How to find leads on X (Twitter) and Threads

Leadhoot teamOctober 15, 20267 min read

People ask for recommendations on X and Threads every minute. Here is how to find those posts before your competitors do, and what to say when you get there.

Short answer: search X and Threads for the phrases buyers use when they are ready to pick something, like "anyone recommend a" or "alternative to", filter out replies, reposts and job posts, sort by newest, and answer helpfully within the hour. Then automate the searching so you only spend time on the answering.

Step 1: write down how your buyers ask

Buyers rarely use your category name the way your website does. They describe a problem and ask for help. Collect 10 to 20 of those phrases.

IntentPhrases to search
Asking for a recommendation"anyone recommend", "looking for a", "what do you use for", "best tool for"
Leaving a competitor"alternative to", "switching from", "cancelled my", "too expensive"
Describing the pain"how do you handle", "tired of", "struggling with", "is there a tool"
Ready to hire"need a", "hiring a freelance", "budget for", "DM me if you"

Step 2: search X with operators

Combine a phrase with your category and strip the noise: ("anyone recommend" OR "looking for a") bookkeeper -filter:replies -filter:retweets lang:en. Sort by Latest. The X advanced search builder writes this for you, and Twitter search operators lists every filter.

Step 3: search Threads

Threads search takes plain keywords only, so search the phrase and switch to the Recent tab. For exclusions, dates or a single account, search Google with site:threads.com. The Threads search tool builds both.

Step 4: reply like a person, not a pitch

  • Answer the question first. Name two or three options, including ones that are not yours.
  • Say you built or work on yours. Hidden self-promotion is what gets screenshotted.
  • Reply in public before you DM. A cold DM to someone who did not ask for one is spam on both platforms.
  • Be fast. The first useful reply collects most of the attention, so a post from three days ago is usually not worth answering.

Step 5: automate the searching

Running ten searches across two networks every hour is a job. X and Threads have no keyword alerts of their own, so this is what monitoring tools are for. Leadhoot runs your phrases on X and Threads around the clock, scores every match 0 to 100 for buyer intent against a description of your customer, and sends only the high scorers to your email, or to Slack or a webhook on Agency. It also watches the subreddits you pick, because the same buyers ask on Reddit too: see how to find leads on Reddit.

Describe your customer in plain English and Leadhoot finds them on X, Threads and Reddit.

Find my first lead

X vs Threads vs Reddit for leads

X (Twitter)ThreadsReddit
Who asks thereFounders, developers, marketersCreators, small businesses, consumersEveryone, sorted by topic
Search filtersMany operatorsKeywords onlySubreddit, sort and time
How long a post stays liveHoursHoursDays
Best reply styleShort, direct, publicConversational, publicDetailed, follows sub rules

Common questions

Yes, for B2B and anything founders, developers or marketers buy. People openly ask for tool and service recommendations on X, and a fast, honest reply converts better than a cold message.

Search phrases like "anyone recommend" or "looking for a" plus your category, add -filter:replies and lang:en, and sort by Latest.

Yes. Search the buying phrase, switch to Recent, and reply publicly. Threads has no search operators, so use Google with site:threads.com for advanced filters.

Leadhoot searches X and Threads for your phrases, scores each post for buyer intent and alerts you to the ones worth answering. Octolens and Syften also monitor X with keyword rules.

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