We Hired 3 AI Employees to Listen to the Internet
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To acquire more Tadata users, we focused on a simple idea: people publicly describe their problems on the internet every day.
They ask for alternatives ("Zapier alternatives"), complain about broken workflows ("my automations keep failing"), and look for better tools. These are high-intent moments. The person is actively searching for a solution.
Finding and acting on these is called social listening, or intent-based marketing.
The challenge is that these conversations are distributed, unstructured, and time-sensitive.
They are spread across Reddit, Twitter/X, LinkedIn, and beyond. They use unpredictable language. And timing matters. Early replies capture the initial views, likes, and upvotes that push them to the top.
The system: 3 AI social listeners
We built 3 social listeners to continuously monitor the internet. One tracks Reddit. One tracks Twitter/X. One tracks LinkedIn.
To start, we define what counts as high intent. This can include someone asking how to solve a problem, complaining about a competitor, or seeking guidance.
Part of the magic is that this agent can go down rabbit holes depending on what they're finding. But we can also pre-define specific spots to check, like particular subreddits or key Twitter accounts.
The agent runs daily and follows a similar process:
- Search, then filter: Cast a wide net with keywords, semantic search, and predefined lists. Then score for intent and relevance.
- Post to Slack: Share qualified posts with context: link, snippet, and why it matched.
- Human writes the reply: We tested having the agent draft responses for us to copy, but never used what they suggested. We have more nuance and perspective to share as people that's not captured anywhere digital for the agents to pull from.
All together, this system turns social media into a continuous pipeline of qualified opportunities instead of a passive marketing channel.
Each platform has its own dynamics
High leverage if done right. High risk if not.
It's smart to double down in a few subreddits where you can become a regular contributor. If you can break into the top 1% of contributors in a subreddit, your posts get disproportionate reach. We're hitting 200K+ views per month from this.
Responding on Reddit is also an art. OGTool's guide on Reddit marketing for startups is a fantastic resource. The core moves: post from a personal account with a founder/expert persona, lead with several genuine tips, disclose your role honestly, and you can always move the conversation to DMs.
X
Speed wins.
Replying within the first hour lets you ride the post's distribution. We have the agent monitor specific accounts (founders and operators in our space) plus keyword searches, and it surfaces things faster than scrolling ever did.
Lower volume, longer half-life.
Replies should present a clear, specific point of view. The agent finds posts where our perspective adds something meaningful, and we respond with concrete insight.
The secondary benefit: distribution compounds
A strong reply isn't one-and-done.
It gets read today, and later resurfaced in AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude. In fact, according to Profound's analysis, Reddit is the single most-cited source in AI search results.
Yet another side benefit: reviewing the Slack feed each morning is one of the fastest ways we stay current on our market.
Extending the system
We now spin up social listeners for specific launches. When we launched a conference prep use-case, we created a social listener for it. Same thing when we launched a calendar sync use-case for Tadata.
We're also exploring listening on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Conclusion: if you are not listening, you are missing demand
If your product solves a real problem, people are already talking about that problem online. The question is whether you are capitalizing on those conversations.
To get started, plug in your keywords, the subreddits and Twitter accounts you care about, and Tadata will handle the rest.