What is Quora?
From their site:
Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question
Here’s how I see it.
People ask questions, then people answer said questions. People can then vote up or down the answers, making certain answers more credible.
What has jumped out at me the most when using Quora is that big companies are clearly monitoring it. If someone has asked a question about an app, someone from that company (often the founder) is answering the question. The answers that I see are well thought out and often written by thought leaders, making it an excellent place to get not only good and correct answers, but insightful and thought provoking ones. (I also believe Quora recruited high level people to take part and answer questions, lending even more credibility and quality to their site).
When you are on Quora you can follow specific people - whether they be friends or just people you are interested in or who you respect. You can also follow specific topics. Answers and topics from those categories will show up in your feed when you arrive on Quora’s site. You can also search by keywords for topics.
Why should people use Quora?
It’s a great place to find the answers to questions about everything from business advice to fun facts about a movie you might like.
Here are a few random questions/topics to look at:
Pirates of the Carribean
What’s the best launch strategy for a web startup
What are great and easy gluten-free recipes?
What are the best restaurants in Ottawa?
But more than just a place to find the answer to interesting questions, it’s a place to :
- find interesting questions and learn from them. Sometimes just reading through my feed on the main Quora page can keep me entertained and learning for quite a long time!
- find inspiration for blog posts - they even have a functionality that you can set up that easily lets you turn the topics into blog posts.
- You can position yourself as an expert. By answering questions, people who wouldn’t necessarily come to your blog or see you speak somewhere are made aware of you and your style. The more people vote up your answers the more respect you gain.
- It is yet another way to engage with people with like interests.
How could a business use this to their advantage?
I should be answering social media related questions. Someone who sells eco friendly products can answer questions about the dangers of bpa to babies/children. If you teach belly dancing, maybe you could be the first to answer why it would be of benefit as a prenatal class. If you developed blackberry apps, I’d follow that blackberry app topic and answer any questions that might come up that fit in line with what you do.
The possibilities are endless really. Answer questions as an expert, not in a marketing capacity. What you want are for people to think you are interesting enough to read your bio and then potentially take the next step.
So go check it out! Find me and follow me if you do. And I challenge you to either answer or ask a question!
