Signals — Spot What's Working Before Everyone Else

Discover shows you everything the accounts and websites you follow are posting. Signals pick out the few things in all of that worth your attention, so you don’t have to scroll through it all yourself.

There are two kinds of signals:

Breakout posts: a post from an account you follow is doing much better than that account usually does. We find these for you automatically.
Custom rule matches: new content matches something you told us to watch for, in your own words. For example, “news about changes to Instagram’s algorithm”.

You’ll find them in Discover, on the Signals tab. Click Signal in the sidebar to go straight there.

Quick start (5 minutes)

Open your brand’s Discover sources.
Under Social Media, add 3 to 5 accounts you want to learn from: competitors, brands you admire, or leaders in your industry.
Under Signal Rules, click Add and describe one thing you want to watch for. Tick the sources it should watch, then save.
Check back tomorrow. New signals show up once a day.

Breakout posts

Every account has its own normal. 500 likes is amazing for a local bakery, but a quiet day for a national brand. That’s why we don’t compare raw numbers. We compare each post to that account’s own usual engagement.

How we spot a breakout

For each account, we work out its usual engagement rate from its posts over the last 60 days. Engagement counts likes, comments, shares, saves and similar actions, compared with the account’s number of followers.
We compare each recent post against that usual rate.
If a post is doing at least 1.5 times better than usual, it becomes a signal.

How much better is shown as a number, like 4.2x, and a label:

Label	How much better than usual	What it usually means
Emerging	1.5x to 3x	Doing well. Worth a look.
Breakout	3x to 5x	Clearly working. Study it.
Strong	5x to 8x	A standout for this account.
Viral	8x or more	Rare. Something really clicked.

Signals keep updating as a post gets more engagement, so a post can move up from Emerging to Viral over a few days.

Trending topics

When several accounts have breakout posts about the same topic at about the same time, the card shows a purple badge like “4 accounts · 3.1x” instead of the label. Hover over it to see the topic. This often means the whole industry is talking about something, which is a good moment to join in.

Low confidence

If an account hasn’t posted much lately, its “usual” is based on only a few posts and is less reliable. These signals show a Low confidence badge. They can still be useful, but take them with a pinch of salt.

Which accounts are included

Accounts you’ve added under Social Media in your Discover sources.
Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Accounts that post regularly: at least 10 posts in the last 30 days, or in the last 60 days for accounts that post less often.

Your own channels aren’t shown here. Signals are about learning from others.

Custom rules

Breakout posts tell you what’s performing. Custom rules tell you when something relevant appears, whether or not it’s popular yet.

You describe what you’re looking for in plain words. Every day, Orsa reads the new content from the sources you picked and decides whether each item really matches. There are no keywords to set up. Orsa understands what you mean, so “a competitor announcing a price change” also catches “we’re making our plans more affordable”.

Create a rule

Open your brand’s Discover sources and scroll to Signal Rules.
Click Add.
Name: a short name you’ll recognize, like “Algorithm news”. It’s shown on every match.
Criteria: describe what to watch for, in a sentence or two (see Writing good criteria).
Under Watch these sources, tick the websites, web watchlists and social accounts this rule should read.
If you picked social accounts, choose an Engagement level:
- Any: check every new post.
- Moderate: only posts that are already a breakout post (Emerging or higher).
- High: only posts doing at least 3 times better than usual.
Leave Active ticked and save.

Manage your rules

Use the switch on a rule to pause it or turn it back on. Paused rules don’t check anything.
Hover over a rule and click the pencil to edit it, or the bin to delete it. You’ll be asked to confirm, because deleting a rule also removes all of its matches.
A rule that says “No sources selected — this rule will never run” needs at least one source ticked.

Writing good criteria

Orsa is told to be strict and only flag content that clearly matches. Clear, specific criteria get you better matches.

Say what you want, not just a topic. “A competitor launching a new product or service” works better than “competitor products”.
Say what to leave out. “Price changes from competitors. Not general sales or discount codes.”
One idea per rule. Two separate things to watch? Make two rules, so each match tells you clearly why it’s there.
Use your own words. No need for keywords, quotes or special symbols.

Which content gets checked

Websites: new blog posts and articles.
Web watchlists: new mentions found by your watchlists.
Social accounts: new posts, once we’ve finished reading them. This usually happens within a day of the post being collected.
Subreddits and Reddit searches: new Reddit posts. Reddit is collected once a week, so Reddit matches arrive weekly rather than daily.

Each rule checks content collected from 10 days before you created it onwards, so a new rule starts with a little recent history instead of an empty list.

Using the Signals tab

Open Discover and click Signals. Breakout posts and rule matches are shown together, newest first. Click Load More at the bottom to see older ones.

On each card

A colored badge: the breakout label (like Strong · 5.4x), a trending topic, or the name of the rule that matched in blue. Hover over a rule badge to see why Orsa thinks it matches.
Posted shows when the content was published, and Detected when it became a signal.
An Unread dot until you open it.

What you can do

Click a card to open the post details on the side. This also marks it as read.
Click the arrow icon to open the original post or page.
Click the star to save it to your Swipe File, with an optional note on why it works.
Click the lightbulb to create a content idea from it. The idea links back to this post as inspiration, and the card then shows the ideas you made from it.
Click Mark all as read to clear everything that matches your current filters.

Filtering

The All Signals menu switches between everything, Breakout Posts only, or Custom Rules only.
Unread shows only what you haven’t opened yet.
Filters narrows by source type, account, channel or website, and by two dates:
- Posted: when the content was published.
- Detected: when it became a signal. Use Detected: Last 7 Days for “what’s new this week”.

Your filters are remembered for each brand, so they’re still set next time you visit. Click Clear all to reset them.

Notifications

When new breakout posts are found, you get one notification in the app, like “5 new signals detected”. Clicking it opens the Signals tab. If you’re in more than one brand, it’s a single notification covering all of them.

New custom rule matches send their own notification, like “3 new rule matches found”, once a day when there are any.

To turn signal notifications off, go to your profile, open Notifications and switch off Signals.

Ideas for using signals

Learn from competitors Add your 3 to 5 closest competitors. When one of them has a Breakout or Strong post, study it: the hook, the format, the topic, the timing. Save it to your Swipe File with a note, then use the lightbulb to turn it into an idea of your own.

Example: A café follows four other local cafés. One has a Strong · 6.1x Reel showing a barista pouring latte art in slow motion. The café saves it with the note “Slow-mo process shots: try with our pastry lamination”, and creates an idea for next week.

Jump on trends early Look for the purple trending badge. When several accounts break out on the same topic in the same week, there’s an opening. Post your take while people still care.

Example: A fitness coach sees “5 accounts · 3.4x” on posts about “walking pads for desk workers”. They make a carousel on 3 desk-friendly stretches the same week.

Stay on top of industry news Add the industry blogs or news sites you’d normally check by hand, and create a rule for the news that affects you.

Example: A social media agency adds a few marketing news sites and creates: Name: Algorithm news. Criteria: “News about changes to how Instagram, TikTok or LinkedIn decide which posts to show people. Not general tips or how-to articles.”

Watch for mentions and opportunities Point a rule at your web watchlists to catch people talking about your brand, your product category or a problem you solve.

Example: A wedding photographer creates: Name: Venue openings. Criteria: “A new wedding venue opening, or an existing venue reopening after a renovation, in or near Austin.”

Find out which of their posts really perform Combine both kinds. Create a rule that watches competitor accounts with the engagement level set to High, so you only hear about their posts on a specific topic that also performed.

Example: A skincare brand creates: Name: Competitor launches that landed. Criteria: “A post announcing or showing a new product.” Engagement level: High. The result is a short list of launch posts that clearly worked, ready to learn from.

Build a weekly routine Once a week, open the Signals tab, set Detected: Last 7 Days and Unread, save the best two or three to your Swipe File, turn one into an idea, then click Mark all as read.

Common questions

I don’t see any signals yet. Signals are checked once a day, so give it a day after adding sources. Breakout posts also need accounts that post regularly. An account that posts once a month won’t have enough history.

An account I follow never has breakout posts. Check that it posts at least 10 times every month or two, and that it has a public follower count. Without followers, we can’t work out its engagement. And it may simply not have had a standout post recently.

My rule isn’t matching anything.

Check the rule is switched on and has at least one source ticked.
Make the criteria a little broader. Orsa is strict on purpose.
If you set the engagement level to Moderate or High, only posts that are already performing are checked. Try Any.
New matches show up about a day after the content is collected.

I edited my rule, but old content didn’t get re-checked. Each piece of content is checked once per rule. Changes apply to new content from then on. To check recent content against new criteria, create a new rule instead.

I ticked subreddits or Reddit searches in a rule, but nothing matches from Reddit yet. Reddit posts are collected once a week, so give it up to a week. Rules only check Reddit posts collected from 10 days before the rule was created onwards.

Can I see breakout posts from my own accounts? Not on the Signals tab. It only shows accounts you follow in Discover.

Where did an older breakout post go? Breakout posts leave the list once the post is more than a month or two old. Save the ones you want to keep to your Swipe File.

Is there a limit? There’s no limit on rules, but each source you add (accounts, websites, watchlists, subreddits and Reddit searches) counts towards your plan’s Discover source limit.