Quora: the art of giving away valuable knowledge
What is Quora?
Here’s how it’s been defined:
Quora is a place to gain and share knowledge. It’s a platform to ask questions and connect with people who contribute unique insights and quality answers. This empowers people to learn from each other and to better understand the world.
I don’t think I need to add anything to the above 🙂
Moving on…
The art of giving…
As a businessman whose primary medium of operation is the internet, I’ve learnt the importance of carrying out research and also giving away as much knowledge / information as I can.
One might say “you can’t give away all your secrets”, and I totally understand that thought process. Yes, you may not give away everything, however, you could give out something which will be of great value to those who need it.
The marketplace pays for value – Dani Johnson
Positioning yourself (and your business)
It’s often said…
The more you give, the more you receive!
When you’re in the “art of giving”, you’re actually “positioning” yourself as someone who has a lot of value to offer.
What you’re doing, through the questions you answer on Quora, is building up an audience, and also setting yourself apart from others in your industry.
You would find that most of the successful people we have today (especially in the tech world) are people who are not afraid to give away their knowledge.
The likes of Gary Vaynerchuk are “pacesetters” when it comes to the act of giving (the “jab, jab, jab, right hook” mentality, if you will).
This is what has given them the edge and good positioning in their various fields of endeavour.
Quora creates an opportunity for anyone to give their “expert” opinion on certain topics, without going about telling everyone “Hey, I’m an expert”. If someone requests an answer to a particular question from you, then you can choose to respond or pass on it.
Quora = abundance of knowledge…
In a world full of abundant resources, knowledge, and information (thanks to the internet), hoarding information in the bid to “bait people” towards your business, has a more negative effect than when you’re more inclined to share what you know. Those who give (with no strings attached) will always attract more people to their business.
What Quora has done is give people a platform where they could find answers to specific questions a lot quicker, than digging through Google search results for the right article (nothing wrong in doing a search on Google though, but having an alternative medium for finding the right information is always good).
Where do you draw the line?
There will always be people who’ll want to take advantage of your goodwill. How do you deal with these situations when it comes to giving away your knowledge?
Stop giving?
Hoard some information?
From what I’ve seen so far… most people who give out their knowledge believe some of the people who are on the receiving end will hardly do anything with it (there could be a lot of reasons for the lack of action on the part of the receiver, but I won’t get into it on this post).
The way I approach things online is to freely share my knowledge within the forums and groups I belong to (and Quora is one of them).
Whether the person asking the question(s) takes your answer(s) on board or not, you have to keep in mind that it’s on a public domain, and anyone can access it. That means there will be other people searching for answers, who may stumble upon yours, and it’ll be of great value to them (some could even reach out for more help).
So when answering questions, give it your best shot… not “half-baked” responses which could make you appear lazy, or as someone who’s unwilling to help others.
Conclusion
Answering questions online did not start with Quora, and it’s not the only platform that caters to this concept.
There are other platforms such as Reddit with “Ask me anything – AMA”, and Clarity.fm.
But Quora has fast become a top online platform where you can ask questions you need answers to, and also answer questions to the best of your ability.
You can easily connect with your industry thought leaders as well, in order to understand their mindset through the answers they give to questions.
If you want knowledge / information, immerse yourself in research.
If you want to build a responsive audience online, embrace the art of giving (knowledge, information, advise, etc.).
A platform like Quora has a lot of questions which have been asked, with answers given. You could find answers to what you’re looking for there as well. It doesn’t cost you anything… it’s FREE!
Anyways, I just thought I should share.
To your success!
