Topic
A Topic in Salesforce is a standard object that represents a tag or theme used to categorize Chatter posts, Knowledge articles, records, files, and other content across the platform.
Definition
A Topic in Salesforce is a standard object that represents a tag or theme used to categorize Chatter posts, Knowledge articles, records, files, and other content across the platform. Each Topic record holds a Name, an optional Description, and a TalkingAbout counter that tracks how often the Topic has been discussed recently. Topics are linked to specific items through the TopicAssignment junction object, which records which Chatter post, article, or record was tagged with which Topic. This shared tagging vocabulary lets users surface related content across object boundaries - clicking a Topic surfaces every Chatter post, knowledge article, and record tagged with it, regardless of their underlying objects. Topics are crowdsourced by default: any user can apply or create Topics, which makes them useful for capturing emergent themes (a product issue, a competitive scenario, a regional event) without requiring admin configuration. Topics also drive Experience Cloud navigation, where Topic pages serve as landing destinations for community content organized around themes rather than objects.
In plain English
“A Topic is a tag you can stick on a Chatter post, a Knowledge article, or a record to mark what it's about - like #pricing, #competitor-acme, or #q4-launch. Once you tag content with a Topic, anyone clicking the Topic sees everything else tagged with the same Topic, regardless of which Salesforce object it's on. Think Twitter hashtags, but inside Salesforce.”
Worked example
A product manager at a SaaS company posts a Chatter update announcing a new feature: "Just shipped real-time collaboration in the editor." She tags the post with two Topics: #real-time-collaboration and #q1-launch. Other employees also tag related Chatter posts, Knowledge articles, and Case records with the same Topics over the next few weeks - a customer-success manager tags an article on troubleshooting collaboration latency, a sales rep tags an Opportunity where collaboration was a deciding factor. Anyone clicking the #real-time-collaboration Topic page sees the chronological feed of every tagged item across Chatter, Knowledge, and records - a single thematic view across object boundaries that emerges organically from user tagging.
Why Topic matters
Topics differ from Categories in Salesforce Knowledge: Topics are crowdsourced and can be applied by any user, while Data Categories are admin-defined hierarchical taxonomies used for visibility control. Topics complement Data Categories rather than replace them - a Knowledge article might be in the Data Category 'Products > Pro Plan > Authentication' (admin-controlled) while also tagged with the Topic 'two-factor-authentication' (user-applied). Searching by Topic surfaces all Topic-tagged content; browsing by Data Category surfaces articles within an explicit hierarchy.
TopicAssignment records the link between a Topic and an Entity (any record that supports Topics - Chatter posts, Knowledge articles, custom objects with Topics enabled). The Entity field is polymorphic, similar to Activity's WhatId, and can reference dozens of object types. Querying which records share a given Topic requires a SOQL join through TopicAssignment - there is no direct related-list shortcut on most objects.
Experience Cloud uses Topics as first-class navigation: a Topic page is a community URL like /community/topic/RealTimeCollab that displays all public content tagged with that Topic, along with Topic-following options, related Topics, and crowdsourced 'experts' (users who post about the Topic frequently). For external community sites, well-curated Topics are often more useful than rigid category trees because they reflect what users are actually discussing rather than what admins predicted users would discuss.
How to create Topic
Topics are the Chatter tagging system — assign topics to Feed Items to make them discoverable. Most topics are user-created ("#renewals," "#product-launch") via the Chatter publisher; admins can pre-create topic records to seed the taxonomy.
- Confirm Topics are enabled for the relevant objects
Setup → Topics for Objects → tick the objects where Topics should appear.
- Open the Topics tab (or post a Feed Item with #tag)
App Launcher → Topics. Or in any Chatter post, type #tagname to create-and-tag in one step.
- From the Topics tab: click New
Top-right.
- Set Topic Name and Description
Name shows up in tag autocomplete. Description aids search.
- Save
Topic is created. Users can now @-tag it on Feed Items.
- (Optional) Merge Topics
On the Topic detail page → Merge Topics → pick another topic. Useful when the team has duplicates ("renewals" and "renewal").
Required. The tag name.
- Topics are case-insensitive but display whatever the user typed first. "#Renewals" and "#renewals" become the same Topic but display style varies.
- Topics for Objects must be enabled per-object. Without enablement, you can post #tags on a record but they don't link to the Topic record.
- Merging Topics is one-way — the merged topic disappears, all Feed Item links transfer to the surviving Topic. Plan merges carefully.
How organizations use Topic
Encourages employees to tag Chatter posts with Topics for product features, customer accounts, and competitor names. Sales reps subscribe to #competitor-acme to see every internal mention of that competitor across deals, posts, and articles - turning Topic feeds into a real-time competitive-intelligence stream.
Tags Knowledge articles with both Data Categories (admin-managed hierarchy for visibility) and Topics (user-managed for emergent themes). When a new product issue surfaces, support agents quickly tag related articles with a new Topic, surfacing the cluster of related guidance for other agents handling similar Cases.
Uses Topic pages as the primary content navigation. Each Topic page aggregates community Q&A, knowledge articles, and ideas tagged with the Topic, with crowdsourced experts surfaced based on contribution frequency. Engagement metrics are tracked per Topic to identify which themes drive the most community activity.
Trust & references
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Topic.
- Topics in Salesforce HelpSalesforce
Discussion
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