Google Knol, Yahoo Answers and Other Ways to Create Your Own Buzz

This all started because I want to catch a turtle. I've caught many turtles in my time, usually by accident when fishing. Once or twice I saw other people set turtle traps with a salad of lettuce and night crawlers. But I never personally set out to explicitly catch a turtle.

There are of course a million resources online with advice on how to catch turtles. But the Internet is about more than catching turtles. A quick perusal of all the really good how-to sites out there got me thinking of how underused these sides are by us marketing and PR folks.

Sure, there is nothing like getting the media or consumers talking about you. But sometimes you have to start the conversation yourself.

Don't get me wrong. I would never recommend writing fake reviews, blog posts or ratings. And if you spam these communities by posting company marketing material you will feel the wrath of the community. But if you can provide real value while being transparent, by all means, proceed.

Here are places you can toot your own horn today:

WikiHow-- Want to Break the Nice Guy Stereotype? Learn to Speak Spanish? Choose Wine? Kill a Spider? Fix a Leaky Toilet? WikiHow will tell you how. Now, if I built websites, I'd write a WikiHow about web design. If I was a plumber I'd want my name on that leaky toilet. Well, you know what I mean. Even if I do not mention my business name in the post I would like TO the WikiHow article from my company website, as a way to showcase my expertise.

eHow is another great source. The content is similar to WikiHow, but it includes ratings, featured contributors and video.

And of course the big boys weigh in. Yahoo Answers is a great way to showcase your knowledge. Search for answers in your area of expertise and respond to the question. As with all these sites, don't spam, don't shamelessly promote. Provide a valuable useful answer. If you come off as salsely, the community will rise up with torches and pitchforks.

Google's Knol is the belle of the ball today, generating a lot of media and consumer buzz with its launch. The media and the public are positioning this site as Google's answer to Wikipedia, but I'd argue it is more of a hybrid between the "reference" of Wikipedia and the "How To" of the above sites.

For all of these sites, stick to a few simple rules: provide good content, if mentioning your company name or site provides real value, than do it. If not, that's okay too. If you aren't sure, err on the "not mention it" side Then create a page on your corporate site and link to all the article you've written.

Comments

[Yvonne Rayburn]

Great post Bill. I love all of the above sites and use them regularly. So, let's look it up and then get out here and catch that turtle!