In keeping with the focus of this blog (Question & Answer websites), I have formatted it in the traditional Q&A style.

Q: What are Q&A sites?

A: Question and Answer sites have been around a long time, they are basically sites where users ask questions and others across the web provide answers in response.

A: Sites like Yahoo Answers, Answers.com, and WikiAnswers are some of the original and more traditional sites in this area and have been around since the mid 1990’s. Recently the search engine formerly known as Ask.com, reinvented itself as a Q&A site. And of course, the site that received a lot of press and attention earlier this year is Quora. Time Magazine named it one of the best websites for 2011.

Quora is different from others since its goal is to combine questions, answers, social media and search in one platform. Quora encourages users to use their real name. This allows for real experts to be easily found – and there are quite a few industry thought leaders and experts answering questions regularly. With Quora, once you become a member,  you follow topics of interest, they currently have over 10,000 topics. There is also a social networking element to Quora (it was founded by former Facebook employees), so you can create your profile using your Facebook or Twitter account.

A recent addition to the Q&A world is Jig.com, launched at the end of August by the founders of social bookmarking site Delicious. There isn’t much differentiation from the other Q&A sites, but much like Quora, the plan is to have it become more of a social community.

Q: Are there other Q&A sites that are more specific or narrowly targeted?

A: Take a look at StackExchange, which is an off-shoot of Stackoverflow, a popular programming Q&A site. StackExchange is a network of 63 question and answer sites on diverse topics from software programming to cooking to photography and gaming.

And Focus, which touts itself as helping professionals make better decisions by making the world's business and technology expertise available to everyone. The current categories are standard business categories (Customer Service, Finance, Management, HR, IT, Operations, Sales).

Q: How are Q&A sites applicable to B2B?

A: Questions and Answer sites turn up regularly in search results, and Google seems to give some sites such as Quora a lot of weight. In addition to Twitter and Facebook integration, you can also connect your blog.

Sites that have questions in your field and are read by your target audience offer the opportunity for your brand to present credible answers and position itself as a thought leader.

These websites should be added to your social media monitoring program, in order to identify any opportunities or respond to questions that could be asked directly related to your brand or products. And including these type of sites in your overall social media strategy is a good step towards focusing your efforts toward reaching a specific B2B community.

Q: What Q&A sites have you used? What opinions/experience can you share?