Experienced TikTok and Instagram Signal Scout / Research and Viral Video Curation - Contract to Hire

May 8, 2026

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We are a US based ghostwriting and book marketing agency building a portfolio of niche TikTok and Instagram channels to promote books published by our clients. We are hiring a full time Signal Scout to handle all of the daily viral content research across eight content niches.

This role is research only. You will not post content. You will not run accounts. You will not reply to comments. Your job is to find what is working on TikTok and Instagram in our niches every single day, transcribe the best videos, and load them into our internal content library so our production team can turn them into scripts.

Our nine niches are parenting, relationships, personal development for women, personal development for men, wealth and money, business and marketing, mental health, faith, and physical health and fitness.

Daily responsibilities

Open TikTok in a desktop browser using the dedicated research environment we will set up for you.

Run viral video searches across all 8 niches once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Identify 5 to 10 qualifying viral videos per niche per day (target 40 to 80 total per day).

Transcribe each bookmarked video using Evernote AI Transcribe for TikTok or getthescript.app for Instagram.

Upload each transcript into our Claude Projects library with standardized filename tagging (platform, view count, date).

Maintain strict FYP hygiene on the research environment so the algorithm does not contaminate our research with off niche content.

Weekly responsibilities

Produce a Top Ten Winners Report per niche every Monday morning.

Flag pattern shifts, format changes, and cross niche bleed to the Operations Lead.

Audit the library inventory every Friday.

Required experience

Minimum 2 years of hands on social media research, trend analysis, or content strategy work. We prefer agency or high volume creator backgrounds.

Deep familiarity with the TikTok and Instagram algorithms. You should be able to tell us the difference between a shadowbanned account and a normal cold start without us explaining it.

Comfortable using TikTok Creative Center, Kalodata, or similar viral research tools.

Strong written English. Transcripts, tags, and weekly reports are all in English.

Basic spreadsheet fluency (Google Sheets) and comfort with Claude, ChatGPT, or similar AI tools.

Nice to have

Prior experience researching US audiences specifically (not just Philippines or Southeast Asia content).

Familiarity with book publishing, Amazon KDP, or non fiction content markets.

Experience with Evernote AI Transcribe, Descript, or other video transcription tools.

What we provide

Fully documented SOP with daily and weekly checklists.

Research environment (residential proxy, dedicated browser profile, US targeted FYP).

Access to our Claude Projects library and transcription tools.

Weekly check in with the Operations Lead.

Time zone and work style

You work on Philippines time. You choose your own hours within the day. We are in US Pacific time but we do not require daily live overlap. We review your work on our schedule and communicate through Basecamp.

Application Instructions (required to be considered)

In your proposal, answer these three questions in order.

Applications that skip these questions will not be reviewed.

1. How many hours per week on TikTok research and analysis have you logged in the last 12 months?

2. Give one specific example of a viral video format you noticed trending first in one of our 8 niches and describe what made it work.

3. What transcription and research tools do you currently use and why?

Include the word SCOUT26 at the top of your proposal so we know you read the full listing.

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