Topic Communities are a special type of community where all content, upon creation, must be flagged with Topic Tags that have been created by Super Admins. This tagging ensures that all content belongs to an account-approved category, which, in turn, makes all of that community's content easily searchable by users.

A Super Admin can designate any community as a Topic Community for their site.

NOTE: Higher Logic's recommended practice is to have only one Topic Community. However, you can have more than one if you also license the optional Nested Communities module.

TIP: If you have recently switched one of your communities to a Topic Community, we recommend checking out this article for tips on managing your user's notification subscriptions.

Interests in a Topic Community

The foundation of Topic Communities is interests. Interests are unique to each user in the community and they display on users' Profile pages. Each user can have two types of interests:

• Stated Interests (user-assigned) - On their profiles, users can manually select any of the Topic Tags that have been created for the Topic Community. This is the easiest way for them to ensure that they are sent their preferred content in the "digest" email messages.
• Observed Interests (system-assigned) - As users engage with content across the Topic Community, the system "observes" each user's activity, and then performs calculations based on their engagement with the content (refer to User actions become Observed Interests, below). The action-based calculations are used to automatically promote content that is similar to the content that the user has engaged with.

NOTE: If these widgets do not display on the Profile pages of your site, create a case and request to have them enabled.

User actions become Observed Interests

As users engage with community content, some of their actions receive a rating.

The following user actions each count as one (1) point.

• Any combination of these actions for which a single user accumulates five (5) points results in the associated Observed Interest being assigned to that user.

Action	Collateral
Favorite	Library Entries
Download	Library Entries
Comment	Blog posts; Events; Glossary items; Ideas; Library Entries
View	Blog posts; Discussion threads; Glossary items; Library Entries; Q&As
Rate	Blog posts; Discussion posts; Glossary items; Library Entries; Q&As
Contribute	Blog posts; Discussion posts; Glossary items; Library Entries; Q&As

Interests in Digest emails

Each user's Stated and Observed Interests are automatically curated and are used to populate the digest emails and real-time discussions notifications that the user has opted to receive from the Topic Community.

• Users can visit their own Profile page to select which digest emails and real-time notifications they want sent to them.

These settings are described in Manage your Digest settings, below.

Manage your Stated Interests

Add topic tags

1. Navigate to your profile > My Profile tab.
2. In the Stated Interests section, click Add a Topic and select one or more tags.

NOTE: Only those topic tags that have been created by a Super Admin are available.

Remove topic tags

1. Click the X on the right of the tag.

Manage your Digest settings

This section describes how users can set which interests-based messages they want. The options are described in step 3.

1. Navigate to your profile.
2. Click My Account > Community Notifications.

3. In the Topic Notifications section, select an Email Delivery option:

• • No Email - Do not send me the Digest.
  • Personalized Digest - Send me the daily Digest email which summarizes content that is relevant to my preferences and interests, and includes discussions-based activity.
  • Personalized Digest & Real-Time Discussion Emails - Send me the Personalized Digest email (above) and send me real-time notifications about new discussion threads/messages that are related to my Stated Interests.
    NOTE: This option excludes discussions-based activity from the Personalized Digest so that recipients are not sent the same information twice.

Access your Topic Community

If a Topic Community is set up for your site, Topic Community displays as an option in your site's Navigation bar > Communities menu.

NOTE: The name, Topic Community, and its navigation location are customizable. These may be different in your site than what's shown above.

TIP: Refer to Set up a Topic Community, below, to learn how to set up a Topic Community. Note that there are separate instructions for sites that do license Nested Communities, and sites that do not.

Manage Digest content

You can manage what content is included in the Topic Community's Digest email messages. This results in users' Digest email messages being tailored to their activities and interests.

Two types of content can be included:

• Personal Content is based on a user's interests and activity.
• Popular Content is based on what has been receiving attention in the community.

...and each content type can be refined with individual toggles.

NOTE: In the Digest email messages, Personal Content is prioritized because it's customized for each recipient. If there isn't enough Personal Content, Popular Content is included so that there is fresh content.

TIP: Click and hold a Popular Content category's double-arrow icon and drag it to "prioritize" it in the Digest email message.

Choose Digest content

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Communities > Topic Community.

3. In the Personal Content and Popular Content sections, toggle on (Yes) the settings for the content that you want included in the Digest emails.

Setting	Description
Personal Content (specific to each user, based on their activity)
Interacted	Content that the user has contributed and/or engaged with (recommended, favorited, commented on).
Boosted	Content that a Community Admin and/or Super Admin has boosted in order to call attention to. See Boosted Content to learn more.
Stated Interests	Content that a user has indicated is of interest.
Observed Interests	Content that is associated to a user based on their "observed" community activity.
Popular Content (popular in the Topic Community; included when Personal Content is scarce)
Most Read	Content that is most read by users.
Most Recommended	Content that is most recommended by users.
Most Favorited	Content that is most favorited by users.
Random	This is a "safety net" that randomly adds content as necessary.
Popular Content Maximum	Click Edit to set the maximum number of content items to include in the digests.

Set up a Topic Community

NOTE: Higher Logic's recommended practice is to have only one Topic Community. However, you can have more than one if you also license the optional Nested Communities module.

The process of setting up a Topic Community varies depending on whether your organization licenses the optional Nested Communities module. This section has separate sets of instructions for both scenarios.

If you DON'T license Nested Communities

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Communities > Topic Community.

3. At the bottom of the page, select one of your existing communities from the This is the Topic Community dropdown to set it as your Topic Community.

The tags that are associated to any tag groups that are set to Topic Only and Formal and Topic display in the Topic Community Tags area. These are the tags that users can assign to their content across the Topic Community.

• To create topic tags, click Add. Refer to Create Tag Groups & Topic Tags, below, to learn about topic tags and their creation.

Access your Topic Community

Now, Topic Community displays as an option in your site's Navigation Bar > Communities menu, allowing you and your members to easily access it.

NOTE: The name, Topic Community, and its navigation location are customizable. These may be different in your site than what's shown above.

If you DO license Nested Communities

1. In the community that you want to be your Topic Community, click Settings.
2. Click Settings in the menu.

3. Set the Topic Community option to Yes.
4. Select the Topic Tags that you want available in this Topic Community, and click Save.

Access your Topic Community

Now, Topic Community displays as an option in your site's Navigation Bar > Communities menu, allowing you and your members to easily access it.

NOTE: The name, Topic Community, and its navigation location are customizable. These may be different in your site than what's shown above.

Create Tag Groups & Topic Tags

When a Topic Community is established:

• Users are required to tag all content they contribute and so
• Admins must create the Topic Tags for the community so that they're available for content contributors.

TIP: This is an important aspect of a Topic Community, so take the time to brainstorm about your tags and to plan them accordingly to better ensure that they are as effective and as useful as possible. You might want to consult your community managers to ensure an appropriate and relevant set of tags is created.

Step 1 - Create Tag Groups

Topic Tags are created in and organized within Tag Groups. So, you have to create Tag Groups for your Topic Tags.

To do so:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Settings > Tags and Mentions > Tags.

3. In Manage Tag Groups, click Add.

4. Complete the fields below and click Save to create your Tag Group.

Field	Description
Tag Group Name	Give your Tag Group a name fitting for the types of tags it'll contain.
Admin Only	Decide whether only Admin users can apply tags from this Tag Group. If set to No, users can apply these tags as well.
Is Active	Controls whether the Tag Group is active or inactive: If active, its associated tags can be applied to content. If inactive, its associated tags cannot be applied to content. NOTE: Making a Tag Group inactive has no impact on tags currently in use, only the prevention of further tagging.
Tag Group Type	Because you're creating Topic Tags, select either Topic Only or Formal and Topic option, depending on your needs. NOTE: You can learn more about Formal tags in Tags.

Create as many Tag Groups as necessary, and then move on to Step 2.

Step 2 - Create Topic Tags

Now that you have Tag Groups, you can create Topic Tags and add them to the appropriate group.

To do so:

1. On the Settings > Tags and Mentions > Tags page, click a Tag Group's Edit Tags button.

The Manage Tags page is where you create, edit, delete, and move tags.

2. Click Add and complete the following fields:

Field	Description
Tag Name	Specify a keyword or term that accurately describes the types of content that the tag is applicable to. This makes it easier to organize and describe content across your site, so that users can more easily find it.
Tag Aliases	Specify any keywords and terms that should be considered the same as the tag. This serves two purposes: It reduces the number of tags you need because you can group words that are similar to the tag. Searching on an alias tag returns content that is tagged with the Tag Name. This prevents similar content from being flagged with different tags which could result in it not being returned in the same search results. For example, if you create the Topic Tag, EngagementStrategy, and create aliases of engagement and gamification, EngagementStrategy-tagged content is returned when either of these two aliases are searched on.

Create as many Topic Tags as necessary.