Monitor X and Reddit buying-intent threads every 15 minutes with n8n
Skip $99/mo social listening SaaS tools. Poll targeted RSS and search endpoints, score high-intent leads with a low-cost Flash LLM, and push ready-to-reply alerts to Slack.
Why default setups fall short
Most social keyword trackers flood your inbox with self-promotional noise. By chaining an n8n schedule node with lightweight search feeds and a strict JSON intent classifier running on DeepSeek Flash or Gemini Flash-Lite, you pay less than $0.40 a month in tokens and only get pinged when a real human asks for a tool recommendation or complains about a competitor.
Prerequisites before starting
- Self-hosted n8n (Docker) or n8n Cloud starter
- An OpenAI-compatible or DeepSeek API key ($1 credit lasts months)
- A Slack incoming webhook URL or Telegram bot token
Step-by-step implementation
1. Target pain-first query operators instead of broad keywords
Broad keywords like 'CRM' or 'video editor' pull 95% marketing spam. Combine frustration verbs and switching phrases so your feed starts clean before an LLM ever touches it.
("alternative to" OR "migrating from" OR "any tool that" OR "tired of paying")
AND ("invoice" OR "onboarding" OR "workflow") -filter:retweets
2. Deduplicate post IDs locally before calling the model
Use n8n's built-in workflow static data or a lightweight SQLite node to store the last 500 seen post URLs. Skipping already-scored posts cuts token spend by roughly 85%.
const seen = $getWorkflowStaticData('global');
seen.ids = seen.ids || [];
const fresh = items.filter(i => !seen.ids.includes(i.json.guid));
seen.ids = [...fresh.map(i => i.json.guid), ...seen.ids].slice(0, 500);
return fresh;
3. Score buying intent from 1 to 10 with thinking disabled
Call a fast non-reasoning endpoint with temperature 0.1 and force a compact JSON response containing intent_score, buyer_pain, and a non-salesy reply draft.
{
"model": "deepseek-chat",
"temperature": 0.1,
"response_format": { "type": "json_object" }
}
4. Route scores >= 8 to Slack with a one-click open button
Drop anything below 8 silently. Push high-intent matches into a dedicated #buying-signals channel with the author's exact quote and a suggested helpful reply.