What does social intelligence mean to you?
To me, social intelligence is a way to understand the current state of the consumer in an unprompted and unfiltered manner. Your most passionate consumers, positively or negatively, are the ones mentioning your brands on social media. They see your ads and interact with your content, and they are more likely to go out and purchase your products. We should always be listening to them. I often say that social listening is like being able to read a consumer’s diary entry: what do they love or hate? What do they need? What do they wish they could have? We can uncover the issues that are top of mind for them. Consumers don’t care about hurting your feelings on social media because they don’t realize brands are listening. Social intelligence, while not a solution for everything, is a unique way to understand what’s most important to our consumers. It should be used to complement other forms of research.
What skills do social listeners need to succeed?
Social listeners need a natural curiosity to find the story in sometimes large and complex data sets. The desire to investigate the “why” is critical when dealing with a lot of noise that won’t matter to your stakeholders. Strong communication skills are essential not only to tell the story from the data but also to demonstrate the value of social intelligence within an organization. It takes time, effort, and bravery to continuously offer your services and create meaningful connections within your organization. The ability to work well under pressure and adapt are also helpful skills, as you may be asked to answer questions quickly about unfamiliar topics. One must also have strong organizational and time management skills to deliver data efficiently and juggle multiple projects. And, of course, it helps to be a social media and pop culture maven, knowing social media platforms inside and out and what kinds of conversations are happening on each platform.
Biggest challenge to social intelligence adoption in brands?
One of the biggest challenges to social intelligence is implementing a new process for brands/companies that have been doing things a certain way for many years. Some senior leaders may be hesitant to change, and they may not be educated on the insights that social intelligence can provide. Many people who are not active social media users have preconceived notions of what social media is (selfies, dance challenges, memes, kids doing silly things), and they don’t see the value or scale of social media in this current day and age. I have been told “people are just angry on social media” when presenting my insights. While these preconceived notions are difficult to change, education on the value of social intelligence can still be helpful. Once your senior leaders or other internal stakeholders are aware of the insights that are available, they may be more open to adopting social intelligence as part of their research process.
Favourite use case for social intelligence and what decisions can the insight help support?
I have many favorite use cases, but my favorite right now is using social intelligence to support future product innovation. I recently had the opportunity to do some research to help support a 2026 innovation. I’m so excited to have been a part of the process to help inform Hershey’s Innovation R&D team as they develop new products. I looked at similar brands and pulled insights from the category to help point the team in the right direction as they make decisions about the future product.
What piece of advice would you give to those looking to do more with social data than just brand tracking or campaign monitoring?
My biggest advice is to raise your hand and offer your services continuously. Yes, this will likely be brand health, new product feedback, and campaign monitoring to start. These types of reports are important, and it’s critical to master them before moving on to more complex projects. Once you gain trust and familiarity with your internal stakeholders, I have found that more complex questions come naturally. If they aren’t coming naturally, then I circle back to my first piece of advice. You are the expert and have seen the data that is available on social media. If you hear your stakeholders discussing a question they need answers to, offer social listening as one of the solutions. It also helped me to network with peers in the social intelligence industry to spark ideas for the kind of work I can do at my organization.
Gen AI in social listening: hype or helpful?
I believe Gen AI can be helpful in certain situations, especially when you are being asked to answer questions quickly about an unfamiliar topic. Gen AI can make it easier to find the story in large data sets. We are often presented with so much data that it would take an immense amount of time and work to analyze thoroughly, but Gen AI can speed up the process. I don’t think Gen AI is a replacement for a human analyst, but it can make a human analyst more efficient and give them the time to be more productive.
If we could grant you one wish to help your social intelligence practice succeed, what would you ask for?
My one wish is for all social media platforms to have a fully open API (Application Programming Interface). Platforms like Twitter/X and Reddit provide us with a lot of data, but we struggle to pull data from platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok due to API restrictions. So many consumers use these platforms to share their daily lives and opinions. If all platforms had an equally open API, the insights that social intelligence professionals can provide would drastically improve.
If you were to start your social intelligence team from scratch what three things would you do first?
First, I would start the team within the Consumer Insights department. Secondly, I would have the team closely connected to the social care and organic and paid social media teams. It’s essential to stay connected with these colleagues and pick their brains for what they see on their side of the business. Thirdly, I would ensure a social intelligence team member is present in as many brand projects, campaigns, and innovation meetings as possible. I don’t have a team right now (it’s me, hi, I am the team), but if I did, the quality and quantity of work I could do would vastly improve!
What are you looking forward to in social listening for 2025?
I’m looking forward to the new social media platforms that may emerge in 2025. I’m also looking forward to innovation in the social intelligence technology industry. I am continuously impressed by the vast amount of tools available, and I am excited to see what they’ll do for their customers in 2025.
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