Summary

Cold outbound is spray-and-pray. The Social Signals play flips that — Alta finds people actively engaging with content tied to your space (competitors, influencers, events, pain-point keywords) and lets you message them with real context. Teams running this play typically see 10–15% reply rates vs. 3–5% on traditional cold outbound.

Who this is for

Outbound SDRs, AEs, and founders running their own pipeline who are tired of generic cold lists and want to build campaigns around people who have already raised their hand on LinkedIn — even if they don't know it yet.

Before you start

An Alta workspace with at least one connected LinkedIn account (for LinkedIn touchpoints) or a connected mailbox (for email touchpoints).
A clear thesis on what intent looks like for your offer — competitors, influencers, event hashtags, or the language buyers use when they have the problem you solve.

The five Social Signals shapes

Social Signals campaigns in Alta come in four source types, and each maps cleanly to a real outbound motion.

Company — pull engagement from a specific LinkedIn Company Page (your competitors, your customers, your partners' pages).
Creator — pull engagement from a specific creator/influencer profile in your space.
Specific Post — pull engagement from one viral post (great for moment-in-time plays).
Keywords — pull people posting about words/phrases tied to the pain you solve.

For each source, you choose which engagement types count as a signal: Comments, Reactions, Shares, or the Post Creator (the author of the post itself).

The five plays

Play 1: Engage competitors' followers

Use Company source with the LinkedIn page of one or more direct competitors. Alta surfaces people commenting on, reacting to, or sharing that competitor's posts — high-intent buyers who are actively evaluating your category.

Talk track angle: Don't bash the competitor. Lead with the problem they care about, reference something specific from the post they engaged with, and offer a different POV.

Play 2: Engage influencers' audiences

Use Creator source with the profile of a thought leader your buyers follow. Their engaged audience is your audience.

Talk track angle: Reference the creator's recent post or theme — "Saw you reacted to {creator}'s post on {topic}…" — then bridge to your offer in one sentence.

Play 3: Engage with viral posts

Use Specific Post or Keywords when a post in your category is taking off. Pull the commenters/reactors and run a short, time-boxed campaign while the moment is hot.

Talk track angle: The post itself is the opener — "Saw the conversation on {post topic}, curious how you're thinking about it."

Play 4: Engage event speakers, sponsors, and attendees

Use Company (the event's LinkedIn page) or Keywords (event name and hashtags) to find people posting about an upcoming or live event. Especially powerful if you're not attending — see the events playbook for the full lifecycle.

Play 5: Engage people speaking about the pain you solve

Use Keywords to find prospects posting about the exact symptoms your product addresses — "RevOps headcount", "MQL conversion", "outbound deliverability", whatever fits.

Talk track angle: Mirror the language they used in their post. The closer your opener sounds to a peer commenting in the thread, the higher the reply rate.

How to set the play up in Alta

Open the campaign builder and start a new campaign with a Social signals audience.
In the Social signals discovery section, pick your source: Company, Creator, Specific Post, or Keywords.
Choose which engagement types count: Comments, Reactions, Shares, and/or Post Creator. Default is all four — narrow it if you only want, say, commenters.
Set the date posted filter: All time, Day, Week, or Month. For viral-moment plays, Week or Day keeps the audience fresh.
Layer your normal ICP filters (title, seniority, company size, geo) on top — Alta intersects intent with fit.
Check the Social signals preview. Look for the message "Your filters are well-balanced" — that means there's good overlap between signal and ICP. If the preview warns that filters are too tight or too loose, adjust the keywords or filters before launching.
Write the touchpoints with the signal in mind. Reference the post, the creator, or the keyword in your opener — Alta personalizes around the signal automatically with prompt variables.

Tips and common pitfalls

One signal per campaign. Don't mix "competitor followers" and "viral post commenters" in a single campaign — split them so the messaging can stay tight to the signal.
Refresh weekly. Social signal audiences decay fast. Re-run discovery weekly (or set a tighter date filter) so you're not messaging people who engaged six months ago.
Lead with their context, not yours. The signal earns the opener. If your first line could be sent to anyone, the signal is wasted.
Pair with LinkedIn touchpoints. Reply rates go up when the channel matches the signal — if you found them on LinkedIn, your first touch should usually be on LinkedIn (connection request or InMail) before email.
Keep an eye on overlap. If you run multiple Social Signals campaigns, the same prospect can land in two of them. Use Alta's audience exclusions to keep the experience clean.