How to track social signals beyond Linkedin (Reddit, X, Hacker News)
When people want to catch buying intent on social media, they usually watch Linkedin notifications, or refresh the same Reddit search every morning, until they notice someone asked for an alternative.
That misses most of the conversation. The high-intent posts are "looking for an alternative to [your competitor]" on Reddit, an Ask HN about your category, a frustrated post on X (Twitter), a Linkedin post that never tagged you. Native notifications only fire when someone mentions your handle. Google Alerts mostly sees pages Google already indexed, which is a weak way to watch social.
We wrote about those Google Alerts limits separately.
This is the setup I use, and what KWatch.io actually covers.
What a social signal is (and what it is not)
A social signal, in this article, is a public post or comment that shows buying intent, a competitor gap, or a complaint you can act on. Typical examples:
"Any alternatives to [competitor]?"
"Looking for a [category] that does not cost a fortune"
"We just switched off [competitor] because of pricing / support / the API"
Someone describing the exact problem you solve, without knowing you exist
It is not a profile view, a job change, or a like on a specific person's post. If you need to watch what a given Linkedin or X account publishes, comments, or likes, that is a different product:
MultiFollow.
KWatch.io watches keywords across networks, not a named person's activity.
It is also not a share-of-voice dashboard. We send you the mention. You decide whether to reply.
Where buying intent actually shows up
For B2B, the useful places are rarely the ones your social scheduler already covers.
Reddit. Recommendation threads, "what should I use instead", unfiltered complaints. Posts and comments. This is usually where I start, because a good answer also ranks on Google for months.
Hacker News. Ask HN and comment threads where technical buyers evaluate tools in public.
X (Twitter). People vent about pricing, bugs, and missing features in posts and comments, including content that is not sitting in Google.
Linkedin. Posts only, including posts that are not publicly indexed. We do not monitor Linkedin comments. Linkedin is paid-plan only, because it is technically hard.
Facebook. Posts only, including posts that are not publicly indexed, plus public groups. Not comments, and not private groups. Paid-plan only.
Youtube. Title and description of new videos. If the keyword is spoken in the video but never written in the title or description, we will not fire. Paid-plan only.
What we do not monitor today: Instagram, TikTok, GitHub, Stack Overflow, Bluesky, podcasts, or newsletters. If those are your main channels, a keyword alert on KWatch.io will not help.
Refresh is per second. You should see the alert within a couple of seconds, up to about a minute if things are congested.
The keywords that actually fire
Brand name only is how people drown in noise, or miss the thread where nobody said their name.
I keep four lists:
You: brand, product, common misspellings.
Competitors: brand and flagship product, plus "alternative to [competitor]".
Category: "best [category] for startups", "looking for a [category]".
Pain: the words people use when the current tool is failing them.
If a term is too broad, require a second word in the same post (we support that), or exclude a junk word. Example from a customer: they listen to "gemini" and "google" together, because "gemini" alone is a mess.
You do not need 200 keywords on day one. Ten well-chosen phrases beat a dump of every synonym. More keyword examples, including how NLP Cloud actually uses this, are in our
social listening strategies post.
A concrete setup on KWatch.io
1. Create a free account. Free is Reddit: 2 keyword alerts and Hacker News: 2 keyword alerts. No Linkedin, X, Youtube, or Facebook on free. No AI, no Slack, no webhooks.
2. Put your two highest-intent phrases on Reddit and the same two on Hacker News. I would start with "alternative to [main competitor]" and your category phrase, not your own brand.
3. Confirm you get the email when a test mention lands.
4. If the feed is useful, move to Essential ($19/month): Reddit 20, Hacker News 20, X 2, Youtube 2, Facebook 1, Linkedin 1, plus 2 tracked conversations on Reddit and 2 on Hacker News. Filtering, saved results, and AI sentiment are on from Essential.
5. Add your brand and two competitors on Linkedin and X once you are on a paid plan. Linkedin is posts only. X is posts and comments.
6. When a thread is clearly high intent, add it to conversation tracking (Reddit and Hacker News only). You get an alert on every new comment, even if the comment does not contain your keyword.
7. If you need Slack, API webhooks, bulk CSV keyword import, or a team, that is Business ($79/month) or Enterprise ($199/month). Webhooks are not on Essential.
Plans are prorated. You can stop whenever.
If you want those mentions in Clay instead of your inbox, the webhook payload and the three templates are in
Clay templates for sales signals.
That needs Business or above.
Speed matters more than a perfect pitch. A mention you see tomorrow is trivia.
On Reddit and Hacker News, answer the question first, say who you are, and mention the product only if it fits. A demo link as the whole comment is how you get downvoted and ignored.
On Linkedin, you are commenting on a post (we did not see the comments under it). On X, you can reply to the post or the comment we matched.
We attach an AI sentiment score toward your keyword on Essential and above (positive, neutral, or negative). It is useful to sort competitor complaints. It is not a crisis dashboard and it will misread sarcasm sometimes.
What this setup will not do
It will not watch Instagram or TikTok.
It will not transcribe Youtube audio.
It will not read Linkedin or Facebook comments, or private Facebook groups.
It will not tell you that a specific person viewed your profile or changed jobs.
It will not publish or schedule posts. We are a listening tool.
Free will not cover Linkedin or X. Those sources are paid because the APIs are.
If you mainly need a social inbox for accounts you already own, keep Hootsuite or Sprout for that job. Keyword listening across other people's posts is a different product.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to connect my Linkedin or X account?
No. You define keywords. We watch the networks.
Can several people get the same alert?
Yes, with team management, which starts on Business.
Is this real-time?
Yes. Per-second refresh. Typical delivery is a few seconds, up to a minute.
What about mentions in other languages?
We do not limit you to one language. The match is the keyword you typed.
KWatch.io
