Trend scouting

The rule first: steal structure, never content

Research is for finding shapes that work: hook patterns, pacing, formats, angles people are fighting over. It isn't for finding posts to paraphrase. A repackaged take reads as a repackaged take, and the person you copied already posted the better version. Every prompt below ends in your material or your stance, never theirs.

The walkthrough

1. Cluster the conversation in your niche. Name the niche and Stanley scans X, then hands back clustered conversations instead of a pile of posts.

   What's moving in the indie SaaS niche on X right now? Cluster the conversations and tell me which clusters are still climbing and which are already tired.

   Follow up on whichever cluster you hold an actual opinion about. If nothing in the list provokes you, you don't have a post yet, and that's a useful result too.

2. Tear down a video that worked. Paste a YouTube, Reels, or X video link and you get structure, pacing, hook analysis, and the transcript.

   Tear down this video: [link]. Walk me through the structure, where the pacing shifts, how the hook is built, and give me the transcript.

3. Audit a creator in your lane. Stanley baselines their recent public performance and format choices.

   Run a creator audit on @handle. What formats do they post, which ones do their numbers favor, and how often do they show up?

   You're looking for the machinery, the format mix and cadence and hook habits, not for sentences to reuse.

4. Bridge to a draft, your voice only. Two ways in. Take a stance on a cluster from step 1:

   Cluster two from that scan: I think the consensus is wrong because [your reason]. Draft an X post arguing my side, in my words, with no reference to anyone else's post.

   Or apply a torn-down structure to your own material:

   The hook in that teardown opens on a specific number and then reverses expectations. Use that shape on my topic, [topic], and draft it as a tweet.

5. Iterate, then park it. Stanley returns the draft wrapped in a platform tag like <tweet>, and you should keep the wrapper when you send edits back. Once it reads like you, tell him to save it as a draft or schedule it into a slot.

Where things land

Research replies live in the conversation and nowhere else, so nothing is saved until you say so. A draft you ask Stanley to save or schedule becomes a calendar item, and he'll do that without asking because scheduling is reversible. Publishing live always waits for your explicit yes. Character and media limits per platform are in recipe 09.

When it breaks

The trend scan comes back vague. Your niche is too broad. "Marketing" is a hundred niches wearing one name; ask about "cold email for agencies" instead and the clusters sharpen.

The teardown fails on a link. Stanley reads YouTube, Reels, and X video links, and the video has to be public. A private or deleted video gives him nothing to work with, so find another example of the same format.

The audit comes back thin. Creator audits cover public accounts. If the account is private or barely posts, pick a louder creator in the same lane.

The draft sounds like the person you studied. That's the trend-chasing trap closing on you. Tell Stanley to strip anything that echoes the source, keep the structure, and rewrite from your angle. If it still reads borrowed, restate your take cold in a fresh message and have him draft from that alone.

Stanley isn't answering at all. Connection trouble is covered in recipe 01.