Can “be helpful” be considered a social media strategy? Maybe. Ask Marcus Sheridan.

One thing that you will see across the social web is an activity often referred to as “soft searching.” Soft searching is the act of asking a question on social networks and letting your contacts chime in with an answer.

There are also designated question-and-answer sites on the web, such as Quora where you can ask questions and members of the site can answer.

In both of these cases if you know the questions to search for and can be prepared with great answers to questions, you will find opportunities to drive traffic.

Much like commenting on blogs the key is to put value at the top of your priorities. That means that your first priority is to actually answer the question, not drive traffic. But if the question requires a comprehensive answer, it opens the door for you to provide a link to either a YouTube video or a blog post that provides additional contacts that wouldn’t fit in a simple answer on a forum or a social media post.