Quora – What it Is and How to Use it

“Quora” is on everyone’s lips nowadays. Quora is an online community-driven question & answer (Q&A) repository with overflowing information that is of interest to many people and many different interests. Quora is useful to all different businesses.

There are many different ways in which Quora can be leveraged, no matter what the size is of the business. With all of the wonderful features that it offers, it is an excellent way to increase your connections as well as enriching your knowledge base. Because the resources that Quora offers are the top experts on those particular topics, a lot of confidence will be instilled in the people asking the questions. The following are some of the ways in which Quora can be used effectively for your business:

Research the competition: Keeping a close watch on Competitive Intelligence is essential for your business. You need to pay attention to what your competition is doing and what the buzz is about them from other people. The members of the Quora community can provide you with in-depth information and in many cases, those people have had direct experience with the companies that you are researching.
Strengthen your business’s position in the eyes of your customers: You can gather the number of times and the sources that have mentioned your business. You start by searching for your business’s name. If it already happens to be a topic on Quora, you can follow that topic so that you receive alerts when new questions are asked. If you should happen to respond to a question that someone else poses, it is your opportunity to ensure that your offerings are fairly represented. Quora is also an excellent vehicle when it comes to actually delivering superior customer service by responding to customer complaints and problems. Your business’s representatives can act as resources of information as well.
Press coverage for your business: If you are interested in getting the press to communicate information about your business to others, you can use Quora for that also. You can gather intelligence from comments that have been gathered on Quora. That can prove to be very useful.
Build your network: You should constantly be striving to increase the number of connections that you have in your network. You should look for people who have similar interests to yours and who are passionate about topics that are important to you and your business. Quora is an excellent place to cultivate new and meaningful relationships. It is very simple to do. You simply click on the green “Follow Topic” button, which can be found at the top of the sidebar on the right side of your monitor.
Cultivate longer dialogue: Unlike Twitter and Facebook, which encourage people to communicate in short installments, Quora encourages longer communications among its members. At the heart of Quora is deep and expansive knowledge. However, in as much as longer communications are encouraged, your words should still be chosen wisely.
Position yourself as a subject matter expert (SME): As you connect with more and more people who share your interests, your ultimate goal is to establish meaningful relationships with those people. In order to do that, you need to bring something of value to the table (in the form of your knowledge and expertise). The more you interact with people and communicate and share your knowledge with them, the more they will regard you as an expert. Before you know it, they will be pursuing conversations with you on a very regular basis and really wanting to read what you have to say.
Strengthen existing relationships: One of the best ways to communicate with people with whom you already share a relationship is by sending them Email. Quora allows you to communicate through Email with whomever you like. You can share information of interest that you have found through Quora and send them a “touching base” Email. In all likelihood, the information will be greatly appreciated and you will have placed yourself on the forefront of their minds.
Getting up to speed quickly: If you have an interest in a topic about which you know very little, Quora provides you with a tremendous resource of experts on that particular topic. You can get advice and information on any topic that you wish. Your pool of experts will always be there for you.
Search for new topics on Quora: As you are going through the questions that other people are posing, you can get ideas about new topics of interest. Many of the questions that you encounter may serve as fodder for blog ideas, newsletters, etc.

Conclusion

Quora is a wonderful tool that can help you tremendously in your business. It allows you to stay on top of essential information that can greatly affect the success of your work. It is also a tremendous way to interact with other people and to build meaningful and long-lasting relationships.