What is Social Intelligence?
What is it?
Social intelligence is the practice of using online data to understand what audiences do, follow, and engage with — not just what they say. It includes several branches, one of which is social listening — capturing conversations and sentiment from those who post, comment, or use specific keywords.
But most of our work focuses on a different branch: behavioural and interest-based social intelligence. This includes but also goes well beyond likes and follows — looking at what people watch and how long they spend on it, what they search for, which accounts they return to again and again, and the topics they consistently engage with, alongside the accounts they follow and brands they interact with. Together, this gives a much fuller picture that includes the often-overlooked silent majority.
What it can tell you
It's a powerful way to:
Identify stretch audiences — those you're not reaching yet, but could be
Understand where people spend attention and why
Spot opportunities for partnerships, growth, and sharper positioning
Map the lives of a target audience at scale — with huge detail and clarity
To give you a sense of the level of insight: we can identify where an audience over-indexes across more than 6,000 lines of data — from whether they're more likely to be vegan or visit galleries, to which coffee brands they prefer, where they do their weekly shop, and which streaming services they subscribe to. It also covers the genres they read, the personalities they follow, and the art forms they enjoy — a rich, nuanced view of how they think, live, and consume culture.
How it compares to other research
Unlike traditional research methods such as self-reported data or small-scale surveys, this approach can often be quicker and more effective on its own — though we frequently combine it with other methodologies, including surveys, where that adds more value.
You don't need CRM data or a social following to get started — in most cases, we can define and explore your audience using public interest data alone. Where a project calls for it, we can layer in CRM data, owned social data, industry reports, or survey data too.
How we work
We start from the business question: what are you trying to learn, solve, or unlock? From there, we map the most relevant and available data, and design a project that delivers useful, actionable insight.
If you're curious how this works in practice, the best place to start is with your key audience question — from there, we can help shape a project that brings your audience into focus.