Apify to Slack, weekly trend ideas ready to use
Your “trend research” probably looks like this: ten browser tabs, two social feeds, a couple of newsletters, and a Slack channel where you paste links you swear you’ll come back to. Then Monday hits, and you’re back at zero.
This Apify Slack digest automation hits content marketers first, but social media managers and strategy leads feel the drag too. You end up spending about 2 hours collecting ideas, then another hour turning them into something usable.
This workflow runs weekly, pulls trends from Google Search news and specific Facebook pages, uses AI to turn them into angles, and drops a clean digest into Slack. You’ll see what it does, what you need, and how to adapt it for your niche.
How This Automation Works
The full n8n workflow, from trigger to final output:
n8n Workflow Template: Apify to Slack, weekly trend ideas ready to use
flowchart LR
subgraph sg0["Weekly Schedule Flow"]
direction LR
n0@{ icon: "mdi:play-circle", form: "rounded", label: "Weekly Schedule Trigger", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n1["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/code.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Function: Create Slack Message"]
n2@{ icon: "mdi:swap-vertical", form: "rounded", label: "Workflow Configuration", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n3["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/merge.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Merge Data"]
n4["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/code.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Function: Parse LLM Response"]
n5@{ icon: "mdi:swap-horizontal", form: "rounded", label: "Apify Facebook Scraper", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n6@{ icon: "mdi:swap-horizontal", form: "rounded", label: "Apify Google News Scraper", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n7@{ icon: "mdi:robot", form: "rounded", label: "AI Agent", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n8@{ icon: "mdi:brain", form: "rounded", label: "OpenRouter Chat Model", pos: "b", h: 48 }
n9["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/code.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Function: Limit to 5 Items"]
n10["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/code.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Function: Extract Google Data"]
n11["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/code.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Function: Extract Facebook D.."]
n12["<div style='background:#f5f5f5;padding:10px;border-radius:8px;display:inline-block;border:1px solid #e0e0e0'><img src='https://flowpast.com/wp-content/uploads/n8n-workflow-icons/slack.svg' width='40' height='40' /></div><br/>Slack Post Content Ideas"]
n7 --> n4
n3 --> n9
n8 -.-> n7
n5 --> n11
n2 --> n5
n2 --> n6
n0 --> n2
n6 --> n10
n9 --> n7
n4 --> n1
n10 --> n3
n1 --> n12
n11 --> n3
end
%% Styling
classDef trigger fill:#e8f5e9,stroke:#388e3c,stroke-width:2px
classDef ai fill:#e3f2fd,stroke:#1976d2,stroke-width:2px
classDef aiModel fill:#e8eaf6,stroke:#3f51b5,stroke-width:2px
classDef decision fill:#fff8e1,stroke:#f9a825,stroke-width:2px
classDef database fill:#fce4ec,stroke:#c2185b,stroke-width:2px
classDef api fill:#fff3e0,stroke:#e65100,stroke-width:2px
classDef code fill:#f3e5f5,stroke:#7b1fa2,stroke-width:2px
classDef disabled stroke-dasharray: 5 5,opacity: 0.5
class n0 trigger
class n7 ai
class n8 aiModel
class n5,n6 decision
class n1,n4,n9,n10,n11 code
classDef customIcon fill:none,stroke:none
class n1,n3,n4,n9,n10,n11,n12 customIcon
The Problem: Trend Research Eats Your Best Hours
Finding “fresh” content ideas sounds simple until you do it every week. You check Google, skim headlines, open articles, then jump over to Facebook pages or competitors to see what they’re posting and what’s getting traction. Somewhere in the middle, you lose track of what you’ve already looked at. And by the time you paste a few links into Slack, your team still has to ask, “Ok, but what’s the angle?” That’s the part that quietly drains momentum.
It adds up fast. Here’s where it breaks down.
- Copy-pasting links across tools turns into a weekly ritual you can’t skip.
- Teams collect too many “maybes,” so nothing feels like a clear next step.
- Without consistent summaries and tags, your Slack channel becomes a link graveyard.
- Manual research makes it harder to repeat what worked because there’s no standard format to compare week to week.
The Solution: Apify Scraping + AI Sorting + Slack Digest
This workflow is built for one job: deliver a short, high-signal list of trend-worthy items to Slack every week. It starts on a weekly schedule (Monday morning by default), then uses Apify to scrape two sources in parallel: Google Search news results and recent posts from Facebook pages you choose. Next, it merges both streams into one list, trims the noise, and keeps only the five most relevant items so you don’t get spammed. Finally, an AI Agent analyzes each item, assigns a theme (like Marketing, Technology, or Strategy), pulls out three catchy keywords, and formats everything into a Slack-friendly message with the summary and original URL. Frankly, it’s the difference between “here are links” and “here are usable angles.”
The workflow begins with a schedule trigger, then runs two Apify scrapers with your settings. After the merge and the “top 5” filter, AI turns raw headlines and posts into a consistent, decision-ready digest. Slack gets the final report automatically.
What You Get: Automation vs. Results
| What This Workflow Automates | Results You’ll Get |
|---|---|
|
|
Example: What This Looks Like
Say you normally pull ideas from two places: Google news plus five Facebook pages. Manually, you might spend about 10 minutes scanning Google results, then another 10 minutes per Facebook page, plus 30 minutes writing quick summaries for Slack. That’s roughly 2 hours every Monday. With this workflow, you spend maybe 10 minutes updating your search query or page list when needed, then wait for the run to finish and read a five-item digest in Slack. The “research” part basically disappears.
What You’ll Need
- n8n instance (try n8n Cloud free)
- Self-hosting option if you prefer (Hostinger works well)
- Apify to scrape Google news and Facebook posts
- Slack to receive the weekly digest in-channel
- OpenRouter API Key (get it from your OpenRouter dashboard)
Skill level: Beginner. You’ll connect accounts, paste API keys, and adjust a couple of source settings.
Don’t want to set this up yourself? Talk to an automation expert (free 15-minute consultation).
How It Works
A weekly schedule kicks it off. n8n runs the workflow on a set cadence (Monday morning is the default), so trend discovery becomes a routine input, not an emergency task.
Apify collects the raw material. One scraper pulls Google Search news results for your query, and another pulls recent posts from the Facebook pages you specify. The workflow extracts the useful fields (titles, links, snippets) so you’re not passing messy data to the next stage.
The list is merged and trimmed. Both sources get combined, then reduced to the five most relevant items. This matters more than it sounds. A smaller list gets read, and a read list gets used.
AI turns “links” into “angles,” then Slack gets the digest. The AI Agent classifies each item into a theme, generates three keywords, and produces a short summary. n8n formats the final message and posts it to your chosen Slack channel.
You can easily modify the search query and the Facebook page list to match your niche based on your needs. See the full implementation guide below for customization options.
Step-by-Step Implementation Guide
Step 1: Configure the Schedule Trigger
Set the weekly execution timing so the workflow runs automatically on your chosen schedule.
- Add or open the Weekly Timing Trigger node.
- Set the rule to run weekly on day
1at hour9(as configured in the node’s schedule rule). - Connect Weekly Timing Trigger to Runtime Settings.
Step 2: Configure Runtime Settings and Parallel Source Fetching
Define API keys and kick off parallel data collection from news and Facebook sources.
- Open Runtime Settings and set apifyToken to your token value instead of
[CONFIGURE_YOUR_TOKEN]. - Set openRouterApiKey to your key instead of
[CONFIGURE_YOUR_API_KEY]. - Confirm includeOtherFields is enabled so upstream data is preserved.
- Ensure Runtime Settings outputs to both Apify Facebook Collector and Apify News Fetcher in parallel.
Step 3: Connect Apify Sources and Normalize Results
Configure both Apify actors and extract datasets into clean item arrays for merging.
- Open Apify News Fetcher and set Operation to
Run actor and get dataset. - Set customBody to
{ "queries": "Top News AI", "maxResultsPerQuery": 50, "gl": "us", "tbm": "nws" }. - Open Apify Facebook Collector and set customBody to
{ "startUrls": [ { "url": "https://www.facebook.com/AIShift.Inc/" } ], "resultsLimit": 50, "minimumLikes": 50 }. - Confirm Apify News Fetcher → Extract Google Results and Apify Facebook Collector → Extract Facebook Results connections.
- Keep the existing JavaScript in the code nodes (Extract Google Results and Extract Facebook Results) as-is to handle multiple dataset shapes.
Step 4: Merge, Trim, and Prepare AI Analysis
Combine results, reduce volume, and send items into the AI analyzer.
- Confirm Extract Google Results and Extract Facebook Results both connect to Combine Sources.
- Ensure Combine Sources flows into Trim to Five Records to limit output volume.
- Keep the Trim to Five Records code as-is to return
allItems.slice(0, 5)for cost control. - Connect Trim to Five Records to Content Theme Analyzer.
Step 5: Configure AI Analysis and Parsing
Set the AI prompt, connect the language model, and parse structured output.
- Open Content Theme Analyzer and keep the text prompt as defined, including dynamic fields like
{{ $json.title || $json.text }}and{{ $json.url || $json.link }}. - Confirm promptType is set to
defineand hasOutputParser is enabled. - Verify OpenRouter Chat Engine is connected as the language model for Content Theme Analyzer.
- Keep Parse AI Output in
runOnceForEachItemmode to convert the JSON response intollmThemeandkeywordsArray.
Step 6: Configure Slack Output
Format each digest item and send it to Slack.
- Open Compose Slack Notice and keep the message template so it renders theme, keywords, source, and summary.
- In Post to Slack Channel, set text to
{{ $json.message }}and keep authentication asoAuth2. - Choose the Slack user or channel in the node selector (currently set to select
user).
Step 7: Test & Activate Your Workflow
Validate the full flow from trigger to Slack output before enabling production use.
- Click Execute Workflow to run from Weekly Timing Trigger or manually start at Runtime Settings.
- Confirm Runtime Settings fans out to both Apify Facebook Collector and Apify News Fetcher in parallel, then merges into Combine Sources.
- Check Post to Slack Channel for a successful message containing theme, keywords, and source URL.
- Once validated, toggle the workflow to Active so it runs weekly.
Common Gotchas
- Apify credentials can expire or need specific permissions. If things break, check your Apify API token and actor access in the Apify console first.
- If you’re using Wait nodes or external rendering, processing times vary. Bump up the wait duration if downstream nodes fail on empty responses.
- Default prompts in AI nodes are generic. Add your brand voice early or you’ll be editing outputs forever.
Frequently Asked Questions
About 30 minutes once you have your API keys ready.
No. You’ll mostly paste credentials and edit a few source settings. The code nodes are already built; you can use the workflow as-is.
Yes. n8n has a free self-hosted option and a free trial on n8n Cloud. Cloud plans start at $20/month for higher volume. You’ll also need to factor in OpenRouter usage costs, which are usually small for five items a week.
Two options: n8n Cloud (managed, easiest setup) or self-hosting on a VPS. For self-hosting, Hostinger VPS is affordable and handles n8n well. Self-hosting gives you unlimited executions but requires basic server management.
Yes, and it’s straightforward. Update the Apify Google news query in the news fetcher node, then swap the Facebook start URLs to pages in your niche. In the AI Agent prompt, set the language you want the summaries written in and adjust the themes (for example, “Ecommerce,” “Finance,” or “Healthcare”). If you prefer OpenAI instead of OpenRouter, replace the OpenRouter chat model node with an OpenAI Chat Model node and keep the rest the same.
Usually it’s an expired Slack token or the app was never allowed to post to that channel. Reconnect Slack in n8n, then double-check the channel selection in the “Post to Slack Channel” node. If it works in one channel but not another, it’s commonly missing permissions for private channels.
By default, it sends five items per run.
Often, yes, because this isn’t just “move data from A to B.” You’re scraping two sources, merging them, limiting output, then running an AI classification step and formatting the final message. n8n handles that kind of branching and data shaping cleanly, and you can self-host if you want unlimited executions. Zapier or Make can still work if you keep it very simple, but you may hit limits or end up paying more as the logic grows. If you’re unsure, Talk to an automation expert and get a quick recommendation based on your volume and tools.
A weekly digest that’s actually usable changes your planning rhythm. Set it up once, then spend Mondays making decisions instead of collecting links.
Need Help Setting This Up?
Our automation experts can build and customize this workflow for your specific needs. Free 15-minute consultation—no commitment required.
