Creating Passionate Users is one of my favourite blogs. Kathy Sierra writes best-selling Java books, but the blog is not about Java - it's about reverse-engineering passion to find out how to involve your users in your product, to create a community of like-minded enthusiasts. Approaching the problem like any rational minded programmer, Kathy finds one simple goal is necessary - making your users kick ass. People love to learn more about things they are interested in, and the more they learn the better they get, and so the more fun they have. And that's really what it's about, having fun. This may sound very frivolous, but let's be honest, if you are bewildered and confused by any task you are attempting, you certainly don't want to do it.

This idea can be applied to many areas of marketing, but it is fundamentally about putting your users first. Don't tell them how *you* are the best, but how they will become the best. Everyone is ultimately self-motivated (thank goodness for conscience!), so making your users kick ass will increase their involvement with you, making *you* kick ass. There are all kinds of business best practices that support this, such as investing in your current customers rather than wantonly going after new ones.

So how does one do this? Communicate with your users as much as possible - I talked about this in Drip Irrigation. Not with boring, salesy type messages, but with industry news, frank opinions, little treats and improvements in your service. Surprise them! Our brains react well to surprises - we might buy "Snuggly White" icecream just to see why it has that name. Intrigue is what makes some people spend a significant part of their lives watching soapies, playing adventure style computer games and following the lives of the rich and famous in magazines. Lead them into your world, give them the tools to explore, and curiosity will do the rest.

"The Institute for Backup Trauma" is a great viral video which did the rounds recently, starring John Cleese as doctor helping those traumatised by backup failure. Apart from the success of the concept in bringing visitors to the client's site, the clip has a feature that shows just how irresistable curiosity is. Three buttons are presented. The first two provide more information. The third, Cleese admonishes us, must NOT be pressed. Ever. Under any circumstances. The result? Everyone presses the third button. We just can't resist.

Now, can you make that work for you?