Note: This article only applies to Community Admins, Brand Super Admins, or applicable custom roles. For more details on Creator Studio access, please refer to the Defining Roles and Permissions article.
Topics organize content for users. Topics help users discover relevant content and form their own personalized feed (Latest content) by following their topics of interest.
Content in topics is ordered by publish date. The most recently published content will appear at the top of the topic.
The experience of following topics is consistent across all devices. When a user follows or unfollows a topic on the web or mobile app, the same topic will be followed or unfollowed in the user's mobile app or web experience.
You can also automatically add users to topics that they may not discover on their own with Auto- Follow.
To open the Topics page, select Configure from the menu on the left and then Topics.
Create a Topic
- While on the Topics page, click the + Topic button. This opens the topic creation page.
- Set at least a Topic Name and Description before clicking Save. For details on all of the fields, see below.
Edit a Topic
- While on the Topics page, click on the three dots to the right of the topic's name and select Edit.
- Modify any topic settings, including the name.
- Select Save to save changes.
Note: We recommend against archiving the My Feed topic, as it provides content (under Latest) for the default starting point for all users in the mobile and web experience.
What Do the Topic Settings Mean
General
Image
The image displays next to the topic name on the Topics page in Creator Studio, behind the topic title under Discover on mobile, and next to the topic name in the web experience. Upload an image to customize the preview image that is associated with the topic. Refer to content specifications for supported image types and recommended size ratios. If the image does not fit, it will be cropped as needed. If no image has been directly uploaded, we will display the existing auto-generated image (pulled from the most recently published post in the topic).
Note: If you do not see the background image when creating or editing a topic, the feature has not yet been enabled for your community. Please contact Firstup Support for more information.
Topic Name
Use up to 30 characters to name the topic. The Topic Name and Description will be displayed under Discover. The topic name should be descriptive enough for both Creator Studio users and Members to understand what content belongs in the topic. Topic names can be edited at any time without any impact to the already published content or number of followers.
Topics are ordered alphabetically by name. You can push topics to the top of the Topics page in Creator Studio by placing a number in front of the topic name.
Note that placing a special character or emoji in front of the topic name will not affect its placement in the list of topics in Creator Studio. (Ex. A topic named "! Important News !" will still come after a topic named "Human Resources", as opposed to at the top of the list.) However, you can push topics to the top of the Discover tab in the member experience by using numbers OR special characters (e.g. @ or !) at the beginning of the topic name.
Creator Studio
Discover tab
Alternatively, you can push topics to the bottom of Discover by using an emoji at the beginning of your topic name.
Renaming a Topic
If you decide to change the name of a topic entirely, we recommend publishing an update (via content card) about the upcoming topic name change in your community. The post should include why you're changing the name and when the change will be made, so your users know to look for it and understand where to go for this topic's content moving forward.
Description
Use up to 150 characters to describe the content in greater detail than the topic name. Topic descriptions are visible to members in the web experience and mobile app 3.3.0 and newer.
Target
Audience
If no audiences are selected, the topic would be visible (open) to all users. To target the topic, start typing in the name of an audience and select the audience from the dropdown.
For more details about targeting topics to audiences, refer to Target a Topic to Specific Audiences.
Auto-Follow
Configure your topic so that new and existing/active users automatically follow the topic. When enabled, existing users in the targeted audience(s) will immediately opt in to follow the topic. New users will begin following the topic upon registering in the community. Users will receive notifications via Assistant when topics are automatically followed. Users can unfollow topic(s) anytime by visiting the Discover tab and selecting Unfollow. Auto-follow must be enabled to facilitate auto-follow for all users on a public (open) topic. Please note that the All Users audience does not require specific configuration.
To auto-follow one or more specific audiences to a public (open) topic, auto-follow must be enabled and one or more specific audiences selected from the drop-down menu.
To auto-follow a subset of the targeted audience/s to the topic, auto-follow must be enabled and the subset audience/s selected from the drop-down menu. Only targeted audiences for the topic will appear in the drop-down menu. To restrict auto-follow on a topic even further, you can select a subset of the selected targeted audiences. For example, if 'Follows Multiple Topics,' 'Brand Super Admins,' and 'Members' are selected as targeted audiences for a topic, you can choose to only auto-follow the 'Brand Super Admins' audience.
Once the toggle has been enabled, disabling the toggle does not unfollow users who have already been opted into the topic. Disabling Auto-Follow will stop future users from being automatically opted into following the topic.
If you update the targeting of a topic that had Auto-Follow on at any point, users will only continue to be followers if they are included in the new targeting.
Issue Note: Users that move directly from Created to Registered may experience a slight delay in seeing their auto-follow topics. To avoid this issue, be sure to invite all new users via the platform. Users that move from Invited to Registered experience no delay in auto-follow.
Recommend Follow
Only public topics (ie. not targeted to an audience) can be recommended. If a topic is targeted to one or more audiences, and the 'Recommend follow' option is selected, an error will be displayed when saving changes to the topic. More details in the Recommend Topics to Members article.
Member Submissions
Allow Members to Submit Content
Use this toggle to simplify the list of topics that Members see when submitting content from both the web and mobile experience.
Disable Member submissions to hide the topic from the list of topics Members can see when submitting a post. Creator Studio users with access to the Campaigns page in Creator Studio will still see the topic when submitting content through the member experience.
Enable Member submissions to make the topic available to Members when they are submitting content. Depending on the Auto-Publish Content Submitted by Users setting, the content may need to be reviewed before publishing.
Note: This feature is only enabled for communities that have mobile app version 3.7+. If you do not have this feature and are on the newest mobile app version, please contact Firstup Support.
Auto-Publish Content Submitted by Users
When Auto-Publish is enabled, content submitted to the topic by Members will be published automatically. This means that other Members with access to the topic will be able to see the content in the member experience almost immediately.
If Auto-Publish is disabled, content submitted to the topic by Members will be set to Needs Review so that a Creator Studio user can review the content and then manually publish the post. This can cause Members some concern when there is a delay in publishing but allows for a review and approval process.
For details about what will happen if a user submits content to more than one topic, please refer to User-Generated Overview: Auto-Publish vs Needs Review.
Creator Studio Users Note: Depending on your community configuration and your Creator Studio user's exact role and topic assignments, your Creator Studio users will either have the same auto-publish experience as Members or they will experience direct publishing.
Visibility
Most of the time, you will probably enable visibility in the member experience. However, when you create a new topic, you do not have to immediately make the topic visible to members in the web and mobile app experience. Disabling visibility is useful if you are still editing the content that will appear in the topic. You can also disable the visibility option to remove an existing topic from visibility (rather than archive the topic).
The topic's visibility status can be configured while creating or editing a topic and is disabled by default.
- Disabled - The topic remains hidden from all users in the member experience but is visible in Creator Studio for users who can access the Topics page. Content tied to a hidden topic can be seen on the Calendar page. The topic visibility setting is a separate and distinct setting from the hidden post setting.
- Enabled - The topic and all content in the topic will be visible both to members in the web and mobile experience and in Creator Studio.
Note: The topic must be set to visible if Auto-follow is enabled.
Video
For visual learners, check out our video on how to create a topic.
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