n8n Workflow: Track Viral Instagram Posts with Apify, Groq & Slack

Automatically spot viral Instagram posts your competitors are outperforming—then notify your team only when it matters.

This n8n workflow runs every morning to scrape the newest posts from the Instagram accounts you specify, compares each post’s engagement against that account’s normal level, reads the caption with Groq AI, logs results to Google Sheets, and pings Slack only when a “breakout” viral post is detected.

What this workflow does

• Daily scheduling: A Schedule Trigger runs once per day.
• Watchlist configuration: One config node stores handles, the number of posts per profile, a viral multiplier, and the Slack channel.
• Scrape competitor posts via Apify: For each handle, it runs the Instagram Profile Posts Scraper on Apify and keeps only the post rows.
• Avoid repeats: Remove Duplicates ensures each morning includes only posts not seen in earlier executions.
• Fair viral detection: A Code node calculates engagement (likes plus comments) and compares each post to the `median` engagement baseline for that same account, flagging anything at or above your multiplier as viral.
• AI caption interpretation: An Information Extractor uses a Groq chat model to extract theme, tone, format, and CTA from the caption.
• Log & alert: Google Sheets appends one row per post; Slack is pinged only when something breaks out.

Use cases

• Marketing teams tracking competitors to quickly identify winning Instagram content patterns.
• SaaS operators monitoring engagement shifts without manually reviewing accounts.
• Automation engineers setting up an “intelligence feed” from Apify into Sheets + Slack.

Technical details

• Apify with HTTP Header Auth: create an HTTP Header Auth credential named Authorization with value Bearer YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN.
• Groq chat model node (drop-in swap for OpenAI/Anthropic-style setups).
• Google Sheets for row-by-row logging and Slack for breakout notifications.
• n8n nodes include: Schedule Trigger, HTTP Request, if/set/code/no op, slack, and aggregation.

Requirements: Apify account, chat model account (Groq), Google Sheets, and Slack. Posts are charged only when delivered.

Customization: Adjust the viral multiplier (noted as viralMultiplie in the setup) and your watched accounts/limits in the config.