Leading Payroll Technology Company - A Community Map for the Move Upmarket
How we found and scored the LinkedIn and Reddit communities where enterprise HR and finance leaders choose an Employer of Record (EOR) provider.
The numbers, from discovery.
A leading payroll technology company had strong Workforce Management (WFM) and Employer of Record (EOR) products, but little organic presence in the communities where enterprise HR, People Ops and Finance leaders compare providers.
It wanted to move upmarket, from SMB customers to companies with 200+ employees that need 10 or more EOR hires, and it wanted to get there without relying only on paid channels. It needed a data-backed view of where those buyers actually talk.
The solution
We combined automated discovery with careful human review, so the final list reflected where real decision-makers spend time, not just where the keywords appear.
Map and score LinkedIn communities
We mapped more than 100 LinkedIn groups and shortlisted 35 with high ideal-customer density, using a four-part scoring model: ICP density, competitor presence, best-practice signal and white-space opportunity.
Filter out the wrong WFM
In LinkedIn search, WFM also means call-centre workforce management. A semantic gate separated global mobility and EOR communities from that noise, and removed consultants, job seekers and low-intent members.
Qualify Reddit with AI
We ran automated Reddit discovery across 50 keyword variations, then used an AI classifier to sort each subreddit into signal or noise, keeping only those above an 80% confidence threshold.
Write the playbooks
We built two content playbooks: point-of-view authority posts for LinkedIn, and exploratory, problem-first posts for Reddit that are also easy for AI search engines to cite.
The result
The company came away with a data-backed roadmap for North America: 35 high-intent LinkedIn communities ranked on a four-part model, a qualified Reddit shortlist, and a clear content approach for each platform.
The research also showed where the opening is. The category leader holds 72% share of voice among EOR brands, yet every major EOR brand scores only neutral sentiment, between 0.5 and 0.6.
- Primary personas defined: HR and People Ops leaders and Finance Controllers at 200+ employee companies
- LinkedIn set as the main route to decision-makers, Reddit as the source of search and AI visibility
- A four-part score for every community, so the team knows where to start
- Content themes for each platform, ready to brief
Buyers want advisory depth more than platform flash. With every major EOR brand stuck at neutral sentiment, the market is open for a challenger that leads with credibility.