Ben McConnell provided the second keynote.. His blog is Church of the Customer.
I came back late from the break, so I missed some of his opening remarks, in which he was talking about MTV's "catch-up" attempt to get their customers to remix video and music.
Then he went on to talk about the number of people who are involved in "Citizen Marketing." Traditional media companies are being disrupted. But so are companies in every industry.
Why is it happening?
It's so easy to become a content creator.
Profiles: Fernando Sosa and his friend Thomas.. in their 20's. Both were involved in Second City Improv. They came up with a spoof/rap on Chicken McNuggets. Their friends saw their song, posted on YouTube, and couldn't get it out of their head. The total cost of production was $1.. the cost of the McNuggets. If an agency had done it, it would have been $1.5 million. Now it has attracted 100,000+ users on YouTube and on StupidVideos.com
What we have here are the roots of amateur culture taking shape. They're free to create whatever they want. They've grown up having their lives documented for them by their parents. So it's natural for them to document their own lives and share them with their friends. This is why YouTube has become the fourth media channel.
Tila Tequila--most connected person on MySpace... 1.7 million friends. A young woman with a foul mouth. Released a song. Started a music career. Released it directly to iTunes, bypassing traditional record companies. She has the ability to create this stuff. And the ability to connect to a huge set of folks.
Amateur culture collides with traditional marketing. When people create content about your company without your approval, they are Citizen Marketers. Marshall McLuhan said, "we shape our tools, then our tools shape us"...
We're now social media. Include the community into the media and inviting them to engage. More than 55% of kids 12 to 17 are involved in social networks. This is being fueled by access to broadband. By the end of Sept. 2006, there were 139 million households with broadband access.. X 4 per household. Soon, we'll have 600 Milion people online around the world who have broadband access and will be creating STUFF.
Freedom of speech and freedom of assembly -- traditional values.
We need to give people a voice, a vote and a vocation.
This is influencing politics in a very big way.. in the very first week.. 70,000 members on Mybarackobama.com. 2400 separate groups, hundreds of fundraising pages--all of this in one week.
All of this adds up to influence.. that's what YOU hope to do--let the community become the voice of your brand and your product. The traditional media and broadcasting media are losing their sway. The number one driver of influence is Word of Mouth. People look online and it influences conversations. The traditional structure of "getting the message out" to the people," -- the people organized into your community becomes the message. Becomes the clarification and edification of who you are and what you are...
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