Use case
Catch the trend while it is still a signal
A proprietary trends database plus live platform queries, so rising themes reach you as data instead of as someone else’s newsletter.
The short answer
Waldo detects trends by combining a proprietary trends database with daily tracked social activity and live Discover queries across Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, X, and YouTube. Ask for category trends over MCP or cron the API, and you get rising themes with the posts behind them, not a hunch.
The job to be done
Strategists are expected to see it coming, but the tooling points backwards. Trend reports arrive quarterly and describe last quarter. Newsletters surface what has already peaked, because that is what is visible enough to write about. Scrolling TikTok at night is real research, but it is not a method, and it cannot be handed to a teammate or an agent.
The actual job is continuous: watch the categories that matter, tell a spike from momentum, and attach evidence strong enough to move a skeptical client before the trend is priced in. By the time a theme headlines a conference talk, the interesting decision has already passed.
How Waldo does it
Watch the category, not your feed
MCP: category_trends returns rising themes for a tracked category from Waldo’s proprietary trends database, grounded in daily social activity rather than one analyst’s reading list.
Check the conversation underneath
GET /audiences/{id}/conversations shows whether a theme is a real audience on the move or three creators being loud. Clustered verbatims give the texture that separates momentum from noise.
Go live on a hunch
Discover endpoints query Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, X, and YouTube at request time, so a Tuesday hunch gets tested Tuesday instead of waiting for someone else to publish about it.
Automate the watchtower
Cron the API, diff this week’s themes against last week’s, and push the movers to Slack. Events data adds what is coming up, so the note says not just what is rising but when to act on it.
The endpoints
MCP: category_trendsRising themes per category, linked to the posts driving them/audiences/{id}/conversationsThe conversation underneath a trend, clustered dailyDiscover endpointsLive platform queries to test a hunch the same dayQuestions teams ask
Where does the trend data come from?
From Waldo’s proprietary trends database, built on daily tracked social activity plus events data. Every trend links back to the posts driving it, so you can inspect the evidence rather than trust a score.
How early is early?
Tracked categories refresh every 24 hours, so a theme that starts moving on Monday shows in Tuesday’s pull. Discover queries are live, which is as early as public data allows.
Can an agent do the watching?
Yes. The MCP server exposes the same trend endpoints to Claude, ChatGPT, and Copilot, so a scheduled agent can scan categories weekly and write the movers note itself, sources included.
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