Sprout Social summit urges brands to turn social signals into business action
Social listening can influence decisions well beyond a marketing team, but only when organizations have a way to turn audience conversations into timely, usable evidence. That was the central theme of Sprout Social’s first Social Intelligence Summit, where marketers and agency leaders discussed how to identify meaningful signals, secure internal support and connect insights to business outcomes.
Across the sessions, speakers stressed that speed depends on preparation, not simply on reacting quickly. Teams should agree in advance on decision-makers, approval boundaries and criteria for taking part in a cultural moment. They also cautioned against joining trends that do not fit a brand or offer audiences anything of value.
Preparation makes faster action possible
In his keynote, Jay Schwedelson, founder of SubjectLine.com and CEO of Guru Media Hub, argued that social conversations can reveal customer needs and competitor weaknesses. One practical exercise he described was reviewing 90 days of comments on three competitors’ posts and grouping complaints into themes such as pricing, product failures or missing features. A company can then assess whether it has a credible response to a problem its own product addresses.
Schwedelson also highlighted the potential value of acting early when platforms introduce features or a cultural conversation gains traction. He cited Sprout’s 2026 Social Intelligence Report, which found that 10% of brands can act on a social insight within hours, while 86% of organizations report missed opportunities because insights are delayed or siloed. His proposed response was a trend-to-campaign playbook with agreed guardrails and named decision owners.
That readiness matters because not every fast-moving trend is a brand opportunity. Tulani André, vice president of social content and creator at Zalando, said relevance and brand fit should matter more than timing alone. Josh Rangel, senior director of social strategy at Ogilvy, recommended using a checklist: Is the trend relevant? Can the team move quickly? Does the brand have something worthwhile to contribute? Both speakers emphasized that teams should be comfortable passing on a moment that does not meet those tests.
Rangel said approval processes can slow social work, particularly when brand, legal and leadership teams are brought in only after a trend has emerged. Educating those stakeholders in advance and agreeing on boundaries can help teams respond without treating every post as a new approval exercise. He also described social listening as a route to broader business decisions, citing the return of all-day breakfast and a Ziploc cereal bag developed with General Mills after social complaints about cereal going stale.
Make insights legible across the organization
A second panel focused on how teams can establish whether a signal merits attention and communicate it to colleagues who do not work in social. Paige Walker, manager of foresight, consumer and market signals at The Hershey Company, looks for patterns that cross networks or age groups. Bianca Shaw, a digital and social strategy advisor in hospitality, considers conversation volume alongside its speed and sentiment, while also watching for influential individual voices.
Panelists said insights are more likely to travel when they are expressed in terms that matter to each stakeholder, such as an opportunity, risk or business goal. Walker advised against relying on social metrics alone: social findings can be combined with search, sales or primary research to provide context. She said this approach helped Hershey decide to activate around the Dubai chocolate trend in December 2025, with a limited run of 10,000 bars.
Curtis Midkiff, Sprout Social’s director of social media marketing, encouraged social teams to join the conversations where decisions are already being made, including product discussions in workplace channels. For small teams, Walker suggested using AI to accelerate analysis while keeping a person responsible for reviewing and interpreting the output. She also recommended building relationships with colleagues through direct conversations. The summit’s recurring principle was to start with one signal, one team and one intended outcome.
Build on trusted advocates
The final panel addressed creators and employee-generated content. Participants pointed to consumer interest in genuine product experience and ongoing creator relationships. Ari Berkowitz, head of creator solutions at PMG, said partnerships are shifting away from one-off deals toward longer-term arrangements. He recalled a Sour Patch Kids campaign that began by identifying existing fans; about 100 gift boxes led to more than $1 million in free content, according to his account.
For employee advocacy, Brandon Smithwrick, founder of Content to Commas and creator in residence at Sprout Social, recommended making participation easier with ready-to-use assets and copy. He cautioned that employee programs should not make staff feel like unpaid creators. Cory Weaver, Gap Inc.’s head of creator marketing, advised involving legal and tax teams early when incentives are involved, while giving employees room to speak in their own voices within clear guidelines.
The summit closed with a three-part approach to making social intelligence actionable: identify a signal, support it with evidence such as a comparison over time or a corroborating source, and recommend an action. The distinction is important: reporting describes what happened, while social intelligence connects audience signals to a decision. For marketers, the challenge is not only to hear conversations, but to earn the trust and organizational access needed to act on them.
