Social media has come by leaps and bounds from its original intention. From what started as a pedestal for self-promotion and online socialization, it’s now become a powerful tool for sales, advertising, and marketing.
Make no mistake: social media 10 years ago was a completely different ecosystem, and its evolution as a platform for effectively reaching a virtual community is undeniable. To simply put, everyone’s online. What began as an interaction space for end users has quickly spread like wildfire until it reached forward-thinking businesses to leverage this tool and optimize growth and seize opportunities.
This is particularly true for B2B brands as they navigate building relationships and increasing leads in platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and just recently, TikTok. But as a relatively new marketing tool, it’s still bound for disruptions and endless voids to be filled. In fact, the capabilities of one platform aren’t as utilized as much as the others: Quora.
I know what you’re thinking… isn’t Quora too under the radar for B2B marketing? Yes, it is. But it doesn’t take away the fact that it’s a difference-maker in terms of value and effectiveness..
The Most Underrated B2B Marketing Platform
When people hear social media B2B marketing, they’d immediately think of LinkedIn. After all, it’s a concentrated hub for all things business and marketing. But since it’s the most widely used platform for professionals, a myriad of cons is inevitable – from the proliferation of spam accounts, and cybersecurity vulnerabilities, to a far more costly CPC. The same can be said with Facebook – only, its audience is much broader, and finding leads for a specific niche can be a nightmare. Other platforms that are displaying great potential are YouTube and TikTok. In an age where video content consumption is at its peak, these two titans are having their golden heyday.
Quora, on the other hand, is an unexplored territory that’s yet to unleash its full potential. For one, it’s a search engine with high intent – it is its own domain. In fact, Google search provides answers pulled directly from Quora, so its reach is vast. Moreover, its CPC is much cheaper than LinkedIn, making it a cost-effective space. Think of it as the B2B counterpart of Pinterest – it’s interest-based, which significantly simplifies the research phase for audience targeting; from keywords, interests, and questions, to topics, its purposeful search capability maximally reduces your time in demographic scouring.
Why Social Engagement Matters
One of the reasons mainstream platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and others continue to catapult themselves as the social media greats for B2B marketing is engagement.
Keep in mind that a strong social media presence is key for growth acceleration and longevity, and social engagement makes room for users to interact, propelling brands to stay relevant. So in terms of likes, shares, comments, mentions, and replies, the above-mentioned platforms are exponentially ahead of Quora. To achieve scalability, Quora needs to adapt, evolve, and keep up with market demands. While it offers tremendous value, it’s still not widely used because of its lack of dimension, hence holding back its promise to be on the same reach as the other leading marketing platforms.
The takeaway here is that B2B marketing professionals should have the initiative to uncover untouched territories in navigating the next best platform and never rest on what’s currently trending. Innovation, curiosity, and the constant desire to unlock potential are key to finding opportunities to marketing and growth.