In this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast for Business Leaders, host Kerry Curran sits down with Frank Gregory, Head of Social Intelligence at Nestlé USA, to explore the transformative power of social listening in today’s business landscape. Frank dives into how analyzing consumer conversations on social platforms can unlock invaluable insights that drive smarter strategies, product innovation, and, ultimately, revenue growth. From fast-moving cultural trends to slow-brewing consumer shifts, Frank shares real-world examples of how Nestlé uses social data to uncover opportunities, stay ahead of competitors, and connect more meaningfully with audiences. Whether it’s creating new products inspired by emerging trends or fine-tuning marketing campaigns with hyper-relevant data, this episode is packed with actionable insights on leveraging social intelligence to turn data into dollars. Tune in to discover: How social listening has evolved from monitoring conversations to fueling business decisions across departments. Real-life examples of fast and slow culture trends driving product innovation. The role of AI in democratizing social insights and making businesses smarter. How to take the first step toward implementing social listening and intelligence in your organization. This is a must-listen for any business leader or marketer looking to harness the power of social data for competitive advantage and revenue growth.
“Today, social listening isn't just about monitoring conversations. It's about uncovering actionable insights that can shape the trajectory of an organization. From identifying emerging cultural trends to driving product innovation and refining marketing strategies, social listening provides a unique window into the voice of the consumer. It's not just a tool for the social media team.It's a powerful resource that spans across departments, creating opportunities to stay ahead of market shifts and delivering greater value to consumers.” That's a quote from Frank Gregory and a sneak peek at today's episode.
Hi there. I'm Kerry Curran, Fractional Chief Growth Officer, Industry Analyst and host of Revenue Boost, A Marketing Podcast where we discuss smart strategies that drive revenue growth.
In today's episode titled, The Power of Consumer Conversations, Turning Social
Data Into Dollars, I sat down with my friend and former teammate, Frank Gregory. He's the head of social intelligence at Nestlé USA. He's leading some amazing research over at Nestlé and I'm super excited to share it with you today. From fast moving cultural trends to slow brewing consumer shifts. Frank shares real world examples of how Nestlé uses social data to uncover opportunities, stay ahead of competitors, and connect more meaningfully with audiences.
Whether it's creating new products inspired by emerging trends or fine tuning marketing campaigns with hyper relevant data, this episode is packed with actual insights on leveraging social intelligence to turn data into dollars.
Let's go!
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.454)
Welcome, Frank. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.
Frank Gregory (00:07.732)
Awesome. Thank you so much, Kerry. It's great to be on, and thank you for having me. I'm Frank Gregory, and I lead Social Intelligence for Nestlé USA. What that means is everything related to social listening, but also broader social research—any insights that can be gleaned from social media conversation.
My background: I've been in the marketing space for my entire career—over 15 years. I started off in more of a brand strategy role and then pivoted more and more into social and digital as I saw the world shifting that way. I just kind of fell in love with social listening—back in the original days of Twitter, and that was about it at first. Then it expanded into how we incorporate Instagram, Reddit, and other emerging channels over the years.
It’s been exciting to watch the capability become more sophisticated—not just looking at what people are saying, the volume, or sentiment, but getting into audience identification, influencer insights, and deeper learning. So I’ve really enjoyed being on this journey through the ever-changing world of social media research.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:35.876)
Awesome. Excellent, Frank. I know you and I worked together way, way back when social agencies were still kind of new-ish—organic social was still evolving and we were getting more strategic with paid social back at the M80/GroupM team. So it's always good to catch up with you.
In my experience, I’ve always loved customer data, research data, and insights that help you get smarter about your target consumer—the purchase journey, pain points, everything. Getting that data directly from the consumer in the more free-form format of social listening versus surveys is so fascinating. So talk a bit about how you’ve seen social listening evolve and how the value of that data has grown.
Frank Gregory (03:03.778)
Yeah, absolutely. In the early days of social listening—and this is still the case in some organizations—it was really just a tool to help inform the social team that was putting together content and maybe some light social strategy work that would feed into a broader marketing plan. But that was about it.
I think part of that limited scope came from the name itself—social media listening—so organizations assumed it belonged solely to the social team. But what we’re seeing now is that more innovative organizations are expanding the use of social listening and applying it to many other aspects of the business.
A big reason I was excited to join Nestlé is that I don’t sit within the social strategy or community team—I sit within the Consumer & Marketplace Insights (CMI) team. So I work alongside traditional researchers—people doing surveys, focus groups, product testing—and what I do is provide a complementary view from social conversation data.
That gives me the ability to work with a broader range of stakeholders: the innovation team, R&D, CorpCom, even food scientists. They're asking: What are people saying about new flavors or formulations? It expands the value of the data when you redefine social listening not just as a social team tool—but as a business intelligence tool.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:25.036)
Yes, and the key aspect of that is listening—you're tuning into the unaided conversation about your brand, your product, your category, across the platforms. It’s so smart and must be incredibly insight-rich.
Frank Gregory (05:46.222)
Absolutely. Even before Nestlé, when I was on the agency and consulting side, I’d often approach market researchers and sometimes they’d see me as a bit of a threat. They were focused on surveys, focus groups, and product testing, and wondered what this “social listening guy” was all about.
But I always positioned social listening as complementary. Early in my career, I worked with traditional research as well, and I’d say: “Use social listening before a focus group or survey to identify what’s already being said. Or use it after to validate what you heard.”
If three people in a focus group say something interesting, you can check social to see if that idea is echoed across a broader population. Is it an emerging insight or just a blip? Social helps you find that out.
Of course, unless everyone in the general population posts on social equally about everything—which they don’t—social listening won’t ever be fully representative. Some people just don’t post, or post less frequently. That’s why it’s a complement, not a replacement.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:27.448)
So smart—and I love those examples. You’re right, expanding your data sources is just so important. So talk a bit about how the different business units at Nestlé are using the insights you're generating.
Frank Gregory (08:48.588)
Absolutely. Like I mentioned, I sit within CMI, so my first stakeholders were the traditional insight researchers. A close second was the social strategy and community teams, of course—they’re always hungry for audience and cultural trend insights.
But beyond that, I now work with marketing innovation teams who want to know: What’s the next great flavor or variety that might inspire a new product for Stouffer’s or Coffee Mate, for example?
Then you’ve got R&D asking broader questions—are there completely new categories we should explore? They’re thinking about shifts in health, wellness, sustainability, and food culture overall.
And one of the best parts of being in CMI is that I get to collaborate with our foresight team. They focus on predicting what’s three to five years out—how is culture shifting? How are consumer perceptions evolving?
The way we work together is now being called the Foresight Ecosystem—it’s not just foresight and social intelligence operating separately. We feed each other. For example, they might see a trend in aging or wellness, and I’ll dig into social data to find out how people are really talking about it.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:41.924)
So, so smart. I’ve worked with CPG brands in the past where we’d try to show them consumer trends through search or video or even regional spikes—but not everyone was receptive. So I love how Nestlé is really embracing this.
Frank Gregory (12:10.850)
Yeah, and tools have evolved too. If you haven’t touched a social listening platform in a few years, you might be surprised by how much they’ve changed.
For example, there are now emerging trend prediction tools that combine search data with social data. That gives you a much more complete view.
You can go even deeper into audience insight too—who are the people talking about these trends? What else do they care about? That’s where the real sophistication starts.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:52.162)
I love that. One thing you mentioned to me before was the idea of fast culture versus slow culture. Can you give us some examples?
Frank Gregory (13:19.180)
Yeah, great question. Fast culture is those quick, viral moments—like a couple weeks ago, Kraft trended on social because someone opened a mac and cheese box and there was no sauce packet. That one consumer experience turned into a viral conversation.
She also happened to be looking for healthier mac and cheese options, so we jumped in—not just with Stouffer’s, but with other healthier options in the Nestlé portfolio. That’s fast culture—you need to be ready to act quickly.
On the other hand, slow culture is something like GLP-1 weight loss drugs—Ozempic, Mounjaro, etc. That started bubbling up about a year and a half ago with fitness influencers, but hadn’t hit mainstream yet. Because we were listening early, we started tracking it immediately.
That led to executive-level brainstorms and eventually product development—Nestlé just launched Vital Pursuit, a new line of frozen meals designed for GLP-1 consumers. We were the first in our category to market with that because we heard it first on social.
So that’s just one example. But there are many where fast culture evolves into slow culture. Like Girl Dinner—why did that resonate so widely? We caught it early through social trends, but then our foresight team was able to unpack the “why.” What’s the shift in consumer behavior and perceptions that made that trend take off? That insight can lead to real innovation—future products on shelves.
So we’re always monitoring both fast-moving and slower-building trends on a weekly basis to see what could impact the food and beverage space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:00.162)
Yeah, definitely. I feel like pickles are trending right now. All of a sudden there are pickle martinis, pickle loaves, pickle everything. Is Nestlé jumping on that trend at all?
Frank Gregory (17:15.630)
Ha! I couldn’t say for sure if we’ll jump on that trend, but I can tell you that our beverage division, especially Coffee Mate, is always hungry for those types of moments.
When you think about the coffee concoctions that are trending on TikTok or elsewhere—those teams are paying close attention. And you even see how Coffee Mate is now testing Cocktail Mate, so there’s always experimentation going on with where coffee creamer can play.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:43.492)
Yep, or espresso martinis. Maybe they’ll do an espresso martini flavor! I hope that’s coming out.
Frank Gregory (17:44.108)
Exactly! And thinking back about six months ago, there was the dirty soda trend—mixing soda with coffee creamer. That trend led to a Coffee Mate partnership with Dr. Pepper. So who knows? Maybe we’ll see a pickle-flavored something or other in the near future.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:26.084)
As long as it’s not pickle-flavored Coffee Mate... although who knows, it might make a good April Fool’s flavor. 😄
We can’t have a conversation about data and intelligence without talking about AI. So can you share how you’ve seen AI tools help democratize access to social insights and make your work even smarter?
Frank Gregory (19:02.548)
Absolutely. AI innovation is something I think about every single day.
Even just during the 6–12 months when we were evaluating different tools, things were evolving so fast. One week a vendor would announce a new AI capability, and the next week, another would launch something even more advanced. It kept our scorecards and evaluations in constant motion.
Where we landed is that there are a few major applications of AI in social intelligence right now:
First, for anyone who’s ever written social listening queries—Boolean logic can be complex. Now, AI can do about 75% of that work for you, writing the initial query. That alone is a huge time-saver.
Second, from a democratization standpoint, we now include AI-generated summaries in every dashboard we create—brand-level, category-level, cultural trends, all of it.
And that AI summary shows up at the top of every dashboard, so if you're a stakeholder short on time, you can still get the key takeaways at a glance. We also email weekly PDF versions of the dashboards to hundreds of stakeholders—and those emails include the same AI summaries in the body copy.
So if you’ve only got 30 seconds before a meeting, you’re still getting real value from the insights, even if you don’t open the full dashboard.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:18.180)
That’s brilliant. So efficient and scalable.
Frank Gregory (21:26.990)
Yeah, and the biggest game-changer is query-less listening. That’s where AI is really starting to shine.
We’ve got always-on queries for brands, competitors, key categories—like pizza, coffee, chocolate, etc. But now we can also use tools that allow us to just type in a broader theme, like nostalgia or healthy aging, and the AI will return all the relevant conversations—even if people aren’t using those exact words.
It understands related conversations and behaviors. So it’s no longer just about finding exact keywords—it’s about listening to the unknown.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:39.801)
That’s such a smart leap forward.
Frank Gregory (22:48.718)
Yeah, perfect example—Girl Dinner. There’s no way we would’ve predicted that phrase or created a specific query in advance. But because we had broader queries running on snacking and food behaviors, the AI recognized Girl Dinner as related and flagged it for us early.
So it’s about letting the tools get smarter—and they are.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:24.686)
Incredible. I’ve learned so much from you already, Frank. For marketers or brands who aren’t yet doing this kind of social intelligence work—what’s the best way to get started?
Frank Gregory (23:40.034)
Start with your goals.
Ask yourself and your stakeholders: “What insights do I wish we had from social media?” Then group those into themes or priorities. Once you know what you want to uncover, it becomes much easier to build a scorecard for evaluating the right tools.
Demo core social listening platforms, but also look at emerging trend tools, audience segmentation platforms, and more.
And don’t feel like you need the full enterprise stack to begin. If you’re working with a smaller budget, you can still get a lot of value with just 10–15 well-crafted queries focused on key areas.
Show early wins. Prove that the insights you’re uncovering from social are actionable and valuable to your organization. Once leadership sees the impact, it becomes much easier to expand your capabilities over time.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (29:57.294)
So smart, Frank. Thank you so much. How can people find you and follow your work?
Frank Gregory (30:04.108)
Best place is LinkedIn—I’m active there and respond to messages. I also highly recommend checking out the Social Intelligence Lab. They run fantastic events and publish great content on social research trends and best practices. I’m involved in their community, along with many peers in the space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (30:38.532)
Perfect. Thank you again, Frank! It’s always great to catch up with you—and I always learn something from our conversations. Can’t wait to have you back again soon.
Frank Gregory (30:51.402)
Absolutely. Thanks again, Kerry—really appreciate the opportunity.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (30:57.572)
Take care!
I hope you found this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast as valuable as I did. Frank's data and research has such a huge impact on informing both business and product strategy.
If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast for more expert advice on smarter marketing strategies. We can be found in all the top podcast directories.
And please, connect with me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn or at Revenue Based Marketing where I share more expert advice and past podcast episodes. If your revenue needs a boost, ask me about my consulting and Fractional Chief Growth Officer services. Thank you.
Frank Gregory
“Today, social listening isn't just about monitoring conversations. It's about uncovering actionable insights that can shape the trajectory of an organization. From identifying emerging cultural trends to driving product innovation and refining marketing strategies, social listening provides a unique window into the voice of the consumer. It's not just a tool for the social media team.It's a powerful resource that spans across departments, creating opportunities to stay ahead of market shifts and delivering greater value to consumers.” That's a quote from Frank Gregory and a sneak peek at today's episode.
Hi there. I'm Kerry Curran, Fractional Chief Growth Officer, Industry Analyst and host of Revenue Boost, A Marketing Podcast where we discuss smart strategies that drive revenue growth.
In today's episode titled, The Power of Consumer Conversations, Turning Social
Data Into Dollars, I sat down with my friend and former teammate, Frank Gregory. He's the head of social intelligence at Nestlé USA. He's leading some amazing research over at Nestlé and I'm super excited to share it with you today. From fast moving cultural trends to slow brewing consumer shifts. Frank shares real world examples of how Nestlé uses social data to uncover opportunities, stay ahead of competitors, and connect more meaningfully with audiences.
Whether it's creating new products inspired by emerging trends or fine tuning marketing campaigns with hyper relevant data, this episode is packed with actual insights on leveraging social intelligence to turn data into dollars.
Let's go!
Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.454)
Welcome, Frank. Please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.
Frank Gregory (00:07.732)
Awesome. Thank you so much, Kerry. It's great to be on, and thank you for having me. I'm Frank Gregory, and I lead Social Intelligence for Nestlé USA. What that means is everything related to social listening, but also broader social research—any insights that can be gleaned from social media conversation.
My background: I've been in the marketing space for my entire career—over 15 years. I started off in more of a brand strategy role and then pivoted more and more into social and digital as I saw the world shifting that way. I just kind of fell in love with social listening—back in the original days of Twitter, and that was about it at first. Then it expanded into how we incorporate Instagram, Reddit, and other emerging channels over the years.
It’s been exciting to watch the capability become more sophisticated—not just looking at what people are saying, the volume, or sentiment, but getting into audience identification, influencer insights, and deeper learning. So I’ve really enjoyed being on this journey through the ever-changing world of social media research.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (01:35.876)
Awesome. Excellent, Frank. I know you and I worked together way, way back when social agencies were still kind of new-ish—organic social was still evolving and we were getting more strategic with paid social back at the M80/GroupM team. So it's always good to catch up with you.
In my experience, I’ve always loved customer data, research data, and insights that help you get smarter about your target consumer—the purchase journey, pain points, everything. Getting that data directly from the consumer in the more free-form format of social listening versus surveys is so fascinating. So talk a bit about how you’ve seen social listening evolve and how the value of that data has grown.
Frank Gregory (03:03.778)
Yeah, absolutely. In the early days of social listening—and this is still the case in some organizations—it was really just a tool to help inform the social team that was putting together content and maybe some light social strategy work that would feed into a broader marketing plan. But that was about it.
I think part of that limited scope came from the name itself—social media listening—so organizations assumed it belonged solely to the social team. But what we’re seeing now is that more innovative organizations are expanding the use of social listening and applying it to many other aspects of the business.
A big reason I was excited to join Nestlé is that I don’t sit within the social strategy or community team—I sit within the Consumer & Marketplace Insights (CMI) team. So I work alongside traditional researchers—people doing surveys, focus groups, product testing—and what I do is provide a complementary view from social conversation data.
That gives me the ability to work with a broader range of stakeholders: the innovation team, R&D, CorpCom, even food scientists. They're asking: What are people saying about new flavors or formulations? It expands the value of the data when you redefine social listening not just as a social team tool—but as a business intelligence tool.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:25.036)
Yes, and the key aspect of that is listening—you're tuning into the unaided conversation about your brand, your product, your category, across the platforms. It’s so smart and must be incredibly insight-rich.
Frank Gregory (05:46.222)
Absolutely. Even before Nestlé, when I was on the agency and consulting side, I’d often approach market researchers and sometimes they’d see me as a bit of a threat. They were focused on surveys, focus groups, and product testing, and wondered what this “social listening guy” was all about.
But I always positioned social listening as complementary. Early in my career, I worked with traditional research as well, and I’d say: “Use social listening before a focus group or survey to identify what’s already being said. Or use it after to validate what you heard.”
If three people in a focus group say something interesting, you can check social to see if that idea is echoed across a broader population. Is it an emerging insight or just a blip? Social helps you find that out.
Of course, unless everyone in the general population posts on social equally about everything—which they don’t—social listening won’t ever be fully representative. Some people just don’t post, or post less frequently. That’s why it’s a complement, not a replacement.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:27.448)
So smart—and I love those examples. You’re right, expanding your data sources is just so important. So talk a bit about how the different business units at Nestlé are using the insights you're generating.
Frank Gregory (08:48.588)
Absolutely. Like I mentioned, I sit within CMI, so my first stakeholders were the traditional insight researchers. A close second was the social strategy and community teams, of course—they’re always hungry for audience and cultural trend insights.
But beyond that, I now work with marketing innovation teams who want to know: What’s the next great flavor or variety that might inspire a new product for Stouffer’s or Coffee Mate, for example?
Then you’ve got R&D asking broader questions—are there completely new categories we should explore? They’re thinking about shifts in health, wellness, sustainability, and food culture overall.
And one of the best parts of being in CMI is that I get to collaborate with our foresight team. They focus on predicting what’s three to five years out—how is culture shifting? How are consumer perceptions evolving?
The way we work together is now being called the Foresight Ecosystem—it’s not just foresight and social intelligence operating separately. We feed each other. For example, they might see a trend in aging or wellness, and I’ll dig into social data to find out how people are really talking about it.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:41.924)
So, so smart. I’ve worked with CPG brands in the past where we’d try to show them consumer trends through search or video or even regional spikes—but not everyone was receptive. So I love how Nestlé is really embracing this.
Frank Gregory (12:10.850)
Yeah, and tools have evolved too. If you haven’t touched a social listening platform in a few years, you might be surprised by how much they’ve changed.
For example, there are now emerging trend prediction tools that combine search data with social data. That gives you a much more complete view.
You can go even deeper into audience insight too—who are the people talking about these trends? What else do they care about? That’s where the real sophistication starts.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:52.162)
I love that. One thing you mentioned to me before was the idea of fast culture versus slow culture. Can you give us some examples?
Frank Gregory (13:19.180)
Yeah, great question. Fast culture is those quick, viral moments—like a couple weeks ago, Kraft trended on social because someone opened a mac and cheese box and there was no sauce packet. That one consumer experience turned into a viral conversation.
She also happened to be looking for healthier mac and cheese options, so we jumped in—not just with Stouffer’s, but with other healthier options in the Nestlé portfolio. That’s fast culture—you need to be ready to act quickly.
On the other hand, slow culture is something like GLP-1 weight loss drugs—Ozempic, Mounjaro, etc. That started bubbling up about a year and a half ago with fitness influencers, but hadn’t hit mainstream yet. Because we were listening early, we started tracking it immediately.
That led to executive-level brainstorms and eventually product development—Nestlé just launched Vital Pursuit, a new line of frozen meals designed for GLP-1 consumers. We were the first in our category to market with that because we heard it first on social.
So that’s just one example. But there are many where fast culture evolves into slow culture. Like Girl Dinner—why did that resonate so widely? We caught it early through social trends, but then our foresight team was able to unpack the “why.” What’s the shift in consumer behavior and perceptions that made that trend take off? That insight can lead to real innovation—future products on shelves.
So we’re always monitoring both fast-moving and slower-building trends on a weekly basis to see what could impact the food and beverage space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:00.162)
Yeah, definitely. I feel like pickles are trending right now. All of a sudden there are pickle martinis, pickle loaves, pickle everything. Is Nestlé jumping on that trend at all?
Frank Gregory (17:15.630)
Ha! I couldn’t say for sure if we’ll jump on that trend, but I can tell you that our beverage division, especially Coffee Mate, is always hungry for those types of moments.
When you think about the coffee concoctions that are trending on TikTok or elsewhere—those teams are paying close attention. And you even see how Coffee Mate is now testing Cocktail Mate, so there’s always experimentation going on with where coffee creamer can play.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:43.492)
Yep, or espresso martinis. Maybe they’ll do an espresso martini flavor! I hope that’s coming out.
Frank Gregory (17:44.108)
Exactly! And thinking back about six months ago, there was the dirty soda trend—mixing soda with coffee creamer. That trend led to a Coffee Mate partnership with Dr. Pepper. So who knows? Maybe we’ll see a pickle-flavored something or other in the near future.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:26.084)
As long as it’s not pickle-flavored Coffee Mate... although who knows, it might make a good April Fool’s flavor. 😄
We can’t have a conversation about data and intelligence without talking about AI. So can you share how you’ve seen AI tools help democratize access to social insights and make your work even smarter?
Frank Gregory (19:02.548)
Absolutely. AI innovation is something I think about every single day.
Even just during the 6–12 months when we were evaluating different tools, things were evolving so fast. One week a vendor would announce a new AI capability, and the next week, another would launch something even more advanced. It kept our scorecards and evaluations in constant motion.
Where we landed is that there are a few major applications of AI in social intelligence right now:
First, for anyone who’s ever written social listening queries—Boolean logic can be complex. Now, AI can do about 75% of that work for you, writing the initial query. That alone is a huge time-saver.
Second, from a democratization standpoint, we now include AI-generated summaries in every dashboard we create—brand-level, category-level, cultural trends, all of it.
And that AI summary shows up at the top of every dashboard, so if you're a stakeholder short on time, you can still get the key takeaways at a glance. We also email weekly PDF versions of the dashboards to hundreds of stakeholders—and those emails include the same AI summaries in the body copy.
So if you’ve only got 30 seconds before a meeting, you’re still getting real value from the insights, even if you don’t open the full dashboard.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:18.180)
That’s brilliant. So efficient and scalable.
Frank Gregory (21:26.990)
Yeah, and the biggest game-changer is query-less listening. That’s where AI is really starting to shine.
We’ve got always-on queries for brands, competitors, key categories—like pizza, coffee, chocolate, etc. But now we can also use tools that allow us to just type in a broader theme, like nostalgia or healthy aging, and the AI will return all the relevant conversations—even if people aren’t using those exact words.
It understands related conversations and behaviors. So it’s no longer just about finding exact keywords—it’s about listening to the unknown.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (22:39.801)
That’s such a smart leap forward.
Frank Gregory (22:48.718)
Yeah, perfect example—Girl Dinner. There’s no way we would’ve predicted that phrase or created a specific query in advance. But because we had broader queries running on snacking and food behaviors, the AI recognized Girl Dinner as related and flagged it for us early.
So it’s about letting the tools get smarter—and they are.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (23:24.686)
Incredible. I’ve learned so much from you already, Frank. For marketers or brands who aren’t yet doing this kind of social intelligence work—what’s the best way to get started?
Frank Gregory (23:40.034)
Start with your goals.
Ask yourself and your stakeholders: “What insights do I wish we had from social media?” Then group those into themes or priorities. Once you know what you want to uncover, it becomes much easier to build a scorecard for evaluating the right tools.
Demo core social listening platforms, but also look at emerging trend tools, audience segmentation platforms, and more.
And don’t feel like you need the full enterprise stack to begin. If you’re working with a smaller budget, you can still get a lot of value with just 10–15 well-crafted queries focused on key areas.
Show early wins. Prove that the insights you’re uncovering from social are actionable and valuable to your organization. Once leadership sees the impact, it becomes much easier to expand your capabilities over time.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (29:57.294)
So smart, Frank. Thank you so much. How can people find you and follow your work?
Frank Gregory (30:04.108)
Best place is LinkedIn—I’m active there and respond to messages. I also highly recommend checking out the Social Intelligence Lab. They run fantastic events and publish great content on social research trends and best practices. I’m involved in their community, along with many peers in the space.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (30:38.532)
Perfect. Thank you again, Frank! It’s always great to catch up with you—and I always learn something from our conversations. Can’t wait to have you back again soon.
Frank Gregory (30:51.402)
Absolutely. Thanks again, Kerry—really appreciate the opportunity.
Kerry Curran, RBMA (30:57.572)
Take care!
I hope you found this episode of Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast as valuable as I did. Frank's data and research has such a huge impact on informing both business and product strategy.
If you found this helpful, be sure to subscribe to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast for more expert advice on smarter marketing strategies. We can be found in all the top podcast directories.
And please, connect with me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn or at Revenue Based Marketing where I share more expert advice and past podcast episodes. If your revenue needs a boost, ask me about my consulting and Fractional Chief Growth Officer services. Thank you.