Follow Up to Yahoo! Answers
In my last blog, I did a short introduction on how
Yahoo! Answers can be used as a medium to engage young people in a
setting that they are comfortable with. In this follow up, I will
go through the process of answering questions from start to finish
while touching on how to create a log in ID, how to navigate the
website, and the steps I take to answer questions.
Getting Started
To begin engaging with young people through Yahoo!
Answers, you must first create a login name. The first step is
getting online and going to Yahoo.com. To do this, just type
yahoo.com into the address bar on your web browser. For those of
you that don't have a Yahoo! ID, here is a quick tutorial on how to
create one. In the upper right hand corner, there is an icon that
says "Sign In" or "Sign Up." You will choose the "Sign Up"
option.
Clicking the link will take you to a page that
allows you to enter your personal information (such as name,
gender, birth date, etc.) and initiates the creation of an ID. It
is a pretty simple page without any unnecessary text or graphics.
All you do is enter your name, your screen name (which, depending
on what you want, can either have your name in it or exclude your
name to be anonymous), and password information. Yahoo will
actually generate available screen names for you, but they include
your real name, which may not be what you want. Here at
ReachOut.com, we try to include the company name so that we create
a brand and an identifiable, reliable screen name.
From here, you will be directed to a
congratulations page and then to your e-mail inbox. There is not
much to look at here, so you want to head back to the home page. To
navigate back to the Yahoo homepage, click on the drop box arrow
near the top right corner next to the words "Yahoo!7," and it will
give you the option of "Yahoo!7 Home," or you can just type
Yahoo.com back into the address bar, both will take you to the next
part of the answering process.
Once you reach the homepage, you will be presented
with the latest world and local news headlines. To the left of the
screen there will be a list of categories, ranging from "Answers,"
the one you want, to "Y!7 Pulse." Clicking on "Answers" will take
you directly to the Yahoo! Answers page. Scanning down from the top
of the page, you will first see the tabs that say "Home," "Browse
Categories," "My Activity," and "About." Below this, there is an
area that features the top questions. Farther down are the
questions that are available to answer. You can begin to sort
through these, or you can straight to the "Browse Categories" tab
and select "Health."
Selecting "Health" narrows down the search quite a
bit, but there are still many topics to choose from. If you select
"Mental Health," you will have direct access to questions about all
kinds of topics. Here, the "Open" questions are displayed. (Open
means they are still available to answer; there is also an "In
Voting" category that allows other users to vote for the most
helpful answer, or "Resolved" questions, which have been answered
and the best answer selected.)It helps to just browse through the
questions before diving in. To select a question, you just click on
the title and you will be directed to a page that allows you to see
what other people, if any, have said in their answers. From here,
clicking "Answer Question" will allow you to enter a response in a
text box. Under this box is another area that allows you to enter
your resources for the information, for example, "18 years
professional counseling." You can provide information to contact
your practice or an e-mail that the person asking the question can
send any concerns or comments to. This is where it would be helpful
to have the name of your company in the screen name, so the young
person asking the question will know that you are a reliable
resource. It could also help build your practices' brand.
After submitting an answer, the "Best Answer" is
either voted on by users or the person asking can choose the one
that they find the most helpful. If your answer is chosen, you
receive an e-mail and extra points are awarded to your account.
Points are given for other reasons as well, such as creating your
screen name or just answering a question. There is a score board
that tallies the points and also keeps track of the people with the
most "Best Answers."
To set up a scenario using Answers, let's say you
are looking to answer questions about depression. As soon as you
click on "Answers" at the Yahoo! home page, you go to the top
of the Answers page. Near the top of the page is a search box with
a button to the right of it that says, "Search Y! Answers." All you
need to do is type "depression" into the box and hit the button,
and you will be taken to a page that only has questions about that
topic, no matter what section they are in (the question could be
under the mental health, singles and dating, or women's health
sub-topics). You may need to sort the questions, because they are
initially sorted by relevance, but they could be many years old and
already solved. (Most questions are only available to be answered
for four days) To sort by newest questions, all you have to do is
click "Newest," which is located right under the search bar. If you
want to do a more specific search, there is a box to the left of
the screen that lets you select categories, question status
(resolved, in voting, open), or number of answers. From here all
you would need to do is click on the question of your choice and
you can answer away.
My Process
Answering effectively is a process that has been
refined at ReachOut.com. My first thought was, "There is a
process?" Before I started answering questions, I thought I would
just sit down and have a go at it. There is actually a training
module that I had to complete before I was cut loose into the
virtual world. There is an entire document that sets regulations
for the answers that I give. It goes through Helper
Characteristics, My Limitations, and Helper Skills.
Helper Characteristics is a guideline of the
personality traits that a person answering questions must have,
including empathy, genuineness, non-judgmental, and empowerment.
These are the basic components of the answers that I provide. I
must make the person asking the question know that I care, that we
understand what they are going through, that I am unbiased, and
that they can and must do something about their situation. Using
these characteristics shows the asker that I am responding to their
personal crisis and that I am trying to help them on a personal
level.
The section on My Limitations contains training
that I use to develop my comfort zone. It teaches that I don't need
to answer every question on the website, just the one that I feel
comfortable engaging in. I use this section in many ways, for
example, I don't deal with questions that mention suicide (one of
the principle guidelines for non-professionals), nor do I answer
questions that pertain to cultural topics (personal choice, because
I am not familiar with some aspects of the Australian
Culture).
Helper Skills is another very important part of the
training developed by ReachOut.com. This part of the training is
more about specific parts of the answer. The first part is a
"Feelings Check," where I make sure that I know how the user is
feeling. Next, there is a "Perception Check" that is used to make
sure I can label the feeling from our point of view. Thirdly, I
"Normalize" the feelings. It is important to let the young person
know that what they are not alone in feeling the way that they do.
After I normalize the young person's feeling I validate how they
feel. Saying, "It's ok to feel the way that you do," really lets
them know that they aren't the only person to ever feel how they
do. All of these skills are helped by paraphrasing parts of the
question. This shows that I am focusing solely on their
question.
Combining these steps is a very easy way to come up
with answers to young peoples' questions about mental health. In
addition to these building blocks, I post links to ReachOut.com's
fact sheets and stories to show the young person that there are
resources for them and the stories show that other people have
suffered and gotten better. Finally, in every answer I provide
contact information for the Kid's Helpline and Lifeline. I
highlight that they are free and anonymous sources of counseling. I
also suggest seeking professional help.
Overall, Yahoo! Answers is extremely easy to
register for, and more importantly, easy to use. This is what makes
it a great tool for professionals to embrace, no matter what
computer skill level. Young people that need help are given a free,
easy-to-use platform to voice their questions and problems, and
professionals are provided with a great resource to provide
support, solutions and information to those in need. The training
module set up by ReachOut.com is a very easy to follow tool that
has been key in responding to young people online.
ReachOut.com intern, Mitch has been working on Yahoo!
Answers for the past few weeks, engaging young people through their
mental health questions. He gives you a step by step tutorial on
setting up a profile and how it can be used with young
people.
In my last blog, I did a short introduction on how Yahoo!
Answers can be used as a medium to engage young people in a setting
that they are comfortable with. In this follow up, I will go
through the process of answering questions from start to finish
while touching on how to create a log in ID, how to navigate the
website, and the steps I take to answer questions.
Getting Started
To begin engaging with young people through Yahoo! Answers, you
must first create a login name. The first step is getting online
and going to Yahoo.com. To do this, just type yahoo.com into the
address bar on your web browser. For those of you that don't have a
Yahoo! ID, here is a quick tutorial on how to create one. In the
upper right hand corner, there is an icon that says "Sign In" or
"Sign Up." You will choose the "Sign Up" option.
Clicking the link will take you to a page that allows you to
enter your personal information (such as name, gender, birth date,
etc.) and initiates the creation of an ID. It is a pretty simple
page without any unnecessary text or graphics. All you do is enter
your name, your screen name (which, depending on what you want, can
either have your name in it or exclude your name to be anonymous),
and password information. Yahoo will actually generate available
screen names for you, but they include your real name, which may
not be what you want. Here at ReachOut.com, we try to include the
company name so that we create a brand and an identifiable,
reliable screen name.
From here, you will be directed to a congratulations page and
then to your e-mail inbox. There is not much to look at here, so
you want to head back to the home page. To navigate back to the
Yahoo homepage, click on the drop box arrow near the top right
corner next to the words "Yahoo!7," and it will give you the option
of "Yahoo!7 Home," or you can just type Yahoo.com back into the
address bar, both will take you to the next part of the answering
process.
Once you reach the homepage, you will be presented with the
latest world and local news headlines. To the left of the screen
there will be a list of categories, ranging from "Answers," the one
you want, to "Y!7 Pulse." Clicking on "Answers" will take you
directly to the Yahoo! Answers page. Scanning down from the top of
the page, you will first see the tabs that say "Home," "Browse
Categories," "My Activity," and "About." Below this, there is an
area that features the top questions. Farther down are the
questions that are available to answer. You can begin to sort
through these, or you can straight to the "Browse Categories" tab
and select "Health."
Selecting "Health" narrows down the search quite a bit, but
there are still many topics to choose from. If you select "Mental
Health," you will have direct access to questions about all kinds
of topics. Here, the "Open" questions are displayed. (Open means
they are still available to answer; there is also an "In Voting"
category that allows other users to vote for the most helpful
answer, or "Resolved" questions, which have been answered and the
best answer selected.)It helps to just browse through the questions
before diving in. To select a question, you just click on the title
and you will be directed to a page that allows you to see what
other people, if any, have said in their answers. From here,
clicking "Answer Question" will allow you to enter a response in a
text box. Under this box is another area that allows you to enter
your resources for the information, for example, "18 years
professional counseling." You can provide information to contact
your practice or an e-mail that the person asking the question can
send any concerns or comments to. This is where it would be helpful
to have the name of your company in the screen name, so the young
person asking the question will know that you are a reliable
resource. It could also help build your practices' brand.
After submitting an answer, the "Best Answer" is either voted on
by users or the person asking can choose the one that they find the
most helpful. If your answer is chosen, you receive an e-mail and
extra points are awarded to your account. Points are given for
other reasons as well, such as creating your screen name or just
answering a question. There is a score board that tallies the
points and also keeps track of the people with the most "Best
Answers."
To set up a scenario using Answers, let's say you are looking to
answer questions about depression. As soon as you click on
"Answers" at the Yahoo! home page, you go to the top of the
Answers page. Near the top of the page is a search box with a
button to the right of it that says, "Search Y! Answers." All you
need to do is type "depression" into the box and hit the button,
and you will be taken to a page that only has questions about that
topic, no matter what section they are in (the question could be
under the mental health, singles and dating, or women's health
sub-topics). You may need to sort the questions, because they are
initially sorted by relevance, but they could be many years old and
already solved. (Most questions are only available to be answered
for four days) To sort by newest questions, all you have to do is
click "Newest," which is located right under the search bar. If you
want to do a more specific search, there is a box to the left of
the screen that lets you select categories, question status
(resolved, in voting, open), or number of answers. From here all
you would need to do is click on the question of your choice and
you can answer away.
My Process
Answering effectively is a process that has been refined at
ReachOut.com. My first thought was, "There is a process?" Before I
started answering questions, I thought I would just sit down and
have a go at it. There is actually a training module that I had to
complete before I was cut loose into the virtual world. There is an
entire document that sets regulations for the answers that I give.
It goes through Helper Characteristics, My Limitations, and Helper
Skills.
Helper Characteristics is a guideline of the personality traits
that a person answering questions must have, including empathy,
genuineness, non-judgmental, and empowerment. These are the basic
components of the answers that I provide. I must make the person
asking the question know that I care, that we understand what they
are going through, that I am unbiased, and that they can and must
do something about their situation. Using these characteristics
shows the asker that I am responding to their personal crisis and
that I am trying to help them on a personal level.
The section on My Limitations contains training that I use to
develop my comfort zone. It teaches that I don't need to answer
every question on the website, just the one that I feel comfortable
engaging in. I use this section in many ways, for example, I don't
deal with questions that mention suicide (one of the principle
guidelines for non-professionals), nor do I answer questions that
pertain to cultural topics (personal choice, because I am not
familiar with some aspects of the Australian Culture).
Helper Skills is another very important part of the training
developed by ReachOut.com. This part of the training is more about
specific parts of the answer. The first part is a "Feelings Check,"
where I make sure that I know how the user is feeling. Next, there
is a "Perception Check" that is used to make sure I can label the
feeling from our point of view. Thirdly, I "Normalize" the
feelings. It is important to let the young person know that what
they are not alone in feeling the way that they do. After I
normalize the young person's feeling I validate how they feel.
Saying, "It's ok to feel the way that you do," really lets them
know that they aren't the only person to ever feel how they do. All
of these skills are helped by paraphrasing parts of the question.
This shows that I am focusing solely on their question.
Combining these steps is a very easy way to come up with answers
to young peoples' questions about mental health. In addition to
these building blocks, I post links to ReachOut.com's fact sheets
and stories to show the young person that there are resources for
them and the stories show that other people have suffered and
gotten better. Finally, in every answer I provide contact
information for the Kid's Helpline and Lifeline. I highlight that
they are free and anonymous sources of counseling. I also suggest
seeking professional help.
Overall, Yahoo! Answers is extremely easy to register for, and
more importantly, easy to use. This is what makes it a great tool
for professionals to embrace, no matter what computer skill level.
Young people that need help are given a free, easy-to-use platform
to voice their questions and problems, and professionals are
provided with a great resource to provide support, solutions and
information to those in need. The training module set up by
ReachOut.com is a very easy to follow tool that has been key in
responding to young people online.