How did you get into social intelligence? What was your career path to your current position?
In all honesty, I fell into social intelligence. I learned HTML, CSS, and Google AdWords during my teenage years through self-teaching and was an active blogger and Twitter user when these mediums started to blow up. My father was involved in the artist community in my hometown in Brazil, so I started building websites and supporting digital marketing for local artists and galleries.
I graduated in Communications because I thought I wanted to be a Copywriter but quickly switched to social media management and digital marketing planning as I discovered a desire to be involved with the different strategy aspects. Social listening and analytics were important parts of the process because they feed future strategies.
I was also working as a freelancer for an array of companies across the US, Europe, and China, supporting their social media strategies. I then met Jackie Cuyvers, who invited me to be the first full-time employee of her social-first insights agency, given my experience with clients across the globe and social media background. After that, I moved to work completely remotely (way before it was cool) and moved to Europe to complete my Master’s in Innovation. I am very grateful to her for giving me a chance to dive wholeheartedly into Social Intelligence as a career.
What do you think makes you successful in your work?
I have been exposed to different practices within digital marketing and have worked within different kinds of setups, including agencies, start-ups, and enterprises. Because I worked for a social-first insights agency for many years, I saw first-hand how different industries were using social data in their own ways. I think this multi-disciplinary / multi-industry path made it easier for me to put myself into the shoes of others, and understand the perspective of different departments, stakeholders and teams and their needs in terms of data, tools and frameworks.
What are the key skills that have contributed to your success?
I learned a lot of skills on the go but there is one general skill I believe to be essential if you want to be successful in Social Intelligence and that is curiosity. You need to be curious about life, curious about why things are the way they are and curious about human behavior so you can interrogate the data until you find answers. After all, data is just data until you apply it in interesting ways and are willing to explore it and connect the dots. Curiosity also keeps you excited about the work in front of you.
What motivates you in your work? What makes you want to keep working in social intelligence?
Social intelligence brings together my passion for understanding human behavior with my passion for technology and innovation. It rarely gets boring; I can say that. The data-driven world is always evolving and there is always new technology and new rules to deal with. It requires a lot of problem-solving and resiliency because new challenges will come around regularly, as well as every project simply being a different project. It can definitely be stressful sometimes, but never boring!
What makes social data special compared to other data sources?
Social data provides a rare opportunity to mix the insight value of what is usually a large dataset with the value of real individual stories, both in real-time and historically. I love the “multipurpose” and flexible element of it. There are different types of social data and therefore many different ways to question the data using a variety of techniques and methods. You can look at conversations about a product on forum discussions, how people are searching for this product on Google and how are people reacting to brands on social channels and these can all tell you distinct parts of the story.
What does being a social intelligence evangelist mean in the context of your work?
Being a Social Intelligence Evangelist means I get to continuously innovate, implement best practices, and show the value of Social Intelligence in answering different business questions and market research needs. It can also involve translating Social Intelligence lingo to stakeholders and showing a return on investment so we can continue to expand the practice both within the organization and to different business areas.
I have also learned a lot about Social Intelligence and continue to learn from my wonderful colleagues and from the amazing professionals I have been lucky to connect with. For me, part of being an Evangelist is also to pay this forward and give guidance or exchange experiences with those going through similar challenges, perhaps just starting on their own Social Intelligence journey.
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