Leveraging Quora for Your Business

Leveraging Quora for Your Business


Ask and you shall receive. That is precisely the reason behind Quora, a question-and-answer website that has exploded in popularity in today’s online workplace. Amazingly, this relatively new company was founded in 2009 and went public only a year later – such was its immediate popularity.

Today, it’s hard to find a brand that doesn’t have a mention on Quora. Need more proof of that? Huffington Post reports that 84% of the top 100 brands had at least one discussion thread dedicated to them in 2013. If you haven’t already, it’s time to learn how your company can best leverage this unique site.

The first question: What is Quora?

Quora is a question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, edited and organized by its community of users, all intended to be informative, not promotional. Questions asked on Quora are distributed to a vast network of people, from experts and authorities to regular folks with relevant knowledge. The answers are then archived and organized so they can be accessed by anyone else with the same question.

While you will be sharing information about your company, the primary purpose is to share essential knowledge about things that matter most to your industry. This is not the place to “put” your company for enhanced visibility, but rather a forum that you need to participate in and nurture.

Using Quora for YOUR brand

In her Social Media Examiner article “How to Use Quora to Increase Your Business Exposure,” Ann Smarty gave some key tips for getting started on this platform, summarized (not in full context) below:

Put time into your Quora profile

Every time you post an answer on the forum, people will see your bio. You might even have different bios for individual topics. As with other social media platforms, you have a small space to convey your story so you need to make it count. Can you do it in 50 characters? That’s the limit for the tagline people see above your answer, so be sure to include your brand name front and center. You can also add clickable links in the bio, bringing visitors to your website, blog, or other important spot.

Further elaboration comes in the “About Me” section where you can detail your education, areas of expertise, and other interests. You also have the option to link your profile to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts.

Define your company topic

Quora discussions are organized by keyword and topics; oftentimes a brand name is a keyword. Be sure to create a company (or topic) page on the site (with logo and description), but remember that all pages can be created and edited by any user (just like Wikipedia), so you’ll want to make sure it stays accurate. If you have people in your corner that want to share their positive experience with your brand, encourage them to review the topic in this public forum that will further give your company credibility and visibility. As an important final step, subscribe to your topic so you will see questions and other activity as soon as it happens. Online reputation management is essential in this public viewing space.

Get active

It’s not just about you on Quora. You are part of a community that generates helpful content. Read plenty of questions and answers, follow discussion participants, and upvote their updates. Upvotes and follows go a long way on this platform, since they show up in users’ notifications and can point some traffic in your direction.

Brainstorm with Quora

If you want to know your topic or industry more, dive into Quora. Here, you can see how it’s covered, hot button topics, and content ideas. When you know the problems that your industry and target demographic is having, you can better write the answers that people are seeking and excited to read.

Check out your competitors

Many businesses look to Quora for competitor research. With just a little shallow digging, find discussions that are debating products and challenges right in your industry. Not only will you see how your own company is faring, you can also get an idea of how people perceive your direct competitors, similar niche brands, and other closely related topics that fall under your umbrella. You can also search for your competitor’s brand names in various threads and follow these as new content becomes available.

Talk to your people

As soon as you post content or answer a question with your bio attached to your response, you become the face of your brand. You need to realize the immense responsibility that comes with this visibility. Talk to your customers (and potential ones) with respect, and address their concerns with as much helpful information that you have.

Make your expertise go viral

With Quora, you can auto-share your answers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and WordPress.com, proving and extending your expertise to the outside community.

Analyze the best approach

With its free analytics, Quora lets you see how your content performed. With the number of clicks at hand, shared links, and upvoted content, you can clearly see what the community liked the best within different periods of time (7 days, last 30 days, last 3 months and all-time).

Go forth and answer to your calling

Once you sign up on Quora, get the lay of the land before you jump into discussions. Make sure your profile is complete and catchy (check your competitor’s profile if you need inspiration on how to stand out more), and know the topics that you need to be part of. Then, it’s time to answer away and connect with other important colleagues that should be in your network and continue to stay part of this daily dialogue.

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Reference: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-quora-to-increase-your-business-exposure/