FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Answers about who we are, what social business intelligence and consumer intelligence mean, and how MiroFish synthetic-audience research works.
What is The Socializers?
The Socializers is a global social business intelligence company, founded in 2009 and based in Montecito, California. We turn large-scale social and behavioral data into consumer intelligence, audience research, and narrative analysis for global brands, governments, and agencies across more than 20 countries.
What is social business intelligence?
Social business intelligence is the practice of turning public social and behavioral data into strategic insight a leadership team can act on. It goes beyond monitoring mentions: it identifies the signals, relationships, and shifts in sentiment that inform real decisions about messaging, positioning, audience, and risk.
How is consumer intelligence different from social listening?
Social listening focuses on monitoring conversations as they happen. Consumer intelligence is the broader, strategic layer: it combines social data with research and analysis to explain why audiences behave as they do and what to do about it. The Socializers operates at that strategic tier, pairing data with human interpretation.
Who founded The Socializers, and who leads it?
The Socializers was founded in 2009 by Nathaniel Hansen, who serves as Co-Founder and Director of Research. He has spent more than two decades in social and competitive intelligence, building social-listening command centers for global brands and developing the firm’s synthetic-audience research practice.
What is MiroFish?
MiroFish is the firm’s synthetic-audience research practice. It is a program run in-house that builds a simulated population of distinct characters from real source material, then models how that population responds to a message, product, panel, or event before it reaches a live audience. It is built on an open-source simulation engine and extended with proprietary methodology and reporting.
Read the full essay on MiroFishWhat does synthetic-audience research actually do?
It lets a client interrogate a realistic, simulated audience before committing to a launch. The research surfaces likely failure modes, names the partners and channels worth pursuing, and reveals the gap between what an organization says and what its audience actually absorbs — anchored, where possible, to real, dated public posts that corroborate the simulated findings.
Where is The Socializers located?
The Socializers is based in Montecito, California, in the Santa Barbara area, and works with clients across North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, and China.
What kinds of organizations does The Socializers work with?
Over its history the firm has worked with global brands, agencies, and public-sector organizations across consumer goods, finance, technology, media, and more. Engagements range from building social-listening command centers to delivering audience intelligence, narrative analysis, and synthetic-audience research.
How can I work with The Socializers?
You can reach the firm through the contact page to discuss consumer intelligence, audience research, narrative analysis, or a synthetic-audience research engagement. Each engagement begins with the specific question you need answered before it meets a real audience.