Thread discovery explained

Before you can seed a citation, you need to find the right threads. Not every Reddit post or Quora question is worth responding to: discovery helps you investigate relevant sources and opportunities to contribute.

Two discovery methods

Outrigger uses two complementary methods to find citation-worthy threads:

1. SERP scanning

This is the primary method. Outrigger searches Google for your keywords and collects Reddit, Quora, and Facebook Group threads that appear in the results.

A high-ranking thread may be relevant to investigate, but its Google position does not prove that an AI system retrieves or cites it. Inspect the actual sampled answer and source URLs.

For each keyword, Outrigger runs multiple search variations:

• site:reddit.com {keyword}
• {keyword} reddit
• site:quora.com {keyword}
• {keyword} facebook group

This catches threads that rank for your keyword across all three platforms.

2. AI probing

This is the secret weapon. Outrigger sends buying-intent prompts to AI models (primarily Perplexity, which returns source URLs) and extracts the threads being cited.

This finds threads that SERP scanning might miss: threads that don't rank highly in Google but are being cited by AI models through other paths.

Together, SERP scanning and AI probing give you comprehensive coverage of threads that matter for AI visibility.

The opportunity score

Every discovered thread gets an opportunity score from 0-100, calculated from four signals:

Relevance (35% weight)

How closely does this thread relate to your brand and keywords? A thread titled "Best CRM for small agencies" is highly relevant if you sell a CRM. A thread about "CRM industry news" is less relevant even if it mentions CRMs.

Outrigger's AI reads the thread title, body, and top comments to assess relevance against your brand brief.

Google authority (25% weight)

Where does this thread rank in Google? Position 1 = maximum authority. Position 50 = minimal. Threads in the top 5 are cited most frequently by AI models.

Recency (20% weight)

When was the thread posted? Recent threads are more valuable:

• Under 7 days: 100 points
• Under 30 days: 80 points
• Under 90 days: 50 points
• Under 1 year: 30 points
• Older: 10 points

Older threads can still be valuable if they rank well and are still active, but fresh threads give you the biggest window of opportunity.

Engagement (20% weight)

How active is the thread? Comment count is the primary signal:

• 100+ comments: 100 points
• 20-100 comments: 75 points
• 5-20 comments: 50 points
• Under 5 comments: 20 points

High-engagement threads are both more visible to AI models and more likely to have your response seen and upvoted by real users.

Automatic thread routing

Based on the opportunity score, threads are automatically routed:

You can always override the automatic routing. A thread scored at 35 might be perfect for your specific niche: trust your judgment.

Deduplication

Outrigger automatically deduplicates threads. If the same Reddit post is discovered through both SERP scanning and AI probing, it appears once in your queue with both discovery sources noted.

Deduplication uses a content hash of the normalized title and URL, so the same thread won't clutter your queue even if it's found multiple times across different keywords.

Discovery scheduling

Discovery runs can be triggered two ways:

• Scheduled: Availability and timing depend on the workspace's enabled settings. Check the visible schedule and status rather than assuming a fixed twice-weekly run.
• Manual: Click "Run Scan" in Citations to trigger an immediate discovery run for the current client.

Check the selected keywords and run status. Completion time varies with scope and source availability.

In Outrigger

The thread queue in Citations shows all discovered threads with their opportunity scores, platforms, and status. Filter by score, platform, intent, or date to find your best targets.