Misuse of consumers?

User generated internet content has exploded over the years. Individuals post comments on Facebook, upload movies on Youtube, begin their own blog and are co-authors on Wikipedia. In many blog posts marketers are encouraged to use that information for marketing purposes or even advise them to let consumers do their job for them. What I had always wondered after reading such a post is: why would consumers voluntarily let themselves be used for such purposes and generate valuable information for free?

Isn’t it strange that marketing is all about analyzing and researching consumer behavior, their motives, buying patterns etc and that this question has not been raised before (at least not on one of the blogs I follow).
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