What is your job title? How do you use social listening in your work?
At Homebox, we leverage data across all business areas to fuel real-time insights and guide decision-making processes. In my role as Marketing Director, we harness social data to glean competitor intelligence, identify customer unmet needs, and stay abreast of industry trends.
As a startup, our agility allows us to swiftly refine our product offerings and marketing strategies based on consumer insights, with social listening playing a pivotal role. This approach is iterative, ensuring our strategies are continually evolving and never static.
What’s your background? How did you get into social listening?
Throughout my career, I have employed various types of data to shape marketing strategies. One of my initial positions was with a leading social intelligence provider, Linkfluence (currently operating under Meltwater). As an early member of the UK research team, I gained invaluable exposure to a variety of blue-chip clients and had the opportunity to work alongside exceptionally talented colleagues. This experience underscored the significance of social listening and laid the foundation for further skill development in an agency context at Ogilvy and beyond.
What has been your biggest achievement?
Viewing achievement through the lens of successful projects and increased business metrics alone is a reductive approach and only paints half the picture. I’m most proud of the relationships I’ve built throughout my career and any times I’ve helped people develop, grow and enjoy their work.
What’s the boldest mistake you’ve made? What did you learn from it?
In the initial stages of my career, I failed to fully appreciate the broader business context, reflecting a degree of naivety. I overlooked key aspects such as financial limitations, cultural nuances, and regulatory obligations while addressing challenges. This oversight led to a crucial realisation about the importance of aligning solutions with the organisation's overarching operational framework. Through a combination of trial & error, and the guidance of some top-tier bosses, I have since adopted a more collaborative and consultative methodology in my problem-solving approach.
What would be your dream project to work on?
My dream project offers me a high degree of autonomy, equips me with the necessary resources for success and tackles an intellectually challenging topic.
…If my boss has stopped reading, then my ‘dream’ project would involve studiously analysing social content following Arsenal’s victory in the Champion’s League.
Do you think there’s a right way and a wrong way to use social data?
As the adage goes, garbage in equals garbage out, so it is important to take the time to ensure clean data capture through accurate query writing & exclusions.
Another key principle is ensuring you take the data in its context. The majority of people (and users) are passive and don’t actively engage with topics online, so it is important to remember that we are often listening to a vocal minority rather than a representative sample of the target population. To mitigate this challenge, analysts should utilise complimentary data sources like surveys, focus groups, industry trend reports etc.
So, using social data the right way isn't just about keeping it clean with good practices; it's also about really getting what it's telling us, considering it might not show the full picture. This helps us make decisions that actually hit the mark.
Are there areas where you think you should be using social data for but aren’t currently?
As Steve Job said: “People think focus means saying yes to the thing you've got to focus on. But that's not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully.”
So, keeping that in mind, we're not using social data for everything we could be. Right now, we see a big chance to do more in areas like handling crises before they blow up and finding the right influencers to team up with. These spots are key for keeping our brand strong and making our marketing hit harder, and we're looking into tapping into social data more to really make a difference here.
What’s your favourite data source to use and why?
Historically, X (read: Twitter) has enjoyed a hegemonic status within the industry attributed to its well-established commercial partnerships and the extensive meta-data accessible to official vendors.
Yet, in recent times, Reddit has emerged as a more valuable platform, particularly due to its dedicated communities that encompass virtually every conceivable niche. Within my sector—be it finance, utilities, or property technology—there are a multitude of nascent subreddits where our target demographic actively engages in discussions on pertinent issues. This engagement has been instrumental in shaping our company's positioning and refining our marketing strategy, particularly in relation to understand the moving journey and customer pain points.
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