How many people use Q&A sites?

In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. The 49% doesn’t even include the many who get info from Q&A sites by Googling or Binging.

What’s in it for me?

Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help you in the following ways:

1. Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.

2. Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.

3. Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

How do I use these sites?

The general rules of social media apply here too:

1. Help others

2. Build relationships

3. Push your products and services when they answer somebody’s question or request.

Q&A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions. When I blog I hope my posts address questions that my readers want answered, but they may not. In Q&A sites, your starting point is that somebody asked the queston that you’re answering.

Specifically:

1. Search the Q&A sites for questions about your subject, and browse the relevant categories.

2. Answer questions fairly and accurately. If appropriate, mention your product or service, and or link to a relevant page on your site.

3. Follow up & interact where appropriate. Use these sites’ message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to congratulate another contributor for a great answer.

4. Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.

What are the leading sites and how do they differ?

1. Yahoo! Answers: The biggest site in the industry, with 47 million US visits in November according to comScore. It’s a broad horizontal site. Questions are open for 4 days. Users answer the question, and vote on the best answer.

2. WikiAnswers: Answers.com has 41 million monthly US visitors according to comScore, making it second to Yahoo! but far larger than the other Q&A sites. It’s also a broad horizontal site.

3. Stack Overflow and its siblings: Stack Overflow is a great Q&A site for programmers. If you’re a software developer and you want to establish yourself as an expert and to network with your peers, this site’s perfect.

4. Aardvark: Aardvark is more of a closed system where you ask questions to people in your network. This is great for well connected journalists and bloggers to get answers from their network, but may not be ideal for spreading your message beyond your social circle.

5. Answerblip.com: Trivia and question and answer site that is a combination of trusted answers from reference sources, fun answers, and answers from their experts.

How to answer questions on Q&A sites?:

1. Find the sites where the people you need are getting their information.

2. Give them quality information that will benefit them.

3. Get your own message across, with full disclosure of who you are. You can be self-serving, but not too self-serving.

4. Build relationships, and establish your expertise.

Q&A sites are a great way to get your message across and to build your brand and reputation. Ultimately you need a win-win here. You need to serve the needs of the community with whom you’re interacting, in a way that also builds your business and reputation.