They say that during an assembly in Athens, Demosthenes was prevented from making his speech, so he told the audience he wanted to say just a few words. When the audience had fallen silent, Demosthenes began his tale. 'It was summertime, and a young man had hired a donkey to take him from Athens to Megara. At midday, when the sun was blazing hot, the young man and the donkey's driver both wanted to sit in the donkey's shadow. They began to jostle one another, fighting for the spot in the shade. The driver maintained that the man had rented the donkey but not his shadow, while the young man claimed that he had rented both the donkey and all the rights thereto.' Having told this much of the story, Demosthenes then turned his back on the audience and began to walk away. The Athenians shouted at him to stop and begged him to finish the story. 'Indeed!' said Demosthenes. 'You want to hear all about the donkey's shadow, but you refuse to pay attention when someone talks to you about serious matters!'

What I'm getting at: Efforts have been made in the posts I've written on other social media too, and unfortunately the posts there with qualified and scientific content don't attract as much attention as the shadow of the donkey.

It looks different on Quora, here they appreciate the answers of the authors.

Both Facebook and LinkedIn are tools created for people to connect and form networks, or make evident the often surprising networks they already have.

LinkedIn is intended to connect people for work or career related purposes. Your profile is in effect a resume, where you share the jobs you've held. Once you've done this you can connect with the people you have worked with.

In my opinion, your profile should be created with an eye towards what you want to be doing next, rather than a laundry list of what you have done, so what you are looking for can find you.

On this site, you can recommend others, endorse them, look for a job, look for candidates you might want to hire, and ask work related questions.

Facebook was created to connect with friends and family. The profile you create is more personal, and what you see on your feed feels very similar to visiting a friend and looking through his family album.

Quora, in my opinion, was not designed as a social network tool. It's a place to find answers to questions, or write answers - it's a knowledge sharing site. It's just that the entities sharing this knowledge are humans, and humans cannot help but connect - we are pack animals.

There is a community here, a population of intimate strangers, who know each other through the things they write.

Related:

Dushka Zapata's answer to Is it a good idea to accept LinkedIn invitations from people you don't know?

Facebook is designed for more of a laid back friends and family interaction.

The way I currently use it is to stay in touch with and keep tabs on friends and family.

I don’t go to Facebook to find other professionals in my field of work.

I don’t go to Facebook to read the news.

I don’t go to Facebook to read short quips back and forth from various people online.

I go there to read posts and look at pictures from people that I know.

LinkedIn is more of an interactive resume and huge professional conference that never ends.

I go on LinkedIn to update my profile with the new skills that I’ve developed and the projects that I’ve worked on. I accept requests from other professionals that I would like to be connected to—and send out some of my own.

LinkedIn is my way of marketing my skills and professionalism.

Twitter is the place to go for short remarks, a bombardment of news and updates, and political satire.

I go on Twitter to see the personal musings of people I follow and get a general sense of the political landscape because you can’t hide from it on Twitter.

Twitter is the easiest social network to create an echo chamber in.

My echo chamber currently consists of tech news outlets, tech journalists, and YouTubers.

Their tweets intertwine frequently and the YouTubers are consistently the coolest kids on the block.

The major difference between Quora and LinkedIn networks is that Quora can be called as a subset of LinkedIn. This is because while Quora is about users asking questions and giving answers, LinkedIn has the question and answers portal as a part of it. But the unique aspect of Quora is that users on Quora can give ranking to questions and can upvote or downvote an answer depending on its relevancy to the question. LinkedIn is a complete social media network, where people can get connected to users.

From my opinion Quora is best because you can learn many things on Quora than linkedin. I use both platforms but didn't like linkedin. I made my LinkedIn profile because our college teacher says but didn't like it because in this platform only people showoff there salary and achievements no one is going to help you to achieve success in life whereas you can use Quora to read best answers and motivate yourself to achieve success.

Hope you like it 🙂😉.

I was more popular on Twitter but get more deletions on Quora, is there a link? The boundaries on Twitter are more clearly defined, some deletions on Quora still confuse me. I left Twitter because it just got too crazy. My comments at the time, that included derogatory comments towards a certain fundamentalist group and its supporters, resulted in a lot of abuse and the odd death threat which also targetted my blogs.

So I decided with a wealth of life experiences and a reasonable education, Quora would be a perfect platform to share my ‘wisdom’ with others. I didn’t use it much to begin with but gradually grew into it. The fundamentalist group had faded into the shadows so there was nobody that particularly rattled my cage. Then a kleptocratic dictator emerged and Brexit split us in two. I found myself almost subconsciously ejaculating my opinions on political situations which I generally try to avoid.

It all seems so pointless. Those that agree will continue to agree, those that don’t will remain naysayers. Opinions are worth nothing. Still it was better than Twitter… wasn’t it? Unfortunately the trend now is for an ever increasing number of propagandists and idiots to join. Trolls were fine, they’re idiots anyway and ridiculing them can be comedic.

I’m not going back to Twitter and feel my time on Quora is limited. Being impulsive one day I will call it a day and waste my free time on some other whimsy.

In all honesty, I think I preferred Twitter but both have their pro’s and con’s.

The mandatory question/answer structure has major effects: Instead of becoming a portal for opinions (and its sad consequences as seen in the majority of Youtube comment-debates), the users tend to think before actually posting. Also the fact that in Quora I constantly read the reply of truly professional people (as opposed to Ashton Kutcher's Tweet about the red hot dress he bought for his wife) makes me hesitate before answering anything, out of shame for exposing my clear under-knowledge. At the same time,it is a true bliss to be able to interact at this level with true expert in whatever branch draws my interest. One is left to wonder if this quality of knowledge will change as the Quommunity grows bigger. Exciting things will happen with this service in the near-future. For instance, the little spark of genious of applying the Twitter concept of following/being followed to a Q&A system. I cant even imagine whats going on at Quora's back-end right now but its data scientist must be having a blast

Quora is primarily divergent, whereas Facebook Questions is convergent. Quora is unconstrained, while Facebook Questions is positioned to primarily ask your social network (as recently repositioned).

By divergent, I am refering to the fact that Quora is more about questions that have diverse responses, and not a single correct answer. While Quora does allow any question, the most interesting conversations (to me) are those that explore the question as opposed to just providing a single answer or set of links.

By unconstrained, I am refering to the fact that Quora focuses less on who is answering than what they are saying. Facebook Questions has a primary pivot of people, especially your social network across its experience. When I think of a question that my social circle may not be the best place to post it, I am not encouraged to post it on Facebook.

I wasn't sure I'd answer this as I don't feel qualified. I've never used Focus so I can't speak to it. I've got a very limited experience with LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers, so what can I really offer to this discussion? Only this:

• I've never liked Yahoo! Answers. Tried it once or twice, but I don't like the site design and the answers seem very unsophisticated. Many of the questions, I think, encourage that lack of sophistication. If Quora ever became like Yahoo! Answers, I'd leave.
• I've used LinkedIn more than Yahoo! Answers, but I still don't like it. LinkedIn doesn't seem to get the social part of networking. It's way too "stuff shirt" for me. I'd probably get more business if I used it since my target market hangs out there, but I've never been one to sit in front of the fruit stand just because that's where you meet people who will give you money. It takes too long to get a response to your answers and it seems cumbersome to navigate for some reason.
• I like the instant nature of Quora. I can ask a question and get a response in minutes. I can answer a question and see a reaction in minutes, sometimes seconds. I have gone back and forth with other commenters in near real-time and I like that. Quora is not perfect by any means. I do have my frustrations, but unlike LinkedIn and Yahoo! Answers, those frustrations are minor compared to the benefits. The answers I see, most of them, are far more sophisticated than what you'll find at Yahoo! Answers and Quora is much more social than LinkedIn. If Quora can manage the influx of new users it has been getting lately, then it can be a top-notch Q&A website.

That's not much, I know, but it's all I have. At this point, I've used Quora more than the other three combined. It's easy to say that Quora is my preference.

I believe the three platforms are different worlds apart.

Reddit is a social news and discussion website. You can put up posts while you or others can comments on the posts.

LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. This is where people advertise their skills or achievements.

Quora is a question and answer website where anyone can ask a question and get answers.

Out of these three platforms, Quora happens to be my best for the following reasons:

• Quora is a collection of questions with relevant, thoughtful and well researched answers on any topic.
• Answers are usually from qualified personnel. Important personel from different areas take sessions to answer questions from people that look up to them.
• You learn a lot from experts in any industry of your choice.

I believe Quora is one of the best platforms, if not the best that everyone should endeavour to belong to. Go through Quora everyday and you would be amazed how developed you would become

Well…

Asking which is better, Quora or Twitter is like asking whether it's better to spend your time watching paint dry or grass grow. They're both equally pointless and unproductive!

On the one hand, you have Quora, where people spend hours reading and answering questions that no one really cares about. Sure, it may seem like you're learning something, but in reality, you're just filling your brain with useless opinions that you'll never use.

And then there's Twitter, where people spend hours scrolling through their feed, reading tweets from strangers that they'll never meet. Sure, it may seem like you're connecting with people, but in reality, you're just wasting your time on meaningless chatter.

So, Do you want to waste it on Quora, where you'll learn nothing of value?

Or do you want to waste it on Twitter, where you'll read tweets that you'll forget about in five minutes?

Which is better?

They are both an excellent way of passing the time that you have to waste.

“What's better, Quora or Twitter?”

The difference in popularity between LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be attributed to several key factors, including platform purpose, user demographics, and the type of content shared. Each platform serves different needs and appeals to distinct audiences, which influences their popularity. Here’s an analysis of why LinkedIn and Twitter have gained prominence compared to Facebook in certain contexts:

1. Platform Purpose and User Intent

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional networking platform specifically designed for business and career-related activities. It’s a space where users connect with colleagues, build their professional networks, look for job opportunities, and engage with industry-specific content. The platform’s purpose as a career-focused network has helped it gain popularity among professionals seeking to enhance their personal brand, find job opportunities, or recruit talent.
• Twitter: Twitter is known for real-time updates, short-form content, and public discussions. Its popularity stems from its ability to foster immediate communication, whether for news updates, political discourse, or trending topics. It allows for quick engagement, making it ideal for users who want to stay informed, participate in conversations, and engage with thought leaders or communities.
• Facebook: Facebook, on the other hand, was initially designed as a social networking platform for friends and family. Over the years, it has evolved to include pages, groups, and business profiles, but the primary appeal remains rooted in personal connections and sharing life updates. While Facebook still dominates in terms of global user base, its popularity has decreased among younger demographics who prefer more focused platforms (e.g., Instagram, Snapchat).

2. Audience Demographics

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn appeals primarily to professionals, recruiters, businesses, and those looking to network within their industries. It is particularly popular among individuals seeking career development, job opportunities, and industry insights. It caters to a more career-focused audience, including executives, entrepreneurs, and job seekers.
• Twitter: Twitter attracts a diverse audience but is particularly popular among younger users, influencers, journalists, and people interested in current events. Its simplicity (limited to 280 characters per tweet) allows for rapid sharing of thoughts, ideas, and news. Political discourse, celebrity updates, and public figures also play a significant role in Twitter’s popularity.
• Facebook: Facebook has a broad user base, but its audience is shifting. Younger generations (like Gen Z) are using Facebook less in favor of Instagram and Snapchat, while older generations are still actively engaged. Additionally, Facebook’s algorithm, which prioritizes personal connections and paid content, has contributed to a decline in organic reach and engagement, making it less appealing for professional networking or quick information sharing.

3. Content Type and Engagement

• LinkedIn: The content on LinkedIn tends to be professional and industry-specific. Users share articles, thought leadership pieces, job postings, business updates, and networking content. LinkedIn provides a more formal environment for discussions, which encourages users to engage in professional development, business growth, and career advancement.
• Twitter: Twitter’s real-time nature encourages short-form content, quick updates, and hashtag-driven conversations. News, opinions, and trends spread quickly on Twitter, making it ideal for engaging in live discussions, following events, or reacting to global news. Hashtags and viral trends contribute to its popularity and enable content to reach a broad audience.
• Facebook: Facebook supports various types of content, from status updates to videos and long-form articles. However, due to the platform’s algorithm prioritizing paid content and personal posts, business pages or organizations often find it harder to reach a broader audience without paid advertisements. As a result, organic engagement has decreased, and many users prefer more specialized platforms for content that aligns with their interests.

4. Privacy Concerns

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn tends to maintain a more professional atmosphere, where users expect to share work-related experiences, skills, and achievements. It has fewer privacy concerns compared to platforms like Facebook because it is focused on professional interaction and networking.
• Twitter: Twitter is highly public, and most content shared on the platform is visible to anyone. This transparency can be both a strength (for real-time engagement) and a weakness (due to potential security and privacy concerns). While users can choose to protect their accounts, the default setting is public.
• Facebook: Facebook has faced significant scrutiny over privacy issues, especially regarding data breaches and user information sharing. This has made some users more hesitant to engage with the platform as frequently, particularly for professional or business-related purposes.

5. Advertising and Monetization

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn’s advertising model is focused on reaching professionals, making it highly effective for B2B (business-to-business) advertising. Companies use LinkedIn ads to target specific industries, roles, and business needs, which has made it an essential platform for professional networking and recruitment.
• Twitter: Twitter’s monetization strategy is primarily based on advertising, sponsored tweets, and promoted trends. The platform also has a more informal and less business-focused tone compared to LinkedIn, which impacts its effectiveness for B2B lead generation. However, it’s widely used for brand promotion and influencer marketing.
• Facebook: Facebook has one of the most sophisticated advertising models in the world, offering businesses access to detailed demographic data and targeting options. However, its advertising effectiveness has declined due to increasing competition and saturation in certain industries. Furthermore, as Facebook evolves into a more "family and friends" focused space, businesses might find LinkedIn a better fit for professional networking.

6. User Engagement and Interaction

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn offers engagement through likes, shares, comments, and professional endorsements. This engagement is typically focused on career development, knowledge sharing, and business connections, which attracts users who are serious about professional growth.
• Twitter: Twitter's real-time, fast-paced nature encourages spontaneous engagement and frequent interactions, such as retweets, likes, and replies. This immediacy makes Twitter more appealing for those looking to stay updated on current events and trending topics.
• Facebook: Facebook allows a wide range of engagement options, from commenting on posts to joining groups. However, due to the dominance of paid content in newsfeeds, organic engagement is often limited. People are also more likely to engage with content shared by friends or family rather than business-related posts.

7. The Impact of Mobile-First Trends

• LinkedIn: LinkedIn has optimized its platform for mobile use, making it accessible and easy to use on smartphones. It continues to evolve to offer a seamless experience for both mobile and desktop users.
• Twitter: Twitter was built with mobile-first in mind, and its simple format (short posts) works well on mobile devices. It is widely used for live updates, news sharing, and quick interaction, making it a favorite for mobile users.
• Facebook: Although Facebook is also mobile-optimized, the shift towards visual and video content has made it less appealing for quick, mobile interactions compared to Twitter and LinkedIn. Video-heavy content often requires more time and attention, which can be harder to consume on mobile.

Conclusion

The difference in popularity between LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook can be largely attributed to the different needs and behaviors of users on these platforms. LinkedIn has gained popularity for professional networking and career advancement, Twitter for real-time communication and engagement, and Facebook for personal social interactions and broader content sharing. While Facebook still has the largest user base globally, LinkedIn and Twitter are favored by those seeking professional networking, industry updates, and real-time information, making them more relevant in specific contexts.

Prm4u | Promotion for social media

Both social media are quite different but both are really good for B2B lead generation.

To get traffic from Quora, you need to answer relevant questions about your niche. Ideally, you want to find questions getting a lot of traffic with only a few answers to compete with. QApop can help you find those questions.
You will have to spend some time answering the top 20 to 30 questions but then you will enjoy recurrent traffic from Quora.

Linkedin requires a more recurrent approach. There are 3 keys to generate traffic from LinkedIn:

1. Constantly add relevant people to your network. You can use an automation like Phantombuster
   [1]
   to passively grow your network.
2. Post content regularly, to stay on top of the mind of your contacts. I’m personally using missinglettr
   [2]
   to do this at scale.
3. Try to reach people outside of your network with hashtags
   [3]
   .

Footnotes

LinkedIn and Facebook are fundamentally different than Twitter in that they are the only true social NETWORKS.

If there’s anything to be observed, it’s the network effect’s power and switching costs. Look at Google + recently capitulating. Other micro networks have never scaled (if Nextdoor is a network, it’s local and users are connected over content, not relationships; same goes for Blind, Pinterest, Quora, etc.). Even Facebook owned Instagram prioritizes content over relationship, and same goes for Twitter too. Those platforms are more for instant impulse sharing than building meaningful context; Quora and Pinterest excepted.

Linkedin and Facebook remain the only mega networks based on relationships first. I hope that we see LinkedIn invest more in messaging. For users who choose not to make their email address and phone number known (for good reason!), and hence are not so keen on iMessage / Google Hangouts / WhatsApp, LinkedIn IS the messaging platform. If anything, maybe Facebook should be watching out. Many users are leaving Facebook for good, because of privacy, trolling, and fatigue. LinkedIn still has a lot of work too, but its focus remains on building professional networks which should withstand the popularity / platform aging issues and competition for sometime. AngelList does not have a true network. That May be the only true competitor in the professional relationship realm.

As for the question — “better” is a poor qualifier. What are the constraints? Here, I provided one lens, based on the desire to share content more privately. Certainly that’s not the only lens though.

FWIW, I'll weigh in on LinkedIn Answers and Yahoo! Answers, as I have compared them on client engagements. I'm also surprised the question didin't include Facebook Questions. I have used LI Answers quite a bit for my firm's use. LinkedIn & Yahoo Answers are completely different communities. Evaluating both for numerous types of questions, I've found the Y.A. has a much larger audience and usually more responses per questions, but its responses are consistently shorter, simpler and shorter on detail. It definitely skews younger, too. It features a wider demographic. For example, if you want to know how high school and college students deal with BSODs, Y.A. is fantastic. Just don't go looking for in-depth analysis. LI.A. is the mirror opposite. The questions are, in general, more business oriented, and they can be very detailed. Note, too, that a huge part of LI.A.'s value prop rests on the strength of one's network because, when one asks a question, LI gives the option to message it directly to up to 200 of one's network (1st degree connections). By analyzing thousands of forums during client work, I have observed that having one or two high quality responses soon after a question is posted significantly affects the quality of responses that come afterward, so LI.A.'s option to message one's Connections is critical. I don't know whether Y.A. offers that option. Finally, Facebook Questions has its own culture, too, so I would consider it for certain kinds of topics. In my analysis, Facebook Questions can be very detailed, too. Key takeaway: know and appreciate the venue: each excels at various kinds of questions, and each offers unique functionality that can help one get the answers one needs. Search platforms for the topics related to your questions, then choose.

Quora does make me think a bit more than other social media, whether it is asking, answering or just reading questions.

The community as well seems more willing to debate and communicate decently as a whole as well. Sure there are trolls and those who entrenched in their opinions, but if someone is willing to reach out to understand another’s perspective and come to a consensus then generally the discourse goes very well.

On other platforms people tend to get hostile and bitter, more willing to stay entrenched often throwing insults. It is just bitter with no thought or pursuit of insight.

This may just be my experience, however.

Hey there!

Facebook started off as a way for people in American colleges to connect with each other. Now, it’s mostly used by anyone (private people, public personalities, and businesses). In general, it’s mostly for keeping up to date with friends, family, and other acquaintances. You can also keep track of events in your area so you never miss out on what’s going on. You can post and share text, image, and video content, while your spectators can “react” in a few different ways. Facebook Messenger is their site’s instant messaging system, although it’s worth noting that they bought WhatsApp in 2014. You can use hashtags on Facebook, although it’s generally recommended not to add too many.

Recently, Facebook has given users a chance to report any fake news that is spread through their platform. This became a problem when they added an algorithm to show users content that’s more relevant to their interests, thus creating so called “social bubbles”.

Twitter allows you to have “followers”. In short, you are each other’s spectators and content creators. A user can post a “tweet” which is usually a short text post, and others can comment, like, or “retweet” it and share it. It is common to add a hashtag (#yourhashtaghere) when you want a bigger audience to see your tweet or you are talking about a common topic (something like #GameofThrones, #Netflix, etc). Twitter was especially important for the Arab Spring and other movements, so it is useful to pay attention to trending hashtags to be in the know. However, your posts have character limits, meaning you can’t write as many words as you like. The current character limit is 280 characters. Users may write using abbreviations such as “sry” (sorry) to capitalize on their tweets.

LinkedIn is generally used as a means of connecting people looking to conduct business. A typical profile can include your CV, credentials, your recent publications, and your connection of colleagues. It is one way that people seek employment or collaboration, simply based on connections or common interests. You can choose to pay for a Premium account - they will give you information whether managers or recruiters have looked at your profile and they give you insight into what skills are sought after by recruiters so that you can acquire it as soon as possible to stand out.

I hope this helped answer your question and that you have a better understanding of what each platform is for.

I am interested in all answers to this.. along with sharing my own perspective. Based on personal experience, I have contacts on Linked In that are unique to Twitter, Facebook or Quora. I would think that it would be added exposure and greater input rather than any threat to Quora's value.

I distinctly see advantages to all that are unique. I use Linked In as a means to network with past colleagues, clients, affiliations, compile references and have used it as a virtual job search mechanism in the past.

Quora is much stronger in Q&A because of the policing. Linked In Q&A weakness is there are too many who use it as self-promotion than actual answers to the questions or comments stray from discussions or direct answers to questions posted .

After much scrolling I got something great to answer.

First I would like to tell my readers quora has made big changes in my thoughts. It has expanded my vision and knowledge in various fields.

Quora is a platform of knowledge where knowledgeable people share their thoughts, life experiences and learnings which is worth reading it. Quora is a investment of time for increasing knowledge and gaining something very useful. Quora is also a PSS( problem solving solution) for many people.

Whereas I personally don't like Twitter, I don't use it as it makes me feel a time wastage. People may feel through twitter we can get various updates but I think if any news is important then it would be telecasted on news channels. Some people now days use twitter these days just to get publicity. Even popular celebrities use it and their single comment gets thousands of views and share.

I think an application like Quora is beneficial for everyone and it's much better than Twitter.