Quick Look: Citizen Marketers – When People are the Message

A couple of weeks ago I received a free advance review copy of Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba’s new business book, Citizen Marketers: When People Are the Message. I’m a couple of chapters into it, and so far it looks to be at least as good as their now classic (in my opinion) Creating Customer Evangelists.

Citizen Marketers extends the ideas of that book by looking at the power of the internet and cheap or free publishing tools that allow practically anyone to have their voice heard. It has a lot of great stories about the people creating creating content freely for others and companies that have embraced or ignored them.

I think this is an important book that will hopefully remind big business that they’re no longer in control of their message, and that people are having conversations – with or without them. The power of the internet and social media such as blogging, Youtube, Digg, etc., means that those conversations are bigger and happen faster than you can imagine. This could be the guide that business needs for navigating the new social world on the web.