Recently MarketingProfs.com has started an online book club. Just like a traditional book club, this club selects a book, reads, reviews, and discusses the book all in online discussion books.

Anyway, the book we are reading now is Citizen Marketer (Ben McConnell / Jackie Huba). What is a citizen marketer? It’s you! You have the ability to spark a flame that will be carried around the virtual world – creating a “buzz.” A simple post, like this, on any discussion board or blog, has the potential to attract worldwide attention.

Examples: HackingNetflix.com and iLounge.com. Started by just one individual, not affiliated with either Netflix or Apple, each of these sites now has a very large following and has garnered the respect of Netflix and Apple – these companies are listening to the citizen marketers.

Think of it in terms of customer evangelism – pure, unpaid, unsolicited customer evangelism. What is that kind of publicity worth to your business?

The best way to generate citizen marketing is to be one… give people a reason to get to know you, your business, etc. Give people a reason to talk but beware – citizen marketing can also be generated in a negative way! (Think “If I Did It” by O J Simpson – the people pulled the plug on that one quickly!)