{"id":970,"date":"2010-12-16T15:26:11","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T09:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/?p=970"},"modified":"2010-12-27T13:02:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T07:32:38","slug":"answers-to-a-successful-online-brand-relation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/2010\/12\/answers-to-a-successful-online-brand-relation\/","title":{"rendered":"Answers to a successful Online Brand Relation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In today\u2019s fast paced world, virtual <a href=\"http:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/socialmedia.html\" target=\"_blank\">social networking<\/a> has always strengthened existing relationships, and continues to provide a foundation for border-less communities based on common areas of interest.<\/p>\n<p>Some <a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/2010\/02\/has-social-media-made-us-bold-gutsy\/\" target=\"_blank\">people like to share<\/a> with others what they know. Some people like to learn by reading questions and answers. Q&amp;A sites offer that kind of information from experts or from everyday people. Q&amp;A sites have grown immensely in the last few years. People are, more than ever, turning to the internet to get quick information about any topic through these Q&amp;A sites.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s kind of asking your neighbour, coworker or friend a question and getting a written answer. There are some questions that cannot be answered by even the best reference books or encyclopedias. They need a human expert that can understand a complex relationship.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Opportunity for Brands to be Human.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This provides a great opportunity for Brands to participate in conversation with people who are looking for information about products they manufacture or services they provide. Q&amp;A sites work great for this, because people are already asking the questions.<\/p>\n<p>Brands are driving leads using Question and Answer forums like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/answers?trk=hb_tab_ayn\" target=\"_blank\">LinkedIn Answers<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/answers.yahoo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Yahoo! Answers<\/a> and<a href=\"http:\/\/www.answers.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"> Answers.com<\/a>. LinkedIn Answers dominates the category usage, claiming 59.2 percent of use for companies participating in at least one Q&amp;A forum. Yahoo! Answers is a distant second at 37.1 percent.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-QA-Sites.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-971\" src=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-QA-Sites.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"758\" height=\"428\" srcset=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-QA-Sites.jpg 758w, https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-QA-Sites-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 758px) 100vw, 758px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">(<a href=\"http:\/\/www.business.com\/info\/social-media-best-practices-q-and-a\" target=\"_blank\">Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question &amp; Answer Forums. Business.com<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\n<p>Providing quality answers and links to relevant pages can help Brands in the following ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Direct customers (and potential customers) to      accurate information about your product.<\/li>\n<li>Connect with people in the market, build reputation,      and generate leads.<\/li>\n<li>Provide links back to your site. Some of these links      are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Also, the Internet has a reputation for being shady. You need to let readers know why your answer is reputable and why you\u2019re the right person to answer it. This gives Brands a greater credence and integrity to the response, and a higher likelihood for a recommendation or a vote up. It is this process of informing and educating the general audience that can help the brand establish \u201c<strong>Thought Leadership.<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Reputation.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-972\" src=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Reputation.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"428\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Reputation.jpg 428w, https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Reputation-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 428px) 100vw, 428px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Who is listening to the Brand?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In a recent Business.com study, 49% of companies that use social media said they ask questions on Q&amp;A sites. Only 29% said they use Twitter to find business-related information. Among those who use Q&amp;A forums, 92 percent say they are at least somewhat useful with 25 percent claiming them to be \u201cvery useful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\"><a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Usefulness.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-973\" src=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Usefulness.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"726\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Usefulness.jpg 726w, https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Usefulness-300x166.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">(Source: Social Media Best Practices: Question &amp; Answer Forums. Business.com)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right\">\n<p><strong>How do Brands use these sites?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/2010\/04\/six-keep-in-minds-while-devising-a-social-media-strategy\/\" target=\"_blank\">general rules of social media<\/a> apply here too:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Help others<\/li>\n<li>Build relationships<\/li>\n<li>Push your products and services while answering      somebody&#8217;s question or request.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In Q&amp;A sites, the starting point is that somebody asked the question that you&#8217;re answering.<\/p>\n<p>Specifically you shoul:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Search the Q&amp;A sites for questions about your      subject, and browse the relevant categories.<\/li>\n<li>Answer questions fairly and accurately. If      appropriate, mention your product or service, and \/ or link to a relevant      page on your site.<\/li>\n<li>Follow up &amp; interact where appropriate. Use these      sites&#8217; message boards to see if you can be of further help, or to      congratulate another contributor for a great answer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Fill in your User Profile, showing why people should like and trust you. You can also usually link to your site from your User Profile.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-Question.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-974\" src=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-Question.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"273\" srcset=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-Question.jpg 640w, https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Top-Question-300x127.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In essence, the best practices is to be helpful first, don\u2019t go in trumpeting your sales pitch and focus on long-term relationship building and benefits rather than seeing a sudden influx of leads. An answer should simply touch on all prominent points that deliver a comprehensive, well structured response to a question.<\/p>\n<p>The best part of the Q&amp;A sites is that, they are Search Engine Optimized. This helps in increasing the visibility of the brand. More importantly, it is a credible way of highlighting your product range without sounding like <a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/2008\/10\/facebookads\/\" target=\"_blank\">advertising<\/a>. And finally, Q&amp;A sites are helping Brands become more human. It has allowed a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.windchimes.co.in\/clients-home.html\" target=\"_blank\">Brand<\/a> to be the friend you turn to when you have a query. Objective Achieved!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In today\u2019s fast paced world, virtual social networking has always strengthened existing relationships, and continues to provide a foundation for border-less communities based on common areas of interest.<br \/>\nSome people like to share with others what they know. Some people like to learn by reading questions and answers. Q&amp;A sites offer that kind of information from experts or from everyday people. Q&amp;A sites have grown immensely in the last few years. People are, more than ever, turning to the internet to get quick information about any topic through these Q&amp;A sites.<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s kind of asking your neighbour, coworker or friend a question &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/?post_type=post&#038;p=970\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,125,25,155],"tags":[212,213,214,211,208,789],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-media","category-social-media-marketing","category-target-audience","category-windchimes","tag-answer","tag-forum","tag-qa","tag-question","tag-smm","tag-social-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":3492,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":978,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions\/978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/windchimes.co.in\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}