by 
Want to build visibility for your business?
Have you considered Quora?
Quora is a useful place to share knowledge about your company and industry.
In this article I'll share how to successfully use Quora to gain exposure and manage your brand.
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#1: Complete Your Profile to Increase Visibility
Because the Quora community has zero tolerance for self-promotion and spam, there are many factors to consider when setting up your presence.
Quora gives you tremendous exposure by showing your bio next to each answer you post on the forum. Additionally, you can create multiple bios so each one appropriately fits the different topics. Add clickable links to the bio, as well.
Your bio is an excellent means of branding, and should be both professional and catchy. It should also be really short, since Quora will show only the first 50 characters of your whole tagline (your name and bio) above the answer you post. Mention your brand name as close to the beginning as you can and make the most of your 50 characters.
Quora users also see your professional tagline when you follow them, so the language you use affects how you build contacts on the platform.
Complete your Quora account by adding a well-written detailed About Me section, areas of expertise, interests, cities you know about, schools and colleges you attended, previous companies and your other social media accounts.
To link your profile to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, visit Settings on Quora. Just click on your name in the upper right.
One more thing: Quora has an account verification option, but similar to Twitter, the verification is passive. You cannot request it. You must wait for Quora to approach you and make the offer to get a “Verified” label.
#2: Understand Your Company Topic
Quora is organized by topics. Whenever you search, you'll be invited to check out topics, which are discussions organized by a major keyword. In many cases that keyword is a brand name.
Quora is structured like Wikipedia, as pages can be created and edited by any user. Therefore, if you don't already have a company page on Quora, create one. Just start typing your company name on your About page. If it doesn't come up, Quora will suggest creating it as a topic.
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After you add your company to your account, click the link to customize it. Add the logo and description.
Remember, other Quora users are able to edit your company page, so keep an eye on it regularly.
To further build up your company presence, request other people review the topic. It's another channel for your brand ambassadors to share their positive experience and spread the word.
To invite people you know to review your topic on Quora, just type in their names.
If your business is already being discussed on Quora, you can still customize the topic page with an image and description and direct the conversation toward a positive sentiment.
Also to monitor your business and manage its online reputation, subscribe to the topic to see questions in your feed and pin the topic to always see it on your dashboard.
#3: Be Active to Build Your Following
Once you set up your account, go on Quora and examine the content. Read through various questions and answers, follow people who participate in discussions and upvote their updates.
Your upvotes appear on your public Quora profile, so this is a good way to show there's some relevant activity going on, even if your account is relatively new. Your follows and upvotes appear in users' Quora notifications, so you have a much higher chance of getting followed back.
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#4: Use Quora as a Research and Brainstorming Tool
When exploring Quora, take lots of notes to better understand the way your topic is covered on the platform. Seek out in-depth case studies and solid content ideas.
Quora search can be filtered to only display the questions, which is a way to get inspiration for article headlines.
Once you have ideas from your Quora research, write articles for your website that answer popular industry questions.
#5: Explore Quora for Competitor Research
Since the Quora community is continuously discussing different products and challenges, it's an excellent tool for performing competitor research.
Follow any topic on Quora, so questions and answers posted in that topic will appear in your feed and you're able to stay on top of discussions around your competitors, brands in neighboring niches, partner companies and more.
Search Quora for your competitors' brand names and browse the discussions. Then follow the relevant threads.
Be careful when you chime in on threads that discuss your competitors. You don't want to post that people should check out your site instead of the competition. However, participating in a generic discussion with your own take never hurts.
Pro tip: I am using Cyfe to spy on my competitors on Quora as well as all over the world. I have a separate dashboard that monitors my competitors' recent mentions and stats.
#6: Talk to Your Customers
Communicating with your customers is one of the greatest benefits of being active on Quora. Since people are already discussing you and your competitors, personally responding to topics may give you a competitive advantage. It also may win over new customers.
Treat your company image on Quora very carefully. Since your company name is in your bio, you're answering questions as the official representative. It's a huge responsibility that should not be taken lightly.
#7: Share Your Quora Expertise on Other Social Media Networks
Quora allows you to auto-share your answers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tumblr and WordPress.com. To do this, just connect any or all of the above to your Quora account using Settings.
Sharing answers on other sites brings your expertise outside of Quora, while helping you build up your other accounts.
#8: Analyze Stats to Determine What Works Best
Quora's free analytics allow you to analyze the content you put on the platform.
This feature will help you find your most popular content in terms of clicks and see what works best with the Quora community.
Use Quora analytics to review your most clicked, shared and upvoted content within different periods of time: last 7 days, last 30 days, last 3 months and all-time.
Conclusion
According to the Huffington Post, most of the top brands are being discussed on Quora. In 2013, 84% of the top 100 brands had at least one discussion thread dedicated to them. Nowadays, it's hard to find a brand with no Quora mentions.
To get the most out of Quora, make sure your account is complete and professional, read through the discussions to get a feel for popular topics in your industry, communicate with others and share your answers on other social media sites.
What do you think? Do you use Quora to build your brand and exposure? How often do you post? What other ways do you use Quora? Please share your tips in the comments.
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