Book Review: Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba

I hate long plane trips.  Especially in the current era of airlines seemingly doing everything they can to make things difficult and unpleasant for travelers.

Perhaps the sole benefit I can think of, however, is that it lets me read or work without electronic interruption.  On terra firma, I can count on my email, IM, Skype, cell phone, or landline chirping every minute or so.  But at 36,000 feet, that's verboten. 

So last night as I flew to Las Vegas from Boston for the New Communications Forum, I managed to get through two books.  One was a novel, but the other was Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba.  I'm an occasional reader of their blog, Church of the Customer, and I have heard Jackie speak before, so I had a sense as to what to expect, so I was looking forward to it.

In general, the book does not disappoint.  It does a good job of explaining in easy to understand terms the value of word of mouth and interaction with customers, especially online.  Many of the anecdotes were not new to me, though they often included detail with which I was unfamiliar.

A few things jumped out at me that I think are worth remarking on.

The Significance of WOM/Blogs/Social Media

Just as many people overlook the significance of word of mouth and blogs, I think there is a tendency among those of us who evangelize social media to overstate its impact.  For instance, in discussing prominent blogger Jeff Jarvis' battle with Dell over customer service, the authors write:

A year after Jarvis's first blog entries, Google counted more than 10 million references to "Dell Hell," and the company's stock price had dropped 45 percent.

It is worth noting that as of the date of this post, Google reports just 67,000 references to Dell Hell.  I don't dispute the authors' number, but it does suggest a huge amount of the content likely results from spam sites that Google eventually discarded from its index. 

Setting aside that discrepancy, this passage tends to leave the impression, though not explicitly stated, that Jarvis ignited and fueled the stock decline.  I'm fairly certain that market experts would tell you that there was far more at play.  While the "Dell Hell" discussion may have played a role, it certainly wouldn't be the only factor in the stock's decline.  In fact, had the fundamentals of the company remained strong, the impact on stock price likely would have been negligible.  Obviously, companies can't ignore these discussions -- far from it -- but I do believe we as evangelists must be careful not to oversell the importance by making claims that cannot be substantiated.

Paying Consumer Content Generators

There's an interesting discussion in the book about Jason Calacanis' effort to pay social bookmarkers to switch from services like Digg and Reddit to the new Netscape platform.  The authors note that the attempt didn't have as much success as Calacanis had hoped, although the jury is still out.  Indeed it is.  I have noted previously that I think Jason is correct that content producers should be compensated in some way.  I hope to have a lengthier post on this subject soon because as McConnell and Huba say in the book, there are other ways these consumers get compensated -- through power and other psychic value for instance.

Snakes on a Plane

I think I first heard about this movie at the WOMMA conference in San Francisco last year.  And if I am not mistaken (though I could be) it was in a presentation from Jackie.  In any event, since that time the book was published and the movie came out.  Media reports suggested the buzz about the movie didn't pay off at the box office, and I had accepted that it was a disappointment.  The authors say however that this is a misperception being perpetrated by mainstream media and that in fact the movie did pretty well.  I think this one deserves more research to compare it to other similar movies.

Of course, ultimately, the question is did the WOM/buzz about Snakes on a Plane generate more revenue for the studio than the movie would have generated on its own?  Obviously an impossible question to answer, but in reality that's the real test of buzz.

Conclusion

Overall the book is well written and easy to digest.  I recommend it, especially for people new to the social media/word of mouth marketing arena as it does an excellent job of describing the techniques and technologies without diving deep into jargon.

Technorati tags: Citizen Marketers, Ben McConnell, Jackie Huba, word of mouth, buzz, blogs, books, social media, Jason Calacanis, Snakes on a Plane, Dell Hell, Dell, Jeff Jarvis, Netscape, Digg

Comments

[Sarah Wurrey]

"Snakes on a Plane" made about 35 million domestically...which while good was probably a disappointment considering the pre-release buzz. I think the Granddaddy of WOM movies has got to be "The Bair Witch Project," which had a marketing plan that was almost entirely based around its creepy website. It ended up grossing 250 million worldwide. This was 1999! I can only imagine what the web marketing plan would be for that movie if it were released today!