Whether you’re a chatterbox or lurker, there’s a niche on Quora for you. Beyond its entertainment value, Quora is a powerful audience building tool.

“Quora tells me active writers get over 30,000 monthly views and 350,000 annual views,” wrote Josh Constine of TechCrunch. “Its most hardcore contributors can get over 1 million views a year, and most great answers go viral and get tens of thousands of reads.”

Content marketers, you should have started using Quora yesterday. Here are eight discussions that you should start following now:

1. What is the difference between content strategy and content marketing?

If you are confused about this topic, here are six discussions to help you out. You could think of content marketing as the ‘what’ and content strategy as the ‘how.’

You can also think of content strategy as having both product and marketing components. Aligning your audience with your business objectives is integral to your content strategy – from which, marketing may emerge as the process.

2. How do you do content marketing without content?

You don’t! Just kidding. For some businesses, you can purchase a simple fact sheet. You can also find free, government content to promote.

Your best bet, however, is to hire a writer to help you out.

3. Should brands invest in content driven communities?

This discussion sounds fascinating, right? So you’ll be surprised to see that there are only two answers.

This is a great opportunity to chime in and bring some exposure to your own website.

4. Is good content more gift than science? What are the key elements of good content? 

Believe it or not, there is actual forethought that goes into the process of crafting a powerful story. There’s a psychological dimension as well as a strong language component.

Without a doubt, the ability to write is a true gift. But there’s definitely more to it than creativity, according to this discussion.

5. What companies have the best corporate blogs?

If you’re looking for some great examples to model, these examples will get you started. There are more than 20 on this list, so happy browsing.

6. How can social media tools help develop corporate innovation capabilities?

Social media is one of the most important ways that companies can improve their reach and products.

The technology marks a transition from corporate-led development to customer-led development, according to one Quoran in this thread. At is heart, social media is collaborative and communication driven.

7. What are the best strategies to gain traffic to a blog?

This discussion is crucial for website owners who are looking to launch a blog for the first time.

Make sure to pay attention to your headlines, and make sure to join conversations around the Internet. Make sure to create high quality content to generate incoming links. Keep in mind, however, that it’s not traffic that you necessarily want — your top goal is to build an engaged audience.

8. What are the best ways to overcome writer’s block?

Here are some highlights from the discussion: practice your writing, write in your own voice, and learn to type quickly.

Ask lots of questions, brainstorm ahead of time, or have a beer. You can always edit tomorrow morning.

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

While some well known brands have no problem spreading awareness and building an audience, startups and lesser known companies can struggle with this.

Marketing consultant Michael Silverman, in a Content Marketing Institute post, says working with other professionals is sometimes necessary to build an online audience before the launch of a new venture.

Taking the creation of the review site Viewpoints as a case study, Silverman identifies four different kinds of people that should be part of an audience for a successful marketing campaign:

• Online advocates

“First and foremost, seek out people who already play an active role online in conversations of interest to your community.”

• Industry voices

“Get in touch with prolific voices in your industry and ask them to participate in the early stages of your community. You may not think you have a chance at prominent bloggers, journalists, and independent professionals, but you never know until you ask.”

• Other professionals

“Even if they aren’t necessarily prolific in your industry, there are plenty of professionals out there looking to build their personal brands. Knowledgeable interaction ensures high-quality content.”

• Freelancers

“Freelance writers and community professionals are trained in researching the topics that matter most to their audiences and delivering high-quality content around those topics. “

Silverman says that personality types are also a crucial factor to building a healthy community. People who tend to be “combative, profane, or obscene people usually don’t make positive advocates for your community,” he says.

Developing a strong audience of the right people to engage with the content and spread it to others is the most important aspect of an effective content marketing strategy.

Image courtesy of nikolpetr/shutterstock

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Content creation may seem like a daunting task, and the first step can be the most difficult. When creating content for the first time, think of content that is most universally appealing.

Scott Aughtmon of Content Marketing Institute created a list of 21 types of content audiences love to consume.

These types of content have emotional and intrinsic appeal versus functional and informative. While most businesses are hoping to share information that shows they are thought leaders, care must be taken to make sure that content appeals to audiences emotionally.

“This is the kind of content we must create if our goal is to influence, inspire, and move to action the unique group of people we have chosen to reach,” Aughtmon says.

This type of content that appeals emotionally is the kind we “never get tired of, always have time for, don’t forget, and want to share with others.”

He advises marketers to print out this list and put it somewhere that it can be viewed regularly to help develop the kind of content that is irresistible.

From now on, when beginning to create a new piece of content, the following two questions must be asked:

1. Does the content I am writing meet this criteria?
2. What can I do to make the content I’m creating fall under this category?

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

As more companies invest in content, they have to realize content is merely a means to an end, says Ben Elowitz of Paid Content. That end, and a company’s biggest asset, is its audience.

The first step is to stop thinking of the Internet as “the Internet” and instead as multiple channels to reach your audience.

“Digital distribution, when done right, can have a multiplicative effect: a great piece of content delivered to the right person at the right time in the right package is worth 10x that same content paired with the wrong (or non-existent) distribution strategy,” writes Elbowitz.

It’s not just about understanding the need to distribute across multiple channels, but also how you package each piece of content.

Effective content marketing means thinking about how users engage with each platform and which medium would work best.

For instance, images can enhance content distributed through social channels. When publishing reports and large quantities of data, bring it to life with data visualization. For an audience with short attention spans, use video content to share a message or build online buzz.

Above all else, know your audience and share content they would be interested in. Lifestyle brands Thrillist and DailyCandy have been successful by focusing on the same target for years.

As content marketers rush to begin creating content that highlights a company’s best attributes, the critical first step is to examine the current audience, determine the best method to reach them, and create content that suits their needs.

Image courtesy of left hand/flickr

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

Marketers, whether speaking through websites, communities, or social media sites, need to ensure that the voice fits in the content.

On an official website, the company voice represents the corporate vision. It should be professional, persuasive, and “designed to tell your audience why they should invest in you,” writes Anna Ritchie of Content Marketing Institute.

As for social media sites, Ritchie says that customers should do most of the talking, and marketers should be listening. The tone can be more informal and personal, and used to connect one on one with fans.

“Your social sites shouldn’t serve as an extension of your company voice,” she says. “They should give you the chance to speak ‘outside the box’ and connect with your audience on a more intimate level.”

For example, on Starbucks corporate page, people can learn all about its policies, but its Twitter account is geared towards having conversations with customers.

As for the online community, which Ritchie says is more directed towards the industry, marketers should be posting news stories, original content, and useful information, while dropping the sales pitch.

This should be a place for the company’s audience to “gather and discuss broader industry-related issues and breaking news, ask questions, and share ideas.”

Image courtesy of The Daring Librarian/flickr

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently

The wrong audience for your site isn’t likely to produce horrific results, but it might create one of the worst possible outcomes for your business … nothing at all.  Here are five things to look for that indicate your blog isn’t reaching your intended audience:

1. Inbound Traffic From Random Sources

Site statistics will tell you what pages your visitors were on immediately prior to coming to you. Random number strings, unrelated sites and known link farms indicate sources of less invested visitors.

2. High Bounce Rate

“Bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors who view only one page before leaving your website. Some of these will represent die-hard fans who drop in regularly checking for updates. Most, however, represent people who showed up and left from lack of interest.

Bounce Rates

3. Traffic Spikes

If you get a single day or weekend of high traffic followed by nothing, that traffic probably consisted of the wrong people. It came from a single post that went viral, or an effective publicity initiative — not from engaging the people your blog is aimed for.

It’s worthwhile to look at what caused the spike, though. It may point you toward ways to attract the right readers using similar methods.

4.Off-Kilter Comments  

Read the comments on your blog. Are they engaged and interested? Do they expand the conversation? Or are they link bait or a single meaningless line? A lack of high-value comments is a sure sign that you’re failing to attract visitors who care about what you have to say.

5. Low Conversion Rate

If you get 10,000 visitors each day, but no subscriptions or sales, you’re reaching the wrong people. This seems fairly obvious, but many beginning bloggers will look only at their traffic, without considering conversion rate — or even including an opportunity to buy or subscribe on each page.

Related articles

• 8 Tips For Measuring Engagement Of Your Blog Readers (contently.com)
• Optimization Testing: Don’t Obsess Over Conversion Rates (hubspot.com)
• 7 Things You’re Probably Doing Wrong On Your Company Blog (contently.com)

The Content Strategist is a daily magazine for forward-thinking publishers and content marketers, sponsored and created by Contently