My latest “Backtalk” just posted over at Federal Computer Week. As always, it draws upon the insights of GovLoopers to tease out a trend in government. Here’s an excerpt:
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I have to admit that I am getting a bit envious of the new kid in town. Everyone seems to be infatuated with a social network named Quora.
The website first came to my attention in early January when there were three separate conversations about it on GovLoop. First, Heather Coleman asked: “Should agencies and cities be on Quora?” Because she’s a SharePoint content manager and social media specialist at the Army Contracting Command, her interest intrigued me. Of course, the first response to her question was another one: “What’s Quora?”
Other GovLoop’ers mentioned in the article include UK’s Jimmy Leach and Canada’s Nick Charney.
Check it out…and just in case you’d like to see the other conversations I’ve highlighted, here are a few of the previous “Backtalks”.
What about you? Got a crush on Quora?
I have a tenatative date with Quora, but I’m not sure I plan to show up!
One question for you: can you view my answer to the “How can Quroa help ExpertNet?” question. It says that my answer is still pending a review, so apparently those asking questions can moderate the answers.
Hi Megan – Just checked – yep, I can see your response…and a couple great comments on your post there.
I’m in love with Quora
I am on the fence about Quora at this point for my own use, but because I do PR outreach for government transportation entities I am not at a point of recommending it as part of an outreach strategy to clients.
I like the idea of Quora and it is reasonably easy enough to use. It’s different though than Twitter and surely FB. I can see it’s potential, but it’s hard to get it as focused as Twitter, and would be hard to see it as good as an engagement tool as Facebook is for geographically focused transportation projects. While I do utilize Facebook and Twitter for transportation project outreach, it is still been a tough sell to date. So adding something so new like Quora to the puzzle would be a challenge at this point.
I plan to continue using it and playing around with it and hope if its use continues and functionality improves, it could be a useful public outreach tool.