The Internet is the world\'s largest marketplace and provides businesses with the ability to interact with their market in a much more direct and tailored way than ever before. Customer.Community takes a new look at online communities as a source of value for both customers and businesses; it shows how to build an online \"customer community\" that gives customers a reason to stay loyal. Drew Banks and Kim Daus explain exactly what the customer community is and then reveal the tenets that will make it strong: sustainability, size and scalability, social connectivity, and soul. The authors show how to \"communitize\" commerce, build a solid base of repeat customers, and create value for the customer, and they explain how to manage a site in a cost-effective way. Customer.Community will help cultivate a mind-set to leverage the collective, untapped power of your customer base.About the AuthorDrew Banks is an independent management consultant and former vice president of Community at ThirdAge Media. He has also served as director of Worldwide Performance Support and Employee Communications for SGI. Kim Daus is director of organization learning and communication at Intuit and former vice president of content and community at ThirdAge Media. Banks and Daus are co-authors (with Markos Kounalakis) of Beyond Spin: The Power of Strategic Corporate Journalism (Jossey-Bass, 2000).