The Social Intelligence Lab

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   Our next #BoldBrand winner found his professional sweet spot by combining his talent for social listening with working at one of his favourite ever brands. Justin G., is Social Intelligence Lead for Taco Bell, he finds that social listening is at the heart of all his work, helping the brand to make strategic decisions by understanding their fans (and lapsed fans). The work of his team can shape menu decisions, enhance the app and digital experience, refine social and marketing strategies, and much more.   After Justin finished college, he followed his childhood passion and worked in baseball research and analytics at MLB Network. This led Justin into SEO and social media marketing where he found his new love! Following this, Justin delved deeper into social listening tech and analysis with some of the biggest brands in the world, before finding his current role at Taco Bell.    We asked Justin what his dream project would be to work on? “My dream project would result in a completely new Taco Bell menu item from social listening insights! In an alternate social-verse though, I'd love to help Major League Baseball connect with younger sports fans. Both the teams' and the league marketing seem detached from modern social media and younger audiences. There's infinite potential in the rich history and narratives, blending physical and digital experiences, showcasing personality, and leveraging star power to bridge the gap.”   Read more about Justin here 👉 https://lnkd.in/e_kR3JtF #BoldBrand #SocialInsightsSpecialist #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SIInsider50 #Winner Audiense

“This is the FIRST TIME where I can meet people that do exactly the same job that I do” Alejandro Garcia de Leon (Global Lead of Social Intelligence, Hilton) “It's the members of the audience and their active participation that made the event really stand out fostering a strong sense of community” Martin Miliev (Head of Social Intelligence, Publicis Groupe Bulgaria)   We think Observe Summit is pretty awesome. Why? Well it could be the amazing line up of social intelligence professionals ready to spill their secrets. Or it could be the fact that you walk away with real ideas and insights to level up your social listening strategy.   But for us the absolute best thing about Observe Summit is you. Real, in-actual-person you! This is the ONLY in-person event dedicated solely to social listening and we just love to see social listeners out in the wild because we are a bit of a rare species.   Don’t worry, we don’t expect you to listen to us. Of course, we are going to tell you Observe Summit is awesome. Instead we’ll let people who’ve been before and seen it for themselves tell you exactly why you’ll love this event.   Check out what last year’s attendees have to say 👇 and get your tickets here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNDxRNNZ #ObserveSummit #OS24 #DeepSocialListening #SocialListening #SocialIntelligence #Insight #Data

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   We’ve got another amazing #RisingStar for you, Jubin Varghese! 👏 Our #winner, Jubin, is Insight Executive for giffgaff and, like many of us, found his way into social listening by chance.   Jubin main interest was in behavioural science, but it was the foresight of his manager, who recognised the relevance and future potential of social listening in market research, who encouraged him to explore social intelligence. Jubin’s keen and curious mind is perfect for social listening and has helped him to establish a fulfilling career. The mix of analysing human behaviour through social trends proved to be not just insightful but also exciting. Working in social listening for Jubin has been an unexpected journey but fascinating and incredibly rewarding, keeping him engaged and continuously eager to explore more. 🙌   We asked Jubin what has been the most challenging experience and how has he overcome it? “Navigating the massive sea of unstructured data to find structure was a huge challenge at first. But, thanks to the magic of AI's evolving tech, it became a lot more manageable. Also, it turns out, getting the hang of picking the right datasets kind of comes with the territory. The more you dive in, the better you get. It's all about getting your hands dirty and really getting to grips with what you're working with. Pretty cool how experience shapes you like that.” 😎   Check out more about Jubin here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ex_yB9KX   #SIInsider50 #SIInsider50Winner #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SocialData Audiense

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   We love an industry newbie, which is why we are so excited to have Joanne Yj Kim as one of our #RisingStar #SIInsider50 winners. Joanne started her career hopping from journalism to content management to graphic design, and thought her college barista job to be one of the most fulfilling jobs she’d had (we’re here for the free coffee!). But, after being contacted by a recruitment agency about a social listening role, Joanne decided to go for it and now the rest is history!   Now Associate Manager of Social Media Intelligence at Walgreens, based in Chicago. Joanne uses social listening to recommend actionable business strategies across various functions of the organisation. Joanne finds that any good storyteller starts with attentive listening. It’s this love of storytelling which encouraged Joanne to make the career move to social listening (which she hopefully finds just as fulfilling as her college barista job!)   We asked Joanne what her career highlight is to date? “Two highlights! First, I loved taking part in the blockbuster Barbie activation during my time at Warner Bros. and witnessing how a powerful, female-driven story shook the world with all things pink. Second, in my current role at Walgreens, I spotted an opportunity to surprise and delight a kind, caretaking customer and the elderly cancer patient he cares for with a care package. I was very happy to see how my suggestion led to a random act of kindness that generated brand positivity and brought joy to the customers.”   Check out more about Joanne here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eFw8Q_gk   #SIInsider50 #SIInsider50Winner #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SocialData Audiense

The date is set and it’s really happening! Observe Summit is going to the US on October 3rd 🙌   Join us in Chicago for a day packed full of social listening awesomeness. There’ll be big brands, big talks, big ideas! Basically it’s going to be big! But personally our favourite part of Observe Summit is all about the vibes. For many of us social listening is quite a lonely role but at Observe you see first-hand that you are part of an amazing social listening community. It’s where you find your people 🙋♀️🙋♂️   Whether you are a familiar face in our social listening community or a fresh-faced newb, you will be welcomed, you’ll learn lots of awesome things and you will have the best day surrounded by people who “get” social listening too. 👏 The social listening community is small but GLOBAL 🌎 so this is the perfect opportunity to expand your network, meet new SI buddies, and be part of the ONLY conference dedicated to social listening.   The full agenda is coming soon and we know you will be excited. Why? Because we are!   Standard tickets are $600 but until the 25th July you can get them for the SUPER EARLY BIRD bargain price of $200! Run, don't walk and bag your discount tickets while you can 👉 https://lnkd.in/eNDxRNNZ #ObserveSummit #ObserveSummit2024 #OS24 #SocialListening #SocialIntelligence #Insight #Data

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   Jorie McLeod has been the social intelligence lead for Uber and Uber Eats for the past 2.5 years. As Social Media Manager, Intelligence & Reporting, she integrates social listening across several departments and business functions including Communications & PR, Marketing, Product, Brand, and Policy. This is just one of the reasons why Jorie is one of our #BoldBrand #SIInsider50 winners. 👏   It was working in ad sales research in the media industry at the start of her career, which led Jorie to social listening. She was quickly hooked on the thrill of analysing real-time data compared with other research methods. Following this, Jorie pursued a role in social intelligence for an agency and undertook various projects across CPG, Finance and Pharmaceutical clients. Eventually, Jorie made it to her current job for Uber and she’s been smashing it as always! 🙌   Jorie was happy to shake things up at Uber, establishing an internal social listening framework, providing listening analysis for numerous product launches, marketing campaigns (including 3 Super Bowl commercials!), and annual live brand events.   We asked Jorie what’s the boldest mistake she has made and what has she learned? “In my opinion, one of the best parts of social listening is that it is always evolving. Therefore, there are always opportunities to continue learning and to change our research methods. Earlier in my career, a mistake that I learned from was not taking the necessary time with an analysis and expecting to see the major takeaways immediately. I’ve learned that the best reporting comes from the details within the data and that it takes time to comb through social data to uncover these insights, especially since social data is so extensive.” Learn more about Jorie here 👉 https://lnkd.in/eDGbqdCf   #SocialInsightsSpecialist #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SIInsider50 Audiense

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   With a job that will be the envy of many football fans, #BoldBrand winner, Joe Sayers is Senior Insights Lead at Manchester United. Joe, mainly focusses on social media insight and feeding that data back into the club, influencing content strategy, campaigns, and digital marketing. Understanding the club’s fans is crucial to ensure they create content that is engaging and relevant.    Joe studied Sports Journalism at University of Leeds which led him to working for HSBC in 2012 where he was one of the founding members of the Social Listening and Analytics team; this role was part marketing and part comms at the time. Then in 2018, he started at Manchester United utilising real time insights, which was a first for the club. Fast forward to now where they have social listening insights filtering into every aspect of their content strategy and more! 👏   We asked Joe what’s been the boldest mistake he has made and what did he learn from it? “Not sure if I would describe this as a ‘bold’ mistake but it was certainly a valuable lesson. I used to believe that every piece of insight or report had to be a polished, multi-slide deck, no matter who you were presenting/speaking to. The realisation, when insight wasn’t landing the way I wanted it to, that it’s as important to understand your audience as an insights analyst as much as it is for brands…had a transformative effect. Not every piece of insight needs to be a deck, or an email, it can sometimes (especially in a fast-paced environment) be a text message or quick call.”   Read more about Joe here 👉 https://lnkd.in/evTqysTj   #BoldBrand #SocialInsightsSpecialist #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SIInsider50 #Winner Audiense

Have you got the tea on social listening? 🍵 Then it’s time to spill because we want to hear it!   Every year we produce the State of Social Listening Report - the Social Intelligence industries' most comprehensive report on how social listening is used in brands, organisations, and agencies. But to do this we need the lowdown from you.   If you use social and internet data in your work, lead a team, are building a social listening department or agency, basically if you so much as get a whiff of social listening in your work we want to know your thoughts.   If you’ve read our past State of Social Listening Reports, you’ll know how handy it is to benchmark your work, get more buy-in or budget for social listening activities, increase headcount, innovate use cases and educate their senior leadership on the importance of social listening. But first, we need all the gossip from you.   So get the kettle on, make a brew and spill!   Give us the lowdown on what social listening looks like for you here 👉 https://lnkd.in/egfv7fHW #SocialIntelligence #SocialListening #Data #Insight #StateOfSocialListening #Report

Back in April we put all you query writers through your paces <cue Rocky theme tune> with our Social Listening Query Writing Competition. 💪 It was a tough brief but we knew you would be up to the challenge!   In true SI Lab style we threw a party to reveal our winner…the amazing Jen O'Driscoll whose query smashed it out the park! Special shout out to our runner up, Claire Harter, MA!   For the full details of the competition and to see the A-Ma-Zing queries the girls wrote, check out our latest blog post 👉 https://lnkd.in/eFF9yssP   Fancy flexing your own query writing skills? Think you could answer the brief better? Post it on socials tagging The Social Intelligence Lab and use the hashtag #QueryWriting. Or pre-register for the 2025 Social Listening Query Writing Competition via the blog post.   #QueryWriting #SocialIntelligence #SocialData #Insights Thanks also to our amazing sponsors Listen + Learn Research | The Social Insight Agency and YouScan Social Listening ✨

⭐SI Insider 50 Winner’s Story⭐   Congratulations to Founder & CEO of Ten Bear Group, Jessica Thomas, who is one of our #InsightfulInnovator #SIInsider50 Winners! 👏 Jessica started Ten Bear 7 years ago and thinks of herself as a strategic insights consultant. Her work is centred around analysing consumer behaviours and market trends and transforming them into data-driven business strategies.   Social listening is Jessica’s most important tool in her data stack. She loves its inherent unsolicited nature and considers it to be one of the most valuable resources to support her clients to make well informed decisions.   Jessica’s social listening journey began while working for social intelligence platform Brandwatch. It was here she discovered the potential of social listening and the positive effect it can have on business decisions. This spurred Jessica on to start up her own business.   We asked Jessica if she has any SI heroes? “Actually, my colleague Becca Evans is who I would call a Social Intelligence hero. Becca's knack for identifying trends among some of the most complex social data projects I've seen to date, along with her creative application of these insights, truly distinguishes her in the field of SI. Her insights into human behaviour and her strategic use of social data have not only enhanced our team's projects but have also led to significant breakthroughs in our research methodologies. Her contributions go beyond mere data analysis; she has a unique talent for turning insights into actionable strategies that have had a huge impact on our clients who are also consistently impressed by her work.”    You can find out more about Jessica here 👉 https://lnkd.in/gVDSCpcC   #SIInsider50 #SocialListening #Socialintelligence #SocialData Audiense