Purpose
Turn the noise of social platforms, news cycles, and cultural chatter into a ranked shortlist of trends this specific brand can credibly create content around — each scored for audience relevance and trend timing, so editorial teams jump on the right moments and skip the ones that will backfire or fade before publishing.
When to Use
Invoke this skill when the user asks to:
- Find trending topics their brand can create content about
- Decide whether a specific trend, meme, or news story is worth jumping on
- Build a reactive or newsjacking content calendar
- Identify culturally relevant angles for social, blog, or video content
- Prioritize which of several trending moments to act on first
- Refresh a stale content pipeline with timely, high-attention topics
Inputs Required
Before starting, collect:
- Brand/niche: What the brand does and the space it plays in
- Target audience: Who they're trying to reach — demographics, interests, platform habits
- Primary platforms: Where content will publish (TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube, blog, newsletter)
- Brand voice/boundaries: Tone and any topics that are off-limits (politics, competitors, sensitive subjects)
- Content cadence: How fast they can produce and ship (same-day, 48 hours, weekly)
- Recent performance: Any topics or formats that recently over- or under-performed
If recent performance or brand boundaries are missing, note reasonable assumptions and flag any recommendations that carry brand-safety risk.
Instructions
Step 1: Scan Across 6 Signal Categories
Generate 12 candidate topics total, drawn from these sources. For each, capture the raw signal and where it's surfacing.
Category 1 — Platform-Native Trends (2–3 topics) Sounds, formats, memes, hashtags, and challenges gaining traction on the brand's primary platforms.
- Note the platform of origin and whether it's still rising or already saturated
- Prioritize formats the brand can produce within its cadence
Category 2 — News & Current Events (2–3 topics) Stories in the news cycle that intersect the brand's niche or audience interests.
- Distinguish evergreen-adjacent news (durable) from breaking news (fast-decaying)
- Flag any story where a brand angle would read as opportunistic
Category 3 — Industry & Niche Conversations (2 topics) Debates, product launches, controversies, or shifts happening inside the brand's own industry.
- These carry high credibility because the brand has native authority to speak
- Note who's driving the conversation (creators, competitors, publications)
Category 4 — Cultural & Seasonal Moments (2 topics) Holidays, awareness days, awards seasons, recurring cultural events, or building anticipation moments.
- Note lead time — the best cultural content ships before peak, not during
- Avoid over-farmed moments unless the brand has a genuinely fresh angle
Category 5 — Search & Interest Spikes (1–2 topics) Rising queries, questions, and curiosity gaps the audience is actively looking to answer.
- Best for evergreen-with-a-timely-hook content (blog, newsletter, YouTube)
- Frame as the specific question the audience is asking
Category 6 — Adjacent Audience Trends (1 topic) A trend from a neighboring community or interest that the brand's audience also participates in.
- Expands reach beyond the core niche
- Note the bridge — why this audience overlaps
Step 2: Score Each Topic
For all 12 topics, assign three scores (1–10) and a composite:
- Audience Relevance: How directly this matters to the defined target audience
- Trend Velocity: Rising / Peaking / Declining — plus whether the brand's cadence can ship before it fades
- Angle Viability: Whether the brand can add something credible and non-generic, or would just be adding noise
- Composite priority: Weighted toward relevance and viability over raw popularity
Flag any topic where jumping on it carries brand-safety, tone, or opportunism risk.
Step 3: Rank and Build Action Plans for the Top 5
Order all 12 by composite priority. For the top 5, add:
- Why now: The window and why it closes
- Recommended format: Specific to platform (e.g., "15-sec TikTok using the trending sound" not "video")
- The hook: An actual opening line, caption, or headline — written, not described
- Brand connection: The one-sentence bridge from the trend to what the brand sells or stands for
- Ship-by date: The deadline after which the moment is stale
Step 4: Trends to Skip
Name 1–2 candidate topics the brand should deliberately pass on, with the reason (fading too fast, off-brand, saturated, or brand-safety risk).
Output Format
- Structure: 6 signal categories with candidate topics → scoring table for all 12 → top 5 action plans → skip list
- Length: 1,000–1,400 words
- Format: Scoring presented as a table; action plans as structured bullets; scannable throughout
- Sections: Signal scan (6 categories) → Scoring table → Top 5 action plans → Trends to skip
- Tone: Editorial strategist — fast-moving, opinionated, brand-safety-aware; comfortable saying "skip this one"
Quality Checklist
Before delivering output, verify:
- [ ] Exactly 12 topics are generated across the 6 categories
- [ ] Every topic has all three scores plus a composite priority
- [ ] Trend velocity is labeled Rising / Peaking / Declining — not left generic
- [ ] Top 5 hooks are written out as actual copy, not described in the abstract
- [ ] Each top-5 plan includes a specific ship-by date tied to the trend's window
- [ ] At least one topic is flagged as a deliberate skip with a stated reason
Notes
- The single most common mistake is jumping on a peaking trend the brand can't ship before it dies — velocity scoring exists to catch this
- Trends the brand has native authority to comment on (Category 3) almost always outperform borrowed cultural moments (Category 4)
- Because trend data is time-sensitive, note when the scan reflects a general read of the current landscape versus live platform data the user should verify before shipping
- Recommended workflow: run this scan on a fixed cadence (weekly for most teams, daily for fast-moving newsrooms) and keep a running skip list to avoid re-evaluating dead trends
How to use this skill
This file is a Claude Code skill in Anthropic's standard format — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top.
Installing in Claude Code:
~/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects)<your-project>/.claude/skills/<folder-name>/SKILL.md— auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills)
Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register.
Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:
- Drag this file into a new chat, or copy and paste its contents
- Send your task or request as your next message — the AI will apply the skill where it fits
For Claude Code skill details: https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills