Citizen Marketing

The concept of citizen marketing is born out of a desire for connection and sharing coupled with the complete democratization of production tools, which has created an amateur culture according to Ben McConnell who spoke today at an annual entrepreneur week event called Kickstart, as part of his Citizen Marketers book tour. Overall it was an interesting and lively discussion on the changing face of marketing which has obviously been kept current as the tour has progressed due to the incorporation of recent events and videos.

After the book first came out talking about the 4 F categories of citizen marketers (Firecrackers, Filters, Fanatics and Facilitators), I sensed a likeness to the categories identified in the Tipping Point (Maven's, Connectors and Salesmen). I blogged about it here. Although the book is still on my 'to read' list, after today's talk I still feel these parallels are interesting and applicable.

Besides an interesting discussion on the 4F's a few other key learnings I took away from today's talk:

• Build Word of Mouth marketing into the DNA of your business
• You are your Google results
• The importance of the 3 V's when you think about your customers - Voice, Vote, Vocation
• Google is more than a Search Engine - It is a reputation management system
• New media is now a picking grounds for traditional media to find stories, instead of the other way around.
• Ben is a pillar of fashion with his cool shoes and sweet t-shirt:)

Thanks Ben for a great talk today and it was a pleasure to meet you in person. Good luck with the rest of the tour!