X (Twitter) lead generation: a 20-minute daily routine

• An X account with a real profile: a photo, a bio that says what you do, and a pinned post or link.
• Four saved searches (below).
• A sheet with five columns: date, link, what they asked, what you replied, outcome.
• A scoring cutoff, so you only reply to posts that show a need.

These use operators that X documents. Swap the bracketed parts for your own. The X search operators cheat sheet has the full list.

1. Someone asking for a recommendation:

`` ("can anyone recommend" OR "what do you use for" OR "any recommendations for") (your category) -is:retweet lang:en ``

1. Someone asking for an alternative:

`` ("alternative to" OR "alternatives to" OR "replacement for") "Competitor" -is:retweet lang:en ``

1. Someone unhappy with a competitor:

`` "Competitor" (frustrated OR "not working" OR "too expensive" OR cancelled) -is:retweet ``

1. Someone describing the problem:

`` ("I need a tool" OR "is there a tool") (your problem in their words) -is:retweet ``

If the results are cluttered, add noise filters: -hiring -giveaway -"DM me". Our X advanced search builder writes these from a form, and the recommendation recipe opens it pre-filled.

For the first eight minutes, read. Run the four searches and sort by latest. Open anything that looks like a real request, skip job ads, giveaways and vendors, and paste the links into your sheet.

From minute 8 to 11, score. Give each candidate a score from 0 to 100 in your head, or use the buying intent scorer. Keep only the ones at 70 or above.

From minute 11 to 18, reply. Write public replies to the best two or three, answering the question first.

Use the last two minutes to log. Fill in the sheet and note which search found each one.

Once a week, spend 15 extra minutes reviewing the sheet. Which search produced the most conversations? Retire the worst one and rewrite it.

All posts below are sample posts.

Post 1 scored 93: "Our scheduling tool just raised prices again. Looking for something simple for a team of five, around $50 a month. Switching this week."

• Highlighted sentence: "Looking for something simple for a team of five, around $50 a month."
• Action: reply now.
• What was sent: "Five people is the sweet spot for simple tools. Before you switch, check that it handles recurring bookings and sends text reminders, which is where cheap ones usually fall short. I work on one called Tool X, so my view is biased, but happy to share what to test. Which tool are you leaving?"

Post 2 scored 61: "What do people use for client scheduling? Starting to need something."

• Highlighted sentence: "Starting to need something."
• Action: reply with advice and leave the product out.
• What was sent: "It depends on whether clients book themselves or you book for them. If it's the first, pick for the booking page. If it's the second, pick for the calendar view. Which is it for you?"

Post 3 scored 7: "We're hiring a scheduling coordinator, remote, apply below."

• Action: skip, because it's a job ad.

That's two replies and one skip in about 20 minutes. Expect a few answers in week one, not a flood.

A public reply is visible, accountable and welcome. A cold direct message from a stranger is none of those. The rules:

1. Reply in the thread.
2. If they respond, keep the conversation in the thread.
3. Move to a direct message when they ask, or when the next step needs details that don't belong in public.
4. Keep the first direct message short and tied to the thread: "Following up on your scheduling question, here's the checklist I mentioned."
5. Never send the same message to a list.

• Don't pitch in the first reply. Answer the question, and name your product only when it fits.
• Don't reply to everything. Set a cutoff so the routine stays at 20 minutes.
• Don't reuse a reply. People notice.
• Don't post once and leave. Check back an hour later for responses.
• Keep a log, because you can't improve what you can't see.
• Say you work on the product.

Reading is the slowest step. A monitor can run your searches on a schedule, score each post and send the best ones to Slack or email. HearBuyers does this for X posts and replies and for Reddit posts and comments. Each post gets a score from 0 to 100 and the sentence that shows the need, and anything above your threshold gets a drafted reply. A person approves the draft and posts it, so nothing posts on its own. X keyword alerts explains how it works.

• Volume is modest. Narrow categories give few matches a day.
• X search needs a login, and a search only runs when you run it.
• Only public posts show up. Private accounts and messages are outside any search.
• Operators change, so retest your searches now and then.
• Replies don't always convert. You're after conversations, so judge the routine over a month.

For the founder version of this workflow across channels, read founder-led sales.

Agencies run this routine for clients too. Lead generation for marketing agencies shows what their own buyers ask for.

X is one channel in a wider outbound lead generation plan.

Yes, if your buyers ask for help on X. To check, run the four searches for a week and count the real requests.

Reply first. Send a direct message only once they respond or ask for one.

That depends on your niche. Any number we gave wouldn't apply to you, so measure your own searches over a month.

The searching and scoring can be automated. We'd keep a person on the reply, so a human reads everything before it goes up.

Save the first search above with your category in it and run it now. Before you close the tab, reply to the single best result.