It seems like there’s a new social media option every day, and keeping up with them might be overwhelming. However, the social answer website Quora might be the next big thing, which is why you should perk your ears whenever someone mentions the newest kid on the block and give it a try-out to see if it’s a good fit for you.
Just What Is Quora?
If you’ve ever stopped by sites such as Yahoo Answers or Answers.com, then you’re familiar with the concept of community-generated answer websites. Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, previously of Facebook, developed Quora as an alternative to those websites. Quora’s value has continued to grow from a few million to over $1 billion since 2010, but what makes the website so popular?
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Quora differs from similar websites in that community members continually edit and improve upon answers to questions to provide the most comprehensive answers possible. While responses on other websites might become outdated, Quora has the potential to remain evergreen in a quickly-changing world.
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To provide the highest-quality answers, Quora’s setup discourses anonymous users, which is one benefit over sites that allow this. Finally, users can log in to Quora with their existing social network accounts, which makes registration easy and connects users to their real profiles.
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As of the time of publication, Quora has a functional mobile website in addition to an app for the iPhone, so you can sign on even when you’re out of the office. Some notable faces have already joined Quora, including Pandora founder Tim Westergren. While sites such as Wikipedia have had to limit user roles, Quora hasn’t yet reached this point, however.
Quora and You
The newest social website offers you a platform to show your expertise and indirectly advertise your small business. Take time to completely fill out your profile, which you should be doing with every social site that you join. List your business as a source of experience in your profile. As you continue to provide helpful answers, the community can vote your answers up, which provides more visibility to your profile and the questions you’ve answered.
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However, “indirect” is the key word to promotion on Quora. Never promote your company directly, or you’ll come off as spammy. You could ask a question about your company anonymously. You may find it better to explain your company’s experience and successes in relevant answers, though. To directly communicate with others in the industry or potential clients, use Quora’s private messaging system.
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If you’re interested in learning more about the industry, answering questions provides the opportunity to do research. Gain insight into your competition when you read answers pertaining to those companies. Quora provides the insight that you might be looking for. Of course, the questions that people ask also reflect current trends, so Quora can help you keep on top of those. Journalists have already figured this out, which is why so many have signed up for the site. They might just have something to say about your company.
The last benefit of Quora is that search engines index content on the site, so you can spread information about your small business company by using the site. Sprinkle keywords into the content to help your own SERPs rank.
Your small business’s direct competition might already be on Quora, getting free PR and building authority. If they’re not, then Quora is ripe for the picking. Use Quora to learn from their techniques and even their mistakes.
About Guest Author
Ben Sawyer is social media marketing consultant since 2007. He helped many small business websites to improve their rankings and increase online visibility through social media channels. Here are his most useful tips about benefits of using Quora.
