Why citizen marketing (and social media) works

Marketing and public relations are no longer just about blasting out a press release or buying advertising space. In the Web 2.0 world, citizen marketers – a term used by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba in their book “Citizen Marketers: Where the People are the Message” – are playing an increasing role in shaping how brands are portrayed by the public. Steve makes a great point in his blog post: corporations are not in control of the message anymore, and are being held accountable for their actions by their various publics, often through these citizen marketers.

McConnell and Huba mentioned four types of citizen marketers in the first chapter of the book:

1. Filters: the “human wire services” who collect blog posts, podcasts, and other types of media
2. Fanatics: those who love to analyze brands, organizations, and the like
3. Facilitators: creators of Web-based communities
4. Firecrackers: the “one-hit wonders of citizen marketers” who create videos, songs, or other media that quickly generate interest

The most important aspect of citizen marketing, in my mind – and the thing that all four types of citizen marketers have in common – is the fact that what they say and do is both authentic and transparent. This is why citizen marketing is credible and influential. Like McConnell and Huba said, “The world of citizen content creators is largely governed by a universal law of authenticity . . . Faking authenticity is a difficult art.” Those citizen marketers whose actions aren’t genuine will, through the wisdom of the crowds, be exposed.

That’s the great thing about citizen marketing (and social media, for that matter): if something is incorrect or not authentic, the public will make it known. Robert Scoble touts this fact on his blog when he talks about social media:

“A newspaper can’t magically change its stories, even if society decides something in them is incorrect. My blog can be updated for all readers nearly instantly if someone demonstrates that I was wrong on a post.”

Of course, there will always be some who doubt the credibility of citizen marketing. Douglas Adams wrote that people can’t trust what they find on the Internet “any more than you can trust what people tell you on megaphones, postcards, or in restaurants.” Although the concept of Web 2.0 is still evolving, the fact that new media is changeable and is also shaped by the collective knowledge of the crowds increases the credibility of those publishing and interacting via the Web.

The authenticity of citizen marketing efforts, though, is hurt by things like Jason Calacanis’s experiment to pay the top 12 social bookmarkers for contributing to sites like Digg, Reddit, and Newsvine. Like McConnell and Huba wrote, “the 1 percenters contribute” to social networking sites because they enjoy it. When someone is under pressure to contribute or post a comment, it becomes work. One of Digg’s contributors said it best in the e-mail he wrote to decline Calacanis’s offer:

“I don’t need to be paid [for] what I do now. I will commit my time to Digg whenever possible, that’s how much I enjoy Digg. It’s not about the money, it’s what you enjoy, and this is what I like.”

Again, the whole reason citizen marketing works is because it’s organic and genuine and generated by someone just like you and me. And for citizen marketing to remain credible, we have to ensure it stays that way.