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Use when evaluating whether a trend is relevant, identifying emerging trends, or advising on trend participation timing.
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Based on SOC occupation classification
Use when analyzing why content performed well or poorly, doing post-mortem analysis, or comparing content performance.
Use when analyzing, evaluating, or generating hooks for short-form video or text posts.
Use when you need to understand platform-specific conventions, algorithm behavior, content formats, or audience expectations for Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X, or LinkedIn.
Use when interpreting social media content — comments, captions, replies, DMs — and you need to understand tone, subtext, or cultural context beyond the literal words.
Use when adapting content from one platform to another, or advising on multi-platform content strategy.
Use when writing in a creator's voice, analyzing a creator's style, or maintaining consistency across content.
| name | trend-radar |
| description | Use when evaluating whether a trend is relevant, identifying emerging trends, or advising on trend participation timing. |
Every social media trend follows a lifecycle. Knowing where a trend sits in that lifecycle is more valuable than knowing the trend exists.
Emergence — small creators, niche communities. The format is still rough and evolving. Few people have seen it. This is where trend-spotters live.
Growth — mid-tier creators adopt it. The format solidifies into a repeatable template. Daily volume is climbing. This is the best time to participate — algorithmic boost is highest, the audience isn't tired of it yet.
Peak — everyone's doing it, including brand accounts. Your non-social-media friends have seen it. Maximum visibility but diminishing returns for new entries.
Saturation — "enough with this trend" comments appear. Engagement rates on new entries drop. Late entries feel like they're behind.
Ironic revival — parodies, meta-commentary, "remember when we all did this?" Can be a second window for creators who do meta-humor well.
Most trends spend 1-3 weeks in the growth-to-peak window. Some (especially sound-driven TikTok trends) move faster. YouTube topic trends move slower and last longer.
Every trend has a template (the repeatable structure) and instances (specific executions). To participate well, extract the template — what stays the same across every version? What's the fill-in-the-blank?
A creator should fill the template with their own niche and voice, not copy someone else's instance. The template is the trend. The instance is the creator's contribution.
Not every trend fits every creator. Before participating, ask:
A fitness creator doing a cooking trend needs a fitness angle. A finance creator doing a dance trend needs to be funny enough to pull it off. If the connection is forced, skip it.
Early participation (growth phase) gets the most algorithmic boost. Peak phase still works but needs a strong unique angle to stand out. Saturation is too late unless you're doing meta-commentary or parody.
Rule of thumb: if you have to ask "is this still trending?" — you're probably late.
Load the relevant platform reference from {repo}/references/platforms/{platform}.md (read .root for repo path). Key differences: TikTok trends are often sound-driven, Instagram trends are format/template-driven, YouTube trends are topic/challenge-driven and move slower. X trends are conversation-driven and move fastest but burn out within hours.
