Content Trend Researcher
A comprehensive content research and analysis skill designed for content creators, marketers, and publishers who need to create high-performing content based on real-world trends and user intent signals.
What This Skill Does
This skill acts as your content intelligence system, analyzing trends across 10+ platforms to help you:
- Identify trending topics - Find what's gaining traction across platforms
- Understand user intent - Analyze search patterns and engagement signals
- Discover content gaps - Find underserved topics with high demand
- Generate outlines - Create data-driven article structures optimized for engagement
- Platform-specific insights - Understand where different content types perform best
Capabilities
- Google Trends - Search volume trends, rising queries, regional interest
- Google Analytics - Traffic patterns, user behavior, conversion signals
- Substack - Newsletter trends, subscriber growth patterns
- Medium - Article performance, tags, claps, reading time
- Reddit - Subreddit activity, upvotes, comment engagement, trending discussions
- LinkedIn - Professional content trends, engagement metrics
- X (Twitter) - Viral topics, hashtag performance, thread engagement
- Blogs - Top-ranking blog posts, backlink profiles
- Podcasts - Episode popularity, download trends, ratings
- YouTube - Video performance, view trends, watch time, engagement
User Intent Analysis
- Informational intent - "How to", "What is", "Guide to"
- Commercial intent - "Best", "Review", "Comparison", "vs"
- Transactional intent - "Buy", "Pricing", "Discount"
- Navigational intent - Brand searches, specific resource lookups
- Problem-solving intent - "Fix", "Troubleshoot", "Solution"
Content Strategy Intelligence
- Optimal content formats per platform
- Best publishing times based on engagement data
- Headline formulas with proven performance
- Content length recommendations
- Topic clustering and pillar content identification
Outline Generation
Creates comprehensive article outlines including:
- SEO-optimized titles with user intent matching
- H2/H3 structure based on search patterns
- Key points to cover from top-performing content
- Suggested word count and content depth
- Internal linking opportunities
- Call-to-action recommendations
- Multimedia suggestions (images, videos, infographics)
When to Use This Skill
Before creating any content:
- Research trending topics in your niche
- Validate content ideas with data
- Find content gaps competitors are missing
- Understand what format works best for your topic
For content strategy:
- Build editorial calendars based on trends
- Identify pillar content opportunities
- Plan content clusters around hot topics
- Optimize existing content for better performance
For competitive analysis:
- See what's working for competitors
- Find underserved audiences
- Discover new content angles
- Benchmark your performance
Example Invocations
Basic Topic Research
@content-trend-researcher
Topic: "AI automation for small businesses"
Platforms: Google Trends, Reddit, LinkedIn, YouTube
Intent: Informational
@content-trend-researcher
Topic: "Remote work productivity tools"
Platforms: ALL
Include: User intent breakdown, content gap analysis, 3 article outlines
Target audience: SaaS founders and product managers
Competitive Content Research
@content-trend-researcher
Topic: "Email marketing strategies 2025"
Platforms: Medium, Substack, Top blogs
Analyze: Top 10 performing articles
Output: Outline that fills content gaps
@content-trend-researcher
Topic: "Sustainable fashion"
Platforms: Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Blogs
Output: Platform-specific content ideas + 1 long-form blog outline
Provide the following information:
{
"topic": "Your main topic or keyword",
"platforms": ["Google Trends", "Reddit", "YouTube", "etc."],
"intent_focus": "informational|commercial|transactional|all",
"target_audience": "Description of your audience",
"content_type": "blog|article|newsletter|video script|social post",
"analysis_depth": "quick|standard|deep",
"number_of_outlines": 1-5
}
The skill returns a comprehensive research report:
{
"topic_overview": {
"search_volume": "Monthly search volume estimate",
"trend_direction": "rising|stable|declining",
"competition_level": "low|medium|high",
"opportunity_score": 1-100
},
"platform_insights": [
{
"platform": "Platform name",
"trending_content": [],
"engagement_metrics": {},
"best_practices": [],
"content_format": "Recommended format"
}
],
"user_intent_analysis": {
"primary_intent": "Intent type",
"intent_breakdown": {
"informational": "percentage",
"commercial": "percentage",
"transactional": "percentage"
},
"top_questions": [],
"search_patterns": []
},
"content_gaps": [
{
"gap": "Description of underserved topic",
"opportunity": "Why this is valuable",
"difficulty": "low|medium|high"
}
],
"article_outlines": [
{
"title": "SEO-optimized title",
"subtitle": "Engaging subtitle",
"target_word_count": 1500-2000,
"structure": [
{
"heading": "H2 heading",
"subheadings": ["H3", "H3"],
"key_points": [],
"research_notes": "Data supporting this section"
}
],
"seo_keywords": [],
"internal_links": [],
"multimedia_suggestions": [],
"cta": "Suggested call-to-action"
}
],
"recommendations": {
"publishing_schedule": "Best days/times",
"content_format": "Recommended format",
"promotion_strategy": "Where to share",
"follow_up_topics": []
}
}
Best Practices
- Be specific with topics - "AI for small business accounting" beats "AI"
- Choose relevant platforms - Where your audience actually consumes content
- Analyze intent carefully - Match your content to what users want
- Look for gaps - The best content fills needs others miss
- Use data to validate - Don't assume, verify with trend data
- Update regularly - Trends change; research monthly for active topics
Limitations
- Real-time data requires API access to platforms (not included in skill)
- Some platforms limit data access (e.g., X API changes)
- Search volume estimates are approximations
- Trend data represents past performance, not future guarantees
- Platform-specific metrics depend on data availability
Integration with Other Skills
This skill works great combined with:
- SEO optimization skills - Use outlines for optimized content
- Social media scheduling skills - Plan promotion around trends
- Email newsletter skills - Create newsletters based on trending topics
- Competitive analysis skills - Deeper competitor research
- Content calendar skills - Schedule content based on trend timing
Technical Notes
- Uses trend analysis algorithms to identify rising topics
- Intent classification based on keyword patterns and SERP analysis
- Outline generation follows proven content frameworks (AIDA, PAS, etc.)
- Platform insights based on engagement metrics and algorithm signals
- Content gap identification through comparative analysis
Privacy & Ethics
- Does not access private user data
- Uses publicly available trend data and metrics
- Respects platform terms of service
- No scraping of paywalled or private content
- Trend analysis is statistical, not surveillance
Version: 1.0.0
Last Updated: October 21, 2025
Compatibility: Claude.ai, Claude Code, Claude API (with Code Execution Tool)
anthropics/skills180k
