feat: add SparkToro as audience research tool

Add SparkToro integration guide, registry entry, and references in customer-research skill. SparkToro reveals where your ICP spends time using clickstream, search, and social data — essential for finding podcasts, YouTube channels, subreddits, and websites your audience engages with. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-04-01 13:50:02 -07:00
4 changed files with 199 additions and 4 deletions
@@ -121,17 +121,18 @@ Choose sources based on your ICP type — then read `references/source-guides.md

 | ICP Type | Primary Sources |
 |----------|----------------|
-| B2B SaaS / technical buyers | Reddit (role-specific subs), G2/Capterra, Hacker News, LinkedIn, Indie Hackers |
-| SMB / founders | Reddit (r/entrepreneur, r/smallbusiness), Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, Facebook Groups |
+| B2B SaaS / technical buyers | Reddit (role-specific subs), G2/Capterra, Hacker News, LinkedIn, Indie Hackers, SparkToro |
+| SMB / founders | Reddit (r/entrepreneur, r/smallbusiness), Indie Hackers, Product Hunt, Facebook Groups, SparkToro |
 | Developer / DevOps | r/devops, r/programming, Hacker News, Stack Overflow, Discord servers |
 | B2C / consumer | App store reviews (1-3 star), Reddit hobby/lifestyle subs, YouTube comments, TikTok/Instagram comments |
-| Enterprise | LinkedIn, industry analyst reports, G2 Enterprise filter, job postings |
+| Enterprise | LinkedIn, industry analyst reports, G2 Enterprise filter, job postings, SparkToro |

 **Quick decision guide:**
 - Have a product category? → Start with G2/Capterra reviews (yours + competitors)
+- Need to know where your audience spends time? → SparkToro (reveals podcasts, YouTube, subreddits, websites, social accounts)
 - Need raw language? → Reddit and YouTube comments
 - Need trigger events? → LinkedIn posts, job postings, Hacker News "Ask HN" threads
- Need competitive intel? → Competitor 4-star reviews on G2; Product Hunt discussions
+- Need competitive intel? → Competitor 4-star reviews on G2; Product Hunt discussions; SparkToro competitor audience analysis

 ### What to Extract from Each Source

@@ -282,6 +282,61 @@ Comments on review videos are especially valuable — these are people actively

 ---

+## SparkToro (Audience Intelligence)
+
+SparkToro is a behavioral audience research tool. Instead of mining individual posts and comments, it aggregates clickstream, search, and social data to show what your audience does at scale — what they read, watch, listen to, follow, and search for.
+
+### When to Use SparkToro vs. Manual Research
+
+- **SparkToro first** when you need to understand where your ICP spends time, what content they consume, and which influencers they follow — it answers these questions in seconds with aggregated data
+- **Manual research first** (Reddit, G2, communities) when you need raw language, exact quotes, emotional context, and the "why" behind behavior
+- **Best together**: Use SparkToro to identify which podcasts, subreddits, and websites matter, then go mine those sources manually for voice-of-customer language
+
+### Key Queries to Run
+
+**By competitor:**
+- "People who follow @competitor" — reveals shared audience affinities
+- "People who visit competitor.com" — shows what else they consume
+
+**By audience description:**
+- "People who frequently talk about [topic]" — finds audience behaviors
+- "People whose bio contains [job title]" — profiles a role-based segment
+
+**By your own audience:**
+- "People who visit yourdomain.com" — understand your actual audience
+- Compare against competitor audience profiles to find gaps
+
+### What to Extract
+
+| Data Type | What It Tells You | Use It For |
+|-----------|------------------|------------|
+| Top websites visited | Where your audience reads | Content partnerships, guest posting targets |
+| Top podcasts | What they listen to | Podcast guesting, sponsorship decisions |
+| Top YouTube channels | What they watch | Video content strategy, ad placements |
+| Top subreddits | Where they discuss | Community participation, Reddit ad targeting |
+| Search keywords | What they Google | SEO and content topic planning |
+| AI prompt topics | What they ask AI tools | Emerging content opportunities |
+| Social accounts followed | Who influences them | Influencer partnerships, co-marketing |
+| Demographics | Who they are | Persona building, ad targeting |
+
+### Source Weighting
+
+SparkToro data is aggregated and anonymized — it shows patterns, not individual opinions. Treat it as:
+- **High confidence** for behavioral data (what they visit, follow, search for)
+- **Medium confidence** for demographic data (self-reported, may be incomplete)
+- **Not a substitute** for qualitative research (doesn't capture language, emotions, or the "why")
+
+### Limitations
+
+- Free tier: 5 reports/month, shallow results (top 5–10)
+- No public API — all research done through web interface
+- Skews English-language, US-centric
+- Shows what audiences do, not why — pair with qualitative sources
+
+See [tools/integrations/sparktoro.md](../../../tools/integrations/sparktoro.md) for full tool details and pricing.
+
+---
+
 ## Organizing Your Research

 Use a simple tagging system across all sources:
@@ -319,6 +374,7 @@ Not all sources carry equal weight. Use this guide when assigning confidence lab
 | Survey (multiple choice) | Low-medium | Artifacts of the options you provided |
 | NPS verbatims | Medium | Correlates with score; prompted by the survey moment |
 | YouTube/TikTok comments | Medium | Skews toward engaged viewers; social performance |
+| SparkToro audience data | Medium-high | Aggregated behavioral data; strong for "what" but not "why" |
 | Job postings | Low-medium | Aspirational, not necessarily reflective of current pain |

 ### Confidence Labels in Practice
@@ -74,6 +74,7 @@ Quick reference for AI agents to discover tool capabilities and integration meth
 | pendo | Product Analytics | ✓ | - | [✓](clis/pendo.js) | - | [pendo.md](integrations/pendo.md) |
 | similarweb | Competitive Intelligence | ✓ | - | [✓](clis/similarweb.js) | - | [similarweb.md](integrations/similarweb.md) |
 | firehose | Competitive Intelligence | ✓ | - | - | - | [firehose.md](integrations/firehose.md) |
+| sparktoro | Audience Research | - | - | - | - | [sparktoro.md](integrations/sparktoro.md) |
 | airops | AI Content | ✓ | - | [✓](clis/airops.js) | - | [airops.md](integrations/airops.md) |
 | buffer | Social | ✓ | - | [✓](clis/buffer.js) | - | [buffer.md](integrations/buffer.md) |
 | wistia | Video | ✓ | - | [✓](clis/wistia.js) | - | [wistia.md](integrations/wistia.md) |
@@ -340,6 +341,16 @@ Traffic analytics, competitor benchmarking, and market research.

 **Agent recommendation**: Similarweb for competitor traffic analysis and market benchmarking.

+### Audience Research
+
+Audience intelligence and behavioral research tools.
+
+| Tool | Best For | Notes |
+|------|----------|-------|
+| **sparktoro** | Audience affinities, behavioral data | Clickstream + social data |
+
+**Agent recommendation**: SparkToro for discovering where your ICP spends time — what they read, watch, listen to, follow, and search for. Essential for customer research, content strategy, and media buying decisions.
+
 ### AI Content

 AI-powered content generation and optimization platforms.
@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+# SparkToro
+
+Audience research platform that reveals what your target audience reads, watches, listens to, follows, and searches for — using clickstream data, Google search data, and public social profiles.
+
+## Capabilities
+
+| Integration | Available | Notes |
+|-------------|-----------|-------|
+| API | - | Not yet public (coming soon) |
+| MCP | - | Not available |
+| CLI | - | Not available |
+| SDK | - | Not available |
+
+SparkToro is primarily a web-based research tool. No public API, CLI, or SDK is currently available. Use the web interface at https://sparktoro.com for all queries.
+
+## Authentication
+
+- **Type**: Account login at https://sparktoro.com
+- **Free tier**: 5 reports/month with limited results
+- **Paid plans**: $50–$300/month with expanded results and exports
+
+## Pricing Tiers
+
+| Plan | Price | Reports/Month | Users | Result Depth |
+|------|-------|---------------|-------|-------------|
+| Free | $0 | 5 | 1 | Top 5–10 results |
+| Personal | $50/mo | 50 | 1 | Top 50 results |
+| Business | $150/mo | 500 | 10 | Top 150 results, contact data, AI advice |
+| Agency | $300/mo | Unlimited | 100 | Top 300 results, full CSV export |
+
+## What SparkToro Reveals
+
+### Audience Behaviors
+- **Websites** they visit and engage with
+- **Podcasts** they listen to
+- **YouTube channels** they watch
+- **Subreddits** they participate in
+- **Social accounts** they follow
+- **Search keywords** they use on Google
+- **AI prompt topics** they ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
+
+### Audience Demographics
+- Gender, age ranges
+- Job titles and roles
+- Industries and skills
+- Education levels
+- Geographic distribution
+- Interests and affinities
+
+### Audience Characteristics
+- Bio descriptions and self-identifiers
+- Language patterns in posts and comments
+- Preferred social networks and platforms
+- E-commerce platforms they use
+
+## Common Agent Operations
+
+Since SparkToro has no API, these are the research workflows agents should guide users through.
+
+### Audience Profile Research
+
+Query SparkToro with phrases like:
+- "People who follow @competitor" — reveals shared audience behaviors
+- "People who visit competitor.com" — shows what else they consume
+- "People who frequently talk about [topic]" — finds audience affinities
+- "People whose bio contains [job title]" — profiles a role-based segment
+
+### Finding Where Your ICP Spends Time
+
+1. Search for your ICP by description, competitor followers, or website visitors
+2. Extract: top websites visited, podcasts listened to, YouTube channels watched, subreddits
+3. Use this to prioritize: guest podcast appearances, content partnerships, ad placements, community participation
+
+### Discovering Content Topics
+
+1. Search your audience segment
+2. Review the "Search Keywords" tab — what they Google
+3. Review the "AI Prompt Topics" tab — what they ask AI tools
+4. Use these to inform content strategy and SEO keyword targeting
+
+### Building Data-Backed Personas
+
+1. Run 3–5 queries for different segments of your audience
+2. Compare demographic breakdowns across segments
+3. Note which behaviors and affinities are shared vs. unique per segment
+4. Export data and build personas grounded in observed behavior, not assumptions
+
+### Competitive Audience Analysis
+
+1. Search "People who follow @competitor" or "People who visit competitor.com"
+2. Compare against your own audience profile
+3. Identify: channels they use that you don't, content they consume that you don't produce, influencers they follow that you haven't engaged
+
+## Data Sources
+
+SparkToro aggregates from three sources:
+- **Clickstream data** — anonymized browsing behavior
+- **Google search results** — search keyword patterns
+- **Public social profiles** — bios, follows, engagement
+
+## When to Use
+
+- Identifying where your ICP spends time online (podcasts, YouTube, subreddits, websites)
+- Finding influencers and social accounts your audience follows
+- Discovering content topics and search keywords your audience cares about
+- Building data-backed personas instead of assumption-based ones
+- Planning podcast guest appearances, sponsorships, or content partnerships
+- Understanding what your competitors' audience looks like
+- Validating audience assumptions with behavioral data
+- Discovering AI prompt topics your audience uses
+
+## Limitations
+
+- No public API — all research is done through the web interface
+- Free tier limited to 5 reports/month with shallow results
+- Data skews toward English-language, US-centric audiences
+- Clickstream data may not capture all niche audiences
+- Cannot track individual users — all data is aggregated and anonymized
+
+## Relevant Skills
+
+- customer-research
+- content-strategy
+- competitor-alternatives
+- paid-ads
+- social-content
+- cold-email