Vicky Britton

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

I lead social media and search intelligence for pharma clients at Oracle Life Sciences. I'm an expert in understanding how the internet impacts healthcare experiences, and I believe it needs to be studied as a living, shifting space, especially in how it shapes health information-seeking. We answer research questions like what are patients' unmet needs, how are people talking about a treatment after launch, where are the gaps between what doctors recommend and what patients actually do. Healthcare journeys don't start with a diagnosis anymore, they start with a search or a prompt.

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

The separation between online and offline life is gone. We see it in how people talk offline, friends chatting about a viral video, speaking about influencers like people once did about acquaintances, talking about things that happened online as vividly as things that happened in person. The emotional impact is real too, people feel reassured by comments online, or they feel scared or sad based on what they read.But the way we talk about this is stuck. Media coverage is mostly criticism of social media, rather than trying to understand what's actually happening. The online world is a shifting, evolving space with good and bad in equal measure, and I think we need rigorous frameworks to study it, instead of just reacting to it.

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

In an endometriosis study we did a sub-analysis on online content creators. One gynaecologist influencer described women's pain so perfectly, she said it's not normal, it's common. That distinction stuck with me, just because what someone is suffering through is common doesn't mean it should be normalised. Pain should be validated, and the language we use matters.It felt like a real moment of clarity. We'd understood this through months of research, but she distilled it into one simple phrase.

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

I once spent days mapping mental health policy connections, tracing who was engaging with who, what that revealed about influence and networks. I kept finding interesting connections and twists and turns and could have kept going indefinitely. But the lesson is knowing when to stop. The clearest insights have good data and strong signals. It's fine to look beyond those, but going too far means chasing things that are fascinating to us as researchers but not genuinely useful for the client's objective. Helping them with what they actually need always takes priority over indulging a rabbit hole.

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

When I started eight years ago, the core skills were boolean, learning tools quickly, assessing data and delivering actionable insights fast. That's evolved. Boolean still matters so you can assess what AI produces, but AI can do the heavy lifting now.I think storytelling is more important than ever, along with a broader qualitative skillset, drawing on areas like cultural insight and behavioural science. Mindset-wise, you need to look well beyond social listening, keeping stock of how people move between platforms, how algorithms shape behaviour, how the whole landscape shifts.To summarise: a broad understanding of data, willingness to evolve with the field, curiosity, qualitative skills and storytelling.

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

Substack. I'm really impressed by the platform setup, long form but quick updates, and it's the only space I'm seeing where people can build their own followings via email newsletters with that level of autonomy over their communities. I like reading cultural insight work there, it tends to be fresh and has a good grasp on trends.

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

I'm re-reading Katherine Graham's biography. It's an incredible story of resilience and refreshingly honest. She went her entire life accepting the role society had given her, then was thrust into running The Washington Post and had to question everything she'd assumed about herself. It's apt for now. In a time where the internet is flooded with AI, authenticity stands out and there's never been a better time to learn how to critically question the information we're given.

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