What does social intelligence mean to you?
I am sure you won’t debate that humans are undeniably the chattiest creatures on Earth, and now our endless chatter has moved to social media. Every caption, like, comment, and share is a breadcrumb in the trail of our digital interactions. Even those who might stay quiet in real life often have plenty to say online.
To me, social intelligence is like being a social media detective. As a fan of noir films, I bring that mindset here reading between the lines of tweets, posts, and comments. It’s about diving into real-time insights to catch those "Aha!" moments and address the not-so-great feedback. In my opinion, it is a key competitive tool for brands to get ahead by understanding what really matters to their audience, whether they're raving about a product or venting about a competitor.
Like detectives spotting hidden clues, I see the truths hidden in the online chatter and actions. The tough part certainly is translating consumer preferences, experiences and emotions expressed online into actionable insights relevant for different teams within the organization. Not just stick to being a good listener & observer but bring the intelligence by understanding, predicting, and deeply engaging with our ever-evolving audience.
Why social intelligence? How did you find yourself working in social intelligence?
My relentless passion for understanding the “why” behind consumer behavior has always driven my approach to campaign planning. Over the past decade, I’ve worked across a range of industries with varied consumer cohorts—from agencies and startups to global B2B and B2C organizations—spanning multiple markets and disciplines within social media. Throughout, I’ve consistently leveraged data to convince stakeholders of the powerful potential of social media marketing. Initially, I relied on surveys and reports, but they often fell short—outdated and lacking the specificity for audiences, cities, industries, or brands.
In the quest to make social-led data more accessible through dashboards and relatable through insights-driven reports across multidisciplinary teams—sales, marketing, technology, loyalty, branding, and even the top management—led me to social intelligence. It can never be a one-size-fits-all approach; depending on the ask, investment and available resources I have worked to build tailored solutions, defining dashboards, tools, frameworks, and structures to fit each team’s needs, ensuring relevance in campaign results, audience insights, competitor comparisons, channel-specific differences, etc. I’ve advocated for social-led insights across global and regional marketing teams, adapting to different organizational levels to maximize impact and understanding
What do you love about working in social intelligence?
I feel like being astrologers in the world of social media marketing— trying forecasting trends and shifts in consumer preferences that too with precise, hard-earned real-time data. At the same time, we play the role of therapists for customers, listening (without any extra penny) intently to their smallest concerns and uncovering truths that can help brands connect more deeply with their audience. Did I just go too fancy or lame explaining? But that’s been my journey with social media intelligence—moving from one stakeholder to another, constantly finding new ways to translate its potential. Along with the passion, bit of extra drama has only grown deep in my veins.
Craziness aside, I’m a curious soul, always excited by the challenge of finding new questions to solve. Social intelligence combines my love for technology, data, and social media into one package. Best of all, it never gets slow or boring—there’s always something innovative to learn and a new question from the intelligent bunch I work with to resolve.
If done right, social intelligence has the power to make brands more competitive and reshape their marketing strategies to align better with their consumer base.
What skills do you think you need to be successful in social intelligence?
First and foremost, a natural curiosity and love for analytics are essential— because let’s face it, if you don’t enjoy digging into data, it’s going to be a tough ride. Data doesn’t work alone; it needs an eye for detail and problem-solving skills to spot anomalies and trends.
Being chronically online, or at least understanding social media channels, is a boon. It makes it easier to identify relevant spaces for your brand or use case.
A strong business sense is also key, as data doesn’t speak for itself—you need to filter the noise, give it a voice, and tell the story in a simple, relatable way, avoiding overwhelming jargon and mere KPIs. Think of it as storytelling with data, making it engaging and useful for everyone in the business.
Being proactive to advocate and still have the patience to explain are crucial too I feel we are still adapting to these data sources and need continuous education.
What’s been your biggest win in your career so far?
Being recognized as one of the winners here is a significant milestone in my career, affirming the efforts I’ve put into working and advocating social intelligence.
In my current role, a defining moment came when I was entrusted with social listening project. While the tools were available, they were underutilized and perceived as insufficient for insights. The challenge deepened when we decided to transition to a new tool. Crafting use cases for a global brand in the fast-paced travel industry with limited resources and tight deadlines was no easy feat. However, I successfully developed organization-wide reports that could be used across central, regional, and country-level teams, empowering them to better understand the consumer voice and make data-driven decisions.
I also expanded use cases beyond sentiment analysis to include audience segmentation based on travel preferences, brand resonance, competitor comparisons, micro-influencer behaviour, loyalty program insights, local market trends, emerging travel destinations, and travel behaviour patterns throughout the customer journey.
What do you think needs to change in the social intelligence industry?
Social media intelligence is often limited to social media or marketing teams and predominantly embraced by digital-first companies. I believe broader adoption across industries is crucial. Internal teams and market tools should emphasize clear distinctions in its applications beyond performance and sentiment analysis to encourage unlocking its full potential within business analytics.
Also to advance the industry, I feel focus on not just developing the best tools but also on cultivating the best talent is needed. I have noticed few start their careers specifically in social media intelligence; it often becomes a progression path. Encouraging early career focus in this field is essential, as well-trained & passionate professionals can bring fresh perspectives, innovate, and ultimately develop social intelligence into an integral part of business strategy.
How do you see the industry developing?
Strong online marketing campaigns and brand presence are now directly impacting the revenue. Trends in social media are happening as you read. And it is no more limited to Genz but influences all ages and sectors of consumer base. Brands are increasingly recognizing the need to harness this unbiased, real-time data, positioning social intelligence as a core resource rather than an auxiliary tool.
Additionally, AI is reshaping the field by streamlining process and making it accessible even for those less familiar with social media tools. In my experience, AI has significantly reduced manual efforts, improving query writing, noise filtering, and gradually optimizing multiple sections. AI is also delving into analyses that are typically challenging to perform manually, such as more effectively analyzing content—whether images or videos—by providing explicit insights into logo usage, human interactions, and brand presence. So, the better AI integrates in the social intelligence process the easier it will be for brands to extract insights without waiting for large-scale studies, thus driving faster, data-driven decisions.
What are you looking forward to in social listening for 2025?
In 2025, I’m excited about the AI advancements already being deployed by many tools. As AI evolves, I am hoping it will overcome limitations, particularly in handling local languages—a challenge for markets not dominated by English. And improve sentiment analysis by better understanding nuances like sarcasm and slang.
I also anticipate that channels with integration limitations will open up, enriching audience cohorts. With social media channels increasingly functioning like search engines, further advancements in hashtags and keywords —beyond just Twitter— will enable better trend detection across platforms.
By reducing time spent on data cleansing, we can focus more on extracting valuable insights. While some tools offer AI-driven insights and forecasts, I still see some scope of improvement there making predictive modelling and trend forecasting more accurate.
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