Sunday, March 8, 2009

What the "F"?

In Chapter One of Citizen Marketers, citizen marketers are defined by their actions:
“Citizen marketers create what could be considered marketing and advertising content on behalf of people, bands, products, or organizations…They don’t often represent the average person, member, customer, or citizen. They are on the fringes, driven by passion, creativity, and a sense of duty. Like a concerned citizen.”

Here is where the “F” word comes in… Actually, there are 4 of them. Citizen marketers are categorized by the 4 “F”s.
1. Filters
2. Fanatics
3. Facilitators
4. Firecrackers

The Filters are the “human wire services” because they are the ones that collect all the data, stay unbiased for the most part, and often regurgitate the information back out to the public in a summarized, collective format that the general public can read and understand.

“The Fanatics are true believers and evangelists.” They are similar to the filters, except that they also analyze and criticize, debate over topics, and often create hype and action about a brand or product.

Facilitators are the creators of communities. Citizen Marketers refers to them as the “mayors of online towns” for good reason. They bring like minded people together and form that common bond in which everyone can connect.

Firecrackers are aptly named because almost as soon as they come along and start making a lot of noise, the show is over and all you have is a smoke pattern of where they were. These are the people that for whatever reason, decide to make their presence known on the Web, but don’t really establish themselves as a long term presence. They feel that they have something to say, they say it, then they disappear.

So what the “F”? Which “F” word are you? Are you a citizen marketer? What makes you get up and blog? What makes you tell all of your friends about a product or person or something you have experienced? And how do you do it?

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