Unless you’ve been hiding under unearthed Paleozoic rock for the last several weeks, you’ve likely heard the growing buzz around social media’s newest darling, Quora.
Quora is a few months fresh on the post-beta scene and growing exponentially. And with all the hype, you might be tempted to jump in and start firing away with the Q&A. Freeze! Before you start, take a moment and answer a few quick questions:
1. Why should I join Quora?
This question might seem obvious enough to overlook, but let me be explicit: Quora is not the new Twitter. (All you hipsters in search of New Twitter, feel free to head over to Myspace – there’s a party over there like you wouldn’t believe).
Blindly jumping in to yet another social media platform because it’s ‘all the buzz’ is not only short sighted, but pretty damn exhausting to maintain. We get it, you’re an early adopter, but ask yourself why you want to be involved in this community. What are you hoping to learn? What expertise can you provide? Knowing why you’re on the site will help you get the most out of your experience.
2. Who should I follow?
Quora is not the new Twitter. (Wait, did I say that already?) Remember the initial conversations about Twitter where the ‘experts’ told you to follow back everyone who followed you because it was the polite, ‘social’ thing to do? If you tried that approach you probably noticed that as your number of followers started to scale, the value you derived from the platform declined sharply.
The good news is that those rules don’t apply to Quora. Don’t follow someone just to be nice.
Twitter is a free-flowing, transient conversation. You can miss big chunks of that conversation and jump back in upstream. It was designed to handle the rapid influx of real-time data without overwhelming users. (Hence the restriction to 140 characters).
Quora is a crowdsourced information repository. Assuming that the forthcoming spam attacks don’t suck all of the value from the site in the near future, its value will continue to grow steadily over time as questions are asked, answered, curated and edited. Ask yourself: do I want to follow my friends? Industry experts? Keep in mind that if it becomes too difficult to distinguish signal from noise, you’ll be more likely to bail within a few months.
3. Which questions should I ask and answer?
One of the things that is so uniquely wonderful about Quora as a social information site is its insistence on transparency – when answering questions, your own name and avatar, along with a short title, are included alongside your post. You can ask about nearly any topic, but it’s best to be intentional in questioning and thoughtful in answering.
4. How much time can I commit to maintaining my presence on this site?
If you’re like me, you’re in upside down and over your ankles with the number of social media applications you manage on a daily basis. The last thing either of us need is to keep up a presence on another ancillary site. But if Quora grows to the scale of Twitter, it will likely be the early adopters who reap much of the reward, having already developed a strong presence.
Come up with a plan of attack – maybe a 10 minute scan daily, 1 hour response weekly schedule and commit. Set reminders in your calendar to dive in during that time. Obviously, rigidity and social media aren’t typically the best of friends; the point is to be consistent and disciplined in your approach. If Quora fades in only a few short months (all signs pointing to the contrary), you’ll have gotten what you could out of the experience without creating yet another online time suck.
5. What are my long term goals?
This question might seem a little out of place. In the era of ‘flash in the pan’ web assets, longevity ranks low on most users’ lists. And if you’re simply using the site for information related to a personal interest or hobby, it may not apply.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking to derive professional value from Quora, but you have no goals and no idea what you hope to achieve, it might be best to avoid jumping in altogether.
Of course how you choose to establish your online credibility and gauge the long term value of that investment is completely up to you. The best decision will always be to stick with sites that provide the most return on your time and effort, and those to which you can realistically commit.
BONUS: How will Quora will affect my Klout score?
Okay, just kidding. To hell with this question. The point is that Quora is becoming a good way to establish your expertise in an area, help others and have intelligent, on-topic conversations with some of the leading voices in your industry (primarily if you’re in tech). Proceed with caution, but don’t miss an opportunity to become influential in the areas that you are knowledgeable and passionate about.
You should also know that the conversation about online influence is still in its infancy and Klout isn’t the only player here. Quora is currently working to develop an algorithm to determine user quality. If the reports are true, this move would be a significant development in the online influence conversation. (Cue Google acquisition).
The next step…
At this point, you’re ready to answer these questions or you may have determined this Quora thing is just not for you. If you’re still on the fence and want to do a little more digging, here are two more great posts to help you decide:
- Welcome to Quora. Do Yourself a Favor & Slow Down via Lucretia M. Pruitt, The Social Joint
- 5 Questions to Ask Before Jumping Into Quora via SearchEngineLand.com
Now it’s up to you, what are your answers to the questions above? What are the next 5 questions that users should ask themselves before diving in?
