How to Answer a Q&A Question When You Don’t Know the Answer

This is a great little tactic you can use to increase your visibility and number of engagements with fellow LinkedIners.

There are three things you can do when you really don’t have a direct answer to the question.

Provide a Resource

If you simply go on the Internet and do a search for information on the question, you can then answer the question by providing a resource. Obviously, you may also learn the answer by the route thus allowing you to answer the question yourself.

Provide an Expert

The other option, and of course you could do this with this with the above, is to look through your network for an expert that could answer the question and provide that recommendation to the questioner. This has the added benefit of adding value to your relationship with the expert connection.

Give Decision Advice

Sometimes when you don’t have a really good answer to the question, you can help the questioner with information re the making of the decision.

Example: Let’s say the person asks about web marketing – you could make the recommendation that working with a web designer that knows web marketing might avoid building a site that is not as compatible with the objectives of the site.

Often you will understand the decision process better than the actual answer and can offer good advice for the decision without really knowing the best answer to the question.

The interesting thing is that giving decision advice is often more valuable that answering the question directly. Frequently the questioner doesn’t give all the data relevant to the question and it is truly hard to answer definitively anyway.

When I’ve used this third technique I have received some of the best responses from the questioners I’ve received.

Summary

Using this method allows you to answer more questions and help more people. One of the best ways to build a network is to invite (not using and “invitation,” but within your response) those you engage in the Q&A forum. This allows you more opportunities to do so.

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