--- name: sales-painonsocial description: "PainOnSocial platform help — AI-powered Reddit pain point discovery with frequency/severity scoring, evidence-backed insights with real quotes and links, AI solution generation, 800+ profession-based community recommendations. Use when PainOnSocial scans aren't surfacing relevant pain points for your niche, you're unsure which subreddits to select for your target audience, pain point scores seem off and you can't tell which problems are worth solving, you want to validate a SaaS idea using real Reddit conversations before building, you're looking for a GummySearch replacement for Reddit pain point research, or you need to compare PainOnSocial vs Reddinbox vs SparkToro for idea validation. Do NOT use for social listening strategy across tools (use /sales-social-listening) or choosing between social listening platforms (use /sales-social-listening)." argument-hint: "[describe what you need help with in PainOnSocial — e.g., 'which subreddits should I scan for my niche' or 'pain points all seem low-severity']" license: MIT version: 1.0.0 tags: [sales, social-listening, reddit, idea-validation, platform] --- # PainOnSocial Platform Help ## Step 1 — Gather context If `references/learnings.md` exists, read it first for accumulated platform knowledge. Ask the user: 1. **What do you need help with?** - A) Choosing which subreddits to scan for my niche - B) Pain point scores don't seem right / results are noisy - C) Generating better solution ideas from discovered pain points - D) Understanding pricing / deciding between Starter and Professional - E) Comparing PainOnSocial to other Reddit research tools - F) Something else — describe it 2. **What's your goal?** - A) Validate a SaaS idea before building - B) Find gaps in an existing market - C) Discover feature requests for my existing product - D) Research a niche I'm considering entering - E) Build a content strategy around real audience pain 3. **Current setup?** - A) Haven't used PainOnSocial yet — evaluating - B) On the free trial - C) Starter plan ($19/mo) - D) Professional plan ($49/mo) **If the user's request already provides most of this context, skip directly to the relevant step.** ## Step 2 — Route or answer directly - Social listening strategy or tool comparison → `/sales-social-listening [question]` - Audience intelligence / where your audience hangs out → `/sales-sparktoro [question]` - AI-synthesized audience research across multiple platforms → `/sales-reddinbox [question]` - Reddit keyword monitoring with alerts → `/sales-syften [question]` or `/sales-keymentions [question]` - Reddit engagement / auto-reply → `/sales-keymentions [question]` Otherwise, answer directly from the platform reference below. ## Step 3 — PainOnSocial platform reference **Read `references/platform-guide.md`** for the full platform reference — capabilities, pricing, workflow tips, community selection strategy, and comparison with alternatives. Answer the user's question using only the relevant section. Don't dump the full reference. ## Step 4 — Actionable guidance Based on the user's specific question: 1. **Community selection** — help them pick the right subreddits for their ICP using the 800+ recommendations + manual research 2. **Score interpretation** — explain what frequency/severity scores mean and how to filter actionable problems from noise 3. **Idea validation workflow** — design a scan strategy (timeframe, subreddit mix, iteration) 4. **Tool comparison** — position PainOnSocial vs alternatives for their specific use case If you discover a gotcha, workaround, or tip not covered in `references/learnings.md`, append it there. ## Gotchas *Best-effort from research — review these, especially items about plan-gated features and integration gotchas that may be outdated.* - **No API, no webhooks, no Zapier.** PainOnSocial is entirely UI-driven — you cannot automate scans or export data programmatically. PDF export is Professional-only. - **Reddit-only.** Does not scan X, LinkedIn, HN, or any other platform. If you need multi-platform coverage, pair with Syften or Octolens. - **Scan limits are daily, not monthly.** Starter gets 5 scans/day, Professional 15/day. Unused scans don't roll over. - **2 subreddits per scan on Starter.** You can't cast a wide net on the cheap plan — either upgrade or run multiple scans. - **AI scoring is opaque.** Frequency and severity scores (0-100) are generated by AI without transparency on methodology. Validate scores against the evidence quotes before acting on them. - **No historical archive.** Scans analyze a timeframe (7/30/90 days) of current Reddit data — there's no persistent database of past scans unless you export PDFs. - **Solution ideas are AI-generated guesses.** Treat them as brainstorming prompts, not validated business plans. ## Related skills - `/sales-social-listening` — Social listening strategy — brand monitoring, sentiment, competitive intel, tool comparison - `/sales-reddinbox` — Reddinbox platform help — AI audience intelligence across Reddit, X, Bluesky, HN, YouTube, Facebook, intent scoring, market briefs - `/sales-sparktoro` — SparkToro platform help — audience intelligence (where audiences spend attention), persona development, channel discovery - `/sales-keymentions` — KeyMentions platform help — Reddit keyword monitoring with AI comment generation and auto-publish - `/sales-syften` — Syften platform help — AI-filtered keyword monitoring across 15+ community platforms, REST API, webhooks - `/sales-threadlytics` — Threadlytics platform help ��� Reddit-specific monitoring, Share of Voice, opportunity scoring - `/sales-do` — Not sure which skill to use? The router matches any sales objective to the right skill. Install: `npx skills add sales-skills/sales --skill sales-do` ## Examples ### Example 1: Choose subreddits for a project management SaaS idea **User says**: "I want to validate a project management tool for freelancers. Which subreddits should I scan?" **Skill does**: 1. Suggests profession-based communities: r/freelance, r/freelanceWriters, r/graphic_design, r/webdev 2. Adds tool-specific communities: r/projectmanagement, r/productivity, r/Notion 3. Recommends scanning in batches (pain-specific vs audience-specific) 4. Suggests 30-day timeframe for first scan to get a representative sample **Result**: Targeted subreddit list with scanning strategy ### Example 2: Pain point scores seem meaningless **User says**: "Every pain point comes back with a score of 60-70. I can't tell which ones are actually worth pursuing." **Skill does**: 1. Explains that mid-range scores often mean broad/generic problems — look for high-severity outliers 2. Recommends narrowing subreddit selection to more specific communities 3. Suggests using the evidence quotes (upvotes, reply depth) as a manual signal quality check 4. Advises comparing across multiple timeframes (7d vs 90d) to find persistent vs trending pain **Result**: Framework for interpreting scores beyond the raw number ### Example 3: Compare PainOnSocial vs Reddinbox for idea validation **User says**: "Should I use PainOnSocial or Reddinbox to validate my startup idea?" **Skill does**: 1. Explains PainOnSocial is pain-point-first (scores problems by frequency/severity, generates solution ideas) 2. Explains Reddinbox is audience-first (natural language queries, intent scoring, market briefs, multi-platform) 3. Notes PainOnSocial is Reddit-only and cheaper ($19/mo) vs Reddinbox multi-platform ($39/mo) 4. Recommends PainOnSocial for early-stage "what problem should I solve" and Reddinbox for "do people want what I'm building" **Result**: Clear decision framework based on user's stage ## Troubleshooting ### Scans return generic/obvious pain points **Symptom**: Results are broad problems everyone already knows about (e.g., "project management is hard") **Cause**: Subreddits selected are too large/general (e.g., r/startups, r/entrepreneur) **Solution**: Select smaller, niche communities where people discuss specific workflows. Use profession-based recommendations. Try r/SaaS or r/microsaas instead of r/startups. Narrow the timeframe to 7 days for fresher, more specific complaints. ### Running out of daily scans too quickly **Symptom**: Hit the 5-scan limit (Starter) before finishing research **Cause**: Running exploratory scans across many communities instead of planning first **Solution**: Plan your subreddit selections before scanning. Use Reddit's native search first to verify a community is active and relevant. Group related subreddits into a single scan (2 per scan on Starter, 5 on Professional). Consider upgrading to Professional ($49/mo) if doing heavy research. ### Pain points don't match what I see on Reddit manually **Symptom**: Browsing Reddit reveals complaints PainOnSocial didn't surface **Cause**: Scan timeframe may not cover the period you're browsing; AI deduplication may be merging distinct problems; or the specific thread is in a subreddit you didn't scan **Solution**: Verify the timeframe matches your manual browsing window. Try scanning the specific subreddit where you found the complaint. Check if the pain point appears under a different label in PainOnSocial's deduplication (look at evidence quotes). For very recent threads (last 24h), the 7-day scan window may not have indexed them yet.