Decoding Digital Conversations: Pinpointing who said what?

Meet Terry Gachie, an educational practitioner passionate about health literacy and driving narrative change around SRHR issues in Kenya. She is collaborating with a unique digital research team supported by Komons, the Kenyan Comms Hub, and Puentes. This article builds on the research reflections of Ngare and Vivian to explore how to construct a social listening query. To learn more about this project, discover how Komons is leveraging technology and collaboration to foster narrative change here.

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A wise person once said you can’t hit a target you can’t see. They were right—well, mostly. Luck might give us a win now and then. But when it comes to tackling complex challenges, relying on chance just won’t cut it; it’s ill-advised and imprudent. This quote replayed in my mind as I embarked on the query design for the Velma project, navigating the labyrinth of digital conversations to extract meaningful insights.

Imagine walking into a bustling marketplace where every stall owner is shouting about their products, customers haggling, and conversations weave into a chaotic hum. That’s the online world—a busy environment characterized by constant, and sometimes loud, chatters. In such a setting, the key to getting a hold of what you want is precision otherwise you will mistake sweet potatoes for yams. 

Just like how I know what yams look like—and what they don’t, well-researched queries act as filters, turning noise into desirable and valuable insights. 

Enough with the gibber jabber let me share how this played out in the Velma project.

My Thomas Moment 

I relate to Thomas, one of Jesus' twelve disciples, often called “Doubting Thomas.” When he heard the news of Jesus’ resurrection, he doubted it. He needed proof—something tangible. And honestly, who wouldn’t? The story, at its core, isn’t meant for the rational mind—it’s about faith in the face of doubt, and sometimes, that’s something we all struggle with. We all have our Thomas moment at some point in life. 

When I was first introduced to Velma and the strategy to be employed in the social listening project, I was intrigued but sceptical. Unlike other social listening projects I’d been part of, which often relied on campaigns to spark specific conversations, Velma aimed to listen to social media “noise” organically. That’s a tall order, considering how noisy and unpredictable online trends and conversations can be.

I had concerns that organic data might not yield enough insights that can inform practice. Social media can feel like a tide that rises and falls depending on trends, and yet, the topic of family values—and its influence on perceptions and attitudes of gender and sexuality was prominent. Oh, Happy Day! There were numerous conversations around these themes; enough to establish patterns and harvest valuable insights. 

Well, it turns out that people reveal their truest thoughts when they believe no one is watching, a truth that proved invaluable to the project.

This was one of those rare moments where I was glad to be proven wrong.

The Art of Query Design

The beauty of well-crafted queries is that they don’t just pull out the obvious keywords and phrases; they uncover patterns, intent, key actors and their influence, and networks driving conversations. In Velma, we took things a step further by focusing on other contextual elements such as language. In a country as linguistically rich as Kenya, that meant designing queries in English, Swahili, and even slang. This nuanced approach allowed us to tap into local narratives, not just global generalizations.

One critical concern – and a factor to consider – was the exclusion of emerging platforms like TikTok. TikTok is quite popular in Kenya. For our purposes, it is a platform on which Kenyans engage in highly relevant, raw conversations about gender and family values. It attracts the youngest cohorts of young people – ‘Gen Zee’s’ as we generally call them in Kenya and it would be interesting to capture their conversations. Yet, technical challenges—like difficulties analyzing captions or subtitles—have hindered the integration of TikTok data into our social listening platform. Hopefully, with innovation, these complexities will be resolved in future research. I see this as an opportunity to innovate for similar future projects. 

I see this as a unique opportunity to truly delve into the minds of young people, in their diversity, to understand their beliefs, fears and attitudes toward family values, gender, and LGBTQ+ issues. For practitioners working in narrative change, this is a chance to craft communication strategies that are not only relevant but also resonate deeply with the lived realities of youth. By tailoring messages that reflect their concerns, values, and identities, we can open up open and honest conversations, challenge retrogressive norms, and create meaningful change—one story at a time. We can all agree that when positive stories spread, society changes. 

Definitely Not a One Man’s Show

They say two heads are better than one, but in query design, the magic really happens when you gather a few more heads. We were 5; 5 good heads with diverse, thematic and disciplinary expertise from a feminist lawyer to media practitioners to queer strategic communications experts and activists. 

One of the most rewarding parts of this process was the collaborative query refinement sessions. These weren’t just meetings; they were opportunities to sharpen our focus, refine queries, and brainstorm new keywords and phrases. Every researcher on the team brought something to the table, making the process richer and more inclusive.

We also reviewed the quantity and quality of influencer-driven engagements. The focus was to explore how their narratives shape broader discussions and otherness. Understanding the influence of influencers' messages has added another layer to Velma's capabilities, sparking curiosity to explore even more local narratives.

What Next?

The Velma project has been more than a social listening exercise; it’s been a journey into the heart of raw Kenyan online conversations. The insights we’ve gathered have the potential to transform and shape not only Velma’s functionality but also the societal narratives shaping gender and family discourses.

As I look ahead, I’m reminded again of that wise saying. With clear targets in sight, there’s no limit to the positive change we can drive. And while the process of designing a query had its challenges, it’s clear that query design, when done right, is the key to seeing—and hitting—the mark.