You may remember me telling you how important content creation is—and it’s true! Post on social media. Engage. Blog, and share your blogs on your social media sites. But, what if you find that all this sharing isn’t getting as much traffic as you’d like?
Branch out to expand your reach!
A great way to expand your reach is by joining communities specific to your interests and area of expertise. These online communities are kind of like Facebook Groups, in that they are meant for, and centered around, those that share your interests. Platforms such as Reddit, LinkedIn and Quora are all great spaces to find and connect with your audience!
First, Let’s Talk About Quora
What is Quora?
Quora is another social platform meant as a Question and Answer forum—thus the clever name. It’s kind of like a mix of Yahoo Answers and Google, with a bit of social media stylings.
How is it used?
Well, users can ask questions and the Quora community can answer them. These questions can range from personal, to technical questions, to thought sharing. Like with other social media platforms you can create a feed based on your topics of interest. You can join the conversation by asking or answering questions. But instead of likes, you get upvotes.
This means that the posts, or answers, with the most upvotes rise to the top and have a better chance of getting seen. This is one of the major advantages of using Quora over say, Facebook. Another huge advantage is that Quora is indexed in Google, so there’s a high chance that if someone uses Google to ask a question, your answer could pop up!
So, what do I need to do?
Like any other social media platform, you begin by signing up and creating a profile.
Create Your Quora Profile
With Quora, you can sign up via your existing Facebook or Google accounts, or choose to sign up via email. You use your full, real name—this is important! Because ultimately you want your profile to be connected to, and link back to YOU. Or your website. Or whatever else that you want to drive traffic to while also supporting your online presence and authority.
Okay. So I’ve Signed Up. Now What?
Add All the Details
On the Quora Homepage, you’ll click on your profile and it will prompt you to add:
- Your employment, education, and even location credentials.
- The topics that you know about
- A profile credential
- A description of yourself
I highly suggest you fill these out thoroughly and with thought towards your brand. *This is a good place to use those fantastic looking professional head shots I talked about in my last post, by the way. *
Your Feed, and Spaces
From the Homepage you will see your Feed topics. This is where you add your topics of interest—meaning the ones that relate to your area of interest, expertise, or your brand. Your Homepage is also where you can create new Questions or add your two cents to Answers.
In 2018, Quora created a new feature called Spaces. According to Quora, Spaces, “… Allows people to curate collections and form communities around shared interests and tastes.” This could prove to be a powerful tool, so you should definitely check out Spaces.
Better yet, you can use Spaces to create groups where members can curate the best Answers and links on the topic of interest, organize your own writing, and have shared conversations. Spaces has huge potential as a way to build your audience, connect with your potential followers, and find your tribe!
Once you’ve created your account you can explore a little, do some research and get comfortable before you move on the the next step.
Start Writing!
Now this is the important part. You have to write. And you have to write clearly, and confidently. So choose to answer questions on topics you really know, or have an interest in. You want those Upvotes! Because Upvotes mean more visibility, which in turn means more link backs to you, etc. As with other social media platforms, you can always ask friends, colleagues, and family members to upvote your posts.
But Why Am I Doing This Again?
Great question. Well, you’re doing this because it creates visibility for you and your brand. It establishes your authority as an expert in your area. Your articles, or answers, can be picked up by other blogs and sites and on Quora you can add links. This means DRIVING TRAFFIC back to your website or blog!
But!
Make sure you’re not being overly promotional or spam-y. Only include links that are relevant to the topic or all your posts could just get taken down (Quora doesn’t like spam). For instance, if you’re a fiction writer and someone is asking about book recommendations, or maybe a topic related to your book or brand, you can slyly sneak in a helpful link to something your wrote, or to your Sales page on your website, in your Answer.
In closing, I’d like to remind you of your budget. Remember that your emotional bandwidth and your time are also part of your budget. You don’t have to be everywhere, all the time. And as you get familiar with the ways in which you can build your personal brand and market yourself, choose the platforms and tactics that suit YOU best. Then put your focus on the ones that serve you and bring you the most value for all that hard work you do.
Next week I’ll be discussing those other platforms I mentioned— like Reddit and LinkedIn. In the meantime, take care, friends. You’ve got this!
