Identifying Trending Topics in Slack

Guru's Trending Topics digest in Slack helps users identify gaps in their knowledge base by surfacing trends in designated Slack channels. After identifying those gaps, this tool makes it easy to transfer content from Slack conversations back into Guru to ensure that information lives where it can be searched for and trusted.

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Access Required

Only admins, Collection owners, and authors in workspaces on Guru's All-in-one and Enterprise plans have access to Guru's Trending Topics for Slack.

Enable Trending Topics digests in specific Slack channels

1. Navigate to the Home tab of the Guru app in Slack.
2. Under Trending Topics click Subscribe to Trending Topics.
3. Choose specific Slack channels (maximum 5 channels) to analyze. The Guru app must be added to those channels (using the /invite @Guru command)
4. Add keywords or phrases to the Excluded Keywords section that may create unwanted noise.
5. Designate a delivery cadence. Users can choose what date & time to receive the digest, and schedule it to arrive every week, 2 weeks, or 4 weeks.
6. Click Save. You will receive a DM from Guru confirming that the Trending Topics digest was successfully created along with a confirmation of the date and time for the first digest.

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Note

To analyze trends, this feature requires Guru to collect and store all messages in the designated channel(s) for 90 days.

Take action on Trending Topics

You can use information compiled in the Trending Topics digest to highlight gaps in your company's knowledge base and easily move this information into Guru for easy access and management. Click the horizontal ellipses ("⋯") button next to an individual Trending Topic to open its action menu.

View messages and create or update a Guru Card

Click View messages to view the list of relevant Slack conversations containing the trending keyword(s). A maximum of 7 message threads will surface per Trending Topic.

While viewing the topic's messages, click the Share Trending Topic button to share it with another Slack user or (public) Slack channel.

To create a new Card out of a Slack conversation, click Create Card. Before publishing, there is an opportunity to edit the conversation content that gets automatically pulled into the new Card draft. All-in-one and Enterprise Guru customers will see the option to apply ⚡️ Assist to speed up the process of summarizing and capturing this knowledge as an FAQ or Summary.

Alternatively, click Update Existing Card to search for a Guru Card to view or add content to using the Add to this Card button.

Share with teammate

Use the Share with teammate button to forward the topic, including the list of relevant Slack conversations, to another Slack user or (public) Slack channel. As the sender, you'll receive a confirmation message in the Guru Slack app. The recipient will receive the shared Trending Topic as a new message from the Guru Slack app.

Exclude from future digests

Select Exclude from future digests to exclude the keyword(s) from future digests.

Refresh Topics

Click the Refresh Topics button to immediately refresh the Trending Topics Digest with new topics and conversations.

Managing your Trending Topics digests

Manage the insights that you're receiving at any point by navigating back to the Home tab of the Guru app in Slack.

Click ✏️ Manage subscription settings within the Trending Topics section. From here, you can:

• Add or remove Slack channels to include in the insights digest (up to 5 channels)
• Add or remove excluded keywords
• Edit insights digest cadence settings
• Delete the Trending Topics digest

In addition to the regularly scheduled digest delivery, you can ask Guru to 🔄 Send new digest whenever you want. You can also manage these settings directly from the Trending Topic message the Guru app sends.

Disabling Trending Topics

Guru Admin can turn off all Trending Topics and remove the option from their users’ Guru Slack app Home tab. Please note, disabling this feature at the workspace level will automatically delete all of your team's existing subscriptions. This cannot be undone.

1. Navigate to Manage > Apps & Integrations
2. Click the Manage button next to the Slack app within the Connected Apps section.
3. Toggle Trending Topics subscriptions off.
4. Confirm by clicking Disable.

Frequently Asked Questions about Guru's Trending Topics for Slack

Are new permissions required for Trending Topics?
No. Users have already accepted the permissions necessary for Trending Topics when they installed the Slackbot. However, a user does need to 1) add the Slackbot to a channel and 2) subscribe to Trending Topics for the bot to actually begin scanning that channel.

Can this feature be used by anyone in the company?
Trending Topics is opt-in only. As long as a Guru collection owner, author, or admin doesn't actively create a digest for a channel in Slack, the Guru app will not store messages from channels to which it has been invited. Admins also have the option to disable the feature for their entire workspace.

What triggers something as “trending”? Is there a certain number of times a phrase has to be said to be identified?
The system includes the number of times a topic is mentioned and also uses Machine Learning (ML) to surface relevant topics. You'll notice words that may be frequently used but are not topical are omitted. For example, your team may use repetitive words like "customer," "question," or "asking" in a channel, but a user's digest for that channel will not surface these keywords because they are not topical.