What is your job title? How do you use social listening in your work?
As a Group Leader in Social Media Listening and Analytics, I leverage the power of social listening to unlock valuable customer insights. Our robust governance body ensures responsible data practices, while social insights fuel innovation. We harness this information to understand unmet patient needs, inform social media strategies, expand treatment access, and ultimately create impactful value for patients.
What’s your background? How did you get into social listening?
I studied molecular biology, then ventured into the analytics world. After years analyzing clinical trials, I pivoted to Indegene, diving into automation and data visualization. Finally, at Novartis, I found my passion in social listening, leading a CoE to extract insights from the ever-flowing online conversations. It's a fascinating blend of science, storytelling, and deep understanding of human behavior: the perfect intersection for me.
What has been your biggest achievement?
Building social media listening and analytics at Novartis India from a pilot to center of excellence. It wasn't just about data, process or analytics – it was about rallying leaders, data scientists, linguists, and business teams. Together, we turned vast, unstructured data into actionable insights, impacting patients' lives. That's the power of collaboration and innovation greater than any individual accomplishment.
What’s the boldest mistake you’ve made? What did you learn from it?
Prioritizing data extraction and cleaning over insights generation early on. While a strong foundation is vital, neglecting the "why" behind the data can hinder its true value. Don't get bogged down in the weeds. While data hygiene matters, prioritize uncovering the "so what?" behind the numbers to truly empower data enabled decisions.
What would be your dream project to work on?
In pharma, cracking the code on complex language, limited data to unlock insights that empower research and improve lives for underserved patients. AI-powered global social media platform to play with lexicons, uncovering hidden connections and accelerating breakthroughs in real-time.
Outside the Pharma world, I love to explore beyond the ballot box, real-time insights from massive social media streams displayed on command center screens, painting a vibrant picture of public sentiment. This project would push the boundaries of social listening, helping to navigate complex political landscapes and understand the heartbeat of entire nations. My enthusiasm stems from the potential to impact lives, be it through groundbreaking healthcare solutions or deeper understanding of global trends.
Do you think there’s a right way and a wrong way to use social data?
For me, It all boils down to ethics, transparency, and respecting user privacy. It is good to acknowledge biases and potential inaccuracies from your study design and limitations.
Are there areas where you think you should be using social data for but aren’t currently?
Currently, the data is skewed towards publicly available data like X. But patient communities offer a goldmine of rich chatters which is still not fully leveraged.
Data ethics, data privacy must be the backbone of SML study design.
Need to go beyond surface-level analysis such as sentiment, volume, SoV, wordcloud, top themes. Bringing patient emotional journey, QoL, unmet needs, mapping to patient reported outcomes, lexicon analytics, uncovering hidden patterns and scan early warning signals.
Integrating social data to other datasets such as MR, clinical trials, EMR, APLD, wearables, etc. can provide holistic view
The above are being practiced by many firms in pockets but not to the scale that is required to be.
What’s your favourite data source to use and why?
Patient online community boards, ATUs, real-world datasets, and omnichannel data are my favorite data sources to effectively complement and enhance Cx/brand strategies. New age channels like video platforms, podcast are emerging and will be more powerful data sources.
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