Defining Quora, And Its Applications

Adi Kumar

Sep 11, 2019

9 min read

According to Wikipedia, “Quora is an American question-and-answer website where questions are asked, answered, and edited by Internet users, either factually, or in the form of opinions.” To put it in layman terms, Quora is basically a social networking website, where any and all can answer, and get answers to theirs and others doubts. Through this site, you can answer anyone’s queries and also at the same time put up questions, to get the answer off. Anyone can ask any question and can also provide answers to questions that they might know the correct answers to.

How does it work?

Quora works on a few principles. For instance, once you’re signed up with Quora, you need to pick out a set of topics that interest you carefully, and then follow them. Based on what you are following, you will then see questions and answers related to those topics, while browsing the site. For example, if you are interested in sports, then you will mostly get questions and answers regarding sports.

On the homepage of Quora, user experience is totally unique, which is customized with topics they like. You are brought to a world of questions and answers that you have a particular interest in. Like any other good website, the content on Quora is never repeated, and there will always be something that catches your eye. You are free to either answer any question or just skim through the list; it’s totally your choice.

Quora is very simple to use, and you can never get bored with the interesting questions and answers it has to offer.

A Guide on How to Use Quora.

We’re going to make things really simple for you now. If you’re curious on how to get started with Quora, here are the steps you need to follow to set-up a perfect account:

First of all, open the Quora website, well duh!
Quora is smart! And it doesn’t want everyone to see its content without signing up. So let’s do that now. Use either your Facebook or Google account to sign-in. If you don’t remember your password, then buckle up for an “I FORGOT MY PASSWORD” ride.
Done signing-in? You will now have a fresh landing page to view. Have a good look at it. Choose topics that catch the eye at once. Quora expects you to select at least ten such topics. You can always add new ones to the list. The site does this to know your interests better and based on that information, it designs your page feeds. So choose wisely!
If you don’t see topics that you like, you can always search for them. Once selected, you can press the ‘Continue’ button.
Quora is persistent! If for some reason you sign-in using your email, it will ask you if you want to connect to your Facebook account as well. If you’re not interested, just click ‘Not Now’.
Finally! After doing all of this, you will be shown your feed. You will see questions and answers, related to the topics you selected. Cool, right! You can then choosne to answer any questions. Also they provide you with a ‘upvote and downvote’ option.
After you familiarize yourself with the feed, you can now, “ASK QUESTIONS”. So click on that red button on the top right corner and type away your queries.

Answering questions is simple. All you need to know is the answer to that question. Working on Quora is pretty straightforward; they have a very attractive user interface. So what are you waiting for? Start typing already.

Quora as a Marketing Tool?

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Did you know that you could use Quora as a very effective marketing tool? Let us explain how. Firstly, we would like to point out to the fact that Quora is built around a very useful idea. The simple fact that people are always going to have questions, for which their answers need a personal touch is an interesting thing to think about. People tend to believe in a professionals advice and knowledge rather than a robot.

Yet through Quora, you get answers to your questions, by professionals and experts. FYI, that is not always the case, but at least it has a personal touch to it. Putting these things aside, you can actually use Quora as a marketing tool for your business/company.

Idea Generation:

Quora has a vast database of information. These include questions and answers of hundreds and thousands of topics. We’re pretty sure that you can make use of some if not many such topics. Use the keywords that are incorporated into your business. And with those keywords find topics related to them. Sometimes these topics can be very helpful to your business.

If you are set up with a website, you can use those topics to think of blog ideas, or even create fun and informative posts for social media. Use the power of Quora as a content idea generation tool. You can use the question asked as a way of coming up with need content ideas.

You can even use these questions as a topic for an entire campaign. You get to have an inside view of what people need to know, just by looking at these questions and answers.

A way of connecting with the people:

As of 2019 Quora has around 678.8 million visitors a month. This is where a huge part of your business’s audience is. They are putting up questions that pertain to your business, and are receiving half-hearted answers in return. This is where you can step in as the “good guy”.

With your knowledge in the field, you can astutely answer those questions. This can reflect greatly on your business. Once you clarify the doubts of your audience, inform them about the services and/or products that you provide. This will get them to visit your website.

By answering people’s doubts, you portray your business as an engaging and interactive piece of work. Also, by doing so, you are targeting an audience that is specifically interested in your work, thus cutting the cost of expensive content marketing.

Manage your brand image:

As mentioned earlier, Quora is home to a vast number of ‘doubtful-unanswered’ and ‘knowledgeable’ people. There is a constant debate of which answer is correct for a question, and which question is actually answerable. Amongst the rights and wrongs of this social networking world, you’re out there trying to use other marketing strategies to get recognition for your business.

Quora is an awesome marketing tool if you use it correctly, though. Through this platform, you can build your business ten folds. All you need to do is build a Quora topic regarding your brand. Then whenever someone asks a question, which has your brand name in it, Quora will notify you. After that, you just need to answer those questions properly. This will help build:

Credibility
Trust in your brand
Visibility
Traffic to your website
Conversion Rate

Best place for a CTA:

Quora is undoubtedly the best social networking platform for a well timed Call To Action, for your business. Imagine this scenario; you are desperately trying to market your business. You look at Quora for some tips and tricks on marketing. And while scrolling through your feed you stumble upon a question which perfectly defines your business.

The person asking the question is looking for answers regarding their query, and by using your services/products, they can greatly benefit from it. So what do you do now? You write up an extensive answer for the person and just at the bottom, you mention that you provide such services/products.

Their you have it! A line of potential customers can now view your answer, and choose to opt for your business. These CTA’s have to be well written and should be very promising in nature. Also, your answer should hold informational value, which helps build trust.

DO’S & DON’TS of Answering Questions:

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It is really important to keep in mind the parameters to answer questions while representing your business. With one wrong move, your business could turn up-side-down. This is the reason why some businesses hire content writers for the task of writing their Quora answers. But is that seriously required? We think it’s not. Does a content writer know more about your business than you? The answer to this question will always be, NO!

We consider Quora to be a very personal platform for businesses to portray themselves. Then why hire an outsider to do the job, you yourself is best capable of doing. So here are the Do’s and Don’ts of answering a question, which could positively or negatively affect your brand:

Do’s:

Understanding each and every question that you intend to answer is very important. Create a rough sketch of how you are to go about with the answer. Proofread it and think, is that the best you can do? You need to keep it sweet and short and comprehensive.
You need to always stay relevant, and your content should be informative. The viewer should see value in your text. You need to see this from the point of view of the viewer, and question yourself, does this answer my query?
You need to prove your credibility. This can only be done by adding in foot-notes and instances of pieces of content you wrote that might be considered to be relevant while answering the current question. By doing so, your audience gets an idea of who you are, and that the information that you are providing them with, is trustworthy and correct.
Providing backlinks to support your content can really be helpful. You must use high-authority backlinks. This provides weightage to your text, and proves that you know what your talking about.
Images are a good source of getting the message across. Even better are videos and infographics. If you can incorporate those in your answers, it will help capture the eyes of the viewer and will make your content more engaging and interactive, and effective at the same time.
Try including brand names. This will help add a lot of weight to your content. Also, you can use your own brand in the content, when in context. Remember, you need to prove to the audience that your answers are genuine and helpful, all while marketing yourself.

Don’ts:

Don’t extensively over-promote your brand. People are looking at your content, only to get the answer to their question. It doesn’t take time to close a tab. And if you make your content into an advertisement, your tab will be closed as well. So as much as possible, try only clarify the people’s doubts, and at the end, finish off with a strong and stunning CTA.
Provide your users with rich content. Text that will answer their questions and market your business side-by-side. But this doesn’t mean to fill paragraphs over paragraphs. Keep it sweet and simple.
Avoid answering questions in Yes/No/Maybe. This makes one look very unskilled and unprofessional.
Do not deceive your viewer by offering fake expertise and fake data. Get the required facts and knowledge of the topic in-hand, and then answer those questions.
Project positivity in all of your comments and answers. Not everyone knows everything about your field of expertise. Refrain from being judgemental and condescending. Being rude will never take you far in like.

OK! So now you know everything there is to know about Quora, and how to use it as a marketing tool. Use this knowledge wisely, and it will help your business prosper. For more information, contact us today.