TikTok, a popular video-sharing social media platform is reportedly testing a novel video-based Q&A feature, designed to help creators better engage with their audience. The new feature allows creators to respond more directly to their fans’ questions, via text or video. The feature works across video as well as livestreams, but at present is available only to certain creators who are part of the test.

Q&As have rapidly emerged as a prominent means of engagement for creators on social media, garnering immense popularity across platforms such as Instagram Stories, as well as other apps including YOLO (a Snapchat-integrated app) and even small startups.

However, on TikTok, Q&As have become a major part of the commenting space, with numerous creators responding to audience comments with a new video that gives a more detailed and comprehensive answer than a regular text response. These video-based answers serve multiple purposes, from adding context or clarifying, to tackling trolls or bullies.

Q&As are also used by creators to ensure better engagement with fans during livestreaming sessions. Often times, creators find it challenging to keep up with the rapid flood of comments and questions in the current live chat interface. The new Q&A feature simplifies this process for the creators, by providing them a view of all their audience’s questions in a single place.

In the testing phase, the novel Q&A feature has been made available only to those creators having a public Creator Account, over 10,000 followers, and have opted into the feature test in their Settings. Test participants currently include several safe-listed TikTok creators from the Creative Learning Fund program, which was launched last year, as well as many others.

According to TikTok, the Q&A feature is being tested across the globe. The company also revealed that it is aiming towards rolling out the feature to more Creator Account-holding users over the coming weeks.

Source Credit: https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/20/tiktoks-new-qa-feature-lets-creators-respond-to-fan-questions-using-text-or-video/