Chatter Trending Topics: How Trend Calculation Works in Salesforce

This article provides an overview of how Salesforce Chatter Trending Topics are determined.

What is Measured?

Trending Topics measure the rate of change of topic usage in Salesforce Chatter. The total number of posts or comments with a topic is less important than the change to that number since the last calculation cycle.

Refresh Rate

Trend statistics are updated approximately every 4 hours. Posts older than 8 hours do not factor into the current trend calculation.

Qualifying Tags

A tag must meet both of the following criteria to qualify for the trending calculation:

• Used at least 3 times within the 4-hour period
• Used by at least 3 different users in that same period

Example: How Trend Values Are Calculated

During a trend calculation cycle, the following example illustrates how topics are ranked:

• #commonTopic — 40 posts (had 35 last cycle) → Trend Value = +5
• #hotTopic — 40 posts (had 10 last cycle) → Trend Value = +30
• #oldTopic — 10 posts (had 15 last cycle) → Trend Value = −5
• #newTopic — 5 posts (had 0 last cycle) → Trend Value = +5

Topics with the highest Trend Value appear in the Trending Topics list. In the example above, #hotTopic would rank highest despite having the same post count as #commonTopic, because its rate of growth is significantly higher.