Guest post by Chris Leithe
I have a huge nerd crush on Quora. If you ask me why, I would probably say something like, “Dude, there are just so many cool people asking and answering great questions on there.” Where else can I ask a question about Google’s search algorithm and have it answered by someone who is actively working on it or find a list of all the PR outlets a new start up should send press releases to, answered by the very people who will be reading those press releases? Quora is basically a social community of the best of the best in every field answering and asking questions. If that doesn’t excite you I don’t know what will, so let’s get down to business.
How can your company leverage Quora to generate business and increase an online presence? This is very tricky on Quora. The rule of thumb is if you respect the Quora, the Quora will respect you. Let me use my company, Redeemio.com, as an example that will highlight the benefits and pitfalls of using Quora:
1. Build your company profile first- This is obvious, but let’s get the boring stuff out of the way. Quora allows users to create new topics; your business should be a topic. This will show up in search results because word on the street is Google gives a lot of preference to Quora.
2. Add topic hierarchies- Give your company parent and child topics if applicable. For instance, for Redeemio we have parent topics like: deal aggregation, deals, coupon aggregation, etc. We have no child topics. There are people on Quora, let’s call them “Quoranators,” who go through it and check to make sure you’re not adding every topic under the sun to your category. I got a little trigger happy and the Quoranators responded in turn. I started to notice categories being paired from our topic and labeled as “self promotional.” I responded kindly as follows:
- “Thanks for helping us manage the Redeemio topic! Could you help me understand your decisions to remove topic x and topic y from Redeemio? Wasn’t trying to be self promotional, just wanted to make sure we were linked to the appropriate topics. Thanks for your help!”
The response included something about etymology and hierarchy and incorrect, etc. I responded to that with:
“I see, that makes a lot sense, what do you think should be done to make sure Redeemio is attached to these topics in the correct way”
I received another response and found that new topics were created and added to Redeemio. Great, but remember, RESPECT THE QUORA.
3. Look for questions that relate to your business- Once you have created a profile for your business (and a profile for yourself), start following topics and questions that correspond to your business. If it makes sense, add your business as a tag on the question, but remember RESPECT THE QUORA or the Quoranators will get you.
4. Start answering questions as an expert academician would- Academicians always include a comprehensive introduction that explains the field and question at hand while also interjecting research from current and past peers. This builds credibility. Academicians also like fancy tables and graphs, so take note. As opposed to answering the following question, “Who is the best daily deal aggregator” with “Obviously Redeemio.com” and leaving it. Try taking an analytical approach. “This all depends on what ‘best’ is defined as, is it comprehensiveness, ease of use, etc., etc., given all of this I would say that Redeemio is probably closest, but Competitor x, y, z are great too.” Thus a self promotional answer is turned into a comprehensive argument.
5. When answering questions goes wrong: apologize, swallow pride, and reconstruct- As I was learning the ropes, I made a big error. I didn’t respect the Quora. I left a one word self promotional response (similar to that above). One person didn’t like it that much and subsequently commented on it, down voted me, and clicked “Not Helpful.” Quora ranks users on helpfulness, which makes your answers skip above others…when you receive this kind of response it downgrades your rank, which hurts. So I responded like any proud person would with:
“We really are one of the only companies doing X right now, how could I answer the question better?”
To which I received some annoyed reply about it not being on our website etc. etc. Ok, he was right. So, I swallowed my pride, waited a day and fixed my answer to explain more fully the question at hand. I then followed the person who didn’t like me and asked him if that would be ok. He agreed and voted up my answer. The next day, an entrepreneur in India emailed me with a business proposition, saying that he had seen that very answer on Quora.
So the moral of this story is build a presence, be helpful, avoid apparent self promotion, converse with Quoranators, and respect the Quora. This service is not only a fantastic way to generate leads, but a great place to learn, explore, and be heard.
Chris Leithe is the Co-Founder of Redeemio.com based in Raleigh, NC. Redeemio is a daily deal and local discount aggregator that finds and personalizes local deals from places like Groupon and LivingSocial in over 120 cities in the US and Canada. Sign up for free by visiting www.redeemio.com.
