Quora is a social media site created by former Facebook employees. It is designed to be an interactive question and answer site. It appears to me to be like the Q&A section on LinkedIn where someone can ask a question and receive an answer in a more sophisticated way than a simple Yahoo Answers response. Unlike Yahoo Answers, users must be a member of the site to view the discussions.
I have received several notifications that people were following me recently on Quora, so I decided to give it another look yesterday. Interestingly, this morning, the Wall Street Journal did a piece on Quora. I was a bit relieved to hear that I wasn’t the only one who finds the site to be a bit confusing. According to the WSJ article, “The site lacks instructions on how to use it; people just have to figure it out as they go. For example, a newcomer might not know that Quora answers can be voted up or down by seeing two tiny triangles that appear beside each answer. If I select the up triangle, this indicates I voted for that answer, and news of this vote is shared on the Quora home page of anyone who follows me. A number beside each answer indicates how many votes it has received so far. But unless you’ve used the site for a while, you wouldn’t know any of this.”
I like the Q&A section in LinkedIn and I think Quora has some possibilities. I will have to give it another try. I recommend reading the article in the Wall Street Journal to learn more about Quora and how to navigate within the site by clicking here.
For now, I have answered questions on Quora including one titled: How do you know if you are emotionally intelligent? If you are on Quora and want to see my response to that question click here.
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Hey, thanks for the link. I wonder about the value to an answerer on Quora. I don’t see it, yet. If the community grows enough, then Quora could become an expertise database, but that’s sort of a big if. So far, LinkedIn answers has worked every time. And when I answer something well, LinkedIn calls me an expert. I trust the expertise database there because I can vet expertise against experience.
Still watching Quora though.
Matt.