How Brands Can Use Social Media Intelligence to Better Understand Customer Needs

Brands can use social media intelligence to analyze real consumer conversations, identify emerging needs and sentiment, detect trends early, and turn unstructured social data into actionable insights for better decisions.

What Social Media Intelligence Really Is

Social media intelligence goes beyond monitoring brand mentions or performance metrics.

It consists of analyzing large volumes of consumer conversations across social platforms to understand opinions, behaviors, expectations, and unmet needs expressed naturally by users.

Turning Online Conversations Into Actionable Insights

In this episode, we welcome Sonia Lecommandoux, co-founder of Semantiweb, a company specialized in social media intelligence.

Semantiweb helps brands:

• Capture authentic consumer voices
• Analyze conversations at scale
• Extract qualitative and quantitative insights
• Stay closely aligned with customer expectations

Listening replaces assumptions.

Why Social Listening Keeps Brands Close to Customers

Consumers freely express frustrations, preferences, and ideas on social networks.

By analyzing these signals, brands can:

• Detect weak signals before they become trends
• Understand real usage and pain points
• Adjust products, services, and communication
• Anticipate shifts in consumer behavior

Social media becomes a continuous feedback loop.

From Insight to Strategic Decision-Making

Social media intelligence supports decisions across multiple teams:

• Marketing and brand positioning
• Product development and innovation
• Customer experience and support
• Competitive and market analysis

Insights are most valuable when embedded directly into strategy.

An Atypical Entrepreneurial Journey Driven by Insight

Sonia also shares her unexpected entrepreneurial journey, having never planned to found a company.

Her experience highlights how deep expertise in data and listening can lead to new opportunities, including Semantiweb’s acquisition by Webedia, where she continues to apply social intelligence at scale.