One Reason Your Q&A Questions May Not Be Getting Answered

As I surf through the questions on LinkedIn I frequently come across what I call “prospecting questions.” These are questions, whether intentional or not, ask for the reader’s problem in a direct way and come from someone that could fix the issue.

This is a very common error for newbies on LinkedIn coming to find business but not understanding the site’s purpose and method.

Here are some examples.

What are you doing to fix your production efficiency?  (Asked by a production consultant)

What’s wrong with your sales team? (Asked by a sales trainer)

Do you need help with your web site? (Asked by a web designer)

How can I help you with you lead generation? (Asked by a lead generation specialist.)

It is not that the questions don’t have a value at the heart of their topic, its just that they are taken as per-sales questions – answer and I will engage you to fix the problem.

Two of the best uses of the Question and Answer forum are visibility and the development of one’s expertise. They also represent a great “safe” way to engage others in a conversation or discussion – even when the other person is answering the same question you are and is not connected.

This is all evidence that you want to have as many people answer your question as possible. And you don’t want to upset or turn people away. If you ask prospecting questions you will find that you are pretty much ignored. If you continue along this line you will find that you get a reputation for being a “prospector” and that you then have a hard time engaging others.

If you simply turn the questions around and make them “opinion” questions you will see that people engage them. You can usually tell if you have a good question by the immediate and plentiful response. If you put a question up and no one answers after the first half day you probably don’t have a good question or you may simply have asked it the wrong way.

The best questions for engaging people are those on controversial subjects within your line of business. For example in the sales arena “cold calling” is a major debate topic and you will notice if you search that the questions asking about this get lots of attention.

If you are trying to leverage the Question and Answer forum make sure your questions ask for an opinion on the subject, not the reader’s individual details or problems. If you do you’ll get far more participation.

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