Angela Palladino

What’s the one thing you wish you’d known when you started in social listening?

I wish I’d recognized sooner that reporting metrics matter far less than the story behind them.

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Have you had any experiences that have made you want to quit? What made you keep going?

In the early days of social listening, there was an industry fixation on reactive reporting that definitely challenged my passions. When I joined my first analytics role, I was eager to dive into strategy discussions around the insights I was gathering. However, I found myself bogged down in compiling static weekly reports on surface-level metrics but lacking meaningful context.

Seeing social media and online platforms scale and accelerate, reaffirmed my belief that listening expertise could no longer be undervalued in the corporate world. I continued to push forward, gaining expertise across different brands and industries, underpinning all of my research in action, strategy and decisions that could be made. 

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What role does tech play in your social intelligence process? Where do people contribute?

Technology is the foundation of our social intelligence capabilities - quickly synthesizing data signals across millions of posts to help us uncover patterns. Natural language processing drives efficiency in filtering the signal from the noise at scale. We work closely with our technology partners and internal tech teams to continuously uncover strategic, innovative new ways to explore the data.  

But, technology alone is not enough. We’ve created a network of analysts across the company who immerse themselves in the data and platforms. Their creativity and subject matter expertise are crucial in decoding what the technology cannot - validating assumptions and interpreting findings to inform decisions with empathy, insight and nuance.

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Who have you seen as a mentor in your career?

I'm always learning from the diverse perspectives of those I'm fortunate to work alongside at Walmart. My peers in this space are also some of my greatest mentors. It’s an open and collaborative industry, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to learn from what others are doing. 

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How do you see the future of social listening evolving?

As GenAI rapidly advances, I expect it to streamline social data synthesis so analysts can shift more attention to high-value interpretation and strategic advising. Rather than manually tracking keyword lists or building dashboards, next-gen natural language processing will enable us to have more meaningful dialogues with data. We’ll be asking smarter questions around consumer values, feedback, community tensions, and market variables that AI assistants can answer in nuanced detail.

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What’s the most useful data source? Are there any you find useless? Why?

My favorite data source to utilize in my insights work is Reddit. I appreciate the depth, transparency, and authenticity inherent in many Reddit discussions. The diversity and scale of the community interests help drive the discovery of fringe trends and concerns before they’ve reached TikTok or X. I can surface insights and leading indicators on Reddit weeks ahead of the mainstream curve, which benefits strategic planning early on.

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How have you been able to win over ney-sayers throughout your career?

Early in my career, social media listening was still an emerging capability building credibility in many organizations. When I advocated embedding real-time social data into planning processes, always a few legacy leaders resisted. However, I persisted respectfully - demonstrating our insights' value illuminating consumer sentiments and market activity around pivotal decisions. 

Along with persistence, the pace of real-time social insights is itself one of the most powerful advantages for winning over initial hesitant stakeholders. In a world where speed is both power and protection during times of crisis and uncertainty, my ability to equip leadership with contextual data in the moment has worked to build trust and win them over.