We live in an era dominated by social networks. Not only are we all on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many others, but we’re now encountering web apps that help narrow those social networks, including apps like SocialListing that uses your Facebook network as a personal marketplace.
Still, the team at our Orlando advertising agency thinks there is still room for growth in the social networking field. We believe that companies can do this through segmentation – rather than trying to get every person in the world on a given network, these companies can instead seek to connect like-minded people, in spite of whether they’re strangers, into a true online community. In a sense, it’s practically reminiscent of the message boards functionality, which was once so popular amidst sub-segments of the population but are now barely active.
One new such competitor is Quora. Quora is, at its core, a question and answer service. It allows people to post questions, and allows experts in their fields to post answers to those questions. The best answers get upvoted, and the platform allows you to follow questions of interest. This all happens on a platform where you are connected to your friends, colleagues and other connections.
The team at our Florida marketing agency finds Quora a fascinating platform for marketers and other professionals to grow their businesses. As an established professional, you can seek to enhance your credibility and your reach through answering multiple questions and answers. There seem to be relevant topics no matter what your field. For example, looking through my personal Quora account, I see questions with titles such as:
– What are the most addictive loyalty programs? (The crowd-sourced answers to this question would be great review for a marketer contemplating a new loyalty program!)
– What products have killer landing pages? (Great for a designer trying to create a new landing page.)
– How do I get over my bad habit of procrastinating? (The author of the number one answer to this question currently has 8450 votes and—surprise!—a link to his personal self-help blog at the bottom of his question.)
It seems like such a simple premise, but the ability to crowdsource answers to difficult questions is a remarkable way to obtain expert knowledge and experience without having to go through the maze of searching through millions of relevant topics based on Google searches. And, if you can also solidify yourself as an expert in your field, then Quora is a terrific way to parlay your expertise and experience on to people who may eventually become viewers of your content, professional connections, or, in some cases, even future customers.
While it’s easy to say that we’ve grown sick of being asked to join new social networks, this one provides use to us in that (a) it’s not necessarily limited to your personal network, (b) the answers are crowdsourced, and (c) it facilitates active engagement. Perhaps the third part is key; while sometimes we can create and maintain interaction through Facebook and Twitter, these sites don’t heavily rely on the interaction in the way that Quora does.
At our Florida advertising agency, we think Quora offers a great new way for people to help expand their businesses while offering expert knowledge in their fields, which translates to more sales in the long run. Contact us today to determine how our team may assist you in allowing this social media tool to work for you!
