listening

How to surface the right posts to engage with each day — instead of randomly scrolling.

Social Listening & Engagement Triage

How to surface the right posts to engage with each day — instead of randomly scrolling. The goal is a short, scorable list ("here are your top 10 posts to comment on") rather than an open feed.

When to use this
The daily triage loop
Scoring rubric
Comment quality tiers
Sources & light tooling (curl recipes)
Per-platform notes
Common workflows

When to Use This

Use listening when the goal is commenting and relationships, not posting. Typical asks:

"Give me the top 10 posts I should comment on today"
"Who's complaining about [competitor] right now?"
"Find people asking for a tool like mine"
"Surface posts from my 20 target accounts in the last 24h"
"What's the conversation around [topic] this week?"

If the user wants to create content, use the rest of the social skill. Listening feeds creation (it surfaces angles, language, objections), but the output is different.

The Daily Triage Loop

A repeatable 20-minute loop the user (or you, on their behalf) can run each morning.

Pull — fetch new posts from defined sources (target accounts, keywords, subreddits, hashtags). See tooling.
Filter — drop anything older than 24h, low signal, or off-topic.
Score — apply the rubric. Keep top 10.
Draft — for each, draft a comment matched to the post's tier.
Post — user reviews, edits, posts. Mark which actually went live.
Log — track what you commented on and what got replies. This is your engagement loop dataset.

Output format Claude should produce:

TOP 10 POSTS — 2026-06-05

1. [Score 9/10] @author — LinkedIn — 2h ago
   "We just rolled out X and the team is loving it…"
   Why: ICP fit (B2B SaaS, 50–200 employees), buying-intent signal
   Suggested comment: [draft]
   Link: https://…

Scoring Rubric

Score each post 1–10 across five dimensions, then sum and rank.

| Dimension | What it measures | Weight | |-----------|------------------|--------| | ICP fit | Is the author your target customer / influencer? | 2x | | Intent signal | Are they expressing a problem, asking, or shopping? | 2x | | Reach potential | Is the post getting traction (likes/comments rising)? | 1x | | Comment opportunity | Can you say something genuinely useful, not generic? | 2x | | Recency | Posted in last 1–4h (early comments win, especially on LinkedIn) | 1x |

Intent signal examples (high-value):

"Looking for a tool that does X"
"Why is [category] so painful?"
"We just switched from [competitor] because…"
"Anyone use [competitor] — is it worth it?"
A complaint about a known competitor

Drop if any of these are true:

Author isn't ICP and isn't an influencer
Post is >24h old and already has 50+ comments (your comment buries)
Generic motivational/AI-slop post
Self-promotion thread where comments don't get reach
You can't add anything beyond "Great post!"

Comment Quality Tiers

Match the comment to the post. Don't waste a tier-1 draft on a tier-3 opportunity.

Tier 1 — Relationship builder (target accounts, ICP, high intent)

Add a specific insight or counter-example
Reference your own experience with specifics (numbers, names, outcomes)
Ask a thoughtful follow-up that invites a reply
Length: 2–4 sentences, no link

Tier 2 — Visibility play (high-reach post, adjacent topic)

Add one sharp insight in one sentence
Pattern: "Agreed — and the part most miss is [X]"
Length: 1–2 sentences

Tier 3 — Light touch (relationship maintenance)

Specific reaction, not "Love this"
Quote a specific line and react to it
Length: 1 sentence

Never: "Great post!", emoji-only, "+1", LinkedIn-isms like "This is gold 🔥"

Sources & Light Tooling (curl recipes)

These are public JSON endpoints — no auth needed. Run them from bash, pipe to jq, and Claude can parse the output to score and draft comments.

Requires: jq (most recipes) and xmllint (RSS only). Install once:

# macOS
brew install jq
# xmllint ships with macOS; on Linux: apt install libxml2-utils

Reddit (free, scriptable)

New posts in a subreddit:

curl -s -A "listening/1.0" \
  "https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/new.json?limit=25" \
  | jq '.data.children[].data | {title, author, url: ("https://reddit.com"+.permalink), score, num_comments, created_utc, selftext: (.selftext | .[0:300])}'

Search across Reddit by keyword (last day, sorted new):

curl -s -A "listening/1.0" \
  "https://www.reddit.com/search.json?q=KEYWORD&sort=new&t=day&limit=25" \
  | jq '.data.children[].data | {subreddit, title, url: ("https://reddit.com"+.permalink), author, score, created_utc}'

Swap KEYWORD for things like "alternative to notion", "recommend a crm", your competitor names, or your own brand for mentions. Use quotes around multi-word phrases.

Hacker News (Algolia search)

Recent stories mentioning a keyword (last 24h):

SINCE=$(($(date +%s) - 86400))
curl -s "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query=KEYWORD&tags=story&numericFilters=created_at_i>${SINCE}" \
  | jq '.hits[] | {title, url, author, points, num_comments, created_at, story_id: .objectID, hn_url: ("https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+.objectID)}'

Recent comments mentioning a keyword:

curl -s "https://hn.algolia.com/api/v1/search_by_date?query=KEYWORD&tags=comment&numericFilters=created_at_i>${SINCE}" \
  | jq '.hits[] | {author, comment_text, story_title, hn_url: ("https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id="+.objectID)}'

Bluesky (free, public API)

Search posts by keyword:

curl -s "https://public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.searchPosts?q=KEYWORD&limit=25&sort=latest" \
  | jq '.posts[] | {author: .author.handle, text: .record.text, likes: .likeCount, replies: .replyCount, url: ("https://bsky.app/profile/"+.author.handle+"/post/"+(.uri | split("/") | last))}'

RSS for blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels

For target accounts that publish to RSS (most blogs, all YouTube channels):

# YouTube channel feed (replace CHANNEL_ID)
curl -s "https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=CHANNEL_ID"

# Generic blog feed
curl -s "https://example.com/feed/" | xmllint --xpath "//item[position()<6]" - 2>/dev/null

LinkedIn & X — use the browser

LinkedIn and X don't expose useful public APIs, but you can drive a real browser session. dev-browser (MCP, already in the global setup) and Playwright both maintain persistent state — log in once, the session stays alive, Claude can navigate the authenticated feed.

dev-browser workflow (preferred — already wired up):

User logs into LinkedIn / X once in the dev-browser session
Claude navigates to a target URL (feed, profile, saved search, hashtag)
Claude reads the accessibility tree / page text, extracts posts
Claude scores using the rubric and drafts comments
User reviews and posts manually (don't auto-post — high-stakes, bot detection risk)

Useful URLs to feed dev-browser:

| URL pattern | What it shows | |-------------|---------------| | linkedin.com/in/HANDLE/recent-activity/all/ | A target account's recent posts | | linkedin.com/feed/hashtag/TOPIC/ | Hashtag feed | | linkedin.com/feed/ | Your main feed (algorithmic — less useful for triage) | | x.com/HANDLE | A target account's profile | | x.com/search?q=QUERY&f=live | Real-time search (use f=live for chronological) | | x.com/i/lists/LIST_ID | A curated list — best for target accounts |

Tips:

On X, build a private list of target accounts and use the list URL. Far cleaner than the algorithmic feed.
LinkedIn's /recent-activity/all/ URL is the cleanest way to see one person's posts without the algorithm.
For both platforms, scroll programmatically (dev-browser supports it) to load more posts before extracting.

Paid alternatives if you don't want to drive a browser:

| Platform | Tools | |----------|-------| | LinkedIn | Sales Navigator (saved searches), Taplio (engagement) | | X | TweetDeck/X Pro (saved columns), Typefully, Taplio, Tweet Hunter |

Still closed (no good path):

Instagram & TikTok — closed APIs, browser automation is detectable and risky. Use native saved searches / hashtag follows.

Per-Platform Notes

Browser-driven (dev-browser with persistent session) — see LinkedIn & X — use the browser
First-hour comments matter most — algorithm weights early engagement heavily. Prioritize posts <2h old from target accounts.
Comments with 5+ words get more reach than reactions
Replying to other commenters can put you in front of their network
Tag the author in your reply only if it adds context

Twitter/X

Browser-driven (dev-browser) — build a private list of target accounts and point dev-browser at the list URL
Reply within first 30 min for max reach on big accounts
Quote-tweet > reply when adding substantial value
Threading your reply (multi-tweet) signals effort
Don't pile on dunks — relationships > clout

Read the subreddit rules before commenting (some ban self-promotion outright)
Earn karma in the sub before linking to anything you own
Long, specific answers win. AMAs and "help me decide" threads are gold
Never lead with your product — answer the question first

Hacker News

Comment quality bar is high; low-effort gets downvoted fast
Founders commenting on threads about their product is welcomed if you're transparent
Search for past discussions of your category — they're often dormant gold mines

Bluesky

Smaller volume but high engagement-to-follower ratio
Tech and indie-hacker communities are active
Custom feeds (like Bluesky's "Following" + topic feeds) replace algorithmic search

Common Workflows

"Give me my top 10 posts to comment on today"

Pull from: target account RSS/saved searches + Reddit (relevant subs) + HN (last 24h)
Score with the rubric
Output top 10 with suggested comments

"Find people complaining about [competitor]"

Reddit search: "competitor name" -site:competitor.com sorted by new
HN comment search for competitor name
Bluesky search for competitor handle/name
Score by intent signal (high if switching language: "moving from", "alternatives to", "frustrated with")

"Surface brand mentions from the last week"

Reddit search for brand name
HN search (stories + comments) for brand name
Bluesky search for brand name + handle
Output as: reply needed (yes/no), tone (positive/negative/neutral), suggested response

"Find target-account posts I missed"

Maintain a list of target accounts with their RSS / Reddit usernames / Bluesky handles
Fetch each source's recent posts
Filter to last 24h, output sorted by score

Setting Up the Source List

The user should maintain a list of sources somewhere persistent at .agents/listening-sources.md (or .claude/listening-sources.md). Claude reads it when running the daily loop.

A ready-to-fill template lives at listening-sources-template.md. Copy it into the project and edit. The source path depends on how the skill was installed:

# Plugin / marketplace install (most common):
cp .agents/skills/social/references/listening-sources-template.md .agents/listening-sources.md
# .claude/ install:
cp .claude/skills/social/references/listening-sources-template.md .agents/listening-sources.md
# Working inside the marketingskills repo:
cp skills/social/references/listening-sources-template.md .agents/listening-sources.md

The template covers: brand/category, ICP (for scoring), target accounts per platform, intent keywords, subreddits, saved-search URLs, and a do-not-engage list.