Wall Street's Snap ($SNAP) love-fest is reaching a crescendo as the social media company heads into its earnings report with great expectations from bank analysts and shareholders alike. Snap stock shot up more than 150% year-to-date and banks including Goldman Sachs ($GS) expect further share price gains. 

Fortunately, the alternative data should prove reassuring. First, total job postings for Snap have soared to new highs since we began tracking the data, around its IPO - they hit the 200+ mark shortly after the second quarter wrapped up (chart not shown). It's a positive sign for a company that already has analysts crowing about a growing slate of offerings that can be monetized, as well as record downloads. And the best sign that monetization is coming? It's when Sales job postings increase by nearly 60%, which is what happened at Snap since the second quarter began. 

Now, it's sales staff Snap seeks the most. The company spent a long time adding more engineers (click the 'play' button - bottom left - on our timeline) than any other role - until recently. Today, Snap's sales job postings are the most common, a sign the company has plans on continued revenue growth. 

Last but not least - the company's LinkedIn ($NSFT) Employee Headcount, which reflects 3% growth throughout the quarter - a sign that Snap isn't going to be springing any headcount-reduction surprises when it announces earnings. 

Snap is seeing expectations of -$0.21 EPS from a group of analysts tracked by Zacks Investment Research when it reports earnings July 23. But if sales and hiring keeps up, it may break through to profitability. 

About the Data: 

Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales. 

Further Reading: 

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