Searching for Citizen Marketers

Citizen marketers? My Google search turned up lots of results, from a book to video to blogs galore. Here are a few of the most interesting:

• Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, a book showing how ordinary citizens use the power of online media to influence public perceptions of corporations by "creating content about products and services whether companies like it or not."
  
• "A Citizen Marketer Hater," video posted on YouTube, featuring David Jones of Euro RSCG talking about consumer-generated content (he's not crazy about it--this is an Advertising Age snippet).
• "The New Brand Ambassadors" on Adweek, an article that takes off from the McConnell/Huba book with examples.
• "What Makes 'Citizen Ads' Work" on Business Week, an article examining consumer-created Doritos ads in the context of citizen advertising and citizen marketing.
  

My take: We're all citizen marketers, whenever we talk or blog or communicate in any way about a product experience . . . comment on someone else's story about a product experience . . . give a company feedback about its product . . . and--most important--vote with our buying power.