Those on Twitter will probably have heard of the latest social media craze, Quora.
Basically, Quora is a new social media space built around questions. The idea is that if you ask a question, a community that is following the topic will be alerted and prompted to answer for you, which means that, in theory, the people in the know will give you the most up to date and correct information. You can sign up using your Twitter account, meaning that you will automatically follow your Twitter followers.
Quora is still in its early stages, but has already been picked up by many tech journalists and companies who are looking to find other online communities to speak to. It’s really interesting to note that a lot of journalists have stated that they would be willing to quote from Quora in articles – a long way away from Wikipedia!
Will it be as big as Twitter? The Daily Telegraph have written an article that seems to think so.
10 Yetis have also commented on Quora, and given five reasons why PRs should care about it:
- It’s easy to follow questions, answers and posts relevant to your beat. For instance, the Public Relations topic, already followed by more than 1,700 people, is becoming a great resource for PRs. A question I asked yesterday about PR and social media services you couldn’t live without has had quite a few answers, and includes some great feedback.
- It’s a potential goldmine for new business. A question I saw yesterday was asking ‘who are the best PR firms for early stage start-ups?’. If you can learn how best to respond (i.e. don’t spam, treat all social media as a conversation), you have a question asker who is potentially interested in taking on a PR agency.
- Journalists have already stated on Quora that they’d potentially use it as a source of comments.
- It’s a great place to promote relevant content, through Quora’s ability to post a message to your followers. Max Tatton-Brown, better known as @MaxTB on Twitter, has already posted blog content that is perfect for sharing on Quora.
- Quora is proving to be a great place to meet and discuss the industry with people you wouldn’t necessarily have done otherwise. Of course, Twitter offers this too, but the fact that a question such as ‘Who are the best PR agencies in the UK and why?’ can attract answers from such prominent PR professionals is a great way to see just what people in the industry think away from the often-banal nature of Twitter.
The rest of the article can be read here.
