Topic Communities are special communities where all content, upon creation, must be flagged with unique Topic Tags (created by Super Admins). This ensures that all content belongs to organization-approved categories, which, in turn, makes all Topic Community content easily searchable and consumable by users interested in specific topics.

Super Admins can designate any community as the Topic Community for their site.

How it works

Topic communities work in two ways:

• On your profile, you can manually select, as a Stated Interest, any of the Topic Tags created for the Topic Community. This is the most direct way to ensure you receive the content you're most interested in.
• As you interact across the Topic Community, the system performs calculations based on your actions (such as reading, favoriting, recommending, and commenting on content) to automatically promote content you're interested in. These are shown on your profile as your Observed Interests.

All of this content is then automatically curated and included in any Topic Community's notification emails you've elected to receive.

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

Manage your Stated Interests

Add Tags

1. Navigate to your profile > My Profile tab.
2. In the Stated Interests section, click Add a Topic and select the desired tag(s).

NOTE: You'll only be able to choose tags that have been created by your administrator(s).

Remove Tags

Simply click the X to the right of the tag.

Manage your Topic Notification email

1. Navigate to your profile.

2. Select Community Notifications from the My Account menu.

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

1. No Email - You won't receive any notifications.
2. Personalized Digest - A daily email summarizing all content relevant to your preferences, interests, and activity.
3. Personalized Digest & Real-Time Discussion Emails - In addition to receiving the Summary email at the end of the day, you'll also immediately be notified about new discussion threads/messages related to your Stated Interests (you can configure your Stated Interests from your profile). NOTE: Choosing this option will exclude discussion activity from the Summary email so you’re not presented the same information twice.

Access your Topic Community

If a Topic Community is set up for your site, you should see a Topic Community option listed in your site's Navigation Bar > Communities menu, allowing you to easily access your Topic Community at any time.

NOTE: The name and navigation location is customizable and may be different for your site.

Manage a Topic Community's curated content

You can manage the algorithm used to curate content to your users at any time:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Community > Communities > Topic Community.

3. Topic Community content is delivered to users via a notification email. At this point, you need to tailor what kind of content should appear in these emails. Toggle each option to YES or NO to control whether it's included.

NOTE: Personal Content is prioritized in these emails, as it's more relevant to users. However, if there isn't enough Personal Content, Popular Content will be added in so that users always receive new and interesting content.

Field	Description
Personal Content This refers to content specific to a user's selected Stated Interests and activity in the Topic Community.
Interacted	Content a user has directly contributed or interacted with by recommending, favoriting, or commenting on.
Boosted	Content that a Community Admin and/or Super Admin has boosted in order to call attention to it. See Boosted Content to learn more.
Stated Interests	Content tagged as a user's Stated Interest. NOTE: If a Topic Community is set up, a Stated Interests area is available on all user profiles. In this area, users can select any of the Topic Tags you or other Super Admins have created, giving them the most direct control over what content they're interested in consuming.
Observed Interests	As users interact across the Topic Community, the system performs calculations based on their actions to automatically promote content. These are shown on your profile as your Observed Interests. If set to Yes, this content is included in the Topic Community notification emails.
Popular Content This refers to the most popular content in the Topic Community. You can also set the maximum number of Popular Content items to include in the digest emails using the option at the bottom of this area. This is a helpful way to limit Popular Content, if desired.
Most Read	The content most read by users.
Most Recommended	The content most recommended by users.
Most Favorited	The content most favorited by users.
Random	This is a safety net that adds random content if a user doesn't qualify for the minimum threshold.

Set up a Topic Community

NOTE: Higher Logic's best practice is to only have a single Topic Community, but you can have more than one.

The process of setting up a Topic Community is different depending on whether your organization licenses Higher Logic's optional Nested Communities module. View the section below appropriate for your organization:

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 menu to set it as your Topic Community.

4. The tags associated to any tag groups set to Topic Only and Formal and Topic display in the Topic Community Tags area below. These are the tags users can assign to their content across the Topic Community. If you need to create new topic tags, click Add. Refer to the How to Create Topic Tags section below to learn more about topic tags and their creation process.

Access your Topic Community

Now, a new Topic Community option is listed in your site's Navigation Bar > Communities menu, allowing you and your members to easily access your Topic Community at any time.

NOTE: The name and navigation location are customizable and may be different for your site.

If you DO license Nested Communities

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

3. Set the Topic Community option to YES. Then, select the Topic Tags you want available in this Topic Community.

Access your Topic Community

Now, a new Topic Community option is listed in your site's Navigation Bar > Communities menu, allowing you and your members to easily access your Topic Community at any time.

NOTE: The name and navigation location is customizable and may be different for your site.

Create Topic Tags

Users are required to tag all content they contribute to a Topic Community with specific Topic Tags, making them the driving force of Topic Community content. Because of their importance, creating Topic Tags is a crucial step when setting up this functionality, so take the time to properly plan and brainstorm; if available, you may 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 organized and created within Tag Groups, much like how files are organized and stored in folders. So, the first thing you need to do is create your desired Tag Group(s). To do so:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

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

3. Click Add.

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

Field	Description
Tag Group Name	Give your new Tag Group a name fitting for the types of tags it'll contain.
Admin Only	Decide whether only admins can apply tags from this Tag Group. If set to No, your 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 the Topic Only or Formal and Topic option, depending on your needs. NOTE: You can learn more about Formal tags in Tags.

5. Continue creating as many Tag Groups as necessary for your needs, and then move on to Step 2.

Step 2 - Create Topic Tags

Now that your Tag Group(s) are created, it's time to add Topic Tags. To do so:

1. Back on the Settings > Tags and Mentions > Tags page, click the desired Tag Group's Edit Tags button (this enables you to edit, delete, and create tags).

2. To create a new tag, click Add and complete the following options:

Field	Description
Tag Name	Provide a keyword or term that accurately describes the types of content the tag is applicable to. Tag names help organize and describe content across your site, making it easier for your users to search for and find it.
Tag Aliases	Here, you can enter any keywords or terms that should be considered the same as the tag. This serves two purposes: It helps to reduce the number of tags you need, as you can group words that are similar to the tag under the same umbrella. Searching on an alias tag returns content tagged with the Tag Name. This prevents similar content from being flagged with different tags, therefore causing it to not be returned in the same search results. For example, if you create the Topic Tag "EngagementStrategy" and create aliases for "engagement" and "gamification," a user searching either of these two aliases will return "EngagementStrategy" content instead.

3. Continue creating as many Topic Tags as necessary for your needs.