Melis Memioglu

What is your job title? How do you use social listening in your work?

I am a Voice of Consumer analyst, working as a part of the wider Strategic Insights team at adidas. We leverage social listening for different use cases, varying from brand health to uncovering consumer perception and needs. We also use it adjacent to further digital consumer behavior (such as search data) for building a comprehensive understanding of target groups.

What attracted you to social listening?

I did my Master’s in Marketing and one of the chairs in my faculty had an emphasis on Web and Social Intelligence. I attended courses and seminars offered by this chair, where we learnt and practiced social media analytics, including sentiment and network analyses. I love the applicability of the field – we all use social media, either for sharing our thoughts or for learning from others’ opinions and experiences. It is an undisputable part of the consumer journey and thus, a great source for revealing latent factors behind consumer behavior.

What’s the hardest thing you have learned or challenge you’ve overcome? How did you do it?

Social intelligence is still a new practice for many people and this unfamiliarity sometimes comes together with misconceptions. This could be on either side of the spectrum - some would like to think of it as a silver bullet for anything consumer related (and thus, suggesting research topics whereby social listening may not be the best approach), whereas some might have reservations with the derived insights. I have experienced both of these scenarios and in both cases, I found it useful to take some time to explain what social listening is and what it is not. Presenting examples makes it relatable and facilitates the critical thinking of assessing e.g. whether their use case is something that consumers would discuss online or not.

What’s your career highlight to date?

My success criteria is making an impact with the insights generated and guiding decision making. Over the years, I’ve had the chance to contribute to a number of milestones that eventually shaped decisions varying from marketing strategy to product creation. I consider each such moment a highlight.

What key skills you need to get started in social listening?

Analytical skills are crucial, as you would need to formulate queries to reflect consumer language and do the actual analysis. I think, equally important are empathy and curiosity, which helps with constructing hypotheses and sense-making. For example, if you are doing an analysis on a Running consumer group, you’d like to think like a runner to understand what their needs and pain points could be. Such prep work, facilitated by empathy and curiosity, makes it easier to understand what people are discussing and why.

Is working in social listening what you expected?

I’d say it even exceeded my expectations. It offers a great potential and triggers innovative thinking. It also keeps you on your toes with its dynamic nature. The analytics capabilities in this field are constantly evolving so you need to keep upskilling yourself. In the meantime, consumers are also in a constant change and social listening helps you witness these shifts in mindset and behavior. I think my favorite part about this practice is that it makes you one of the people in your organization that is closest to consumers.

Is there anyone in the industry you look up to?

I’ve been lucky enough to work with many talented people in my organization, from whom I learn something new every day and am very grateful for that. One person I’d like to make a special remark for is my manager, Thomas Earl, who represents the golden standard of social intelligence for me. He possesses a natural talent for generating insights with strategic impact and continuously comes up with innovative approaches. He’s been kind (and patient) enough to teach me how to go beyond observations and reach to the “insight”, while keeping strategy and storytelling in mind. I’ll be ever grateful for his mentorship.

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