I first discovered Quora in search for interesting conversations about topics that interested me. I’ve been subscribed to the platform for a while, engaging in commentary and questions, before it dawned on me how Quora could be very helpful for marketers like myself.

For anyone new to Quora—I want to make it clear, Quora wasn’t built to be a promotional platform for your brand. It’s a community-driven question and answer site. While it can be used to promote and inform new audiences about your business, it is primarily a platform to share ideas and insight into specific topics. To that end, always, always, make sure that whatever you publish on this platform is useful, informative, and relevant—first and foremost.

Now, the whole premise of the site is pretty straightforward. You can ask a question and a community of like-minded individuals can answer. Other users can also invite you to answer their questions. There are, however, a few steps you have to take before you can get started—especially if you want to both promote and inform using Quora.

1. Start by creating a great Quora profile

Every time you contribute an answer to a question, your profile is readily viewable at the top. It’s a great opportunity to get a little branding in.

Take note that Quora will show the 50 characters of your profile so I would recommend that you mention your company name as early as you can. You can also add topic-specific details. This can be your area of expertise or your job title to establish credibility early on.

Quora also asks more in-depth questions about your interests and areas of expertise. Be sure to answer all of them. This will help other people find you when they’re looking for specific people to answer their questions.

2. Track topics you’re interested in

Quora is a great way to keep your ear to the ground. You find out about what people are talking about in your industry, what they want, what they need, the questions they want answered, and so on. This information can easily be tracked and monitored automatically by typing in specific topics on Quora’s search page and clicking on the topic.

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3. Take the time to find and answer the best questions

You can answer any question you’d like on Quora. For a more strategic approach to maximize time and effort, there are three tips that I’d like to share:

• Search for your specific keyword to significantly narrow down the questions.
• Make sure that the topic you choose to answer is actually relevant to your business. If you have data to support your answer, the better.
• A unique take on a common topic is also useful. Find a thread with a lot of upvotes. Upvotes signify the volume of views a particular question gets. The more upvotes there are, the higher the possibility that your answer gets viewed by Quora’s 80 million unique visitors.

One final thing…

Remember, your objective should always be to inform first, and promote second. You want to be seen as an authority on this site, not as an annoying salesperson. If you have any questions, get in touch with me at Leadspanda and I’ll be happy to help you out personally.