What is your job title? How do you use social listening in your work?
I’m an Associate Manager for the Social Intelligence team at Walgreens, based in Chicago. Our team operates within the marketing division and I use social listening to recommend actionable business strategies across various functions of the organization. My main responsibilities include monitoring trends to generate content ideas for the organic social team, supporting community activations by gauging public perception on diverse healthcare topics, and analyzing social data to identify customer passions and pain points, ultimately enhancing the customer experience.
What attracted you to social listening?
My career interest stemmed from my love for storytelling, and I learned early that any good storytelling starts with attentive listening. I am attracted to social listening because it requires active listening to a ray of opinions and voices “out in the wilds of social media” . My job allows me to make sure that these voices are taken into account and heard.
What’s the hardest thing you have learned or challenge you’ve overcome? How did you do it?
This might sound ironic, but the hardest lesson I learned so far in my career is how to take my work less seriously. Business priorities change, social media is always evolving, and layoffs can happen out of nowhere. So, as difficult as it is, it never serves my career journey or the business to hold on to old ways of working or to spend time thinking, “my work meant nothing.” I learned that I need to hold onto my work lightly and constantly challenge myself to innovate and meet the emerging needs of the business.
What’s your career highlight to date?brought
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.
What key skills you need to get started in social listening?
I think curiosity is a must. As a social intelligence professional, when approaching a data point or social post, you must be able to question how it could potentially translate into an insight. More often than not, the best insights and recommendations I've discovered come from analyzing data that initially appears mundane.
Is working in social listening what you expected?
Not at all. I got a random LinkedIn message from a recruiting agency two weeks before my wedding and at the time, I wasn't considering a career switch. I was a confused young professional. I hopped from journalism to content management to graphic design, but thought my college barista job to be one of the most fulfilling jobs I’ve had. But the job and social listening sounded interesting. One thing led to another, I was offered the job, submitted my resignation letter, went off on my honeymoon, and started my new job in social intelligence. The rest is history.
Is there anyone in the industry you look up to?
Everyone I’ve met in the social intelligence community is so creative and different in how they apply social listening in their respective fields, so it’s difficult to pick specific individuals that I look up to!
Get Social with SILab
