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The Internet and the arrival of the citizen marketer

All the signs point in every possible direction. Even at huge eBay, the quintessential Internet portal, revenues are slowing and at least one highly touted new initiative, eBay Express, is showing lackluster results.

At the same time, bricks-and-clicks retailers seem to be doing much better and overall Internet sales this past holiday period were impressive.

Newspaper circulation continues a downward slide, electronic news sources delivered to computer and cell phones grows. Without question, the print media has struggled to get its arms around the Internet. It isn’t an easy task, to say the least. Yet, there are signs that many are getting it right. Readers of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The LA Times, Boston Globe and others are migrating to electronic editions and advertising is following.

The picture is further complicated by the way the Internet turns our mental constructs upside down. It has forever changed the way knowledge has been disseminated since the dawn of history. Starting perhaps with the shamans, someone maintained control by holding on to the knowledge purse, dispersing “education” to select groups.

There was a time not so long ago when high school students were “guided” into “college prep,” “business” and the like. In some parts of the world, females are not deemed worthy of education.

The Internet has put an end to anti-egalitarian nonsense and has created what authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba call “citizen marketers.”

Here are a couple of examples of what’s happening. Does anyone make a purchase today without first doing a Google search to gather information? That simple act has changed our mindset about anyone who tries to “sell” us anything, whether it’s an idea, an insurance policy or a coffee maker. We have moved from trust to doubt, never to return.

The second example has to do with what might be called “the unavoidable transparency.” Recently, a regional newspaper reported that the chief of police of a mid-size city appeared before the city council and called “some of the city police officers union’s accusations against him ‘trash’ and asserted that any perception of low morale among officers is fiction.” All this followed the chief receiving a no-confidence vote from the union.

Such adversarial encounters are nothing new, except there’s a new source of information available, the blog. The city’s police officers’ union president expresses his view with clarity and passion on a blog.

Blogs, by their nature, are biased. Their value rests in providing other data points. They make the point that no one, including those in authority hold the keys to the information kingdom.

Just ask Dell and the many others who have changed their policies because of blog power. Both accolades and criticisms influence the way we “buy” both things and ideas.

This brings us to the critical point about the Internet: it is all about pull, not push. Simply put, those who use the Internet most effectively, use pull. For example, if you are selling a camera, you will not only provide graphics and substantial detail about the equipment, but you will have a blog where buyers can tell about their experience and rate the camera. You will also include reviews by experts and prices from other retailers. The goal is to give the would-be buyer a basis for making a satisfactory decision to purchase this particular camera.

What we slowly (perhaps even reluctantly) come to realize is that the power has been taken forever out of our hands, whether we are educators, politicians, salespeople or parents. Most assuredly we can trick and be tricked, but we will be found out. Nothing can be hidden. The power now belongs to the citizen, the average person.

By creating the ‘citizen marketer,’ the Internet qualifies as the most significant change agent of all time.

John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales topics for company and association meetings. He is the winner of an APEX Grand Award in writing and the only two-time recipient of the Door & Hardware Institute’s Ryan Award in Business Writing. He can be contacted at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170 (617-328-0069; fax 617-471-1504); j_graham@grahamcomm.com. The company's web site is grahamcomm.com.