What is your job title? How do you use social listening in your work?
As a Senior Manager on the Brand Marketing team at Chewy, my role spans myriad responsibilities and projects. Ultimately, I’ve started to explain my role internally and externally as crucial to getting “under the hood” of pet parenthood - pets cannot speak directly to us but there is no bond like the one between a pet and pet parent, and it is my duty to help translate trends, insights, questions, concerns, etc. within the organization.
What’s your background? How did you get into social listening?
I started working in traditional PR (media pitching, press release writing) after graduate school and felt frustrated that the field was more qualitative and relationship-focused, whereas I was used to data driving my work in school. Luckily, I was working at a larger marketing agency and they had clients asking for data-driven social strategy so lo and behold, I jumped right in. These were the days long before Cambridge Analytica and the data was ENDLESS.
What has been your biggest achievement?
Personally, I am due with my first baby right as the winners are announced! Professionally, I am very proud of the work I did while at Google, focused on COVID-19 and vaccine research. The work was critical in understanding how people across the world reacted to the pandemic and what the “new normal” behaviors were across the world - from making whipped coffee and buying Peloton bikes, to quarantining behaviors and economic insecurity.
What’s the boldest mistake you’ve made? What did you learn from it?
Starting out writing a Chewy brand query, I had no idea there was a KPOP star that people referred to as “Chewy”. The amount of hours it took to clean that work up, especially when new to an organization who relied on me to share accurate data, felt endless at the time. Luckily now, I have great partners across our social listening toolstack that help me uncover non-brand related phrases and terms - and, yes, it’s truly mind boggling how often people talk about the “chewy” steaks they ordered for dinner online.
What would be your dream project to work on?
My current pipe dream project at work is to uncover insights about senior pet owners adopting senior pets! I think it’s so wholesome but also a crucial audience that is often underlooked & undervalued when it comes to purchase decisions.
Do you think there’s a right way and a wrong way to use social data?
With data and privacy protections in place, I think the space has gotten more appropriate with its use of social data over time. And while I don’t think there’s only ONE right way to write a query, one of my biggest pet peeves is a minimal query that doesn’t take into full account how people actually speak, especially online.
Are there areas where you think you should be using social data for but aren’t currently?
I’m trying to push product and design teams into using social data more in their work. I’d love to get teams in-the-know about product trends - from sustainability to trending colors - to bring into their work, and in turn, market those on social channels.
What’s your favourite data source to use and why?
I think Reddit is SO fun to use and has a ton of great data, but for my role specifically, Instagram has become a quick favorite. I get to look at photos of people’s pets ALL day!
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