What does social intelligence mean to you?
To me, social intelligence means understanding and effectively leveraging the power of social media to gain insights, connect with audiences, and drive meaningful outcomes. Social intelligence is not just about monitoring mentions or metrics; it is about going beyond surface-level insights and uncovering the underlying attitudes, opinions, sentiments and needs of social media users.
Successful social intelligence involves recognizing patterns, identifying influencers, and adapting strategies accordingly. It entails staying updated with the latest social media platforms, algorithms, and features to maximize engagement and impact.
Ultimately, social intelligence enables organizations to make data-driven decisions, manage their brand reputation effectively, and engage in impactful conversations that drive business growth. It is the art and science of harnessing the power of social media to build strong relationships, drive insights, and accomplish strategic goals.
What skills do social listeners need to succeed?
Social listeners need a diverse set of skills to succeed. Firstly, strong analytical skills are crucial for interpreting and deriving insights from social media data. Proficiency in data visualization is important for effectively communicating findings. Excellent communication skills are essential to convey insights to stakeholders. A deep understanding of social media platforms and the latest digital trends is vital. Adaptability and strategic thinking allow for quick adjustment to new technologies and aligning insights with business objectives. Lastly, empathy and a customer-centric mindset help grasp audience sentiments and craft engaging strategies. Overall, successful social listeners have strong analytical abilities, communication skills, platform expertise, adaptability, strategic thinking, and customer-centricity.
Biggest challenge to social intelligence adoption in brands?
In my experience, one of the most prominent challenges I have encountered is dispelling the perception that social media is solely for networking or trolling. It is crucial to make conventional marketers fully grasp the immense value that social media data holds. By embracing social intelligence and delving into the analyzed trends and insights, brands can align themselves closely with their customers' wants and needs.
In today's consumer landscape, individuals are incredibly expressive about their preferences and dislikes on social media platforms. Therefore, the adoption of social intelligence becomes essential for brands to understand their audience at a deeper level and cater to their expectations effectively.
However, overcoming this challenge requires a concerted effort to educate and convince stakeholders about the power of social intelligence. Highlighting real-life success stories where brands have leveraged social media insights to drive significant impact can be an effective strategy to illustrate its potential.
By emphasizing the wealth of information available through social media platforms and how it directly contributes to brand growth, marketers can gradually shift perceptions and encourage the adoption of social intelligence as a crucial asset for business success.
Favourite use case for social intelligence and what decisions can the insight help support?
An exemplary use case for leveraging social intelligence involves a prominent pharmaceutical company that I had the opportunity to analyze owned social media content for. Specifically, I assessed their corporate social media handles and compared their content strategy with that of their competitors. To my surprise, our client's social media posts exhibited low engagement and were predominantly negative in nature. Through monthly in-depth analysis of the content strategies employed by 14 global pharmaceutical companies, I provided valuable insights on popular content categories and audience sentiment. Over the course of 10 months, the brand implemented consistent and strategic social intelligence fueled adjustments to their content strategy. As a result, they experienced a significant ~200% increase in social media engagement, and were able to shift the audience sentiment from mostly negative to mostly neutral to positive. This particular case continues to stand out as my favorite example of the transformative power of social intelligence.
What piece of advice would you give to those looking to do more with social data than just brand tracking or campaign monitoring?
I like to tell every social intelligence professional I meet and strongly advocate this on my social media as well: ‘Social intelligence is more than social media monitoring.’ The real magic starts after you know the basics of pulling data through visual dashboards. Data on creative visual dashboards has the power to show you compelling narratives in real time. The social media data can actually speak to you if you broaden your mind and allow yourself to see the big picture. I have experienced this myself several times over. Social data holds immense power when plugged into larger strategies. Be it brand communication, patient journeys or creating consumer personas. With over 5.2 billion social media users, there is a wealth of data to understand consumer pain points, create compelling narratives and reach out to your customers like never before.
Gen AI in social listening: hype or helpful?
Gen AI in social listening has the potential to be helpful by augmenting and expediting the analysis of social media data. However, it is important to approach it with a critical mindset, recognizing its limitations and ensuring responsible use. By combining the power of AI with human intelligence, organizations can harness the true value of social listening to gain actionable insights and make informed decisions.
If we could grant you one wish to help your social intelligence practice succeed, what would you ask for?
My number one wish would be to be able to see data from all my data sources under one comprehensive dashboard. With this comprehensive dashboard, I would be able to gain a holistic understanding of the data, identify correlations and insights across different sources, and make more informed decisions. The ability to visualize and analyze data from multiple sources simultaneously would enable me to identify trends, patterns, and emerging opportunities more efficiently and effectively.
If you were to start your social intelligence team from scratch what three things would you do first?
1. Gain a clear understanding of the goals and objectives with which I am starting my team. However, owing to the ever-evolving nature of this domain, I would also be flexible to adjust and streamline along the way.
2. Gather a good budget to procure the best-in-class tools in my tool kit. After all a warrior is only as powerful as his weapons.
3. Assemble a skilled and diverse team. Over the years I’ve experienced that one person can’t do everything and every individual team member has their unique strengths. A diverse team with a mix of technical, analytical, and business acumen will ensure a well-rounded approach to social intelligence.
What are you looking forward to in social listening for 2025?
In 2025, I’m excited to dive deeper into the evolving role of social listening in driving business and brand strategy. I’m particularly looking forward to leveraging advanced analytics to uncover emerging trends, real-time consumer sentiment, and actionable insights that can help brands not only stay ahead of the competition but also forge deeper connections with their audiences. With the continuous growth of AI and machine learning, I anticipate even more precision in identifying patterns and opportunities that can drive meaningful outcomes across industries, especially in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.
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