Rarely do I peer over my mountain of emails for the week to blog, but today is different. Not only have I finished my secret project of the week so early that I’ve decided not to keep it a secret anywmore, but I found a couple of issues that were important to some of you that needed my big mouth’s attention.
(Maybe that should say “my big keyboard”? Get it…? Never mind…_
Anyway, while I was answering a question in the member section, I spied with my little eye, something that that begins with Y. It was the anti-spy community at Yahoo. I immediately put on my Mission Impossible theme music and went to check it out, only to find that not only was it not new, it’s been up since last May.
But we all know what I was doing last May – it was all about the RSS for me.
And when I get single-minded focus like that, I forgets things.
(No. Not a typo, though I’m sure you can find one if you look hard.)
So what is this thing? It’s a whole community of people just aching to help you figure out how to resolve your spyware issue. A whole gathering of folk just itching to have more people share their spyware solution, all brought together by the Yahoo Toolbar Anti=spyware feature.
Yahoo’s update was particularly to inform us that
In the past 11 months, thousands of you have turned to Yahoo!’s Anti-Spy Community for advice on ridding your computers of these unwanted pests. It’s been really gratifying to watch the community grow globally to include people from the U.S., Canada, England, France, El Salvador, the Philippines, and points beyond. A core group of expert members are on hand to offer guidance on how to get rid of unwanted spyware/adware, prevent re-infection and keep our systems running smoothly. Many of these members share knowledge and ideas for no other reason than to help each other.
It’s a also great example of people usiting at a site around a common cause that doesn’t always have anything directly to do with the site that hosts it. If your site is about a directoryt of microbreweries, your community doesn’t have to be on the topic of just microbreweries you find it boring. It could go general, and be on the topic of beer in general, or it could go really specific, and be a support community for people starting their own microbreweries.
Who says it has to be on beer at all?
Just know your audience, and find out what they’re passionate about. Then roll up your sleeves and get in there with them as often as you can.
