Not all likes are created equal
Most sales teams look at LinkedIn engagement as "just noise." But what if certain comments, likes or posts were actually signals that your next customer is ready to buy?
At Karhuno AI, we analyzed over 3,000 LinkedIn posts across dozens of industries to understand which patterns of engagement consistently correlated with buying behavior.
The result? A refined list of 5 buying signals that increased our reply rates by up to 400% — with zero change in messaging.
1. Job titles mentioned in comments
When people comment things like:
- "We've just hired our first RevOps"
- "Looking for help with CRM migration"
...it's not just chatter. These comments often appear before a company switches tools, starts outbound campaigns, or invests in infrastructure.
What it means:
Someone is building capacity — and likely budgeting for new tools. Reach out now before competitors do.
How Karhuno tracks it:
We monitor keywords like "hired," "onboarding," "migrating," within post comments by ICPs.
2. Conversations around pain points
Posts that discuss frustrations or workflow gaps (even indirectly) tend to attract engagement from people who are actively looking for a better way.
Examples:
- "Cold emails don't work anymore"
- "Tired of using 6 tools for a simple campaign"
- "We're testing out new lead gen solutions"
What it means:
They're aware of the problem. They just need the right solution.
Pro tip: Don't pitch. Add value. Share a playbook, insight, or relevant case study.
3. Influencer-led engagement
Many prospects "show their intent" not with their own posts, but by liking or commenting on influencer content related to your category.
What it means:
They're consuming content around your niche, which often precedes tool research or vendor discovery.
Example: A Head of Sales at a logistics startup likes 3 posts in a week about outbound automation. That's not random. That's research.
How Karhuno helps: You can track interactions with specific influencers, competitors, or posts tagged with your category.
4. Announcements that signal growth
- "We've just raised our seed round!"
- "New office, new chapter."
- "Hiring 10+ in GTM"
Growth announcements = buying intent. Full stop.
What it means:
Funding, hiring, and expansion are intent accelerators. These companies are planning new campaigns, onboarding tools, or restructuring processes.
Your move: Reach out with something tailored, like: "Congrats on the new funding! We work with other Series A teams like [X] to help ramp GTM efforts faster."
5. Repeat engagement on related topics
One like or comment could be noise. But when a decision-maker engages multiple times on posts around a specific theme — that's patterned interest.
What it means:
They're quietly signaling readiness. Especially when they engage with multiple people talking about tools, tactics or problems in the same space.
What we observed: When a prospect interacts with at least 3 posts around a theme (e.g. "cold email", "B2B data", "RevOps"), reply rates skyrocket.
Why these signals work
Unlike databases or enrichment tools, LinkedIn activity reveals real-time buyer psychology. People don't engage with sales-related content unless they're:
- Exploring a new strategy
- Planning a tool switch
- Benchmarking competitors
- Open to new ideas
Tracking this engagement gives you the context, timing, and topic — all before your competitor even sends a message.
How to use these signals in your outreach
- Personalize based on the signal (e.g., comment = "We're hiring in ops")
- Mention the original post or context
- Add value (free playbook, benchmark data, relevant tool comparison)
- Use a soft CTA (not "book a call", but "want the report?")
Example outreach:
"Saw your comment under [post] about CRM migration. We actually built a signal tracker to catch these shifts in real-time — happy to share the use case if helpful."