The 5 S’s of Building Your Brand with Online Q&A

By Gary Weyel

Conversations about your brand are happening—whether you’re in the discussion or not.

Branding has changed dramatically in the last decade. Before the rise of Twitter, Facebook, message boards and review sites, businesses could shape their brands through push-oriented efforts like advertising and public relations. While traditional marketing efforts still have a place in the mix, the consumer conversation influences an ever-growing portion of brand image.

Hosting a question and answer website built entirely around your product, service or organization is a unique-yet-familiar way to engage customers online. Here are five ways a Q&A website can help build your brand.

Safe Place for Conversations

Most often, people just want to be heard. The problem with the average online outpost for conversation is that users end up speaking into the void. Whether it’s venting about problems in a vacant chat room or cheering for a new product to reach 10 Twitter followers, finding an audience can be difficult.

With a niche question and answer website dedicated to one specific brand and/or topic, users can immediately connect with other like-minded individuals. Visitors can ask questions without fear of being flamed by the trolls loitering about general forums, and disgruntled customers can voice their complaints and know that they’ll be heard. Plus, your customer service team or other company representatives can provide support with a personal touch.

Soapbox for Fans

One of the biggest benefits to making a safe place for online conversations is creating a platform for fans to promote your brand. According to McKinsey, 20 to 50% of all purchasing decisions are influenced by word of mouth. “As consumers overwhelmed by product choices tune out the ever-growing barrage of traditional marketing, word of mouth cuts through the noise quickly and effectively,” reports the global management firm.

A custom-branded Q&A website puts a megaphone at the mouth of your most vocal advocates. As more and more customers turn to online research before, after and (increasingly with mobile) during a purchase, the input from satisfied customers becomes invaluable to your brand.

SEO-Friendly Pages

When people search for your product or service online, what do they see? Your corporate site may show up in the first few results, but do you rank for the product category? The websites that appear in search engines results can make or break a brand. According to one study, the top three results account for 62% of all clicks, with the top spot collecting twice the clicks as the second result.

Online communities are a treasure trove of keywords. A niche Q&A community with user-generated, keyword-rich content will help your website rank in search engines for your products and services, thus funneling users to your site instead of random forums and other places where you may have less of a voice in the discussion.

(Incidentally, all ExpertBase sites are built using proven SEO practices, optimizing your rank in search engines and helping users find your site fast).

Shareable Solutions

Another key factor to ranking well on search engines is quality backlinks, or others linking to your website from another page.

Over time, your Q&A website will be filled with good answers from your brand community. These answers are a useful tool for both employees and customers alike to share with friends and colleagues. As users share links on social media, blogs and other places online, your Q&A website will draw more traffic and establish you as an authority on your topic and brand.

Social Media Content YOU Control

We love Facebook and Twitter (check out the ExpertBase pages here and here). Social media tools enable you to engage with customers, build awareness and establish your brand persona. However, it’s important to remember that when you’re interacting with users on a third-party website, you have limited control over the content you create.

Take Facebook for example. While the official terms say you own your content, Zuckerberg and company still have tremendous control over your page. Harvey Schachter at The Globe and Mail describes a number of potential pitfalls, including the fact that Facebook owns access to your content, the company can change features without notice and, probably most frightening, “your content isn’t protected or saved anywhere.”

By moving conversations off traditional social media platforms on to your own branded question and answer website, you’ll have more control over your content, greatly increasing the chances that your hard work will be online tomorrow.

Putting it all Together

Keep in mind, control shouldn’t mean controlling the conversations—you want users to feel free to share what’s on their mind. Your job is to provide them with a good environment to talk. By giving fans, casual customers and haters a place to both cheer and vent, you’ll have better customer relations and improve brand perception.

About ExpertBase

ExpertBase provides your employees, customers and brand advocates with incentives to ask and answer questions about your products and services. Utilizing a patented point/grade system, answerers earn points and recognition, while askers are rewarded with a quality answer. Solutions are stored on your Q&A help site, providing a reliable resource for future users.

With ExpertBase, you can bring the conversation home: you own the content and you get the traffic, all with minimal startup and maintenance requirements.