So many questions, so little time…

Social Networking websites work. They might just have a few users, others a million, but the fact is that they always create a buzz around a specific audience or amongst all online users. Starting with Sixdegrees.com in 1997, the Social Networking websites came as an answer to the chat publics online who demanded a static place where they could list their friends and create their own community. Since then, Social Networking has evolved, branching and spreading towards specialization. In the midst of this growing world, specific Networking websites started growing more than others – news related, content orientated and, more recently, ANSWER focused or so called Knowledge Markets - Community Drive or not. These last websites are the focus of this article, as their growth and appearance on the online scene should be considered as one of the biggest examples of internet sociology and historical evolution to this date.

Answer focused websites were a natural evolution. Social Networking websites, besides the Instant Messaging software’s and online chat rooms, were the direct form for people to get into new interactions and gather a pokemon-like collection of profiles and friends. But there wasn’t an intuitive, easy and direct way to communicate with all the friends at once – although sites like MySpace, Orkut or Hi5 provide a “Bulletin Board” like area, these areas weren’t and aren’t very used. Partially because that was the main function of a Forum. Forums, the elected place for content posting and discussion holding, are a safe way for a user to know who he’s talking to, as Forums usually gather people who share the same texts or contexts, and to share his interests in an appropriate context. But Forums themselves have started evolving, adding more items to the various posting areas, dedicated to the nature of the content itself – such as Polls, Themes such as Movies, or just General Discussion. When the online personas started to evolve beyond the basic information validation structure that the forums first adapted, new interactions were demanded. Users now didn’t want just to know if a software, movie or music was good or not – they wanted to have direct answers to their questions. Thus, due to the incomplete “Bulletin Board” tool available on the common Social Networks and to fill in the need for a more direct approach to the consumer’s doubts and questions in a relevant, meaningful and trustworthy context, new websites started to appear, using Social Networking like structure but focusing on the “Bulletin Board”, or Answer giving. Such examples are Yahoo! Answers , a website launched by Yahoo to fill in the Community Driven Knowledge Market gap that users are growingly demanding, or the simpler Honest Input , whose Community area is basically non-existent.

Focusing on Question/Answer giving, Yahoo! Answers is an example of a full communication amongst different websites to serve one purpose – you have a profile for your Yahoo! Answers with a created avatar which you can develop into the far more specific Yahoo! 360º profile. To do all of this, of course, you have to create a Yahoo Mail account. In the end, you’ll be completely tangled in the Yahoo network. But it might well be worth it. Divided in various sections, all questions have an answer, always given by the users themselves. With each answer you gain points, with each question you lose some, and if your answer gets picked by the questioner as the best one, you gain ten points. The amount of “Best Answers” is indicated in your profile, so users will know if you are well regarded in the community or not. Basically, it’s a world of opinion giving and self-reassurance in the making. Honest Input doesn’t have a Social Network attached to it – you don’t have profiles or a big registration process. Basically, you just upload a picture or two and ask people a question related to it. The question can either be related to one picture – “How do I look in these pink pajamas?” – or two pictures – “This or That?”. And users will answer to you directly, giving just their age, sex and sexual orientation. Simple, direct and, once again, an ego-massaging vehicle for a growingly physically self-aware audience.Although the appearance of these websites can be traced to various sources and motives, one thing is true – people want answers that they can trust. The trust that was previously placed only in the closest kin is now doubted, as the online, uninterested audiences (uninterested in a way that they don’t get anything out of lying to you) become a more important source of information and knowledge. What is it in for the Marketers? Quite simply we have two important areas to consider here:

- Statistical Tool – The division placed on these websites, like Yahoo, allows the Marketer to more accurately study his audience, approach their tastes, needs and desires, and better yet, see what they answer amongst themselves.

- Co-Creation – By watching this free exchange of thoughts and ideas, the users are willingly involving themselves in a co-creation process that nobody rules over. The users themselves are asking and giving the answers.

So, it just takes a keen eye to withdraw the relevant information from all of the information exchange going on and use it for a brand action. Curious if people would want Coca-Cola to be more oriented towards health food? Well, why not just ask it? What if you’re not sure what is really worrying the common housewife? Let her answer it directly. Of course, you must consider that the public using these websites isn’t the totality of your target, but it still gives a pretty good idea and a great content generating engine for your future campaigns. In the end, it’ll all be up to the marketers’ instincts and experience to be able to extract what is an important question, or what is just plain fodder.