Question
In Salesforce, a Question refers to a post type in Chatter Questions or Experience Cloud Q&A where a user asks for help or information from the community.
Definition
In Salesforce, a Question refers to a post type in Chatter Questions or Experience Cloud Q&A where a user asks for help or information from the community. Unlike a standard Chatter post, a Question supports answer-thread semantics - one or more Answers below, a Best Answer selection, and notification/follow subscriptions on the thread itself. Questions are a first-class Chatter object and can be routed into Cases if they need service-agent attention.
In plain English
“A Question in Salesforce Chatter Answers or Experience Cloud Q&A is a post submitted by a community member seeking help or information. Other members can answer it, vote on answers, and comment. It's the basic unit of community Q&A.”
Worked example
A customer on Bayside Electronics' Experience Cloud support portal posts a Question: "How do I pair my soundbar to an Android phone?" Another customer replies with the steps; the original customer marks that reply as Best Answer. Over time the Question page becomes a searchable knowledge source - tagged with Topics like "Audio" and "Pairing," it surfaces on topic-landing pages, gets folded into trending-question widgets, and if left unanswered after 24 hours, a configured automation escalates it to a Case for an agent to handle.
Why Question matters
In Salesforce Chatter Answers or Experience Cloud Q&A, a Question is a post submitted by a community member seeking help or information, which other members can answer, vote on, and comment on. Questions are the foundation of community Q&A programs, letting users ask for help and benefit from the collective knowledge of other community members.
Community Q&A is valuable for scaling support beyond what agents can handle directly. When customers help each other, each resolved question potentially benefits many future visitors searching for the same issue. Mature community programs encourage high-quality questions (detailed, specific, searchable) and high-quality answers (accurate, helpful, marked as best answer), creating a virtuous cycle of community knowledge.
How to create Question
Questions are a flavor of Feed Item where the post invites answers — "Anyone know how to handle a stuck approval?" Best Answers can be marked, building a Q&A knowledge base out of Chatter activity. Useful inside Communities and internal teams.
- Open a record's Chatter feed (or a Chatter Group, or your profile)
Questions are posted to feeds, same as regular Feed Items.
- Open the publisher → Question tab
The publisher has tabs for Post / Question / Poll / etc. Pick Question.
- Enter the Question title and details
Title is the headline; details is the long-form context.
- (Optional) tag with Topics
Use #tag in the body or in the dedicated topic field.
- Click Ask
Question is posted. Other users can comment with answers.
- When answered, mark the Best Answer
On the Question, click Mark as Best on the most helpful answer. The Best Answer surfaces at the top of the thread.
Required.
Required.
- Questions use the same Feed Item object as posts but have a Type field distinguishing them. Reports on Questions vs Posts filter on Type.
- Best Answer is a single answer per Question. Marking another answer Best auto-unmarks the previous.
- In Experience Cloud Communities, Questions are how customers ask for help. Pair with a Knowledge component so commonly-asked questions can be auto-suggested as articles.
How organizations use Question
Built a community Q&A program where customers help each other, reducing agent workload while improving self-service.
Encourages community members to ask detailed questions and upvote helpful answers.
Treats community Q&A as a self-service support scaling mechanism.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What is a Question?
Q2. Why build community Q&A?
Q3. What makes community Q&A healthy?
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