Konstantinos Ververidis

Let’s start with you. Who are you, and what lens do you bring to understanding people online?

At my core, I’m a genuinely curious person who has always loved observing people, cultures, and behaviours. As a child, I often imagined being invisible so I could stand unnoticeably beside people and listen to their conversations.

I didn’t know it then, but that instinct would eventually become my career.

I studied market and consumer research and began my career in global research agencies, applying traditional research methodologies. When I discovered social listening nearly 15 years ago, something clicked. It felt like the closest thing to that childhood wish: the ability to understand what people think, feel, and experience in their own words, without filters.

Since then, I’ve worked with many social listening tools across a wide range of clients and objectives, from uncovering emerging trends to tracking brand health and understanding consumer experiences.

Across everything I do, one thing defines my approach. I treat social data like a puzzle. My focus is on identifying meaningful signals, connecting them with context, and building an insight story that can genuinely influence business decisions.

My lens is a blend of curiosity, empathy, and structure. I’m interested not just in what people say online, but why they say it, including the motivations, tensions, and experiences beneath the surface. This is what drives me and keeps me endlessly fascinated by people online.

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What’s a working theory you have right now about how people behave online?

Obviously, the most significant change in how consumers behave online is AI.

People increasingly rely on AI for product research, price comparisons, and decision rationalization, turning “What should I buy?” into a conversational query.

AI has emerged as a new first moment of truth, reshaping brand discovery and evaluation pathways. That said, many of my co-winners will explore AI in depth, so I want to focus instead on the genuine conversational shifts happening online.

I believe we’ve entered a new phase of online behavior shaped by three emerging and interconnected trends.

1.    Video has become the dominant language of expression.
Video, especially short-form, has overtaken text as the primary mode of communication online. People show rather than tell, and opinions spread through demonstrations, reactions, and stitched narratives. This shift moves our field from text-based social intelligence toward social video intelligence, where understanding behaviour requires capturing tone, context, and visual cues, not just keywords.

2.    Peer-to-peer spaces are the new word-of-mouth.
TikTok reviews, long Reddit threads, niche Facebook groups, and specialized forums, particularly in Asia, now drive trust and decision-making. These micro-communities have become modern advice networks.

3.    The first moment of truth has shifted from traditional search to social.
People scroll before they Google. Discovery, evaluation, and decision-making increasingly happen through social feeds, creators, and community insights rather than traditional search.

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What’s an insight you surfaced that you still think about? What one stuck with you?

One insight that has stayed with me came from a global project almost ten years ago.

The brief was ambitious: explore three years of social and search data across the U.S., China and Brazil to uncover emerging hair-care trends. The analysis revealed diverse needs and routines shaped by local hair types.

 One signal stood out. A small yet vocal group of consumers talked about using conditioner before shampoo.

Their reasoning was simple but powerful. Using conditioner last left their freshly washed hair soft but oily, while reversing the routine made it feel both soft and clean. It was a simple behavioral hack rooted in real frustration and lived experience, exactly the kind of insight traditional research often misses.

Months after presenting the findings, I spotted a conditioner-first product on a supermarket shelf. It wasn’t from my client, but that didn’t matter. It proved that social conversations can surface unmet needs early enough to inspire real product innovation.

I still share this example with colleagues and clients today because it captures the magic of social intelligence. Sometimes the future is hiding in a niche conversation. You just have to be listening closely enough to notice it.

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What’s the weirdest rabbit hole your work has ever sent you down? And what did it teach you?

One of the most unexpected rabbit holes I’ve fallen into is the world of micro-communities in South Korea.

Among the 27 markets included in a global Social Brand Health program I created for a major tobacco company, South Korea stands out. It’s the only market where consumer-generated conversations are not just exceptionally high in volume, but also deeply technical, detailed, and passionate.

Some of these consumers seem to know more about the products than the brands themselves. They exchange detailed experiences, discuss performance nuances, share optimisation tips, troubleshoot devices, and trade highly informed recommendations.

The level of participation is striking, not only in the depth of individual posts, but also in the volume of follow-up questions, comments, and peer feedback. These communities don’t just discuss products. They actively shape how they are experienced.

This rabbit hole taught me several things.

1.     Consumer expertise varies enormously by culture.

2.     Passionate consumers can behave like engineers or scientists.

3.     Knowledge spreads faster in peer communities than through official documentation.

It also changed how I approach analysis. I now actively look for niche forums and micro-communities and even manually integrate conversations from dedicated public Facebook groups when tools can’t capture them, because that’s often where the most authentic consumer insight lives.

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What skills or mindsets do you think the next generation of analysts will need?

The most important skill for the next generation of analysts is critical thinking.

In the age of AI, many tools promise insights at the click of a button. AI is incredibly valuable for surfacing signals and suggesting directions, but it will never replace human thinking. Analysts need to know when to trust AI and when not to, by questioning outputs, challenging assumptions, and grounding insights in context.

Equally important is the ability to synthesize signals across sources.

Consumers don’t experience brands in silos, and insights no longer live in a single dataset. Future analysts must bring together social intelligence, social video intelligence, search behaviour, and qualitative conversations and turn them into a coherent insight story. The value isn’t in any single signal, but how to connect them meaningfully.

This is where storytelling becomes essential.

Insights only create impact when they are translated into clear, compelling narratives that decision-makers can understand and act on.

Finally, curiosity remains the most important mindset of all.

Tools will evolve and AI will accelerate analysis, but curiosity is what drives analysts to explore unexpected patterns, look beyond the obvious, and continuously test and refine hypotheses until the final insight story truly emerges.

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What’s a niche community, account, or corner of the internet you’re watching right now? And why?

Rather than watching a single corner of the internet, I’m increasingly focused on how different spaces work together to shape behavior. Consumers don’t live in one corner of the internet, and neither should insights.

TikTok has become the front door to product discovery. It’s where curiosity is sparked and opinions form quickly through short, visual, and highly persuasive content. Reddit, dedicated Facebook groups, and niche forums are where those opinions are stress-tested through deep discussions, peer advice, and real product experience. That’s where meaning is built.

I’m also watching Bluesky closely. It still feels relatively unspoiled, smaller, less performative, and more conversational, which makes it an interesting space for observing early, authentic discourse.

Ultimately, my real focus isn’t on where conversations happen, but on how we connect them. The future of insight lies in blending social, video, and search intelligence to reflect how people discover, evaluate, and experience products across platforms rather than in silos.

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Last non-work thing you read that shaped your thinking?

One book that has really stayed with me is The Culture Map by Erin Meyer.

I’ve spent most of my career working on global projects, and this book helped me put structure around something I had often observed intuitively. The same behaviors can mean very different things depending on cultural context.

How people communicate, disagree, or make decisions is deeply shaped by where they come from.

What I found most valuable is the reminder that misunderstanding often comes not from bad intent, but from unexamined assumptions. That insight has influenced how I listen, both in my work and beyond.

It also connects to why I love travelling, seeing firsthand how differently people think and behave depending on context. The Culture Map is a powerful reminder that understanding people always starts with curiosity and humility.

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