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Let’s start simple. Who are you, and what do you do with social data that others might not expect?
Hi! My name is pronounced like R-E-L, and I’m an LA-based foodie (originally from Chicago). I’m also a natural extrovert and a social insights lead who has worked both agency-side and brand-side for major entertainment brands (from Disney to now Live Nation). I specialize in understanding entertainment fandom across social media, from TV and film audiences to today’s live music ecosystem of fans, artists, concertgoers and the press.
What people don’t always expect is that a huge part of my job is turning messy, unstructured social media posts and comment sections into something structured and actionable for various stakeholders. I don’t just track sentiment and volume; I read between the lines of fandom and tone to understand what’s really driving different audiences, uniting social performance metrics with qualitative insights.
What’s something in our industry we pretend to understand, but don’t?
How people actually talk on social media.
We build boolean queries (using keywords with logical operators) as if audiences speak in neat, logical phrases, but in reality, we speak in fragments that incorporate deep human emotion and sarcasm. There's often a gap between how we query (and measure sentiment) and how humans actually communicate, but language models and AI are getting us closer. However, even with a cleaner data set and more accurately built queries, we will always need the human element to apply cultural context and emotion to understand the full picture.
What’s a moment this year where social data helped your team do something bolder, faster, or better?
In my previous role analyzing TV and movie watchers, social data analysis has helped shape marketing strategy for both reboots and new series by identifying which characters and themes resonated most among fans. This allowed creatives and marketers to take smarter creative risks grounded in accurate audience perception.
In addition, throughout my time on both the brand and influencer agency side, I’ve learned that working with smaller sized creators often drives higher engagement because their influence is built on connection, not scale. More authenticity, community-focused and less ad fatigue.
What’s one belief about your audience that social data completely upended for your teams?
- That TikTok is only for Gen Z or Gen Alpha.
Yes, TikTok skews does in fact skew younger, but older generations (i.e., our parents) are also on TikTok. Think mommy bloggers, politicians, retired folks, legacy artists and their fans.
Also, the cool thing about social is that viral moments don’t stay siloed to one social platform; in fact, fans will encounter a viral post through reposts across multiple platforms. Chances are a viral TikTok post will crossover its way to Instagram users expanding its reach.
- Social media conversation isn’t just reaction.
Sometimes we tend to think of social media conversation as reactions to conversations that already exist from the press, brands and larger influencers, but, in fact, fans are co-creators. Social media is a collaborative space where people shape narratives. They’re actively co-authoring the conversation around a franchise or brand (beyond just liking or re-sharing a post).
If you could build your dream social intelligence team from scratch, with no legacy and no limits, what roles would you include?
- A cultural analyst focused on fandoms, subcultures, new trends and internet speak
- A social listener who lives and breathes in a social listening tool to analyze earned conversation and track owned metrics
- A qualitative researcher dedicated to deep comment-level and sentiment analysis (who truly understands the niche audience)
- A data scientist to bridge social insights with true performance data (to understand the true impact on the business)
- A strategist who translates directly into creative and brand decisions
- And someone embedded with PR, marketing, creative to ensure insights are actually used, not just reported
When do you feel like you’re doing your best work?
When I’m collaborating with stakeholders from various departments and asked a follow-up question :) Usually this indicates that the insight will be used to influence a creative decision, not just a percentage in a share-out deck.
What’s your browser history giving away about you this week?
- Newest restaurant openings in LA (then I must check the comment on social media to see if the hype is real)
- Upcoming concerts
- New album releases
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