Leveraging word patterns in the language of popular influencers to predict popular trends

A method of identifying a potential product trend in a consumer field comprising:

• receiving a lexicon of product names and name modifiers for the field, by executing first instructions in a computer system;
• receiving a historical baseline of word combinations wherein a given word combination includes one of the product names associated with one or more of the modifiers, by executing second instructions in the computer system;
• receiving a list of influencers in the field, by executing third instructions in the computer system;
• monitoring electronic media over time for current electronic publications of the influencers, by executing fourth instructions in the computer system;
• performing natural language processing on the current publications to identify a particular one of the word combinations, by executing fifth instructions in the computer system;
• determining that a current usage frequency of the particular word combination is greater than a historical usage frequency of the particular word combination derived from the historical baseline, by executing sixth instructions in the computer system;
• and
• responsively generating an alert indicating that the particular word combination represents a candidate trend, by executing seventh instructions in the computer system.