Since Quora was launched a couple of years ago, its popularity has soared. The fantastic question and answer site which uses social media as its basis was founded by Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, both of whom have a serious history at Facebook, so there is some pretty significant heritage here.
With many industries heavily represented already on Quora, with high fliers more than happy to answer your questions for free on the site, there’s no doubting the value of the site. The question at this early stage is of course, how best to use the site for the benefit of your own business. It may be early days, but we have a few ideas to get you going. Read on to find out more.
Help People
It seems obvious, but if you have the expertise, you should share it. If you can find an unanswered question with plenty of followers, you are going to get huge kudos for being the person to answer it. Of course, you need the relevant expertise to be able to answer the question, but if this is the case, it is going to be easy for you to demonstrate your worth, and as an extension, the worth of your business that you are representing.
Find People of Value
If there are people on Quora who would benefit you if you had a connection with them, then you can go out there and make that connection. With a site like Quora, it is important however that you open the lines of communication with them in the right way. A great way to make new contacts is to find someone, and follow the same questions that they are following. If you can add value to the conversation and they happen to ‘like’ your comment, then they are giving you a perfect ‘in’ to approach them.
Take Caution with Self Promotion
A site like Quora does not encourage self-promotion, with the feeling being that if you show yourself to have a good level of knowledge in your niche areas, people will come to you. The best foot forward is to display great knowledge in the areas of expertise that relate to your own business. Before long you should be able to develop a real fan base purely through being helpful on Quora. In many cases, this will lead to genuine work.
Don’t Just Answer – Ask Too
Quora is a question and answer site, so make sure you are doing both these things! There’s no doubt that it helps to be seen to be answering questions, but sometimes, asking a question can benefit you too. It shows that you are thinking about things and trying to improve as a business. No one likes a smart Alec, so asking the odd question shows that you don’t think you know it all!
Stay Current
To develop a profile on Quora, you need to be part of the conversations that are happening in and around your industry. You can really target in on what’s going on in Quora by using Google alerts. You should be able to target the right conversations and therefore be a part of them. This is a great way for you to be able to grow your presence in the niche area that you are focusing on.
Finally, you should use the site as it was designed to be used. That is, just try to be helpful. If you can help people, be friendly, show how much you know about your industry and if you can stimulate conversation as much as you can help put an end to unanswered questions, and then you are going to be a success on Quora. It can be a great tool for improving your business, but only if you treat it as something different!
