Instagram Collector Skill

Purpose

Collects Instagram profile data for a given handle using the Apify Instagram Profile Scraper. Extracts follower count, engagement metrics, posting frequency, and top hashtags. This collector feeds into the Marketing Audit Pipeline to populate the Instagram Performance section of the final report.

Input Schema

// Function signature
collectInstagram(handle: string): Promise<InstagramData>

// The handle parameter is the Instagram username without the @ symbol.
// Example: "gymshark" (not "@gymshark")

Output Schema

interface InstagramData {
 followers: number;
 posts: number;
 engagementRate: number; // Calculated: (avgLikes + avgComments) / followers * 100
 postingFrequency: string; // e.g. "1.2 posts/day", "3 posts/week", "unknown"
 avgLikes: number;
 avgComments: number;
 topHashtags: string[]; // Up to 10 most-used hashtags from recent posts
 error?: string; // Present only when collector fails
}

API Dependencies

• API Name: Apify Instagram Profile Scraper
• Actor ID:

  apify~instagram-profile-scraper

• Endpoint:

  https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~instagram-profile-scraper/runs

• Auth:

  APIFY_API_TOKEN

  environment variable
• Cost estimate: ~$0.005 per run on Apify free/paid tier
• Rate limits: Depends on Apify plan; free tier allows limited concurrent runs

Implementation Pattern

Data Flow

1. Receive

   handle

   string from the pipeline
2. Call

   apifyService.scrapeInstagramProfile(handle)

   which starts an Apify actor run
3. Apify runs asynchronously -- the service polls for completion (timeout: 60s)
4. Fetch the actor's dataset results once complete
5. Map the raw Apify response to the

   InstagramData

   interface

Engagement Rate Calculation

engagementRate = ((avgLikes + avgComments) / followers) * 100;

• If

  followers

  is 0, set

  engagementRate

  to 0 to avoid division by zero
• Engagement rate is expressed as a percentage (e.g., 3.5 means 3.5%)

Posting Frequency Calculation

• Analyze timestamps from the last 30 posts returned by Apify
• Calculate the time span between the oldest and newest post
• Divide the number of posts by the number of days in that span
• Format as a human-readable string:

• = 1 post/day:

  "X.X posts/day"

• < 1 post/day but >= 1/week:

  "X posts/week"

• < 1 post/week:

  "X posts/month"

• If no timestamp data available:

  "unknown"

Top Hashtags Extraction

• Iterate through captions of recent posts
• Extract all

  #hashtag

  tokens using regex:

  /#(\w+)/g

• Count frequency of each hashtag
• Return the top 10 most frequently used

Apify Response Mapping

Key fields from Apify's raw output:

• followersCount

  ->

  followers

• postsCount

  ->

  posts

• latestPosts[].likesCount

  -> used for

  avgLikes

• latestPosts[].commentsCount

  -> used for

  avgComments

• latestPosts[].caption

  -> used for hashtag extraction

• latestPosts[].timestamp

  -> used for posting frequency

Error Handling

• Entire function wrapped in

  try/catch

• On failure, return

  EMPTY_INSTAGRAM_DATA

  with

  error

  field set:

return { ...EMPTY_INSTAGRAM_DATA, error: 'Instagram data unavailable: <reason>' };

• Never throw -- always return a valid

  InstagramData

  object
• Log errors with Winston logger including handle and error details:

logger.error('Instagram collector failed', { handle, err });

• Common failure scenarios:
• Apify token invalid or expired
• Actor run timeout (profile too large or Apify overloaded)
• Profile is private or does not exist
• Rate limit exceeded on Apify

Example Usage

import { collectInstagram } from '../collectors/instagramCollector';

// Successful collection
const data = await collectInstagram('gymshark');
// Returns:
// {
// followers: 6800000,
// posts: 4520,
// engagementRate: 1.85,
// postingFrequency: "1.3 posts/day",
// avgLikes: 120000,
// avgComments: 5800,
// topHashtags: ["gymshark", "fitness", "gym", "workout", "fitnessmotivation", ...],
// }

// Failed collection (graceful degradation)
const failedData = await collectInstagram('nonexistent_handle_12345');
// Returns:
// {
// followers: 0,
// posts: 0,
// engagementRate: 0,
// postingFrequency: "unknown",
// avgLikes: 0,
// avgComments: 0,
// topHashtags: [],
// error: "Instagram data unavailable: Profile not found"
// }

Notes

• The collector depends on

  apifyService.ts

  for the actual API communication. The collector handles only data mapping and calculations.
• Apify actor runs are asynchronous. The service layer handles polling. If the run does not complete within 60 seconds, it should be treated as a timeout error.
• This collector is independently testable. In tests, mock

  apifyService.scrapeInstagramProfile

  to return fixture data.
• Instagram data can be stale -- Apify scrapes public data which may be cached. This is acceptable for audit purposes.
• The

  EMPTY_INSTAGRAM_DATA

  constant is defined in

  src/types/audit.types.ts

  and should be imported for fallback returns.
• This collector must never block the pipeline. Even a complete failure returns valid typed data with an error flag, allowing other collectors to proceed.