# Use interest data for personalized recommendations

Learn how to turn on interest capture, let Brand Control Center build interest profiles, and use them to personalize feeds, community suggestions, and notifications.

Interest data lets Brand Control Center (BCC) recommend videos, communities, and notifications that match what each person cares about. BCC builds and updates interest profiles automatically with AI from [Supervised Intelligence](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/supervised-intelligence/supervised-intelligence-what-it-does-and-where-to-start). You decide where recommendations appear, and you track how they perform.

Personalized recommendations raise engagement, surface relevant videos and communities sooner, and keep people coming back. Targeted recommendations also improve clicks and actions, and the AI adapts them as behavior changes. Feed personalization is part of Control; see [Control: what it does and where to start](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/control/control-what-it-does-and-where-to-start).

## Turn on interest capture

1. Turn on **User Profile & Interests** in your app.
   ![The Interests screen in a mobile app, where a member picks topics under Community Commerce, The Creator Economy, Brand Strategy, and AdTech & Revenue, with a Choose 3+ button.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/lnrtvsvr/development/c321595dc59b69b07d67206f2f6b25de0b8a400d-922x2048.jpg)
   *Step 1: The Interests screen asks members to choose at least three topics.*
2. In Brand Control Center, go to **Manage** > **Category**.
   ![The Category tab under Manage in Brand Control Center, listing categories such as Music & Artists, Podcasts & Audio, and Film, TV & Stream, with a search field and + New Category.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/lnrtvsvr/development/31ccb4b4632a1cb3d4b113f56b754128a9b39c97-1875x910.jpg)
   *Step 2: The Category tab lists your brand's categories and topics.*

Genuin then captures interest signals from two sources:

- Onboarding selections, the interests people choose explicitly
- User interactions: views, likes, shares, and watch time

> **Note** The more interaction data people generate, the more accurate the recommendations are.

Learn how to [set up brand categories and topics](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/brand-control-center/how-do-i-set-up-brand-categories-and-topics).

## How interest profiles work

Once interest capture is on, BCC creates dynamic user interest profiles automatically. Each profile updates continuously from:

- Content consumption patterns
- Community participation
- Engagement signals

AI models generate the recommendations dynamically, and profiles evolve in real time as behavior changes. Recommendations work across feeds, communities, and notifications.

## Where recommendations appear

| Surface | What interest data does |
| --- | --- |
| Personalized feeds | Ranks and displays videos by user interests, and prioritizes high-affinity content categories |
| Community and group recommendations | Suggests relevant communities based on user preferences, which raises join rates through contextual discovery |
| Content suggestions | Recommends similar or related content after an interaction, for deeper engagement within a session |
| Notifications and re-engagement | Sends personalized alerts based on interests, and promotes trending or new content in preferred categories |

## Configure where recommendations appear

You configure recommendations in Brand Control Center, mainly in the **Grow** and **Onsite** modules:

- **Surfaces**: homepage feeds, embedded widgets (Carousel, Feed, and Standard Wall), and in-app experiences.
- **Filters**: interest category, community relevance, and content type.

Learn how to [get started with placements](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/onsite/how-a-brand-can-get-started-with-placements-in-brand-control-center) and [generate embed codes](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/onsite/how-do-brands-generate-embed-codes-from-brand-control-center).

## Track recommendation performance

1. In Brand Control Center, go to **Report**.
2. Track CTR (click-through rate) on recommended content, engagement by interest category, and retention and session duration.
   ![The Report page in Brand Control Center on the Interaction & Top Performers tab, with charts of the top 10 users by video watch count and by video watch hours.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/lnrtvsvr/development/f2eef92eabd5b6669f963526595f78903afdd3e4-1875x912.jpg)
   *Step 2: Report breaks performance down by tabs such as User Engagement and Retention & Stickiness.*

Use the results to refine interest mapping, improve content tagging, and adjust your recommendation strategy. For the interaction metrics in reports, see [content interactions in reports](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/brand-control-center/how-can-brands-track-and-analyze-content-interactions-in-reports).

## Example: a media brand

A media brand wants more engagement across its video platform. Its users interact with tech, gaming, and finance content, and BCC builds interest profiles from those interactions automatically.

Genuin then recommends similar videos, suggests relevant communities, and sends targeted notifications. The result is a higher CTR on recommended content, more watch time, and better user retention.

## Limitations

- **Recommendations need data.** They require enough user interaction data, and interest signals must be enabled in BCC.
- **New users get generic recommendations.** Cold-start users might receive generic recommendations at first, until they interact with content.
- **Tagging affects accuracy.** Content must be tagged and classified. Misclassified content lowers recommendation accuracy, so review tags when recommendations miss.
- **Personalization can narrow feeds.** Over-personalization can limit content diversity unless you balance it.

## See also

- [Use member interests to grow your social experience](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/brand-control-center/how-can-brands-leverage-user-interests-for-community-growth)
- [Collect and manage device information](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/control/how-can-brands-collect-and-manage-device-information-for-enhanced-user-experience)
- [Personalization and relevance: how Maya ranks every feed](https://begenuin.com/developers/get-started/any-business/personalization-and-relevance-how-maya-ranks-every-feed)
- [How contextual feeds choose videos](https://begenuin.com/developers/developer-resources/guides/how-do-i-configure-and-display-contextual-feeds-as-onsite-embeds)
- [Player Controls and Feed Settings](https://begenuin.com/developers/browse-by-products/control/player-controls-and-feed-settings)