Comment themes to topics

Your viewers tell you what to make next: in questions ("but what happens underwater?") and requests ("do one on volcanoes"). Comment themes reads the comments on your own channels' posts every week, groups the questions and requests that several different viewers made, and turns each into a video idea your channel can plan topics from — so the next episodes answer the audience you already have.

What it does#

Once a week, for each channel, the comments of the last 28 days on its posts are grouped into themes. A theme is one question or one request, put in neutral words of our own — never a viewer's quote, never a name — with:

• whether it is a Question or a Request;
• how many different viewers asked it, and in how many comments;
• the platforms it came from and the week;
• a short summary, and A video that answers it: one episode idea for this channel.

Only questions and requests count: praise, jokes, insults, spam, arguments between viewers and anything personal are left out. A theme needs at least two different viewers. The most-asked come first, up to eight a week for a channel.

From a theme, a topic plan writes two original topics for the channel that answer it, at the front of its backlog.

Where the comments come from#

The comments are the ones Studio reads on the accounts you connected, on the posts your channels made. Today that is Facebook and Instagram, wherever each connection allows reading comments — Studio's Health page shows what each account allows. Replies on Threads are not read yet, so they are not grouped. YouTube comments are grouped once Google approves our use of analysis derived from YouTube's data; until then not one YouTube comment is read here.

A channel needs at least six comments in the four weeks for a run to group them.

How to use it#

1. Open Comment themes in the sidebar, or From your comments → All themes on a channel's page, and choose the channel at the top.
2. Read the themes under What your channel's viewers asked. Each shows its kind, how many viewers and comments, its platforms and its week.
3. For a theme worth an episode, press Plan topics from this — the price is beside the button. The theme shows Planning topics, then In the backlog with its two topics.
4. For one that is not, press Not now.

Themes you planned, added or dismissed are not suggested again for four weeks.

Settings#

The weekly switch is changed by admins and owners. Topics from comments, Not now and Plan topics from this are for editors, admins and owners.

Credits and plans#

The weekly grouping is charged what it used, like any job, with one price a week for the whole workspace. The card at the top of the page says what it typically costs and the most it can cost — "About N credits a week, at most M". The most is reserved before it runs; a week your balance (or a spending cap) cannot cover is skipped, with a note on the page, and never put on credit. Each topic plan, by click or by Add them, is held and charged like any.

Comment themes are on Creator and above, with Studio's reading of your accounts.

Limits and good to know#

• The run happens once a week, on Tuesday, at an hour of its own for your workspace — and at once the first week it is on.
• Comments are only data to group. Nothing a viewer writes is followed as an instruction, and no viewer is named.
• Themes are kept 12 weeks. The comments themselves follow Studio's own rules.
• When a week finds themes, owners, admins and editors get a notification — "Your viewers asked N things this week" — and each channel's themes go to your webhooks as topics.from_comments, never with a theme resting on YouTube comments.
• A theme is a lead, not a promise of views: the topic it plans still goes through the quality gates and the critic like any.

Related#

• Studio: one inbox for every comment — where the comments are read and answered
• Outlier radar — ideas from what breaks out elsewhere
• The coach — weekly recommendations, one click each
• Webhooks and REST hooks