Leo Hunt

Let’s start simple. Who are you, and what do you do with social data that others might not expect?

Hey, I’m Leo! I’m the one and only Social Intelligence Manager at Autodesk. Beyond organic social reporting performance, I put my investigate hat on and interrogate the why behind the data—pressure-testing tools, validating methodology, and analyzing commentary to understand sentiments, intentions, and pain points. A lot of my work is about taking raw social data and translating it into decision-ready insights

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What’s something in our industry we pretend to understand, but don’t?

Engagement. We talk about it confidently, but often fail to distinguish between passive interaction and meaningful influence. Likes and views are easy; understanding what actually changed someone’s perception or behavior is much harder—and less consistently measured

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What’s a moment this year where social data helped your team do something bolder, faster, or better?

Social listening helped us understand sentiment around how our AU 2025 campaign was landing. By analyzing commentary and velocity, I was able to surface any potential harmful posts, as well as flag any overwhelmingly positive posts that could be used for internal newsletters. This allowed the team to move faster with more confidence instead of waiting for post-campaign reporting

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What’s one belief about your audience that social data completely upended for your teams?

We (brand social) joined in the Oscar’s conversation on social last year (2025) as some films that were nominated used Autodesk software. We believed that macro-level influencers would have had the biggest impact and drive to want to engage with us on social media, but after reviewing the data – it was micro- and nano-level profiles that wanted to have a two-way conversation. In reality, micro- and nano-level influencers are highly expressive in comparison to a macro-level influencer. Once we learned that, the insight to engage with future micro- and nano-level creators will help us have greater impact on our community engagement and being culturally relevant

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If you could build your dream social intelligence team from scratch, with no legacy and no limits, what roles would you include?

A social media data operations lead, a listening and taxonomy specialist, an insights strategist, a social intelligence partner, and a social analytics engineer. Together, they’d cover social data hygiene, interpretation, scale, and storytelling—treating social as intelligence, not just performance reporting

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When do you feel like you’re doing your best work?

When I’m translating messy, imperfect social data into clarity—especially when it helps teams make a decision they were stuck on. The sweet spot is rigor plus momentum.

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What’s your browser history giving away about you this week?

Reporting methodology docs, Airtable project management, Sprout Social home dashboards, YouTube Shorts vs. long-form meal-prepping videos, and more spreadsheets than I’d like to admit!

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