Insights from Ragan’s Social Media Conference 2026 opening keynote.
“People who understand people always win.”
When Rohit Bhargava, founder and chief trend curator at The Obvious Company, said this from the stage at Ragan’s Social Media Conference Tuesday, it sounded so simple.
Understanding people is the key to succeeding in communications, whether you’re convincing a boss you need more budget or speaking to a jaded audience on social media.
But understanding people isn’t as simple as it might sound. To truly break through, that can require non-obvious thinking – ideas that break through the noise, disrupt people’s days and speak to them at a base level.
Bhargava explained his SIFT model for generating these unconventional insights:
- Space
When you’re constantly bombarded by noise and expectations, it’s hard to forge your own path. Bhargava suggests small steps that break you out of your routine and create space for unconventional thinking. These can be simple, seemingly insignificant things that nonetheless signal to your brain that today will be different. Try a new fruit for breakfast every day. Use a map instead of your phone when navigating.
“Your phone’s only going to tell you how to get from here, but if I have a map, I can see what’s past that,” Bhargava said. “I can see what else we might see.”
- Insights
When Bhargava says to observe to gain insights, he doesn’t mean in the usual places. Don’t just do social listening with your audience, for instance. Step outside that and gain a broader perspective.
One simple exercise he suggests is stopping by a bookstore and grabbing a magazine that seemingly has no relevance to you. For Bhargava, that magazine was Teen Vogue.
“It shows me celebrities I’ve never heard of. It shows me products that I don’t understand, but it gives me a chance to get outside of myself. And that’s not always that easy to do, to build that muscle of empathy,” he said.
- Focus
Now that you’ve gathered all these perspectives and ideas, look at yourself as a museum curator. You’re sifting through thousands of possibilities to find the few that will speak most to your audience and tell a coherent, seamless story.
“They’ve chosen what to show you, they’ve chosen what not to show you, and what to leave in storage,” Bhargava said. “Imagine if you did that with your ideas, if you chose what to pay attention to and then you left the rest, that would be a great way to curate.”
This goes beyond what we typically mean by “social media curation” and into something that’s truly judicious and editorial in view.
Decide what pieces tell a cohesive story.
- Twist
Every great story needs a twist – the surprise that elevates it or takes the thinking in a totally new direction. That might mean by combining two items to create a surprise third thing – like taking the bed + the floor to create the futon. It might mean turning computer engineers into rockstars. This is what turns interesting ideas into great ideas that are remembered for years to come.
Following the SIFT method can help go past the surface-level answers to find the unexpectedly brilliant solutions that understand humans rather than simply talking to them.
This applies whether you’re talking to a CEO or posting a meme on social media. By finding space for creativity, stepping outside the norm to gather insights, focusing on intentional curation and applying a slight twist of thinking, stories can resonate in a way that lingers long past the next scroll.
Allison Carter is editorial director of PR Daily and Ragan.com. Follow her on LinkedIn.
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