Quora is a place (a website, actually) to gain and share knowledge. It is
a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique
insights and quality answers. Though it is a social media platform, it works
quite differently. Users do not visit Quora to check
Notifications or ‘Likes’. Quora is a platform where a
user can ask a question and it is answered by various industry experts. In
comparison, on Instagram a celebrity or an
‘Influencer’ (the buzzword in today’s time) posts a photo and / or video and
users interact and give responses based on such videos or photos. In the same
way, Quora is a platform where the basic content is a
question. So, a user can ask questions and industry leaders and experts answer
them.
INTRODUCTION
Quora was founded in 2009 by Adam D’Angelo,
former CTO of Facebook, and Charlie Cheever, a former Facebook employee. Based
in Mountain View, California, it is published by Quora
Inc. Although launched in 2009, the website was made public only in June, 2010.
In short, Quora is a question-answer platform that
allows people to ask questions and seek answers from real people. It has nearly
70 crore active monthly users and there are nearly
four lakh open ‘topics’ on it.
Now, the new generation has started using Quora to search for answers. For example, when someone wants
to start a new company, they will ask questions on Quora; when they are looking for an income tax idea, they
will seek advice on Quora. It is not a paid
consultancy programme or a platform on which an individual can sell anything
like Just Dial, but the user traffic it generates can help in getting the right
connection.
A survey shows that about 1,000 Chartered Accountants have their
profiles on Quora and we can assume that 500 may be
practising. Imagine the competitive edge they have by using this platform. Quora can indeed be an avenue to get new clients. Let us
deep-dive and ask some questions of our own!
What is Quora and how can it help
professionals like CAs?
Quora provides a platform to share your experience and expertise. People
can follow you and share your ideas within their social network, thus building a
brand for you or your business. The content built on Quora can be shared
on various digital platforms which in a way is ‘Search
Engine Optimisation’ (SEO) fodder; whatever you write is indexed by Google,
relates back to you, which again relates to your business and brand.
For example, if you are a ‘GST on healthcare services expert’ and you
provide a good answer to a question on input tax credit, Google brings the users
to your answer and there are high chances that the user may take the next step
of going to your website or social media page and calling your firm for an
estimate. It is through participation on sites like Quora that you add more value to that relationship and help
build count and trust with your audience. Quora is one
tool that can help you do this.
Why does using Quora make
sense?
What makes Quora unique is the purpose of
the user visiting it. It is neither a search nor a social medium but somewhere
in between, with over 30 crore people visiting it
every month asking for tips and answers and learning about the world around
them. Quora has an edge over other platforms because
the content posted here is easy to find even months and years later, unlike
other social media platforms where it gets buried or disappears.
Now that we have explored why Quora is a
powerful channel for your brand awareness and distributing content, let us look
at some steps to get started on Quora.
Step 1: Contribute to the conversation
Quora is used by people who are actively looking for answers and are
genuinely interested in what you have to say. Your answers can, of course,
enrich the SEO since many of these answers show up in Google searches. Quora uses an algorithm to pick up your answer and match it
with people interested in the topic. It sends out answers to users following the
topic and there are chances it may reach hundreds or thousands of people.
Step 2: Building appropriate content on Quora
To get started, answer questions relevant to your expertise. You may
start providing additional information to the already answered questions by
looking at the missing information. The content on Quora is different from other social media because here the
primary goal is not about the number of views but providing the best answers to
your audience’s questions. Below are quick tips that can help you make useful
content on Quora:
? Include facts and personal stories (could be of success or even
failure) to make it relatable;
? Credibility plays a vital role, so make sure that what you write is
factually correct;
? The quickest one to answer has more chances to get up-voted by
users.
Step 3: Have a rocking Quora
profile
When you start writing answers, it is important to convey your
expertise and build trust by filling out your Quora
credentials and bio. Unlike other user-generated Q&A sites, users on Quora create profiles based on their real identities. Quora has active moderation policies in place to ensure that
discourse is civil, content quality is high and people feel safe sharing their
knowledge.
By adding your title, company, bio, interests and website links, you
signal who you are and why readers should trust your answers. It also helps
people find you when searching for experts and / or the best person to answer
their questions. And be sure to include important links (your website, your
LinkedIn URL, your blogs, or YouTube channels).
Step 4: Gain authority and establish your trust with
followers
You are doing amazing well till now on Quora. Your flywheel is picking up speed as you consistently
answer questions and engage with the community. It is now time to gain authority
on the platform. Provide answers that are out of the box and establish trust
with followers.
So if someone asks, ‘What is the revised due
date for filing XYZ return?’ you can answer with the due date and add something
else – ‘Companies may face challenges with this’. When you do this, not only
will your audience be interested in reading an answer that could help them, but
you will also earn their trust and gain credibility.
There have been professionals who have built such an amazing presence
on Quora that their posts have been viewed lakhs of
times.
Step 5: Content distribution
If you are looking to increase awareness about your Quora content, you can cross-distribute your answers.
Consider the following two ideas:
Amplify distribution with other social media networks:
If you have answered a good question, why not brag about it on social
media? Consider posting your answers on social media strategically. You can do
this simply by writing – ‘Check out my views on this question’.
Send it to the broadcast list: You can consider sending out an update to your broadcast list (email
list) asking them to check your views and provide feedback.
To summarise, while Quora is a platform to
build your brand, remember, do not sell anything on Quora or any social media. But that does not stop you from
sharing your experience in the right way and helping the needy. Remember, your
sharing can help even more people.
