Social data is fair game

Social data is fair game. And I don't mean "it depends". I mean yes, definitively.

But before you argue with me, audit the signals you already use without a second thought. Because every seller reading this has done at least five of these:

Contacted someone who RSVP'd to an event. Contacted someone who said something interesting on a podcast. Contacted someone who changed job. Contacted someone who got promoted. Contacted someone whose company just raised. Contacted someone whose website changed. Contacted someone whose pricing page changed. Contacted someone because they're hiring for a role that screams the problem you solve. Contacted someone because they added a tool to their stack. Contacted someone because they ripped one out. Contacted someone because they left a review of your competitor. Contacted someone because they follow your competitor. Contacted someone because they opened your last email twice. Contacted someone because an intent provider told you their office IP looked at a pricing page.

Read that last one again.

So we've collectively decided it's completely normal to buy de-anonymised web traffic on a person who has absolutely no idea they were seen. Nobody blinks. That's just a Tuesday.

But somebody comments on a lead magnet, in public, on a platform that exists for professional visibility, and you follow up, and suddenly that's creepy?

That's backwards. Like, completely backwards.

When you comment on a lead magnet you are literally sending an ad out to the world saying you are interested in that topic. You typed a word into a box, in public, on purpose, so that a stranger's software would send you something. That is the most consensual signal in the entire stack. What better signal could there possibly be? And it's the one people get squeamish about, right?

So here's my actual question. If your ICP publicly declared interest in the exact thing you exist to solve, and you still wouldn't use it, what do you think your job is?

Are you actually a salesperson? Or are you waiting for an order to take?

The fair version of the objection deserves saying, though. Most people aren't upset about the signal. They're upset about what people do with it. Eleven touches. A fake "as discussed" subject line. A message pretending you read their post when you clearly didn't.

But that's an execution problem. It always was. Bad prospecting was bad before the signal existed and it'll be bad after.

Don't blame the data for the message.