Quora-How to Use it?

Quora is a Question & Answer (Q&A) site similar to Yahoo Answers that was first launched in January 2010 and over the last two years has got quite popular in the business community. Unlike Yahoo Answers that targets the everyday Joes, Quora targets the upper end (plenty of CEOs and high profile bloggers use their service).

Quora allows you ask questions, follow specific topics you are interested (like Twitter) and answer questions. Like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook it is a kind of social networking site, and it should be a part of your marketing arsenal especially if you are in to B2B market. You could exploit Quora for your marketing objectives lot more cheaply than using mainstream marketing initiatives, if you do it right.

Here is how you can use Quora for marketing your business:

1. Build the links: Setup a strong profile that contains links to your business and your professional credentials. This way you improve your SEO of your site and also get more quality visitors from the site users who are interested in your profile.
2. Become recognized as an expert: If you have started a new venture, you fight against the unknown tag. To get rid of it, try to be recognized as an expert in your community. Browse the questions in the topics you are good at and see if you can answer the questions. By giving intelligent replies other users see you as an expert and that builds your personal brand.
3. Make new partnerships: Just like Twitter and LinkedIn, Quora is patronized by many high profile users and other users who could be critical to your business. You could use this platform to make friends in your target market that might lead to new business opportunities.
4. Stay in touch with your customers: Keep track of the questions that are asked in topics related to your company/product and respond them honestly and appropriately. That way you build a strong rapport with your power users and handle their troubles immediately.
5. Use the other experts for your business: Let’s say you run a good consultancy business and have a question about a topic that is not your strength – Linux administration. Use the community to get immediate and free help.
6. Use the knowledge-base for training your employees: In a lot of segments a good chunk of knowledge-base has been built and this could be a great ground to train your employees for free.
7. Keep updated: Follow the topics you are interested in and this will help you understand the latest happenings in your target market. Though this part of Quora has not as matured as Twitter, it is still a good platform to know the latest stuff.