Category: Bright Ideas

Arriving late after some TTC congestion, I caught the tail-end of Sean Moffitt and Louis Gagnon’s opening remarks from the CMA’s Word of Mouth conference. The duo introduced Jackie Huba, author of Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message. In her morning keynote Jackie spoke about how consumers are taking ownership of brands, and voicing their opinions in democratized online mediums. Providing statistics boasting Canada’s online penetration – 58% of us reading blogs – Canadians are amongst the 48 million people in North America who have created something online; bogs, videos, etc. Jackie described us as “connected amateurs marketing ourselves around the world.” Jackie identified and outlined four online personalities, which she called the 4 F’s, of how citizen marketers effect brands and branding:

1. Firecrackers: These users create explosive growth on the web, which has a rapid short-term penetration, which fizzles quite quickly after it was created.
2. Filters: This user is also known as a brand journalist, and is a product or brand aficionado, who profile brands simply because they are passionate about it. 
3. Fanatics: These creators are completely crazy for your product of brand, and are dedicated to what you do in a fanatic way.
4. Facilitators: Jackie described this as the most complex group, who utilize forums and BBS systems to create communities. Fan sites and community hubs are where, as Jackie displayed, there are hundreds and thousands of visitors, but only 1% of those visitors are creating content.