What should business be doing with the new conversation websites?
Here’s your revised version with **light subheads added within sections** to break up density, plus **small readability improvements** (grammar, flow, clarity) while keeping your tone, structure, and voice intact. No major rewrites.
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Key Takeaways
- Engagement and Honest Conversations: Question-and-answer sites like Quora and Namesake foster genuine discussions, allowing businesses to engage with audiences in a meaningful way. These platforms make it easy to search for topics and track conversations, which improves both understanding and visibility.
- Opportunities for Product Development and Research: Quora serves as a valuable resource for gathering feedback on ideas and researching trends and competitors. Businesses can use the platform to gain insights from knowledgeable users, making it a useful tool for generating blog content and refining product concepts.
- Building a Brand Presence Early: Engaging on emerging platforms allows businesses to connect with early adopters and influential individuals before mass adoption. Creating discussions around a brand—and having key stakeholders, such as CEOs, participate—can enhance credibility and build a community of advocates.
The Rise of Q&A Platforms
As if Twitter and Facebook don’t already have businesses scrambling to keep up, a new type of site is emerging—one that engages audiences through a question-and-answer format. Each platform brings its own twist, but the real question is: what should businesses be doing with them?
For most of the sites I’m going to talk about (except LinkedIn), there isn’t a ton of critical mass yet. BUT—and this “but” is bigger than my own “butt”—businesses should absolutely be paying attention. Here’s why.
Why These Platforms Matter
These sites encourage honest, uninterrupted conversation. Discussions can be shared, easily tracked, and followed over time. Users can search for questions or conversations on specific topics, and in the case of Quora and Namesake, you can quickly understand who you’re learning from without doing a ton of homework. Call me lazy—but I appreciate “at-a-glance” context.
Each platform is working, in its own way, to establish credibility for contributors in specific areas. At some point, I wouldn’t be surprised if PeerIndex expands its use of Namesake (as it already does with Quora) to better understand the “human” side of digital identity—expertise, influence, and reputation.
If Namesake gains media attention and critical mass, it could absolutely play a role in the influence ecosystem. Right now, neither platform appears to heavily impact SEO, but if you know SEO better than I do (and I know just enough to be dangerous), feel free to weigh in. Still, if these sites scale, I’d be surprised if they don’t start influencing SEO more directly.
Early Adopters & Why You Should Care
If your product targets early adopters, tech enthusiasts, or social media users, now is the time to get involved and observe how these platforms evolve. The current user base is still largely early adopters, and in Quora’s case—once all the rage in Silicon Valley—there are already influential voices participating.
Like any platform, it’s better to build an audience before you need one. These environments are dynamic and constantly changing, but establishing a presence early gives you a long-term advantage.
I thought it would be worth addressing some of the opportunities these platforms present for businesses.
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Quora:
Platform Overview
Once a media darling, Quora is, at its core, a question-and-answer site—but like most social tools, it’s far more sophisticated than that. One key difference is that well-written, thoughtful (read: longer) answers are encouraged and appreciated. The culture leans more boardroom than bar.
Sloppy thinking doesn’t go far here, and “being human” doesn’t mean being a jacka**. It’s also not a “follow me and I’ll follow you” environment. Instead, you follow people whose opinions you genuinely value.
Social Integration & Content Sharing
Quora integrates with Twitter and Facebook and allows users to share questions and answers across those platforms. If you use WordPress or Tumblr, you can also publish Q&A content directly to your blog—which can be powerful if the topics align with your audience. Just keep in mind: your Quora audience may differ significantly from your blog audience.
Evolving Audience
Early on, Silicon Valley insiders dominated Quora, and conversations tended to be highly technical and philosophical. That’s less true now—even since I started using it—but it hasn’t reduced its value.
Product Development
If you have an idea you want to test, Quora is a great place to get feedback. Expect thoughtful, critical responses—not just “great job.” Put on your big boy pants and be ready for honest input. There are even venture capital participants on the platform, so if your idea is strong (and you get a little lucky), it could go further than feedback.
Research
From exploring trends to conducting light competitive analysis, Quora is a goldmine. I often use it to spark blog ideas—scan a few questions, and suddenly you’ve got a topic worth writing about. Since questions are open to everyone, you’re not limited to your own audience. You can also amplify questions via Twitter or Facebook if your audience engages with Quora.
Listening
Search for your company, key topics, or relevant keywords regularly. You’ll gain insight into ongoing conversations. While Quora users don’t necessarily expect brand responses the way Twitter users do, if you choose to engage, respond thoughtfully, point by point, and with full transparency. This audience will spot inauthenticity immediately—and shut the conversation down.
Create Conversation
If no topic exists for your brand, create one before someone else does. Since Quora allows users to edit descriptions, keep yours factual and non-promotional to reduce the likelihood of edits. Build early advocates who follow your brand topic—so when conversations emerge, knowledgeable users can contribute meaningfully.
Celebrity CEO
Depending on your business, Quora can be an excellent platform for CEO visibility. I know—every time I suggest CEO participation in social media, people cringe. But this is one space where it can work. Unlike LinkedIn, which can feel overwhelming, Quora allows CEOs to thoughtfully craft their presence through targeted questions and answers. If your CEO is the face of your brand, a presence here makes sense—but only if they understand that not every response needs to be a “message.”
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Namesake:
Platform Culture
Namesake offers a more conversational Q&A environment. Questions range from thoughtful to silly, and answers follow suit. The vibe feels more like your living room than a boardroom—casual, friendly, and inclusive—though still very much early adopter territory.
Endorsements & Expertise
One standout feature is the ability for others to endorse your expertise. You select your categories, and others independently validate your skills. The platform is built primarily for users, not businesses—but that doesn’t mean it lacks business value.
Influencers
Yes—there’s that word again. Namesake can help identify individuals recognized for their expertise, even if they don’t have massive audiences. The limitation? The platform is still small, so many credible experts may not yet be active or highly endorsed. There’s also some “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” behavior, which can muddy endorsement value. Still, as the platform grows, it could become a strong resource.
Listening
Check in periodically to monitor conversations about your brand, industry, or key topics. Whether or not you participate, staying informed is essential.
Create Conversation
Community managers can engage meaningfully here—not just around their brand, but around shared interests. Participating in broader conversations builds personality and awareness without overt self-promotion. And that last part matters—self-promotion is just icky. Be cool.
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Where LinkedIn Fits
So where does LinkedIN fit into all of this?
I still believe LinkedIn is highly relevant. Wall Street certainly gave it the thumbs up. From a business perspective, it remains a strong recruiting tool—and as the economy improves, recruiting will pick up again.
Companies should maintain a presence, and representatives should continue participating in groups and conversations. That said, LinkedIn has shifted—from a genuine resource to something closer to a self-promotion machine. Having watched it evolve into “link to my website” territory, I suspect Quora and Namesake users will be more protective of their spaces and less tolerant of that behavior.
There are still opportunities on LinkedIn, but plenty has already been written about that. My goal here was to highlight emerging platforms and how businesses can start leveraging them.
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