Boost Your Sales Pipeline by Tracking Social Signals

While traditional marketing departments view these metrics as vanity numbers, modern companies act on these signals to boost performance in two critical functions. They drive online visibility in search engines (SEO) and serve as high-intent triggers for sales teams identifying interested buyers.

This guide explores how to move beyond a simple social signals checker—which just tells you how many people liked a url—to a full-scale strategy using tools like Sonarly to capture demand in the "Dark Funnel."

Why You Should track Social Signals

The need to look beyond basic social engagement is driven by the reality of the "Dark Funnel." Modern B2B buying journeys are non-linear and largely invisible to existing tools and traditional attribution software.

Research indicates that 57% to 70% of the buying decision is completed before a buyer ever interacts with a sales representative. If you wait for a form fill on your website, you have likely already lost the deal. By analyzing social media activity, you can penetrate this invisible phase where potential customers are researching solutions and talking in private communities.

Effective use of social signals reveals intent through three primary layers:

First-Party Intent (The Known Universe)

This goes beyond simple webpage hits. Advanced analytics allow you to analyze "high-intent" behaviors, such as repeated visits to a pricing page or technical documentation content. These actions signal that a prospect is actively evaluating the value and cost of your solution, differentiating them from casual web readers.

Third-Party Intent (The Conquesting Opportunity)

This data captures research occurring on other websites like G2, Capterra, or industry blogs. If a target company is researching "enterprise cybersecurity" across the web, third-party data captures this surge. This is critical for "conquesting"—intercepting buyers who are discussed or engaging with rivals but have not yet visited your site.

Behavioral & Social Media Signals (The Human Context)

This is the most nuanced data, derived from social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter (X). It provides the context needed for personalized chats:

• Competitor Engagement: When a prospect comments on a rival’s product launch content or attends their webinar, it is a high-fidelity signal of category interest.
• "Hand-Raisers": Prospects often ask networks, "Has anyone implemented Tool X?" Identifying these public requests allows you to insert yourself as a helpful consultant.
• Profile Views: A prospect viewing a rep’s LinkedIn profile validates credibility and indicates you are on their radar.

Relevant Social Signals: What to Look For

Stop chasing noise. To drive revenue, you must distinguish between vanity metrics and relevant buying intent. You need to measure the social engagement that screams "I have a problem" or "I am ready to buy."

High-Intent Triggers (The "What")

Don't just observe generic tags or keywords. Set your tools to identify specific, actionable moments on social media.

• The "Recommendation" Ask: Users asking, "What is the best alternative to [Rival]?"
• The Pain Point: Discussions focused on specific struggles, e.g., "Why is my current API so slow?"
• The Roast: Direct comments or tweets complaining about a rival’s pricing. This is prime territory for "Intercept Selling."
• The Status Change: New funding rounds or job updates on LinkedIn.

Social Media Platform Cheat Sheet (The "Where")

1. LinkedIn and Twitter

While LinkedIn and Twitter are the gold standards, limiting your focus to them leaves massive blind spots. Different social media sites generate unique "signal dialects" that require specialized listening strategies. However, in the B2B world, these social media platforms are huge drivers for sales success.

2. Reddit

The "Unfiltered Pain" Repository On Reddit, users are anonymous, which makes them brutally honest about their frustrations. This is the best place to find "Negative Sentiment" social signals.

• What to Analyze: Specific phrases like "alternative to [Brand]", "why is [Brand] so expensive".
• The Signal: A user ranting about a software bug on r/sysadmin isn't just complaining; they are actively looking for a replacement.
• Tooling: Use tools like GummySearch or custom PhantomBuster scripts to check specific subreddits for these high-intent keywords.

3. TikTok & Instagram

Visual & Trend Intelligence For B2C and modern B2B brands, social activity here is often audio-visual.

• The "Trend" Signal: On TikTok, the signal isn't just a hashtag; it's the audio. Following trending sounds allows you to ride the wave of online visibility before it crashes.
• DM-Led Sales: Instagram is superior for "Bottom of Funnel" conversion. A user replying to a Story is a higher-intent signal than a passive "Like" on a Reel.
• Tooling: Dash Hudson or Iconosquare can check visual trends, while Sonarly’s framework can be adapted to trigger outreach based on specific comment keywords.

4. Telegram & Discord

The "Dark Social" & Crypto Web For Web3 and dev-tool companies, the conversation happens in closed, real-time communities.

• The "Sentiment" Signal: In these fast-moving chats, individual messages matter less than the aggregate "mood." A spike in message volume often precedes a market shift.
• Tooling: LunarCrush helps analyze social dominance in tech communities.

5. Google Maps & Facebook

The "Local SEO" Signal For local businesses, social signals are literal citations of existence.

• The "Review" Signal: A consistent flow of 4-5 star reviews on Google Maps is the strongest signal to Google that a business is "alive," helping search rankings and organic traffic.
• The "Check-In": A user "checking in" on Facebook creates a localized credibility signal that improves "Map Pack" rankings.
• Tooling: Semrush Local or BrightLocal are essential tools to ensure your business appears in local results.

Which Tools to Use to Monitor Relevant Signals

Operationalizing a strategy requires a sophisticated stack capable of capturing, enriching, and acting on data. The market for social media intelligence has segmented into specialized providers. To effectively utilize social signals, organizations typically rely on three categories of tools:

1. Data Aggregators and Intent Providers

These platforms focus on "Third-Party" intent, assessing content consumption across the web.

• Bombora: Checks consumption across thousands of websites. It identifies "Company Surge®" data—accounts consuming content on specific topics at a rate higher than their baseline.
• 6sense: Combines intent data with predictive AI to create a "Buying Stage" prediction. This helps sales teams prioritize when to engage.
• Demandbase: Integrates advertising and sales data, enabling complex ABM plays like changing website content based on visiting account signals.

2. Sales Intelligence and Workflow Automation

This category moves beyond passive insights to active lead generation on social media platforms.

• UserGems: Specialized in following "people movement," observing job changes of past customers.
• PhantomBuster: Allows for the scraping of social data. Sales teams use it to export lists of users who liked a post or commented on a specific industry thread.

The Signal Workflow:

1. Scrape the "Likers" of a viral industry post.
2. Enrich the profiles with email addresses.
3. Sync to CRM for a targeted outreach campaign referencing the content.

3. Social Listening Platforms

These are the "ears" of the organization, designed to observe brand health and conversations on major platforms.

• Sprout Social / Hootsuite / Sprinklr: These platforms watch keywords, hashtags, and brand mentions across social networks.
• Sprinklr's AI: Utilizing "visual listening," it detects logos in images even if not tagged, surfacing actionable service or sales triggers.

The "All-in-One" Alternative using social engagement

While enterprise stacks like 6sense offer immense power, they can be cost-prohibitive. This is where Sonarly fits into the ecosystem. It combines the social signals checker capabilities of listening tools with the workflow automation of PhantomBuster, allowing you to track social signals, enrich, and engage from a single dashboard without managing disparate APIs.