LinkedIn Retires Answers 5 Ways to Ask Questions Now

Really, no more questions? Or answers?

On January 31, LinkedIn will “be retiring LinkedIn Answers.”

An email announcement from LinkedIn also included this information:

“As you’ve seen, we’ve made major upgrades to the professional news, commentary and conversation features on LinkedIn. And we’re just getting started.
In this process we evaluated how our current products and features are being used. To ensure we focus on building the best products, we’ll be retiring LinkedIn Answers on January 31 and it’ll be removed from our site. Instead, we’re focusing our efforts on developing new and more engaging ways to share and discuss professional topics across LinkedIn. We look forward to sharing the details with you in the coming months, so please stay tuned.”

In a move that makes sense, LinkedIn is directing site-wide conversation into more specific – and relevant – interactions.

Question for you: When was the last time you asked or answered a question on LinkedIn?

Last month, I answered four questions via LinkedIn Answers. Questioners can rate the answers. Out of the four, one was a good answer and one was a best answer.

Featured in a post on Business2Commmunity, the best answer was in response to a  question about how weird headlines increase email open rates. Thanks to Andy Nathan for asking it.

Although LinkedIn Answers is closing, you can still ask questions in plenty of places on LinkedIn.

Where to Ask Questions on LinkedIn Now

LinkedIn Groups

Did you know you can join up to 50 LinkedIn groups? And, you can ask questions by posting a discussion topic in all of them.

Before you ask the question, use the search feature. Has anyone else asked about the topic?

If your question is one that’s frequently asked, evaluate the answers before asking the same question for the 49th time.

Still need more detail? Ask the question in another way or reach out individually to the discussion leaders.

LinkedIn Polls

Have you ever voted in a LinkedIn poll?

In searching through all the open polls, I found one with over 1,000 votes that answered the question “How many years would it take you to watch all video on the web today?” Check out the image in this post to see the answers.

To create a poll with up to five possible answers, go to http://polls.linkedin.com. After you set up your poll, you’ll want to invite your network to vote.

LinkedIn Updates and Company Pages

Whether you’re posting updates for you, your team or your company, the update box is another place to pose questions.

Type a question in and see who responds. If you’re feeling brave, ask the same question as a comment on someone else’s status.

For example, when someone posts an update about Big Data you might ask, “How is your company using Big Data to measure customer interactions?” Don’t want to be so bold?

LinkedIn Messages

Send a message to one or a group of contacts via LinkedIn’s message service. You have more room to write, and so do they, than in the update space. And, your interaction is private.

LinkedIn Influencer Posts

Thought leaders like Brian Solis now contribute to LinkedIn in a comment friendly format. Why not ask them to say more about what they’re writing about? Everyone who visits the page will see your interaction.

How about you?

Have you asked questions on LinkedIn before? Will you miss LinkedIn Answers? What’s your biggest question about how to maximize your LinkedIn results?