Social Analyst

The Social Analyst is one of the five Research analysts (the social listening analyst, with deep coverage of e-commerce platforms like Amazon). It reads how people actually talk and behave on social and commerce platforms, then synthesizes the cross-channel picture into a single output. Where the Category and Consumer Analysts draw from published reports, this analyst works from platform-native material: posts, threads, review themes, creator content, and long-form cultural commentary.

What it does

The analyst surfaces four cross-platform themes, each anchored on a tension or consumer truth and supported by platform-native blockquotes from the channels where the signal is richest. Cross-channel patterns that don't fit those themes surface alongside.

Citations are platform-native. Each blockquote traces back to actual posts, Reddit threads, Amazon review patterns, or creator content rather than generic summaries, and carries a platform tag so you can see which channel contributed which insight and where the same signal surfaces across multiple platforms.

Where to find it

Inside a brand or campaign, navigate to Research. After the Research run completes, the Social Analyst output appears as the fifth of five analyst tabs on the Research page.

How it works

When you start a Research run, all five analysts run in parallel. The Social Analyst reads the brand profile, the campaign brief if you're running campaign-scoped Research, and any attached documents. It then queries social-listening tools across the platforms below. Each platform gets multiple queries probing emotional triggers, routines, tensions, and identity-building behavior in your category.

The analyst pulls from at least three of the following five platforms based on where behavioral signal is richest for your category:

• Reddit: community discussion, critical discourse, price scrutiny, and category-specific subreddits.
• Instagram: lifestyle aesthetics, visual signals, creator content, and brand-positioning cues.
• TikTok: emotional storytelling, trends, creator culture, and how categories show up in short-form video.
• Amazon: review themes, purchase validation, complaint patterns, and gifting behaviors.
• Medium / Substack: reflective long-form analysis and cultural commentary on the category.

No single platform dominates the citations. The mix reflects where consumers in your category actually engage. Findings are synthesized into per-platform notes, then the cross-channel summary.

What you can adjust

Document attachment: before starting a Research run, select documents from the Documents page (PDFs, Word files, Markdown, CSVs, Excel sheets) to attach. The analyst treats them as high-priority input alongside the platform queries. Prior social listening reports, audience research with quoted posts, or platform-specific audits are particularly useful here.

Refine: Use the Refine button after a run to submit feedback. Refining Social re-runs only this analyst; the other four carry forward unchanged. Prior versions stay in history. See Refine.

Limits and considerations

• Public posts only. The analyst sees what's publicly indexed on each platform. Private accounts, closed communities, and gated forum content are not readable.
• Platform indexing varies. Reddit and Amazon reviews are well-indexed for English-language content. TikTok's discoverability is shallower for niche categories. Instagram coverage depends heavily on hashtag and creator surfacing. The output flags which platforms returned thinner signal for your category.
• Snapshot, not real-time. The signals are read at run time and reflect what was visible then. Cultural moments that broke after the run may not appear. Re-run periodically for time-sensitive work.
• English-first source bias. The social listening leans English-language. For non-English markets, the platform mix typically shifts (less Medium/Substack, more region-specific platforms when available) but the bias remains.
• Beta software. Validate cited posts and the framing of any sensitive thread before briefing teams or committing budgets.