Track brand mentions on Reddit and Hacker News with sentiment alerts

The system scans Reddit and Hacker News hourly, scores each mention's sentiment, and alerts you when something turns negative.

How the work actually flows

It branches. Exactly one path is taken; runs once per each mention found.

Pattern: Exclusive Choice (4) · Simple Merge (5) · Multiple Instances with a priori Design-Time Knowledge (13)

flowchart TD trig(["every hour scan"]):::trigtime s0[["search reddit and hacker news"]]:::mi s1["score mention sentiment"]:::svc s2[("log mention to sheet")]:::store trig --> s0 s0 --> s1 gx{"× negative or positive mention"}:::gate s1 --> gx p00["alert slack and email"]:::task gx -->|"negative mention"| p00 p10["route to highlights channel"]:::task gx -->|"positive mention"| p10 jn{"○ log to sheet"}:::gate p00 --> jn p10 --> jn jn --> s2 out[/"negative mentions flagged instantly"/]:::out pay{{"catch brand issues before they spread"}}:::pay s2 --> out out --> pay classDef task fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#34b8f0,color:#2c2a29 classDef svc fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#7c8795,color:#2c2a29 classDef mi fill:#e7f6fe,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29,stroke-width:2px classDef human fill:#fff,stroke:#0079a8,color:#0079a8 classDef store fill:#f6f8fa,stroke:#0079a8,color:#2c2a29 classDef trig fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigtime fill:#00a4eb,stroke:#0079a8,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef trigdata fill:#8ad4f5,stroke:#0079a8,color:#06314c,font-weight:bold classDef gate fill:#fff,stroke:#e8a23d,color:#6b4708,font-weight:bold classDef out fill:#1f9d6b,stroke:#167a53,color:#fff,font-weight:bold classDef pay fill:#06314c,stroke:#021f33,color:#fff
Starts itAn outside serviceRuns once per itemA record or sheetOne path onlyPaths rejoinResultPayoff
Build size
Advanced

A larger build with multiple systems, AI reasoning, and custom rules.

Business functions
Email AutomationMessaging & NotificationsSpreadsheet & Database OpsResearch & Market IntelligenceSurvey & Feedback
Connects
RedditHacker NewsOpenAISlackGoogle Sheets

The problem it solves

You want to know when people are talking about your brand online, but you can't manually search Reddit and Hacker News every hour. By the time you spot a negative post on your own, the conversation has often already moved on without you.

Who it fits

Marketing and support teams that need to catch negative online mentions before they spread.

How it works

  1. Every hour, the system searches Reddit and Hacker News for your brand keywords
  2. OpenAI scores each mention's sentiment and flags how urgent it is
  3. Negative mentions trigger a Slack alert and an email
  4. Positive mentions get routed to a highlights channel
  5. Every mention is logged to a spreadsheet for tracking trends over time
What you get

Negative mentions caught before they spread

You get an alert the moment a negative mention of your brand shows up on Reddit or Hacker News.

What you get

Instant alerts on negative mentions and a running spreadsheet log of sentiment trends.

What you need

An OpenAI API key, a Google account for Sheets, and optionally Slack and email accounts for alerts.

We can build this. But should you?

The hard question is not how to build it. It is whether this is the right thing to build first.

That is what a Fractional Chief AI Officer figures out with you, before anyone writes a line of code.

Let's Talk Strategy

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