It is all too easy to think of consumer empowerment as simply a web based phenomenon, but something interesting is also happening beyond the world of social media: public meetings are suddenly all the rage. Not content with simply meeting in a virtual capacity, empowered consumers increasingly see value in coming together as a physical community – from single issue protest groups to neighbourhood action groups and residents’ associations. The public meetings revival even made the pages of the Times Magazine this weekend.
This is potentially even more interesting than the rise of social media. Contributing to an online community is relatively easy – you don’t have to move from the computer or mobile keyboard. But getting off your backside and attending a public meeting requires a genuine commitment. The people prepared to do this are likely to be the real change agents within society.
Maybe when Hazel Blears wrote that appearing on YouTube was no substitute for real, grassroots political campaigning (knocking on doors, setting up a stall in a town centre or debating issues at public meetings) she was on to something. This is something that Obama understands. He may have become the poster child for the effectiveness of social media campaigning, but when he wants to win a political argument – such as the one currently raging about healthcare provision in the US – his instinctive reaction is to start talking face-to-face with the public at what they describe in the US as ‘town hall meetings’.