Social Media Data Extraction Skill

Social Media Data Extraction Skill

Overview

This skill enables Claude to extract public data from Instagram, TikTok, and Reddit for trend analysis, content research, competitor monitoring, and audience insights — powered by the Apify platform.

🔗 Sign up for Apify here: https://www.apify.com/?fpr=dx06p

What This Skill Does

• Extract public posts, hashtags, and profiles from Instagram
• Scrape trending videos, comments, and creator stats from TikTok
• Pull posts, threads, comments, and subreddit data from Reddit
• Aggregate data across platforms for unified trend analysis
• Output structured JSON data ready for analysis, dashboards, or export

Step 1 — Get Your Apify API Token

1. Go to https://www.apify.com/?fpr=dx06p and create a free account
2. Once logged in, navigate to Settings → Integrations
   • Direct link: https://console.apify.com/account/integrations
3. Copy your Personal API Token — format: apify_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
4. Store it as an environment variable:

   export APIFY_TOKEN=apify_api_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   

Free tier includes $5/month of free compute — enough for regular trend monitoring runs.

Step 2 — Install the Apify Client

npm install apify-client

Dedicated Actors by Platform

Instagram

TikTok

Reddit

Examples

Extract Instagram Posts by Hashtag

import ApifyClient from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });

const run = await client.actor("apify/instagram-hashtag-scraper").call({
  hashtags: ["trending", "viral", "fyp"],
  resultsLimit: 50
});

const { items } = await run.dataset().getData();

// Each item contains:
// { id, shortCode, caption, likesCount, commentsCount,
//   timestamp, ownerUsername, url, hashtags[] }

console.log(`Extracted ${items.length} posts`);

Extract TikTok Trending Videos by Hashtag

const run = await client.actor("apify/tiktok-hashtag-scraper").call({
  hashtags: ["trending", "lifehack"],
  resultsPerPage: 30,
  shouldDownloadVideos: false
});

const { items } = await run.dataset().getData();

// Each item contains:
// { id, text, createTime, authorMeta, musicMeta,
//   diggCount, shareCount, playCount, commentCount }

Scrape a Subreddit for Trend Analysis

const run = await client.actor("apify/reddit-scraper").call({
  startUrls: [
    { url: "https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/" },
    { url: "https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/" }
  ],
  maxPostCount: 100,
  maxComments: 20,
  sort: "hot"
});

const { items } = await run.dataset().getData();

// Each item contains:
// { title, score, upvoteRatio, numComments, author,
//   created, url, selftext, subreddit, comments[] }

Multi-Platform Trend Aggregation

const [igRun, ttRun, rdRun] = await Promise.all([
  client.actor("apify/instagram-hashtag-scraper").call({
    hashtags: ["aitools"], resultsLimit: 30
  }),
  client.actor("apify/tiktok-hashtag-scraper").call({
    hashtags: ["aitools"], resultsPerPage: 30
  }),
  client.actor("apify/reddit-search-scraper").call({
    queries: ["AI tools 2025"], maxItems: 30
  })
]);

const [igData, ttData, rdData] = await Promise.all([
  igRun.dataset().getData(),
  ttRun.dataset().getData(),
  rdRun.dataset().getData()
]);

const aggregated = {
  instagram: igData.items,
  tiktok: ttData.items,
  reddit: rdData.items,
  totalPosts: igData.items.length + ttData.items.length + rdData.items.length,
  extractedAt: new Date().toISOString()
};

Using the REST API Directly

const response = await fetch(
  "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~tiktok-scraper/runs",
  {
    method: "POST",
    headers: {
      "Content-Type": "application/json",
      "Authorization": `Bearer ${process.env.APIFY_TOKEN}`
    },
    body: JSON.stringify({
      hashtags: ["viral"],
      resultsPerPage: 25
    })
  }
);

const { data } = await response.json();
const runId = data.id;

// Poll for completion
const resultRes = await fetch(
  `https://api.apify.com/v2/actor-runs/${runId}/dataset/items`,
  { headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.APIFY_TOKEN}` } }
);

const posts = await resultRes.json();

Trend Analysis Workflow

When asked to analyze trends, Claude will:

1. Identify the target platform(s) and keywords/hashtags
2. Run the appropriate Apify actor(s) in parallel when multi-platform
3. Collect all posts with engagement metrics (likes, views, comments, shares)
4. Sort & rank content by engagement rate or volume
5. Identify patterns — recurring hashtags, peak posting times, top creators
6. Return a structured report with top trends, key metrics, and actionable insights

Output Data Structure (Normalized)

{
  "platform": "tiktok",
  "id": "7302938471029384",
  "text": "This AI tool is insane #aitools #viral",
  "author": "techreviewer99",
  "engagement": {
    "likes": 142300,
    "comments": 4820,
    "shares": 9100,
    "views": 2300000
  },
  "hashtags": ["aitools", "viral"],
  "publishedAt": "2025-02-18T14:32:00Z",
  "url": "https://www.tiktok.com/@techreviewer99/video/7302938471029384"
}

Best Practices

• Always scrape only public content — never attempt to access private profiles
• Set reasonable resultsLimit values (50–200) to stay within your Apify quota
• For recurring analysis, schedule actor runs using Apify Schedules in the console
• Store results in Apify Datasets for persistent access and historical comparison
• Use sort: "hot" on Reddit and trending endpoints on TikTok for most relevant data
• Add a proxyConfiguration block when scraping at scale to avoid rate limits:

  proxyConfiguration: { useApifyProxy: true, apifyProxyGroups: ["RESIDENTIAL"] }
  

Error Handling

try {
  const run = await client.actor("apify/tiktok-scraper").call(input);
  const dataset = await run.dataset().getData();
  return dataset.items;
} catch (error) {
  if (error.statusCode === 401) throw new Error("Invalid Apify token");
  if (error.statusCode === 429) throw new Error("Rate limit hit — reduce request frequency");
  if (error.message.includes("timeout")) throw new Error("Actor timed out — try a smaller batch");
  throw error;
}

Requirements

• An Apify account → https://www.apify.com/?fpr=dx06p
• A valid Personal API Token from Settings → Integrations
• Node.js 18+ for the apify-client package
• No platform API keys required — Apify handles all platform access