Frank Gregory

Can you tell us about a pivotal moment in your career that led you to where you are today?

I wouldn’t be in social intelligence if it wasn’t for my grad school friend from VCU Brandcenter, Joe Quattrone.  13 years ago, I had just left LivingSocial, where I was in a consumer insights role doing surveys & focus groups, and I was looking for my next move.  Joe was at a social media agency called M80 founded by Jeff Semones (which became MediaCom’s Social team), and Audi was one of their clients.  They needed someone based in Virginia to be onsite at Audi, as they were being asked for the first time to measure and report on the impact of Audi’s social content.  Joe also mentioned there was a need for someone to do ‘social listening’ in a tool called Crimson Hexagon that Audi had just secured a user seat in.  I told Joe that had no experience in social media roles, having solely been in more ‘traditional’ insights methodologies.  His response? “You’re a smart guy, you’ll figure it out.” He gave me the job, and I immediately fell in love with social listening.  13 years later, my passion for this area has never waned, and I owe it all to Joe giving me a shot.

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What makes a good leader in social intelligence?

The vision to be able to design a successful capability from scratch.  The flexibility and willingness to pivot that vision frequently as changes occur (new tools, new social platforms, new direction from the C-Suite, etc).  The communication skills to present social intelligence’s value in laymen’s terms to leaders who may or may not even be on social media.  The organization to manage multiple vendors and budgets, and (hopefully) a large team of analysts.  The storytelling capability to take millions of data points and distill down into actionable insights that fit into 3 bullet points on an executive summary slide.  The energy to be able to handle many, many research requests at once without feeling like you’re drowning.  And finally, the mental toughness to keep a cool head when skeptics question the value of the capability you built…right before you blow them away with actionable insights they weren’t aware of.

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What three skills do you have that helps you to excel in your role?

I’ve learned over time how to create strategic roadmaps that lead to a ‘yes’ from leadership.  I’ve done this by 1) creating FOMO, showcasing a competitor leveraging social intelligence better than us, and 2) presenting the ideal state that can be achieved with a comprehensive tech stack vs. the knowledge gaps if part of that tech stack isn’t approved.  Secondly, I’ve learned the power of ‘no’; instead of trying to please and say ‘yes’ to every request, saying ‘no’ for a legitimate reason (unreasonable timing, lack of approved tool or resource budget, etc) puts the onus back on the supervisor who didn’t initially get you what you needed, forcing them to re-think how they can unlock more resources for you.  Finally, I’ve learned the importance of engaging with industry colleagues.  I rarely used to post on LinkedIn, didn’t attend very many webinars, and felt like I was on an island.  Once I became more active on LinkedIn, everything changed.  I found the SI Lab community, webinars and events that kept my finger on the pulse, and lifelong colleagues.  This has opened many doors, and I’m forever grateful to Jillian and the SI Lab for building this great community.

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What do you think will be different about social intelligence in 2035?

While the platforms will come and go, online discussion will continue to grow for as long as the internet exists.  The format of that online discussion will inevitably change (less text-based, more visual-based), but social discourse will continue about every topic imaginable.  The challenge of AI bots vs. legitimate humans posting content will continue to grow, but I believe the future will provide technology that will be able to detect & filter out bot-generated discussion more easily.  Social platforms will exist more and more in physical world situations, like on shelves at stores as you make a purchase decision or at live events…this will present a challenge for capturing & mining that conversation for insights.  Finally, AI will keep getting better at summarizing & presenting actionable insights, so the job of social intelligence leads will be more about tool optimization and democratization vs. research.  That being said, there will always be a difference between what the average layman stakeholder can get out of a tool vs. a seasoned expert analyst, so if you love conducting social media research, there will still plenty of opportunities to dive deep.

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Will we still have jobs? Is AI all hype or actually helpful?

Building off my answer to the last question….yes, we will still have jobs, but our value will be just as much (if not more) in our ability to configure these tools to optimize the output of the AI to be actionable vs. cranking out research deck after research deck.  AI will absolutely be helpful, as long as the necessary time is taken to focus the AI on what will be most actionable and accurate, which you will always need a human-at-the-helm to ensure.  So, if you’re a researcher that hasn’t embraced the AI features of these tools…absolutely do so, in order to future-proof your value as BOTH a rock-solid researcher and a tool configuration superstar.

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What should people know before getting into social intelligence?

Buckle up and hold on for the ride.  It is one of the most interesting, growing and potentially rewarding roles you can be in, but it also isn’t for the faint of heart given the rapid pace of change.  If you like structure and a landscape that rarely changes, social intelligence isn’t for you.  But if you thrive in a world that changes daily (new social platforms, algorithm changes, new trends, new tools, new direction from your stakeholders or the C-suite, etc), then dive into social intelligence head-first and enjoy an extremely fun & rewarding rollercoaster of a career.

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What’s been your biggest career highlight?

I’ve worked on multiple Super Bowl campaigns, spoken in front of hundreds of people, and been recognized by SI Lab and elsewhere for my work.  But the moment I’m most proud of was when I finally got a chance to work on a topic that wasn’t about selling more widgets; it was about helping save lives.  I was a consultant at NorthStar leading Social Intelligence during the pandemic when one of the research firms I supported landed a new client: a state health department that needed to understand local perceptions of the upcoming vaccine so that they could create meaningful campaigns encouraging vaccination.  It was the roughest social conversation I ever had to analyze, but was worth it.  I was able to unearth objections to the vaccine that the health department was able to counteract in campaign messaging, while also finding influencers advocating in their local communities for vaccination.  The health department worked with those influencers based on my insights, and more people in that state were vaccinated because of it.  While that work didn’t win me any awards or recognition, it was by far the most meaningful project of my career that I will always be proud of.

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What’s next for you?

I still have a lot of great work to do within my current organization, so I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. 2023 was about tool assessment, while 2024 was about implementing the selected tools. 2025 is about embedding these tools within the organization. We’re building Sharepoint microsites that explain everything about social intelligence, house training videos and dashboard links, and allow stakeholders to request research. We’re building self-paced training modules that explain our tech stack and the valuable insights our capability brings (analyst-level tool access being dependent on training module completion). We’re partnering with Foresight teams to identify emerging trends leading to products on shelves, and so much more. Long-term, I see myself thriving at my current organization for many years, while keeping in the back of my head two burning questions for the latter half of my career: are there opportunities to create my own Social Intelligence offering that builds these capabilities for more clients….and are there opportunities in the academic space to teach the next generation of Social Intelligence professionals? Whatever I do, my goal is to retire years from now knowing that I’ve created something that will last, fueling the Social Intelligence industry for future generations.