What does social intelligence mean to you?
I’ll take it a step further and call it Decision Intelligence. This is a discipline born out of applied AI + human expertise that’s not only predictive of the future but also helps brands understand the potential value and risks of future actions on business outcomes – such as sales, loyalty, and shareholder value.
What motivates you in your work? What makes you want to keep working in social intelligence?
I love my job, my team, and my clients. I learn something new every day. Our CEO, Rob Key is always ahead of the trends – he sees what’s next long before they become an industry need, What’s exciting about Converseon is that we’re always looking for what’s next – right now a focus on predictive analytics, especially around Brand Affinity, ESG, and Reputation, our continuous updates to our AutoML platform Conversus, as well as new innovations in our machine–earning custom classifiers. And we’re always driving innovation in data quality.
What do you think makes you successful in your work?
My experience as a consultant in different positions really taught me the importance of listening, as well as addressing what our client’s needs really are – that we’re selling solutions, not just products. I’m also a voracious reader – whether its articles, books, or even just getting into our client’s data to understand what’s on their plate that week.
What are the key skills that have contributed to your success?
I think my ability to build relationships and connect people has been a key element of my success in each role I’ve had over the last 15 years. Many colleagues are nervous to connect their different clients and stakeholders, but I feel it builds credibility and community – it enforces that we’re not one size fits all and it often sparks conversations around new strategic directions. I am a fast learner and I love to test new platforms and technologies to build new skills and knowledge, as well as share updates with our clients.
What makes social data special compared to other data sources?
Social data’s immediacy – companies spend so much money on traditional research and focus groups which can be expensive, take months to complete and be knowingly or unknowingly biased. Social data – especially clean, research-grade quality data – is the most immediate and open “focus group” there is. The data is available for quick analysis – the good, bad and ugly. A little effort to clean it up and you get cutting-edge insights and trends for your clients.
What does being a social intelligence pioneer mean in the context of your work?
The fact that I’ve been involved with social media since 2007 and that Converseon’s machine-learning/text analytics platform has been around since 2008 gives us deep credibility. Personally, our team is incredibly agile, and I love the creativity that our work sparks to address our client’s needs and how our data enables them to immediate action on major initiatives and crises. When a client comes to us with a challenge, our ability to think outside the box but within their business context has help us to pioneer many solutions, I think it is this continuous positive challenge from the clients which is pioneering.
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