Quora – Social Search Engine & More

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Quora – Social Network, Search Engine & More By: Michael Sim Image Source: http://philbaumann.files.wordpress.com What is Quora? Quora, in many ways, is similar to most popular social networks. As a member, you create a profile, fill out a biography and even follow different users. However, it is far different from Twitter or Facebook. Quora is a community and knowledge database that encourages its users to ask and answer questions. Join Quora HERE Experts As an expert, you have the ability to answer questions that relate to your specific area of interest or expertise. When you answer a question, other viewers (and the person who asked the question) can rank your answer compared to the others that were posted. If you write the best answer, chances are you will gain recognition for your expertise and a few additional followers. You will also notice that there are many high ranking experts using Quora. You'll find CEO's, executives, business owners, startups, venture capital investors, and more. As the public starts to become more aware of its existence, you can rest assured that those who are established early-on as experts will reap the rewards of their expertise and recognition. Public Profile The best way to see the value in what you can include in your public profile is to visit mine: http://www.quora.com/Michael-Sim. You can see that I've included links to all of my websites and social media accounts within the profile side-bar. You can also see all of the questions I've asked, answered and edited from within an easy-to-use tabbed interface. Ask A Question Any Quora member can ask a question. When typing in the question in the question search box, you will notice that Quora starts to search its database to compare existing questions with what you are typing. If you're question is about something very popular, or if its very general, there is a good chance the answer already exists. It's always a good practice to see if a question already exists and to avoid asking the same question. If the question you wish to ask already exists, it should be easy to find your answer. When asking a new question, you can also tag a question with "Topics". Almost every Quora member follows a handful of topics that are relevant to their interest. I follow "Social Media", "Social Networks" and "Business Strategy". When I am interested to see what questions are being asked within those topics, I simply navigate to my home page (similar to the public timeline in Twitter). By tagging a new question with "Topics", I know that my question will be in the public timeline of anyone who is following those topics. Image Source: http://yesformn.org Marketing Potential As an expert in your industry, you will typically have a strong understanding of the concerns and demands of your target audience. They have a handful of questions, and you, the expert, have the answers. This knowledge allows you to demonstrate your capacity as a leader in your industry, and helps you to earn their business. Quora can be used to do the same, much like YouTube originally became quite valuable for this using video. Understanding the questions that my clients ask regularly, I can launch a pre-emptive campaign on Quora to ask those questions first. Just last night (4/19/11), I posted a question "What are the best Greasemonkey scripts for business use?". I immediately tagged my question with relevant Topics, including Twitter (48,500 followers), Web Marketing (11,800 followers), Social Media Marketing (12,200) and several others. That single question now has the capacity to reach over the public timelines of over 125,000 combined topic followers. After posting my question, I then proceeded to be the first person to answer that question. At the end of the post, I included a link to a specific blog post that I created where the viewer can read more information that might prove valuable to their search. After I was done with that, I found other questions that were open (unanswered, or only a couple of short answers) and modified my original answer to fit those specific questions. One main answer then became 5 unique answers. 125,000 topic followers now increased exponentially. Did the lightbulb turn on yet? I hope it did! 1. Ask a question about your own area of expertise 2. Give it a detailed explanation 3. Tag it with as many relevant "topics" as you can 4. Be the first to answer your own question 5. Find similar questions to the one you just answered 6. Modify your answer to fit those questions 7. Tag those questions (if they aren't already) with relevant topics 8. If you did your job well, the next expert in your industry will be competing with YOU for the best answer. Since you got there first, and put in the time to make sure you had the best answer, there's really nothing to compete with. An answer is an answer, and can only be answered in so many ways. So now when anyone (in the future) types in the question that you've already answered, they will visit your question and your answer will at the very top to greet them. You get the credit, establish yourself as the expert and potentially get a new follower. As time goes on, this person may contact you or visit your website. This creates an opportunity for you to invite them to talk via email or phone, provide consultation and convert a lead to a sale. All the while you are building your reputation as an expert, and as we all know, the value of word-of-mouth is priceless. Image Source: http://www.inboxprotector.com Spam Deterrant Another great feature is that Quora automatically turns an http://website(dot)com string into an active link. It also automatically adds a "nofollow" tag to the HTML of the link, which helps deter spammers from using Quora as a back-links forum. In case that last statement was a little confusing, search engines like Google use back-links to help determine page rankings in search engines. Spammers will post their links anywhere they can in order to trick Google into assigning their website a higher page rank. With the "nofollow" tag, search engines do not index those links, therefore it does nothing to increase website page ranking. After all, a website's value shouldn't be determined by how many places you can spam a link to it, but by the actual content contained within. Good job Quora! If you post a short answer, an answer that does not carry much value, or simply rehash what others have already said, chances are your answer will get voted down among others already in the list. This is Quora's way of allowing the community to determine the value of the answers that are posted, and help reduce the visibility of irrelevant or value-less answers. Spammers, Quora is NOT for you. TIP: Don't start answering every question that you can find with very little information and start including links to your websites. Your efforts to market yourself will be very obvious, and you will probably get flagged and eventually removed. Take your time to answer questions professionally, logically, and to the extent of your ability. Customer Service Potential One VERY valuable feature that Quora does not actively broadcast is the fact that every user has an accessible RSS stream from every section of their profile. I can create one from my main activity stream http://www.quora.com/Michael-Sim/rss, questions I've asked http://www.quora.com/Michael-Sim/questions/rss, and answers I've given http://www.quora.com/Michael-Sim/answers/rss by simply adding /rss to the end of each page's URL. Note: You will need an RSS reader to view the content of the RSS streams. Otherwise you may only see plain text when you click a link listed above. If you use the marketing strategy that I mentioned above (asking and answering your own questions), you can easily use Quora as a FREE customer service portal and F.A.Q. RSS stream. For example, a company could use Quora's RSS stream to populate their F.A.Q page (on their website) with questions they've both asked and answered about their products/services. Rather than having those questions hard-coded into their website, they can easily manage them directly from Quora. They are also taking advantage of the social media effect, allowing the Quora community to have direct access to that information. Quora users can ask new questions, and the company can easily answer them within Quora. If the question is popular, the company can then "re-ask" the question, answer it themselves, and have it feed directly back into their F.A.Q. page. Customer service using SaaS and Social Media: Brilliant! Learning Curve Quora does take a moment to get used to. I didn't "get it" on my first visit, and the lightbulb moment didn't happen until after the first week. That's why I created this article. I want to help my viewers cut down the amount of time it takes to understand the website, see its marketing value, and jump on board while things are still new. Being an early adopter in this situation is VERY much worth your time. Try going to YouTube to teach someone about SEO, Social Media, or Website Design (add your own area of expertise to that list). You'll easily find 100's if not 1000's of others competing for the same audience. Getting on board now increases the chances that you will be recognized as an expert in your industry when this site reaches its critical mass in membership. Take a look at a few of the questions I have asked, the way I format the question, and how I've used Topics to categorize the question. 1. What are the best Greasemonkey scripts for business use? 2. How do you launch a product without the fear of your competition copying you? 3. Is it unrealistic to believe social media could lead to economic reform on a global level? 4. How do I approach or pitch a private VC or Angel Investor the RIGHT way? Have questions? Feel free to join me in my public and private chat rooms by clicking the image below. I am typically available from 9-5pm CST M-F. I generally keep the private chat option open all day, whereas I only use the public chat room during group discussions or webinars. 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