meltwater’s GenAI Lens can surface these blind spots and help correct or update narratives quickly.

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? & How to Do It

Times Square was buzzing more than usual as Meltwater Summit 2026 kicked off, bringing together PR, marketing, and communications leaders for a day of collective insight and inspiration. 

Major product announcements and candid conversations with industry leaders gave attendees an exclusive look at how the worlds of marketing, PR, and communications look now and where they are headed next. Here’s a brief recap of the excitement and industry knowledge that Summit brought to the heart of New York City this year.

Meltwater’s New AI-Powered Innovations for Modern Comms Teams

Gwyneth Paltrow on Building a Brand Rooted in Authenticity

Three Key Themes from Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 1

Summit 2026 began with an exciting look at some of the latest Meltwater product innovations, introduced by CEO John Box. Following a live demonstration of GenAI Lens and an overview of Explore’s enhanced image and video analysis capabilities, Chief Product Officer Chris Hackney and Chief Technology Officer Aditya Jami announced the Meltwater Trend Center, the platform’s new hub for detecting emerging narratives across social media networks and news. 

Discovery is the new monitoring, and we're focused on putting that power in your hands every single day.

Chris Hackney, Chief Product Officer, Meltwater

In the age of AI-powered workflows, tools like the Trend Center and the new Mira integration with Slack let PR and communications professionals identify key narratives around their brands in minutes instead of hours or days. Together, these and the other new innovations included in Meltwater’s 2026 Mid-Year Release highlighted how faster, smarter workflows empower teams to anticipate and actually shape the narratives that matter to them most.

In her keynote conversation with Meltwater Chief Strategy Officer Alexandra Bjertnaes, Paltrow emphasized how important brand storytelling and clear values have been to Goop’s success. She described how, instead of just creating products or pursuing quick growth, Goop prioritized integrity, giving the brand room to experiment and build audience trust in the long term. 

Along the process of building Goop, Paltrow learned how to find her “zone of excellence” and effectively delegate what falls outside of it. And while she acknowledged the importance of data, Paltrow stressed that intuition has been a key part of moving the brand forward.  

Know the values of the brand specifically. Know your unique value. Why do the people that love you love you? Be as authentic to that as possible.

Overall, Paltrow’s candid conversation showed the audience the power of authenticity in action, reminding just how much of an impact staying true to your brand’s voice can have.

Across 20 sessions featuring experts from NBCUniversal, McDonald’s, Novartis, The Associated Press, and many more, attendees learned how to tackle today’s most pressing PR and marketing challenges. Here are three of the many key takeaways that emerged over the course of the day.

1. Partner with storytellers to drive impact.

Several speakers echoed Gwyneth Paltrow in their emphasis on authentic, people-centered storytelling for building trust and having tangible business impact. As Lonely Planet’s Deepa Lakshmin and Shalayne Pulia explained during their session, intentional, ongoing collaboration with their network of creators was key to achieving benchmark social media engagement and conversion rates for the brand. 

For Cisco’s Paul Wendel, establishing partnerships with trusted storytellers proved to be the best avenue for expanding brand reach and driving trust. And similarly, Hilary Smith of NBCUniversal explained how its Creative Impact Lab forges partnerships between employees, nonprofits, storytellers, and brands to achieve its corporate social responsibility goals. In 2025, public service announcements created by the Lab generated 550 million impressions and $28 million in donated commercial time.

It is so important to forge partnerships in corporate social responsibility. We cannot move the needle alone. In CSR, one plus one equals three. If I'm going to make an impact, I need others to join in with me.

Hilary Smith, Executive Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, NBCUniversal

2. Use strategic data to thrive in the AI era. 

In her conversation with Sarah Elizabeth Graham from Patreon, Sara Myles from McDonald's shared how connecting communications data to real outcomes helps teams drive meaningful impact. She and her team built AI agents for corporate voice, audience, and intelligence to inform their planning and strategy development. Michael Capone explained how his Corporate Affairs Intelligence team at Novartis has integrated AI into every step of their processes, freeing up more time for strategic thinking and planning. 

And speaking from a different perspective, neuroscientist Carmen Simon of Enhancive shared her research findings showing that AI content captures attention but does not always lead to long-term memory. As a result, she explained, brands need to challenge themselves to make qualities like human oversight and emotional depth visible as they strive to build trust with their audiences.

Ultimately, we all have the tools now. We all have the data. Now, the only thing that you need to do to change and start affecting the enterprise at the highest level with respect to social intelligence is change the way you ask questions of the data.
Michael Capone, Director of Integrated Insights & Research, Novartis

3. Understand context to find clarity in the noise. 

Across multiple sessions, speakers emphasized how dependent brand success is on the ability to separate meaningful signals from noise and act on them. Meltwater’s Jenny Force and G2’s Palmer Hutchins explained how LLMs are reshaping discovery, making contextual validation across sources a new foundation for brand visibility.

In conversation with Orchestra’s Jonathan Rosen, Dan Brahmy of Cyabra highlighted how bots and content overload distort reality. In response, brands need to prioritize understanding emerging narratives before they react. 

Meanwhile, McDonald’s Amanda Mulligan and Wieden+Kennedy’s Russell Pinke discussed how using social listening to surface “fan truths”, i.e. shared rituals and behaviors among fans, helps them create viral campaigns. Together, these experts drove home that data is just the first step in truly understanding audiences. Interpreting and contextualizing that data bridges the gap between interesting insights and impactful action.

Be curious, and look for insights and not trends. Look for things that truly speak to the core behaviors of your audience, and pocket those insights.

Amanda Mulligan, Director of Social Media and Creators, McDonald’s

The conversations, presentations, and workshops of Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 1 laid out how clarity and intentionality are as valuable as ever in today’s communications and marketing landscape. As the industry changes keep coming, brands that remain curious, critical, and consistent will stay ahead, winning their audience’s attention and trust.

Understand the forces shaping your brand and use them to your advantage. See how it works in Meltwater’s Mid-Year 2026 Product Release.

1. What were the biggest announcements at Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 1?

Day 1 featured several major product announcements, including the launch of the Meltwater Trend Center, new AI-powered workflows, expanded image and video analysis capabilities in Explore, and a new Mira integration with Slack designed to help communications teams identify emerging narratives faster.

2. What did Gwyneth Paltrow discuss during her keynote?

Gwyneth Paltrow spoke about building Goop through authentic storytelling, clear brand values, and long-term audience trust. She also emphasized the importance of intuition, delegation, and staying true to a brand’s unique identity.

3. What themes emerged across Summit Day 1 sessions?

Three major themes stood out across the day’s sessions: the importance of authentic storytelling partnerships, the growing role of strategic data and AI in communications, and the need to understand context in order to separate meaningful insights from noise.

4. How are AI tools changing PR and communications workflows?

Speakers highlighted how AI is helping teams automate repetitive tasks, surface emerging narratives more quickly, and connect communications data to business outcomes. Many also stressed that human oversight and contextual understanding remain essential for building trust and creating memorable content.

5. Who spoke at Meltwater Summit 2026 Day 1?

Day 1 featured speakers and experts from organizations including NBCUniversal, McDonald’s, Novartis, Lonely Planet, Patreon, Cisco, The Associated Press, G2, Cyabra, and more, alongside keynote speaker Gwyneth Paltrow.

Key Takeaways from Meltwater Summit 2026: Day 1

Substack was once just a niche platform for independent writers, but in recent years it has emerged as a valuable channel in today's marketing ecosystem. Major brands like Walmart are sponsoring newsletters on the platform, while others like Shopify are launching their own altogether. What they’re seeking is the brand awareness and relationship building opportunities that come along with the direct, personality-driven content newsletters can uniquely offer. 

If you’re reading this, you’re probably wondering how big of an opportunity Substack is for your brand or how others are actually leveraging the platform in practice. Read on to learn exactly how leading brands are making the most of this promising channel and what that means for you. 

Social media mentions of Substack have increased by about 30% over the past six months. 

Meltwater Explore data shows that Substack is a hot topic, generating over 5 million social media mentions from November 1, 2025, to April 29, 2026. That’s a nearly 30% increase compared to the six months prior.

About 46% of those mentions came from Bluesky, with another 38% coming from X. Both text-based platforms lend themselves well to writers and brands promoting their own newsletters, as well as the kind of back-and-forth discussion that long-form, written content can inspire. 

However, despite smaller shares of voice, even the visual-first platforms of YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest generate notable volumes of Substack mentions. Collectively, those three platforms racked up over 457,000 in the six-month period analyzed. 

This screenshot from the Meltwater platform shows the caption of Charli XCX’s now-deleted Instagram post promoting her Substack page. 

In fact, Instagram was the source of the post that drove the most engagement overall. Charli XCX promoted her Substack essay examining the concept of “cool” and commodification in a now-deleted Instagram post that generated over 443,000 likes and 1,700 comments, likely inspiring a slew of new subscriptions to “charli’s substack” in the process.

Today, brands are primarily using Substack for marketing in three ways:

Sponsorships: These are essentially influencer partnerships, with brands letting writers take the content creation lead in introducing them to audiences.

Branded Newsletters: These are editorial operations providing regular, valuable content, often across different verticals. The heaviest lift option, they nevertheless offer an opportunity to cultivate an engaged community around your brand.

Founder and CEO Newsletters: These are the personal projects of brand leaders with something to say. They can be unpolished and wide-ranging, super niche, brand-focused, or even only tangentially related to the brand. 

Each one offers a different balance of investment and audience ownership for brands looking to tap into Substack’s ecosystem.

Many brands reach Substack audiences via partnerships with existing newsletters and writers. This kind of setup isn’t exactly new. As we covered in our previous roundup of brands on Substack, several companies have had established newsletter sponsorships on the platform at least as far back as 2024. However, with the platform’s new native sponsorship program and continued user growth we may see even more organizations adopting this model. 

As with all content creator partnerships, the key to success here is brand fit. Luckily for brands, there are 50,000 monetized Substack newsletters to choose from, with five million paying subscribers and tens of millions more reading for free. 

Brands are linking up with the platform’s most successful writers and communities to promote specific initiatives and campaigns, as well as boost general visibility. Take for example:

Walmart inviting a popular daily business newsletter cover its small business initiative event, Open Call 

Banana Republic featuring a dedicated section highlighting its Friends and Family sale within an issue of a lifestyle newsletter

Hinge providing data from its Gen-Z dating report for a special edition of a popular personal newsletter

Lenovo having its Yoga Tab Plus AI tablet mentioned in this essay about writing in a digital culture newsletter

Sutter Home having its wines included in a short video within this recipe post on a cooking newsletter

Brooklinen helping a fashion and culture newsletter to do a subscription giveaway

What makes the best brand sponsorships work is seamless integration. Audiences are there to follow the writers, so brands should blend into the experience or enhance it with perks like free access to newsletters that are normally gated. Overall, the sponsorship route is a lower lift than dedicated newsletters that gives brands the opportunity to work with multiple writers reaching different niche audiences.

Fashion and beauty brands like Rare Beauty, Madewell, and Shopify are creating Substacks that are full-on digital magazines. As such, they feature mixes of content types, like interviews, personal essays, product spotlights, and behind-the-scenes features, that can maintain readers’ attention over time and build trust along the way.

Though branded newsletters require much more resource investment than sponsorships, they also offer more possibilities for brand- and community-building in the long term.

Rare Beauty’s Substack page includes Mental Health as a main content pillar alongside Community and Beauty.

For example, Rare Beauty’s Substack naturally covers beauty and the company’s inner workings, but it also allows the brand to highlight mental health as a pillar of its identity. Articles about wellness and self-care are regular offerings, featuring guest writers working directly in the mental health field. As a result, Rare Beauty is able to regularly share resources with its fans and followers, supplementing the work it does through its associated impact fund focused on youth mental health services and education.

Meanwhile, Shopify’s Substack is geared for its audience of creators and entrepreneurs. Its newsletter issues highlight the small business using Shopify to build successful brands, like this one interviewing the founders of underwear brand Manmade. Through its celebration of its actual users through profiles and data-driven stories behind industry trends, Shopify gives readers valuable information that they can use in their own entrepreneurial journeys. The newsletter allows the brand to position itself as a small business resource and ally instead of just an e-commerce platform.

Though launching and maintaining a dedicated brand newsletter is no small task, it creates more sustained opportunities for community building and engagement than sponsorships alone.

Some brands are driving exposure on Substack via their leaders’ newsletters. Less editorial and more bloggy, these personal dispatches offer readers the kind of candid perspectives and musings that serve to humanize the associated brand.

The Night Shade newsletter covers everything from shopping hauls to gift guides to styling tips, as well as the occasional mention of the author’s company Ghia.

One great example is Night Shade by Melanie Masarin, the founder and CEO of non-alcoholic apéritifs brand Ghia. The newsletter boasts over 13,000 subscribers, but not every post mentions the brand. In fact, many don’t, making the newsletter feel authentic instead of just another marketing channel. By bringing readers into her everyday through issues about birthday celebrations, styling tips, and the occasional peek into the inner workings of the company, Melanie successfully casts Ghia as more than just a brand, but an aspect of a mindful, joyful lifestyle.

A Little Bit of Everything by Rebecca Minkoff, founder of the eponymous fashion brand

somstack by Alex Mill co-founder and creative director Somsack Sikhounmuong

La Vie de Clare V. by Clare V. founder Clare Vivier

Take Your Time by Crown Affair founder Dianna Cohen

If your brand has a founder or CEO who loves to write and share their perspectives with the world, a Substack may be a great option to highlight them.

How Do Brands Find Substack Newsletters to Sponsor?

Many brands use similar strategies for finding newsletters to partner with as they do for finding influencers. And in some cases, newsletter discovery and influencer discovery can be accomplished using the same tools. 

For Meltwater influencer marketing users, the AI Discovery feature lets you streamline the scouting process based on your brand identity and campaign goals. Just type in what you are looking for, or even copy and paste a creative brief, and the tool will direct you to the best writers to help you reach your campaign goals.

Not a Meltwater user yet? Book a meeting today.

It depends. Substack’s audience is growing, but it is still a niche platform that not every brand or marketing team has the resources to maintain. For many brands interested in the platform, newsletter partnerships are the best route, allowing you to reach an existing audience without having to build one from scratch.

However, brands that are looking to experiment with dedicated Substacks or want to commit to the long haul, here are three essential questions to ask from the start.

Looking to drive awareness? Build community? Support product launches? Publicize thought leadership? Whatever your objective is, clarifying it from the start will help you determine your approach and avoid time-consuming dead ends down the line.

2. What is the focus of your newsletter and your brand’s point of view?

Successful Substacks have a clear niche, perspective, and voice. Think about what your brand can offer. Is it expertise and exclusive insights? Storytelling and cultural commentary? And how does that all align with your broader brand identity? A clear niche and point of view is a launchpad for success, you can’t start without them!

3. What is your team or department’s capacity?

Creating a consistent, high-quality newsletter requires time, editorial direction, and continuous production. Make sure you have the resources to maintain a regular publishing cadence, or consider starting with partnerships before scaling into owned content.

The rise of Substack is part of a bigger shift in marketing where audiences are seeking out voices they can trust and going directly to them for their content and perspectives. Platforms like Substack are hubs for that shift in influence, where writers, creators, and brand leaders are able to directly access highly engaged audiences united by specific interests. 

Substack isn’t a replacement for current marketing strategies and channels, but it’s an attractive venue for brands seeking to build influence with intentional audiences over time. The goal isn’t viral surges of clicks, but rather relationship building in an owned community.


The newsletter route isn’t for every brand, but for those with a solid brand identity and voice, it’s worth a closer look.

Frequently Asked Questions: Brands on Substack

Substack is a newsletter publishing platform that allows writers, creators, and brands to distribute content directly to subscribers. Its growth is driven by demand for independent media and direct audience relationships.

Substack is gaining traction, according to Meltwater data, with over 5 million social media mentions from Nov 1, 2025 to Apr 29, 2026, representing a 30% increase compared to the six months prior. 

How are brands using Substack for marketing?

Brands typically use Substack in three ways:

Each one offers different balances of investment and audience ownership for brands looking to tap into Substack’s ecosystem.

Not necessarily. Substack works best for brands with a clear voice and consistent content strategy. Additionally, dedicated newsletters require investment in continuous content creation. For many brands, newsletter sponsorship is the more feasible route. 

How do brands find Substack newsletters to partner with?

Brands use influencer discovery and audience analysis tools to identify relevant newsletters. Meltwater’s AI Discovery feature streamlines this process by matching brands with influencers with Substack newsletters based on audience fit, content themes, and campaign goals.

What makes a successful Substack partnership?

Successful partnerships feel native to the writer’s voice and provide real value to readers.

What is the biggest opportunity for brands on Substack?

The biggest opportunity is building long-term, trust-based relationships with audiences. With Meltwater, brands can track how those relationships translate into engagement, sentiment, and overall brand impact.

What Is Substack Marketing? How Leading Brands Use It

Ask an AI tool what your brand is known for, and the answer may look credible, while still containing distortions.

AI systems could position a discontinued product as current. They might frame a minor customer complaint as a defining weakness or name a competitor in connection with your business for no legitimate reason.

None of that needs to go viral to affect perception.

That’s what makes AI-generated misinformation different from older reputation threats. It enters through synthesized answers people use to compare vendors or make buying decisions. It’s bad enough when a model gets a fact wrong. But repeating weak or inaccurate signals to the point it becomes the narrative carries a heavy, costly weight. 

It’s a reputation issue that communications teams can’t treat as incidental.

Why Misinformation Is Harder to Spot in AI Answers

The Types of Harmful Narratives Brands Should Watch For

The Meltwater Blog

Our latest company announcements, product updates, insightful articles, and much more.

Latest posts

Key Takeaways from Meltwater Summit 2026: Day 1

What Is Substack Marketing? How Leading Brands Use It

AI-Generated Misinformation: Detect Harmful Narratives in LLMs

How to Perform Influencer Marketing Competitor Audit

Influencer Management: How To Build Successful Relationships

Scaling Your Influencer Outreach Without Compromising Quality

The Ultimate Guide to X / Twitter Social Listening

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Introducing Verified YouTube Data in Meltwater Influencer Marketing

The Top Branded Influencer Posts of Coachella 2026

PR Crisis Management: 10 Steps to Protect Your Brand in 2026

How LLMs Recommend Sunscreen Brands: An Analysis of AI Search Visibility in SPF

Browse by topics

Browse by network

Start making decisions with confidence.