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Let’s start simple. Who are you, and what do you do with social data that others might not expect?
I'm Imants Auziņš, Director of Analytics Products in the Global Communications & CEO Office at GSK. My core role is to enable the organisation to listen effectively, both externally and internally, to inform and manage our communications, reputation, and internal engagement strategies. I achieve this by equipping colleagues with the right data tools and views, leveraging my social intelligence expertise, technical data skills, and the capabilities of my brilliant Data, AI & Analytics team.
What might be unexpected is my journey to this role. I initially established myself in the domain of communications through commercial management and employer brand roles. This hands-on domain experience was crucial before I pivoted into digital insights, where I built expertise in social listening almost 10 years ago. This background gives me a unique, end-to-end perspective on how data (including social data!) is ingested, processed, and consumed, allowing me to be a trusted voice strategically on the technologies we choose, as well as tactically in crisis management and issues management. I also apply social listening techniques to internal data, building our capability to listen internally.
What’s something in our industry we pretend to understand, but don’t?
In our industry, the challenge isn't a lack of understanding per se, but navigating the interplay between social conversation as a proxy for real people, and the interpretation of metrics like volume, reach, and engagement. While successful practitioners incorporate these dynamics, the inherent complexities mean we must guard against oversimplifying the leap from digital dialogue to genuine sentiment.
What we observe online can be highly skewed from reality. Data volume is overwhelming, but the core challenge is discerning if this conversation truly represents our target audience and the specific question we’re asking.
High volume or engagement doesn't automatically equate to impact. We often track superficial metrics without discerning if 'noise' provides a meaningful signal for real people. Crucially, the absence of a signal can sometimes be even more insightful than large volume, indicating an unaddressed gap. The real skill is to filter out the irrelevant and focus on data that truly matters for strategic decision-making, acknowledging the inherent limitations of our social data proxy.
What’s a moment this year where social data helped your team do something bolder, faster, or better?
This year, social data consistently helped my communications colleagues stay on the front foot with business stakeholders. This was particularly evident in issue management and during key events like congresses, where we gained crucial understanding of our presence relative to industry peers. Our established social listening foundation, built on solid base queries, tags, categories, taxonomies, and ontologies, is what allows us to respond quickly and without hesitation during critical moments. This seasoned, proactive approach, in contrast to an ad-hoc method, ensures we can get 'up-and-running fast' and deliver timely, impactful intelligence.
What’s one belief about your audience that social data completely upended for your teams?
Rather than a belief being "upended," social data has refined our understanding of how our internal audiences communicate, moving us beyond strict internal and external categories. Casting the right net for conversations is crucial, and this often means recognising the interplay between what happens inside and outside the organisation.
For instance, if we aim to understand employee experience at GSK, while enterprise social channels are vital, equally important are external platforms like Glassdoor, Reddit, and other online communities. These external sources often host genuine "internal" sentiment and conversations that directly impact reputation and engagement. This integrated view has shifted our approach, highlighting that internal doesn't always mean solely within our walls. It's energising to work across this interplay, ensuring our listening strategies capture the full, nuanced picture of what our audiences truly think and feel, regardless of where they choose to express it.
If you could build your dream social intelligence team from scratch, with no legacy and no limits, what roles would you include?
Building my dream social intelligence team would be anchored in a data-to-insights model. Start with a clear question, select the right data, process it, visualise it to inform analysis, and then generate observations to draw insight by contextualising them with the initial question.
To achieve this, the team requires three distinct capabilities. Firstly, there's a need for a dedicated owner of the philosophy behind our query and segmentation structures. This individual ensures a rational, consistent, and effective setup across all use cases, providing the strategic framework for our listening.
Secondly, the team needs the capability to apply this philosophy by setting up queries and segments, and compellingly visualising the data. This ensures we gather and present the information effectively.
Thirdly, there's a crucial capability that acts as a bridge between this technical setup and the actual question we're aiming to answer. This involves interpreting the visualised data, generating pertinent observations, and drawing insightful conclusions to provide the strategic answers needed. These second and third capabilities – the technical application and the insight generation – can often be embodied by the same individual, fostering a close connection between data and discovery.
When do you feel like you’re doing your best work?
I enjoy the challenge of understanding an evolving situation and bringing honest clarity to an incomplete picture, which helps teams make informed decisions with confidence. This ability to distil complex information and provide clear guidance under pressure is incredibly rewarding.
Equally, I find satisfaction in supporting the development of my team members. Seeing my colleagues grow, build their competence, and sharpen their judgment is a strong motivator. I genuinely enjoy helping them enhance their skills and feel more empowered in their roles, which ultimately elevates the quality of our collective work.
What’s your browser history giving away about you this week?
As you’d expect, there are many obscure Reddit threads and X tweets… On a more personal note, I’m spotting a mixture of Traitors (a BBC show) and anime trivia, as well as an exploration of the latest repertoire I’m about to be performing with one of the choirs I sing in. Researching our next joint travel destination with my partner is also high up on the list!
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