Are you struggling to generate content ideas for your blogs and social posts?
If you have limited time and resources to devote to content development, coming up with fresh content ideas that provide value to your customers and prospects can be challenging.
When you’re under the gun, it can be tempting to draft something simple and generic just to meet your posting schedule… only to be frustrated by the lack of engagement on your post.
But when content isn’t your best work or doesn’t resonate with your target audience, posting it may do more harm than good. At best, it’s a waste of your valuable time and resources. At worst, it can damage your credibility as a thought leader and encourage your followers to go elsewhere to find content that’s more relevant to their needs.
So today I’m sharing a useful tool for generating content ideas that will resonate with your target audience: Quora.
What is Quora?
Quora is a social platform that every business, large and small, can leverage to generate content ideas and build brand authority.
The platform defines itself as a place to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers. In essence, it’s a question-and-answer site where people go to gain and share knowledge. All content is user-generated. Anyone can ask a question, and anyone can provide the answer.
Recent stats indicate that 3,000-5,000 questions are asked on Quora every day and that the site has over 300 million active users. Over 35% of Americans use Quora, and most are highly educated, with over one-third in management positions.
The millions of users and thousands of questions asked daily make Quora an idea market research platform. By exploring the questions being asked in your market niche, you’ll gain valuable insights into what’s important to your target market. You’ll have the ability to spot emerging trends and respond to market changes in advance of your competition.
Google indexes Quora and often displays the platform’s content on page one of search results. This means your content on Quora has the potential to be found by individuals searching for information about topics you’ve written about.
There is also a paid advertising option, which allows you to target your ads to specific keywords.
Using Quora To Generate Content Ideas
To use Quora as a research tool to generate content ideas, start by entering relevant topics into the search bar at the top of the page.
For example, say you’re a fitness coach. You might be wondering what kinds of questions people are asking about weight loss so you can address them in your social posts.
Here’s what came up when I typed weight loss into the search field:
The first result will take you to a list of user-generated questions about weight loss.
If I were a fitness coach, I would scroll through the questions for inspiration, paying particular interest to those questions with multiple Followers. People interested in the answers provided to a question will “follow” the question to receive notifications as answers to that question are posted. Therefore, the more Followers, the more likely the topic will resonate with my target audience.
To find the number of Followers, click on the question to open it in a new tab. For example, the question below has ten thousand people following it.
The remaining topics listed in the search results are all “Spaces”, which are communities centered around specific topics of interest.
Spaces are similar to Facebook Groups, but Space owners specify which members can contribute content and reply to questions. Joining a Space will enable you to receive all content updates in your Quora feed.
As a fitness coach, I would join several Spaces focused on diet, weight loss, workouts and other appropriate topics. Doing so would allow me to keep my finger on the pulse on what’s currently being discussed online by people interested in fitness. I would then tailor my blog and social media posts to address the issues and questions being raised.
In addition to topics, you can also follow individuals on Quora. So, if your competitors are active on Quora, follow them to keep an eye on what they’re up to online.
Using Quora to Build Your Brand Authority
As well as mining Quora for ideas, you can also respond to questions. Answering questions to provide thoughtful insight will showcase your expertise and position you as an industry thought leader. You’ll also have the opportunity to build relationships with customers and prospective customers and drive traffic back to your website.
Before you begin answering questions, prime your profile with a professional bio photo, your education, relevant experience and a short description. The description can include a clickable link back to your website or blog. Quora will display the first 50 characters of your profile above each answer you provide, so make the most of those 50 characters. (Note that your profile must be for you as an individual, not your company.)
Don’t forget to highlight all the relevant topics you can think of in the Knows about section so that Quora will know the best questions to direct your way.
Next, select the various topics you wish to follow.
You can also create your own Space to manage your desired topic(s). For example, if you’ve been thinking about starting a blog, a Quora Space could be a strategic alternative. However, before making such a decision, you must consider the time and attention it will take to build and maintain either a Quora Space or a blog.
Once you’re ready to go, click the Answer button on the top menu and scroll through the list of questions to find the ones you are comfortable answering. These questions should be those that deliver value to your target audience and position you as an expert in the topics you want to be known for.
Questions not yet answered are your opportunity to stand out.
In addition, you should also look for questions with a large number of followers, especially where the answers have many upvotes. Upvotes indicate people are reviewing responses in detail. Your insightful answer could, therefore, receive a large number of views.
When answering questions, you are permitted to link back to your site, but only if the information you’re linking to is a direct and helpful response to the question. You can certainly talk about how your products or services will solve the problem outlined in a question. However, blatant self-promotion is considered spam and will be downvoted to removed.
One way to tastefully incorporate your link is to first add links to other informational sources and then include your own content as the final link. Another way is to fully answer the question and then provide a link to some related free training on your site.
Remember, your main objective for answering questions is to establish your credibility, not directly sell your product or service. Content writing is not advertising, and its purpose is to provide helpful information to people so that when they are ready to buy, they will come to you.
Bottom Line
Quora is an effective research tool for helping you monitor topics of interest relevant to your business. You can then tailor your online content to address the burning issues and concerns of your target audience.
Responding to questions posted in Quora can position you as a key thought leader within your industry. This will boost your credibility so that potential customers will follow you online and come to you first when they are ready to make a purchase.
If you’d like additional information about using Quora to generate content ideas and grow your brand authority, feel free to DM me at @dyble.lisa.