Social Intelligence Growth Series: What's the role of technology in social intelligence?

For our Growth Series, we’ve been asking the questions most likely to come up at the start of your journey with social data. We’ve already explored what makes social data valuable and how to approach the briefing process. Today we’re looking at the role of technology. Which isn’t as straightforward as you might think…

We’ve said it before, technology should not lead your social data work. But you’d be forgiven for thinking it does. Most people come to social data through the discovery of a tool, which is great. But there is more to social intelligence than using a tool.

Technology needs to fit your needs.

Your goals come first. Technology is awesome but it’s only useful if it helps to get you where you need to go. Many fall into the trap of starting with the features on their dashboard or platform and playing with what it can do until something sort of useful comes up. The tools will only do the job of finding the answers if you have a clear question. We should be looking for the ‘burning issues’, not the nice to have if we’re going to add value.

It’s not all about data sources.

Don’t be led by the big number of data sources a tool has access to. You’re looking for tools that have data sources that are relevant to your use case. And be particularly wary of vendors emphasising that they have more access than others. There may be a moral, if not legal question there.  

Are you relying on technology too much? Here’s how to ensure you’re not being led by tech:

Invest in people development, not just tech.

Build the people part in as soon as, if not before, you invest in technology. People are still more important than machines. If it’s not obvious what you should be training in, you may need to look outside of social intelligence and into disciplines like linguistics, ethnography or semiotics.

Read what other people are doing and create a culture of development.

It’s easy to get stuck but it’s not so easy to see your way out. The best social intelligence functions have a culture of self-development and are constantly looking at where they are as a department and how they can grow. One of the best ways of doing that is reading what others are up to.

Prepare stakeholders by showing them more than tech.

Too many decks are screenshots of dashboards. Instead, build your reputation around the value you can add to the organisation. Storytelling should be a major part of your work. Introducing social intelligence as a discipline beyond smart AI will help in the long run.

Position social intelligence as insight, not measurement.

Social intelligence can be difficult to place so think carefully about how it's used and where it fits best in your organisation. You want to align with the parts of the business that are most interested in solving problems through investigative work - not just measuring the success of campaigns. Social data has more value at the start of a project or campaign than at the end of one.

To learn more about how to use social intelligence technology better for you business needs, sign up for this year's Social Intelligence Growth Certification.

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