Citizen Marketers Unleashed!
December 8th, 2006
After being trumpeted in several blogs I subscribe to, I’ve decided to lend my voice and my meager GoogleJuice to promoting someone’s book. A book I haven’t even read yet. The book “Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message” by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell. I have however read their blog and I respect the people who are recommending the book, having read their book and blog. I’ve already written about Citizen Marketing right here on Muskblog and linked to many online resources. It is a recurring theme, possibly even a motif of my blog.
1% Patch
The 1% patch symbolizes the one percent of people who actively influence the majority for everything from fashion, music, politics, to what blogs to read. I could cite examples where my writings and even my web design and what plugins I use influenced others. I’ve also convinced people to use the Opera browser, WordPress, Macs and a lot of technology, both online and offline. Recently a recruiter encouraged me to become a technology evangelist, a real evangelist, not just a citizen marketer. I dutifully found such a position with one of my favourite technology companies, they sent me a questionnaire with 16 questions, which I answered. Now I wait.
Guy Kawasaki Evangelism
What would a posting about citizen marketing be without a link to Guy Kawasaki’s blog? I’ve linked to Guy’s blog several times, but in order to keep his mother happy, I must link to it again. Guy asks ten questions of the authors Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell and if reading that doesn’t inspire you to run out and buy the book, then nothing will.
The Importance of Hobbies
One thing I took away from the interview is the importance hobbies play in citizen marketing. People who view something as a hobby instead of a job bring a passion, an unmistakable, un-fakeable passion to their promotion of a product. I have a lot of hobbies, too many that I’ve largely abandoned as I’ve aged or gotten busy, but my nurgle subdomain still serves as an excellent example of online citizen marketing. One of my MBA classmates, Peter Chow didn’t care for my blogging about my miniature painting, perhaps deeming it not professional enough, or a productive use of my time. Or maybe he objects to what I painted or why I painted it. I don’t know. I’m not really seeing eye to eye with my former classmates, which is another theme that recurs in my blog.
Self Marketing
I didn’t do a good enough job of self marketing or perhaps I did too good of job too early helping others and building influence. I didn’t take well to be used and betrayed that is for sure. The Internet and World have gotten bigger and less friendly. Looking at President Trump and his popularity abroad I foresee tough times ahead economically and an increase of instant fact checking online and on social media which may catch up to some people someday.
If you have thoughts on citizen marketing, influencer marketing, or self marketing you can leave them below.
This entry was originaly posted on , it was last edited on and is filed under: Marketing and tagged: Ben McConnell, Citizen Marketers, Guy Kawasaki, Influencers, Jackie Huba.
Today I recieved several emails informing that:
I wasn’t sure what this all meant so I read the FAQ. Basically the points are a means of measuring who participates the most and contributes the most to the forum. I only have a couple hundred points, but some people have tens of thousands already. Let’s just say I’m not holding my breath to become a top expert at MarketingProfs.com. The next book has been anounced, I’ll probably be ordering it today.
I received my 1% patch in the mail today. It appears someone open my letter, they must have been disappointed with the contents. It was one battered envelope. Inside was the patch and a letter. I’ll sew the patch on to my backpack, but I also put the patch on my blog.