Lexine DeLuca

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

I am Lexine, a Senior Social Media Analyst on the Enterprise Content Marketing team at Equifax, where I lead the Social Business Intelligence program.

While the traditional view of social analytics focuses on post-campaign reporting, my role involves integrating social intelligence into high-priority enterprise content decision-making. I utilize social data to establish an "early warning system" for senior leadership, providing real-time updates on emerging issues that influence risk management and crisis communications.

Furthermore, I leverage data to identify critical content gaps—pinpointing topics our audience is actively discussing where our brand is not yet engaged. This allows the organization to shift from simple brand broadcasting to addressing tangible customer needs with data-backed relevance.

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

The industry often claims mastery over the social landscape, pretending we can predict the future or fully understand the algorithms governing it. The reality is that social ecosystems are volatile, perpetually shifting, and move at a velocity that makes "knowing everything" impossible.

We frequently underestimate the complexity of this environment. It is not feasible to predict every trend or crisis with absolute certainty. Instead of pretending to possess a crystal ball, the most effective approach—and the one I champion—is building agile systems that allow us to listen, interpret, and pivot in real-time. We cannot control the landscape, but with the right intelligence, we can effectively navigate its speed.

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

This year, the business intelligence program I lead was pivotal in transitioning our content strategy from a reactive posture to a proactive one.

Previously, our strategy was informed heavily by website analytics. While this data told us what users were visiting, it lacked the context of why. By layering in social listening data, we gained insight into the specific sentiment and questions driving those searches. Crucially, this analysis uncovered significant misinformation circulating regarding complex financial topics.

Armed with this insight, we were able to move faster and more precisely. We rapidly deployed consumer education content specifically designed to correct these misconceptions. The topics and positioning were derived directly from the social data I compiled, allowing us to address tangible customer needs and mitigate the spread of inaccurate information in real-time.

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

Social intelligence has underscored the deeply emotional and community-driven ways our audience engages in conversations around financial topics. Data showed that consumers were turning to peer groups on social platforms for advice rather than institutions. This realization forced us to rethink our engagement strategy, leaning into more empathetic, storytelling-driven content that builds trust and meets the audience within their existing communities.

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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?

My ideal team would be built on a foundation of curiosity, combining technical precision with narrative strategy to bridge the gap between unstructured data and business intelligence.

• Data Scientist: A technical lead proficient in data manipulation to mine unstructured social conversation for trends that standard tools miss.
• Consumer Insights Manager: A strategist who connects social trends with broader market research, ensuring alignment with customer care and product teams.
• Social Media Strategist: A storyteller with strong critical thinking skills who can translate complex analytics into actionable, compelling narratives and optimizations.
• Global Social Analyst: A researcher with fluency in multiple languages to identify trends across international markets, ensuring a global perspective.

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

It’s rewarding when I see the shift in perception among stakeholders—when they stop viewing social data as a vanity metric and start treating it as a strategic asset. My best moments are when I can provide real-time insights that allow a team to pivot their strategy during a campaign, rather than waiting for a post-mortem.

I thrive when acting as an early warning system for the enterprise, providing real-time insights that allow teams to optimize messaging or mitigate risk before it escalates. My best work occurs when I can demonstrate the connection between abstract social sentiment and concrete business outcomes, ultimately fostering a more customer-centric culture within the organization.

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

My browser history reveals a balance between technical rigor and market context. You would see open tabs for social listening API documentation and complex Boolean search strings, ensuring my data collection is precise.

Other than that, I am reading industry white papers and economic news. I focus heavily on connecting high-level shifts with the everyday conversations people are having on social platforms to better understand the real-world impact of the news cycle.

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