This is the fourth tutorial in the Getting Started with Engaggit series. In the previous tutorial, you connected your AI provider. Now comes the most important step in the whole setup — the one your results depend on: creating your first Interest.
What Is an "Interest"?
An Interest is Engaggit's word for a complete search-and-analysis configuration. It bundles everything the app needs to find, evaluate, and respond to conversations on your behalf:
- What to look for — keywords and (optionally) specific subreddits
- Which posts to keep — a plain-English description of the posts that matter to you
- What to offer — a description of your product or expertise
- Where and when to search — which communities, over what time window
The posts you're looking for can serve two purposes: they might be leads — people actively looking for a solution you can help with — or they might be niche/demand signals — discussions that show you a market gap, a growing topic, or demand you didn't know existed. One Interest can be tuned for either.
You can create multiple Interests — one per product, per audience, or per campaign. Each runs independently, so you could have "SaaS CRM Leads" and "Agency Clients" scanning in parallel, each with its own rules and its own feed.
The Interest is the brain of the whole app. Get it right and you'll get sharp, relevant leads. Rush it and you'll get noise. So let's do it properly.
Anatomy of an Interest
Here's what a finished Interest looks like. Don't worry about the details yet — we'll walk through each field:
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Interest Name: "SaaS CRM Leads" │
├────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ What I'm looking for: │
│ "People asking for CRM solutions, │
│ comparing CRMs, or unhappy with │
│ their current CRM" │
├────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ What to show in the draft: │
│ "A lightweight CRM for small teams that │
│ integrates with Slack. Free under 5." │
├────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Search Rules: keywords, subreddits, │
│ time range (covered in the next tutorial) │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Four inputs, one purpose: give the AI enough context to find the right conversations and to know exactly how you can help.
Step-by-Step: Creating Your First Interest
Step 1: Click "Add Interest"
You'll find Add Interest in the left sidebar (you may have seen it during onboarding too). A form opens with the fields from the diagram above.
Step 2: Name Your Interest
Give it a name you'll recognize instantly — something like "Developer Tool Leads", "Agency Clients", or "SaaS CRM Leads".
This name appears on every matched post in your feed and in your notifications, so a descriptive name helps you tell your Interests apart at a glance. It's just for you — the AI doesn't use it for analysis.
Step 3: Fill in "What I'm looking for"
This is the most important field on the form. In plain English, describe the posts you want to find. Remember — Engaggit searches posts, so think about what those posts look like:
- What are people asking for in the posts you want to catch?
- What problems or frustrations do they describe?
- What makes a post a good fit for you?
Example (SaaS CRM):
"People asking for CRM recommendations, comparing CRMs like HubSpot or Salesforce, complaining about their current CRM being too complex or expensive, or looking for a CRM that integrates with Slack."
Notice what this description does: it captures intent (asking for recommendations, comparing), pain (too complex, too expensive), and context (wants Slack integration). That's the recipe.
Step 4: Fill in "What to show in the draft"
The app calls this field "What to show in the draft" — you can think of it as your "What can I offer". It's where you describe your solution, who it's for, and what makes it different.
This description is used twice: the AI reads it to judge whether you can genuinely help with a given post (which feeds into the relevance score), and it uses it to write your comment draft. The more specific you are, the better both results.
Example (SaaS CRM):
"A simple CRM built for small teams. It integrates natively with Slack so you never leave your chat. More affordable than HubSpot and easier to set up. Free for teams under 5."
Now save the Interest — you're done with the hardest part.
Why These Descriptions Matter
The AI doesn't guess. It reads your two descriptions and evaluates every post against them:
- "What I'm looking for" drives the relevance score (0–10). A detailed description helps the AI recognize real opportunities and ignore look-alike noise.
- "What to show in the draft" drives draft quality. When the AI knows what you offer — and who it's for — it writes replies that actually fit the conversation.
The relationship is simple: better descriptions = better relevance scores = better drafts = better leads.
This is also why we keep repeating it: most users who are disappointed with Engaggit's results aren't using a bad tool — they're using a vague Interest. Ten minutes spent here saves you hours of feed-cleaning later.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Writing a good Interest takes a little practice. Here are the two most common mistakes, and how to avoid them:
- ❌ Too vague: "People who need my software" ✓ Specific: "Teams looking for an alternative to Asana"
- ❌ Too salesy: "People who want to buy my product" ✓ Problem-focused: "People frustrated with complex project management tools"
And a third, subtler one:
- ❌ Just keywords: "CRM, sales, leads" ✓ Full sentences: "Sales teams and founders looking for CRM recommendations, comparing HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive."
Keywords have their place — they belong in the search rules, which we cover next. But the "What I'm looking for" field needs real language, because that's what the AI understands.
What's Next
Your first Interest exists, but it's still missing its search rules — the keywords, subreddit filters, and time range that tell Engaggit where to look on Reddit. That's the last piece before your first scan.
Next tutorial → Building Search Rules — turn your Interest into a real search that finds high-intent conversations and filters out noise.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What's the difference between an Interest and a search rule?
An Interest is the whole configuration — name, descriptions, and rules. A search rule is one part of it: the keywords, subreddits, and time range used to query Reddit. One Interest can have multiple search rules, each independent of the others.
2. How many Interests can I have?
The free tier allows 1 Interest. PRO (with a 14-day free trial) gives you unlimited Interests, plus more keywords and subreddits per rule. One Interest is enough to test the app properly.
3. Do I need to know my keywords before creating an Interest?
No — that's the next tutorial's job. But you do need at least one keyword in your search rule before the form lets you save, so just add one obvious term for now (like your product category) and refine it later.
4. Can I edit an Interest after saving it?
Yes, anytime. Click the Interest name in the sidebar, then the edit (pencil) icon. You can change the name, descriptions, and search rules without losing any scanned history.
5. Does the Interest name affect results?
No. It's purely a label for you — it appears on posts in your feed and in notifications so you can tell your Interests apart. Use a name you'll recognize.
6. Can I create two Interests for the same audience?
Yes — and it's a great way to A/B test. Create two Interests with slightly different "What I'm looking for" descriptions, run both for a week, and compare which one surfaces better-quality leads.
Engaggit is a privacy-first, AI-powered Reddit lead generation app. It runs on your machine, keeps your data to yourself, and helps you never miss a relevant conversation again.