/run-organic-social-platform-research

name: run-organic-social-platform-research
description: >-
  Researches how one social platform works right now from dated sources (what gets reach, formats
  rising and fading, how small accounts get seen, recent changes) and finds what is getting watched in
  a given niche there, with linked examples and engagement read against each author's baseline. Use
  alone when you already have the platform and niche; otherwise run run-organic-social.
version: 0.1.0

platform-research

Run this before planning or writing anything. Never plan a platform from memory. Platforms change their ranking, formats and what they push every few months, and the marketer will know if the plan is stale (e.g. "X is giving more reach to video now").

Do everything below for **each platform in scope**: the ones the marketer named, or the 2–3 recommended for them. Do it free first and ask nothing. The free pass ends in the draft report; paid reads only deepen it, after one credit yes.

1. How the platform works right now (free, web search)

Run web searches dated to the **last 6 months** (put the current month and year in the query):

• `<platform> algorithm <month> <year>`
• `<platform> reach video vs text <year>`
• `<platform> what's working <niche> <year>`
• `<platform> premium / verified reach replies <year>` (e.g. X Premium: its effect on reply ranking, reach and video length)
• the platform's own announcements, e.g. `<platform> creator update`, `<platform> engineering blog ranking`

Prefer, in order: 1. the platform's own posts, help pages and executives' statements; 2. reporting on them (tech press, creator-economy newsletters); 3. large-sample studies, with the sample size and dates named.

**Source quality:** a tool vendor's "how the algorithm works" page is never the only source for a fact, because many carry made-up weights. Each platform card has at least one source that is the platform's own statement or a study that states its sample. **Published ranking code is "likely", never "confirmed":** open-sourced ranking code or weights show what the code reads, not how it is tuned or what runs today; label facts drawn from them "likely (published code, <date>)". Only the platform's own current statement is "confirmed". **One shared view:** the card you write here is also what standalone posts read, so state each ranking signal once (e.g. whether bookmarks count), with its confidence; if your read differs from a card under 30 days old, update that card and say what changed rather than contradicting it. **Keep share and per-post apart:** "video is half of all impressions" is a share of activity; whether one video reaches more people than one text post for an account this size needs per-post data. Label which kind each fact is.

**For reply-led plans, also research:** what the platform says paid verification (e.g. X Premium) does for replies and reach, sized data on it, and today's price and tiers. For links, X's own statement next to the independent data.

Open the pages (host browser or fetch) and read them. Never rely on a headline.

Write a **"How <platform> works now" card** for each platform:

| Line | What it says | |---|---| | What gets reach today | Ranking signals; video vs text vs images; links; replies; watch time; following vs for-you feeds | | Formats rising, formats fading | With the source and date | | What small or new accounts can do | How a 0–1k account gets seen there now: replies, communities, search, trends, collabs | | Recent changes | Each change dated, with its link | | Confidence | "confirmed by the platform", "widely reported" or "one source", in words |

If the research contradicts `../run-organic-social/references/platform-native.md`, the research wins. Say so in the report.

2. What is working in this niche on this platform

Find the accounts and posts that the brand's buyers actually watch on this platform.

**Free pass — use the routes that actually work per platform:**

| Platform | Free routes that work | |---|---| | X | **The host browser in the marketer's signed-in session**, when there is one (ask once in the draft message if not): X advanced search, `<terms> min_faves:100 since:<YYYY-MM-DD>`, add `filter:native_video` to see which videos win; then open the target accounts' posts and Replies tabs. **Without a session:** web search `site:x.com "<term>"` limited to the past month, then open the single post pages (they often load without a login); and the accounts' own websites and newsletters, which link their best posts. | | YouTube | Search and channel pages open without a login: sort by views or recent. | | LinkedIn | Web search `site:linkedin.com/posts "<term>"` for the past month; post pages often open. Profiles' activity needs a login: say so. | | TikTok, Instagram | Web search `site:tiktok.com` / `site:instagram.com` plus the term; single video pages often open, search pages usually need a login: say so. | | Bluesky (B2B and developer brands) | Check first that the niche's voices are there; many developer and B2B voices moved in 2025–26. Profiles and posts are public: read them in the host browser on bsky.app. Its public, keyless API (`public.api.bsky.app/xrpc/app.bsky.feed.getAuthorFeed?actor=<handle>`) returns an account's posts with like and repost counts; check it on first use. Search may need a login, so say so if it does. | | Any | `gooseworks:brand_read` `sections: ["organic"]` (`competitor_top_posts`), `gooseworks:social_inspiration_search`, `gooseworks:competitor_read` (skip anything outside the brand's category, such as a mis-matched competitor); research-market's latest report and `research/competitors/` files. |

**Finding who the buyers actually watch:** start from the people they follow, not "best accounts" listicles:

• competitors' founders and staff;
• the category's newsletter writers, podcast hosts and conference speakers;
• the accounts that reply most on those people's posts.

Web search finds these names; their profiles lead to the p