Exploitation vs. Empowerment

I wish I could say that I had stronger feelings about public exploitation in the marketing industry. I tend to normally be a very passive person as it is, not really showing my concern or confronting an issue that might bother me. The only thing that I did find a little sad was when that young lady was talking about being a “#1 Hunger Games fan”. It is true, some people are putting in more effort to be noticed and appreciated in comparison to people like me, who tweet about pizza and retweet dog videos. When Jason Calicanis talks about being one or two steps behind celebrities when it comes to our contribution towards the digital world, I can’t really say that I consider myself to be anywhere near the same fame level as Jennifer Lawrence or Tom Brady. Yes, ultimately we all share the same network – some just have more fans than others. Although I am a personal publisher whether that be Facebook or Twitter, I am still an audience. But then again, so is Brady. If anything, I would agree that the UGC 2.0 (user generated content) is in a whole new ballpark when it comes to empowerment. Referring back to BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed offers their users a chance to put their best foot forward and contribute to their world through “BuzzFeed Community” where anybody can write a post and have it be viewed by other BuzzFeed visitors. It’s a whole new way of marketing their business (through non-marketing) as Calicanis would say. Allowing the public to be their own voice makes it easier for the companies to get an insight on what consumers really want.