By Cynthia Boris on May 9, 2011
Marketers, start your engines! As of right now, Q&A site Quora has not only lifted their ban on self-promotion, they’re actually encouraging it.
The old policy said that content that was “primarily self-promotional” was prohibited. Here’s why they changed the rule.
Quora’s key principle regarding content is that users should make the site a great resource for people who want to learn. The quality of the answer is what we care about. Evaluating the intention of an answer does not support this policy.
We want to encourage users to provide answers based on personal experience, and this often involves — or even requires – discussing subject(s) in which the writer has personal experience. Personal experience is an asset, not a liability, and is a key element of many of the best answers on Quora. In other words, we want users to write about what they know and care about – companies, organizations, causes, people, products, etc.
They do ask that you go the full disclosure route and tell people that you work for whatever company you’re praising. They also acknowledge that this opens the doors to a flood of spam, but they say they’re confident that their tools and policies will keep the flow in check. And of course, they reserve the right to ban anyone they like if you get out of line. Basically, as long as you’re posting a relevant answer to a question, you’re in.
What makes this even more of a boost for marketers is the fact that Google now indexes Quora as part of their “realtime” search option. TechCrunch reported the unheralded appearance at the end of April.
All this means, if you haven’t been using Quora to promote your company, now’s the time to jump in. With a free pass to send your message to targeted consumers, coupled with an automatic pop in Google search – the only bad here is the time cost of adding another social media site to your daily routine.
Are you using Quora yet? I’d like to hear about your experience.
Thanks to Louisgray.com for the heads up.
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