How to Track Social Signals for Sales

TL;DR:

• Social signals on platforms like LinkedIn can help identify buyer intent and drive high-impact outreach.
• Tracking likes, comments, profile views, and follows can reveal buyer priorities and drive high-reply outreach.
• Social signals also indirectly boost SEO performance by increasing visibility, trust, and traffic.
• Use tools like Letterdrop to automate signal tracking and tie engagement directly to revenue.
• Engage thoughtfully, know which signals to chase, and turn social engagement into Closed/Won revenue opportunities.

Most companies are leaving significant revenue — $400k to $5M annually — in Closed/Won deals on the table by not using platforms like LinkedIn for organic pipeline gen.

The key lies in establishing a credible presence online, as well as tracking and acting on social signals: the likes, comments, shares, and interactions that indicate buyer intent.

Social signals can act as sales triggers that drive timely, value-first outreach and position your brand as a leader in your industry.

Here’s how to identify, track, and use these signals.

What Are Social Signals?

Social signals are the digital breadcrumbs prospects leave behind when they interact with content on social platforms like LinkedIn. These include:

• Likes and Shares: Indicate that content has resonated with folks.
• Comments: Show deeper interest and open the door for conversations.
• Profile Views and Follows: Highlight interest in you, your company, and your solutions.

Tracking these signals reveals intent and provides opportunities to create personalized, high-impact outreach.

Why Social Signals Matter

Social signals are more than just vanity metrics — they’re intent signals that can directly impact your pipeline by:

1. Revealing Buyer Priorities: Engagement on posts often aligns with a buyer’s current pain points or interests.
2. Providing Private Triggers: Unlike public signals like funding announcements, interactions on your own posts are often exclusive to you, giving you a competitive edge.
3. Driving High-Reply Outreach: Outreach tied to meaningful interactions sees significantly higher response rates than cold outreach (for example, we see upwards of 20% reply rate on LinkedIn versus the 5% from cold email).

These signals also indirectly boost SEO performance, too:

• Visibility: Interactions boost brand awareness and can increase the reach of your content.
• Trust: Social engagement aligns with Google’s E-E-A-T guidelines, boosting your online authority.
• Traffic: Social shares and clicks can generate backlinks and direct traffic to your website.

Pro Tip: Repurpose high-performing SEO content for socials to help drive demand (and awareness).

How to Track Social Signals

This is a similar process to how to measure social selling itself.

1. Focus on High-Impact Metrics

Start by tracking key engagement metrics that act as sales triggers:

• Likes and Comments: Identify who’s engaging with your content or posts in your niche.
• Profile Views and Follows: Spot prospects warming up to your brand.
• Keyword Mentions: Monitor discussions around industry trends, competitors, or your product.

Pro Tip: Tools like Letterdrop can track these signals at scale on LinkedIn for example, connecting them directly to your pipeline and helping prioritize high-intent leads.

2. Use UTM Links to Measure Traffic

To track social media traffic:

• Add UTM parameters to profile and post links (e.g., /utm_source=LinkedIn&utm_medium=Organic&utm_campaign=YourPost).
• Use tools like HubSpot to track social-sourced leads and conversions.
• Pair UTM tracking with engaging CTAs like “Explore Our Case Studies” to drive more clicks.

3. Automate Signal Tracking with Relevant Tools

There are various social monitoring tools out there that can help you track engagement and even sentiment.

But if you want granular insight that includes tying something like LinkedIn activity to revenue, you might want to consider Letterdrop.

• Automated Keyword Monitoring and Alerts: Track LinkedIn keywords and mentions, with alerts delivered via Slack
• ICP Filtering: Easily label and segment engaged accounts according to your ICP
• Historical Engagement Data: Get detailed historical engagement data delivered directly from LinkedIn or your website into an organized dashboard
• Pipeline Attribution: Tie LinkedIn engagement directly to revenue, proving the ROI of your social efforts.

Best Practices for Leveraging Social Signals

Engage Thoughtfully

Social signals provide a starting point, but thoughtful engagement turns them into revenue. Best practices include:

• Responding to comments and mentions promptly.
• Joining relevant conversations to establish credibility.
• Offering insights or resources instead of immediately pitching your product.

Check out our guide on how to follow up with LinkedIn engagement for more.

Know Your Signals (And Which to Chase)

By tracking social signals and integrating them into your outreach strategy, you can unlock revenue opportunities your competitors are missing.

With tools like Letterdrop, you can:

• Automate engagement tracking.
• Surface private and exclusive sales triggers.
• Attribute social activity directly to pipeline impact.

Don’t let these signals go to waste. Start tracking and turning social engagement into Closed/Won revenue today. Let’s chat about how Letterdrop can help you with LinkedIn signal tracking.