Citizen Power of Connected Voice

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Citizen Marketers: When People are The Message
was meant to be this way in the beginning, and now as Citizen Marketers points out, we may get the true ideal functional in society. Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba recent research shows American enterprise is being put back into the hands of the citizens. America was founded as a government of, by, for the people. The people are now moving into an effective position to do that.

Citizenship comes from an Athenian ideal called "politeria"... a deep and multi-faceted sense of civic identity which encompasses the concepts of "community of citizens, constitution, form of government" and a "way of life."

Citizenship represents the culture of the everyday life. Citizen marketers-- "the age of marketing as culture."

"Citizen Marketers is the story of how amateurs and professionals commingle to assume new forms of ownership in companies, brands, products, and people they closely follow."

Today, with the rapid advances of technology, Internet, blogs, podcasts, satellite, cells, a new age is looking square into our face. The age of "the people rule" is before us and the individual of the mass is no longer lost in the mass. Ants can take on elephants and influence their plodding (and plotting) steps.

Who are these marketers?
According to McConnell and Huba, they are filters, fanatics, facilitators, and firecrackers.They are citizens, or hobbyists at work altruistically... for the good of what they do, for love and passion for what they do, but affecting millions and the actions of the big dogs of the business world. People of the same opinion can find each other, collaborate as One Big Massive voice and recreate brands, products and organizations.

The filters like to collect things (ideas, content) and package into links, stories that as everyday folks relate to other everyday folks.
Fanatics are true believers and evangelists. They analyze and prescribe a course of action to change things. Sell them a defective product and in months, their blogs, podcasts, slide shows will ignite a national crusade. Dell, Sony, record companies have succumbed to citizen uprisings. In mass, they have influence.
Facilitators launch communities. They thrive in building bonding centers where the town hall meeting blazes as a fiber optic event.
Firecrackers hit and run. They make a big deal of something, fast and furious, then move on. They may have a hit video, star on You Tube, have everyone clicking to it in mass, then it's over as fast as it started.

The Citizen Marketers has this about them... personal expression, amateur status, freely given. The message is The People are the Message. Word of mouth is bigger, faster and more grassroots orchestrated than ever. They are honest, real and without agenda. They don't like to be messed with or they will do something about it; if you are kind they will reward you immensely.

How big are they? ... 1%. Every person fits into some small segment of culture and there are others just like them. But united they carry a big whopping stick. Maybe outlaws, not into tradition. Very loyal to each other, these 1%ers find each other. They create what they want. They are hobbyists (participatory) and do it because its fun.

It's the new era of democratization. Working against controlling forces, gaining strength and instead of bowing down to advertisers, they tell companies what they want from them.

Consider Broadband. As of now more than 80 million adults (and growing rapidly around the world) have broadband at home. With blogs, pods, communities on line; chips, digital, wireless, the individual can now be heard, seen, and recognized.

So what we have is everyone is a Publisher, a Broadcaster. (You see there is good reason why Google spent over a billion for You Tube.) What we see is only a glimpse of what is developing in our culture. Technorati (blog search engine) tracks over 55 million blogs (and still growing). Now podcasts are the new thing. Everyone can star on their own TV Show. You can produce it, invite your own audience to view from the community you are part of.

Coming right behind is RSS (Really Simple Syndication). A direct feed system which goes to only those wanting it, and leaving out spam... easy, free, instantaneous. Sociologist are calling all this productive leisure. But that influences branding, product design and company ways.

So why do people involve themselves in "market-helping behaviors?"
Altruism (empathy for others);
personal relevance (truth on who I am);
status (well-connected with the connected).

Citizens Marketers find that "meme" is a controlling theme. A meme is a cultural thing (idea, saying, way of doing) that someone does(says), and everyone almost transcendentally catches on. Citizen meme's spread rapidly. The process of a meme is ... it's noticed and understood, embedded in memory, takes on a form (language, text, picture) and passes from one person to another. Then almost overnight, it seems everyone is doing it, saying it, watching it. One creative persona may light the match that lights thousands of little matches. Before you know it, the culture is lit up by it, doing it, and no one knows where it all really started.

In concluding Citizen Marketers, McConnell and Huba, direct you on how to democratize your business. In the past you made a product and hoped someone else liked it. Now you find the meme buzz, the new pod star, get a few filters together along with some fanatics, and the word starts spreading. Customers are creating designs for companies. These are the one's now winning.

The 3 C's of working with Citizen Marketers:
Contests: The quickest way to experiment with citizen created content.
Co-Creation: Involves customers in the process of creating products.
Community: A customer "call center" throws it out to the community and they'll hack it out for you.

There's a loyalty in all this. It's like a meme, an undefined quality of a person who is faithful to others they see as being like them. An unwritten law of culture, a new power in how citizens are marketers. Our society cries to connect and be one with a mass; a new strength in this Spirit; the new heart of a rally cry.
For more, blogs, articles...
www.citizenmarketers.com

"The tiniest group will become a mighty nation." (Isaiah 60:22, NLT)
"Abraham was only one man when I called him.
But when I blessed him, he became a great nation."

Citizens are given great power.
Isaiah the prophet continues,
"I will teach all your citizens and their prosperity will be great." (Isaiah 51:3, 54:13, NLT)
And Jesus goes on to say,"They will be taught by God." (John 6:45)
"No one will need to teach His neighbor..all will know me." (Jeremiah 31:34, NLT)

There is power in one voice and small groups banning together.
One voice can be very powerful. God has listened to the voice of one righteous person and responded with all His power. He says to those who call to Him continually He will respond. One voice can be empowered by Spirit to make a monumental difference.

God will surely give justice to his chosen people
who cry out to him day and night?
...He will grant justice to them quickly! (Luke 18:7-8, NLT)

The Citizen Marketers is so prophetic as the Scriptures have pointed to this. That some day one voice will have great power and things will happen quickly because of the voice. Then when we add one, two, or three to that, the power increases monumentally. (Matt: 18:19)

We have power to learn from each other. This power, to quickly find what others have learned and connecting it, creates a super-intelligence platform. This combined mind invites the very Presence of God's Mind into the whole works. In Love and Unity is what God, Spirit, the person of Jesus, is all about. We are one creation, of many parts.(see 1 Corinthians 12:12)

God is the integrated total voice of all Creation...harmonizing as one voice. We are like an orchestra, all different, varied, unusual instruments of different sounds, but making a beautiful melody when played in harmony.

David prophetically says, “ few honestly seek real understanding from God.” (Psalm 53:2) God through Spirit wants to speak to each person on earth. Then each of us will hear God and have a portion of God’s Voice. We then speak it to each other to get His Complete Voice. His Voice is One. When we are One, we hear All of What God is saying.

Spirit, God, created a civilization… man as a group, not just individuals. As groups, as One heart, spirit, we then hear God’s voice with every individual voice counting as more important as ever.

With today’s technology, everyone has opportunity to be heard AND share what Spirit is sharing with them. All voices can be heard. We can hear after that more clearly who God is. He speaks not just through individual spoke-persons anymore, but the combination of many as One, all voices.

For this to work, each person must be responsible to hear from God…Spirit personally teaches each person. Then the Divine Voice of Spirit combined to One is truly heard.

“For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is over all and in all and living through all… so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.” (Ephesians 4: 4-7, 10, NLT)

Each person has a responsibility to seek true understanding of Spirit for this to work. “Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3: 18, NLT)

Give no rest and relentlessly pursue this voice. God will respond to the community of those with a unified request... of His Character, Spirit and Direction. When we pray, we hear God's voice. When we share God's voice with others and as One Voice, we create the magnitude, power, fortitude of His great strength, love and hope in us.

The Spirit is about power and doing incomprehensive things... beyond what human intelligence can conjure up. Listen to His voice, share His voice with others and see what happens.

Connect in Spirit with His Spirit and unite that Spirit with others. It's the power of the citizens of Heaven, using Heaven's Powers on earth. It is our right and gift as a Citizen of Heaven.

We will move into an era of the most sophisticated communication between humans ever seen on earth. Spirit will communicate between people in Mass. This Mass will hear the same voice and respond as One Unit. We see evidence of this happening. God is sovereignly teaching everyone. He will teach us all. And as One we will see, hear, perceive the same things... from the same direct feed of Spirit.

This will be so sophisticated it will surpass the capabilities we now see in the power of cell phones, emails, blogs, podcasts.

This is Spiritual communication systems of a Spiritual property. A new dimension beyond intellectual property. In just thinking of someone we can communicate to them in Spirit overriding all other forms of available communication. Those connected in Spirit with God will be able to do this.

Spirit communication is available for those choosing to tap it. It will take the unity of one voice... "where two or three agree it will be done." It will take on a power that will change minds, actions, decisions, and circumstances when negotiating and other communications will be ineffective.

Seek this Higher communication systems.
Express your voice in faith.
It will connect, in Spirit, with others.
Then you will truly climb to the top of mountains before you.