What does social intelligence mean to you?
I describe social intelligence as scanning all of the public information across the internet to find out what people are saying about certain topics or brands, and then applying data science and research techniques to turn that data into actionable insights. It is so many things though - it can be the early identification of a TikTok trend that your brand can use before it is old news, or tracking brand reputation over years. It can be quantitative or qualitative research, using a couple nuggets or millions of mentions. What it isn’t though is the basic ‘number of likes’ that put some people off the practice years ago - if you’ve been away for a while, come take another look!
What skills do social listeners need to succeed?
I think social listeners need to be well-rounded! The best social listeners are both data savvy and strong storytellers. Strong social listening also requires curiosity- pulling at threads and following the data until you get to the bottom of key business questions. The social listening world also moves fast, so a strong social listener keeps an eye on new trends and capabilities, and is always eager to learn new things.
Biggest challenge to social intelligence adoption in brands?
I think the biggest challenge to social intelligence adoption is proving ‘value’, which often means ‘impact on revenue’. Many brands consider social intelligence a nice-to-have. While social intelligence provides so much insight into consumers and their perspectives, I think that finding ways to demonstrate how it can affect the bottom line is the best way to get buy-in from brands.
Favourite use case for social intelligence and what decisions can the insight help support?
Some of my favorite social intelligence reports are blended with traditional market research. For example, I love digital persona/audience profile reports. On their own, social intelligence audience insights reports deliver rich insights about who your consumers/audience are and what they need. When blended together with traditional market research, you can use one to inform the other, and provide a holistic report with demographic data points and a deep understanding of consumers.
What piece of advice would you give to those looking to do more with social data than just brand tracking or campaign monitoring?
I think social listening is the best way to get unprompted conversation- one of the best things social listening can tell you is what you didn’t know to ask. I would expand your search out to your category and see what insights you can glean - are there white spaces you can fill? Who is your audience, and how can you appeal to them/expand into other audiences? I’ve seen social listening data used in so many creative ways, the possibilities are really endless.
Gen AI in social listening: hype or helpful?
Right now, I find that Gen AI in social listening requires a lot of manual touch and review. I’ve used Gen AI for initial discovery, but always dig deeper before reaching conclusions. However, it has improved tremendously since it first popped up in social listening tools, and I’m excited to see where it heads!
If we could grant you one wish to help your social intelligence practice succeed, what would you ask for?
While I understand (and believe in!) protecting data privacy, I find the lack of access or very restricted access we have to some platforms to be the biggest challenge. I worry about the way the data is skewed by where we capture it, and I know it is a big pain point for many brands. If we could get anonymized glimpses into this data to have a more holistic data set, I think that would be the best addition to our current social listening capabilities.
If you were to start your social intelligence team from scratch what three things would you do first?
1- I would build a team made up of people with the qualities above. Curious, well-rounded, savvy analysts who are eager to learn, dig in, and develop exciting and innovative research practices.
2- I would spend a lot of time on query building and setup. I would conduct stakeholder interviews to identify keywords for query definition, and test, QA and rebuild. It is critical to have a strong foundation to have a successful social intelligence practice.
3- I would develop training materials for stakeholders! The best social listening reports are no good if they are not met by a receptive audience. I would work to help stakeholders understand the practice, what we can and can’t do, and what the outputs mean so that they feel empowered to use social intelligence reports.
What are you looking forward to in social listening for 2025?
Every year that I have been in social listening has presented new opportunities and new challenges. The strides that vendors are making with new technology are so exciting to watch and engage with. For me personally though, I have been reinvigorated in my role at the International Rescue Committee, and what I am most excited for in 2025 is to understand how best to communicate about the ongoing crises around the world in order to raise awareness and better support our clients.
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