Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok may be the obvious answers for a social media marketing strategy, but there are other sites that have a place as well. One of them is question and answer site Quora. Keep reading to learn more about using Quora and how it can help your marketing efforts. 

What is Quora?

Quora is a question and answer website where people go to learn about history to pop culture. All of the content on the website is created, edited, and organized by users of the site.

Quora was founded by former Facebook employees Adam D'Angelo and Charlie Cheever in 2009. Their stated mission was to “share and grow the world’s knowledge.” 

How is Quora Different from Other Social Media Platforms?

When it comes to small business marketing strategies, many people think of Quora alongside their social media strategy. However, Quora isn’t as much a social media platform as it is a forum or a research tool. People don’t use the Quora community to share updates about their lives, photos of their vacations, and witty observations. They use it because they have questions that they want answered and/or have knowledge that can help people asking questions. 

A line drawing of a phone with icons of a play symbol, a thumbs up, and a heart around it

How is Quora Different from Other Research Tools?

Quora can be a great place to learn about a wide variety of topics. It may be a question and answer platform, but it’s more comparable to Wikipedia than Yahoo answers, but it doesn’t quite fill the role of Google and other search engines. Here are a few qualities that make Quora unique:

  • Quora users create social networks by following topics that interest them
  • Quora focuses on high-quality questions and answers
  • Quora users vote on answers so the most accurate answers appear at the top

An illustration of a search engine

 

How to Use Quora

Follow this step by step guide to using Quora from signing up to answering questions. 

1. Sign Up for a Quora Account

There are three ways you can sign up for a quora account: 

  • Google account
  • Facebook account
  • Email address

Once you sign up,  Quora asks you to choose 10 topics that you’re interested in. This is the first step in creating your feed.  Next, it will ask you if you’d like to join any groups, which they call Spaces. 

Quora's sign up page

2. Fill Out Your Profile

Since Quora prioritizes accurate answers and credible sources, completing your profile is even more important than it is for other social media platforms. Like most social networks, your Quora profile has sections for your name, profile photo, and bio. It also has sections for:

  • Employment, school, and location information
  • Your primary area of expertise
  • Topics you know about

A blank Quora profile page

3. Explore Your Quora Feed

Your Quora feed is the place to find questions and answers about the topics you’re interested in. At first this will only include the topics you chose at sign-up, but you can always add more by searching any topic and clicking “follow.” When you follow a topic, you’ll see relevant questions in your feed. Your feed is also a great place to discover 

  • Other Quora users to follow
  • Suggested spaces
  • Suggested questions for you to answer, pass, or follow
  • Questions that have already been answered for you to up vote, share, and comment on 

You can see a list of the topics you’ve followed on the left. At the very top of your feed you’ll find a shortcut to ask a question and share a link. 

A screenshot of the Quora feed with a question about turtles losing their shells on top.

Improve your Feed

When you first start using Quora, you’ll see a section on the right of your feed with a list of tips to help you get the most out of using Quora.  The list includes: 

  • Visit your feed
  • Follow 5 more spaces
  • Follow 6 more topics
  • Upvote 5 more good answers
  • Ask your first question
  • Add 3 credentials
  • Answer a question

Tasks are crossed out once you’ve completed them. 

The "Improve your feed" checklist with "view your feed" crossed off

 

4. Join Quora Spaces

In 2018, Quora announced a new feature for the platform called Spaces, described as “collections and communities created around shared interests and tastes.” The Spaces announcement post shared listed the following ways these communities can be used: 

  • A group of people can work together to curate the most interesting answers and links about a particular area of interest
  • An individual can use spaces to organize their own writing into different sections
  • A community of people can create a space to have shared conversations with each other

Quora Spaces are similar to groups and subreddits. Quora users follow spaces to discover new questions and answers related to the topic. 

Followers of a Space can post relevant links to share with other followers. That allows them to be news sources on a topic more than simply following a topic would be. 

The spaces you might like page, mostly promoting spaces about marketing topics

5. Ask Questions

Follow these steps to ask a question on Quora:

  1. Hit the red ‘Add Question or Link’ option in the top right corner
  2. Enter your question and then hit ‘Add Question.’ Quora will ask you to select and verify the topics that are relevant to this question
  3. Wait for people to respond

Quora’s tips on getting good answers quickly

  • Make sure your question hasn’t been answered already
  • Keep your question short and to the point
  • Double check your grammar and spelling
  • Start your question with “What”, “How”, “Why”, et cetera

The "Add question" popup

6. Answer Questions 

Answering questions on Quora is simple. Your feed will show you related to the topics you follow. When you find one you’d like to answer, click on it, hit the “Answer” button, and type your question. Just remember to only answer questions on Quora if you have a high quality, honest, and accurate answer. It can only remain a reliable source of information and a trustworthy community if users respect each other’s questions and answer them sincerely and accurately. 

7. Upvote and Downvote Answers

The upvote and downvote option helps the Quora algorithm separate the good answers from the bad ones.  If you see a response that you think perfectly answers the question, you can upvote it. On the other hand, if you see an answer that is inaccurate or unhelpful, downvote it.

The more upvotes a response gets, the higher up it will go in the queue and the more people will see it. The Upvote and downvote buttons are circled in red. 

An answer from Adam D'Angelo, CEO of Quora, with the upvote and downvote buttons circled

8. Thank Quora Contributors

Users that provide accurate and helpful answers are the backbone of the Quora community. When you see a helpful answer, be sure to upvote it and thank the user who wrote it. 

9. Comment on Questions and Answers

You have the option to comment on questions and answers. Simply type your comment in the field labeled “add a comment” and click the “add comment” button. 

10. Share Questions

Click on the arrow pointing to the right and select Facebook, Twitter, or copy link from the menu to share a question outside of Quora. 

A question about editing questions on Quora with the share button circled

11. Answer Later

If you want to answer a question but don’t have the time to give a thorough answer right now, click the three dots and select “answer later”. 

12. Merge Questions

Merging questions helps to eliminate duplicate questions from the community. To do so, click the three dots, select suggested similar questions, then click “Merge Questions.”

The merge questions popup. Suggested questions are "How do I edit a question on Quora without an account?", "How can I edit a question on Quora once I've posted it?", "How can you edit a question on Quora on a Kindle?" and "Who edits questions on Quora?"

13. Edit Questions

Quora allows users to edit their  own questions and questions posted by other users. Edits on other users’ questions that improve clarity, language, and grammar are encouraged. However, Quora moderators often restrict users for posting edits that

  • Insult the user who posted the question
  • Make a joke
  • Disparage the question
  • Change the meaning of the question

To edit a question, click the three dots and select “edit question and details.”

You have the option to get notifications for edits to a question. 

14. Report Questions and Answers

To report a question or answer, click the three dots, then select one of the following options: 

  • Harassment
  • Spam
  • Poorly Written
  • Incorrect Topics

And click Submit. 

The Report a Question pop-up with the above options listedHow Does Quora Make Money?

Quora makes money two ways: from display ads and from premium prescriptions. Like most social media platforms, their business model relies heavily on advertising. However, subscribing to Quora+ gives users access to additional content and a chance to monetize the content they post. 

Advertising

The majority of Quora’s revenue comes from displaying text and image ads on the platform. These ads generate revenue on a cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM), and conversion basis. 

CPC means advertisers pay Quora whenever a user clicks on the ad. CPM means advertisers pay when 1,000 users see the ad. Conversion basis means advertisers pay whenever a user converts. Quora’s advertising platform offers advanced optimization tools like retargeting, geo-targeting, and advanced reporting. Some of their big advertisers include Toptal, Honey, Crunchbase, and Zenefits. 

A sponsored post from SmartAsset. The Question is The Best States to Retire in 2022. A photo of a smiling older white man accompanies the question.

Subscriptions

In August 2021, Quora introduced Quora+, a premium subscription offering that  allows creators on the platform to earn money. For $5 a month or $50 a year, Quora+ subscribers can access content that the poster puts behind a paywall. 

Quora takes a cut of the subscription fees and distributes the rest “in proportion to the amount each subscriber is consuming their content, with more of a subscriber’s contribution going to writers and spaces the subscriber follows.”

The subscription model is inspired by sites like Medium, Substack, and Patreon. The intention is to incentivize creators to publish higher quality content, which in turn attracts users and advertisers. 

The "Try Quora+" pop-up

 

Is it OK to Link to Your Website on Quora?

Linking to your site on Quora is allowed, but there are ways you can go about it that are frowned upon. 

If you link to your site as a citation or to otherwise support your answer, that’s completely fine and often helpful to other users as well as your site traffic. However, obvious self-promotion with little relevance to the question is likely to get downvoted or reported as spam. 

Basically, before you link to your website on Quora ask yourself if it’s helpful and if it helps to answer the question. If so, go ahead! If not, avoid it. 

Link Icon in a circle

How to Use Quora in Your Marketing Strategy

Even if you’re not an advertiser on Quora, you can still use it as part of your digital marketing strategy along with other social networks. 

Contribute to the Conversation

Quora is all about conversations. In order to successfully market your business on the platform, you’re going to have to dig in and answer questions. When you do, people who are looking for answers will be genuinely interested in what you have to say and how your product or service can help solve their problem. If your answers show up in Google searches, that can lead to even more exposure. 

Two people in separate circles waving at each other

Map the Question Intent to the Buyer’s Journey

When you answer questions, don’t just go about it randomly. The types of questions you answer correspond to different sections of the buyer’s journey. 

  • Top of the funnel focuses on grabbing attention for brand awareness and website traffic. Answer “what is” questions for this stage. 
  • Middle of the funnel focuses on education, information, and lead generation. Answer “how to” questions for this stage. 
  • Bottom of the funnel content is personalized and focused on the product or service. It focuses on conversions. Answer product review and comparison questions for this stage. 

As a general rule, the broader the question, the more people will see it.

The conversion funnel 

Build Goodwill With High Quality Answers

Quora’s definition of high quality content differs from that of other types of content marketing. High quality Quora content

  • Answers the question that was asked
  • Is factually correct
  • Is thoughtful and unique
  • Uses clear structure for easy readability
  • Includes interesting facts and personal experiences
  • Is evergreen

Show Expertise With Your Profile

Filling out your Quora bio with your credentials and your areas of expertise shows readers that your answers are coming from a credible source. Your job title, company, interests, and website links can signal to people why they should trust what you say. 

A person in a shirt and tie holding a certificate

Engage With Your Audience

Building a presence on Quora is about more than answering questions. It’s also about engaging with the community. Upvoting, commenting, sharing answers, and responding to other people’s comments shows your audience that you are a trusted member of the community. 

It’s also a good idea to ask questions yourself. It’s a great way to solicit ideas and feedback from an interested audience. 

Two speech bubbles one with a thumbs up and one with a thumbs down

Gain Authority and Establish Trust

The more high-quality answers you give and the more you engage with your audience, the more likely you are to gain their trust. 

Content Distribution and Amplification

You can use Quora to get more mileage out of your existing content. If you find questions that your blog posts can answer, repurpose your posts as answers. You can also use Quora for FAQs and customer testimonials either exclusively or as supplements to the ones on your website. 

To get more eyeballs on your Quora answers, share them on Facebook and Twitter and provide links to them on your website or in emails. 

Measuring Performance

Use Quora’s analytics to track your clicks, views, shares, and upvotes. With this information, you can figure out how to spend your efforts on the platform. 

A badge that says TRUSTED

Use Promoted Answers to Reach Your Audience

Promoted Answers have the same targeting capabilities as all other ad formats on Quora. They allow both businesses and individuals to build a genuine following of high quality users faster than they would with organic traffic alone.  

How Promoted Answers Work

Promoted Answers allow you to share detailed information about your product or service. They also facilitate engagement through upvotes, comments, and follows.

A promoted answer by Pitney Bowes.

Promoted Answers are a great way for businesses to

Expand their reach

Quora has an audience of 300 million visitors worldwide every month. The platform is especially well-suited for the consideration stage of the buyer’s journey. 

Target more efficiently

When you promote your answers, you can do so by targeting certain content on Quora or to people who have signaled interest in your product or service. 

Deliver a premium message

Promoted answers appear with content that’s related to your brand. Since Quora prioritizes quality and accuracy over all else, users trust their curation. 

Measure their results

Quora analytics make it easy to measure the ROI of your campaigns. 

An illustration of a ruler

Promoted Answer Best Practices

What types of Quora answers are good to promote? Here are some ways to decide:

Establish thought leadership 

Answers by company founders and positive employee experiences are great for promoting your company as a thought leader. 

Promote high-quality answers

It can’t be emphasized enough that the best quality answers do the best on Quora. Before you promote an answer, make sure it’s

  • Credible
  • Factually correct
  • Helpful to anyone who wants to know the answer to the question
  • Supported with sources
Promote longer answers 

Clicks are measured when a reader clicks on the preview of an answer to read the entire thing, so share answers that are long enough to need that click. 

A promoted answer from The Penny Hoarder with a "continue reading in feed" link at the bottom.

How Sav Can Help

No matter how you use Quora for your marketing, your website should also show that you’re legitimate and an authority on your subject matter with good web design and a user-friendly experience. Our website builder makes creating one easy and affordable. Start your free trial today to learn how.

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh is an in-house content writer for Sav. They live in Chicago with their cat, Polly. Yes, Harsh is their real last name.