Come together right now
Over the weekend I spent some time re-reading The Cluetrain Manifesto. I am sure that many of you have already read it, for those of you who haven’t I recommend you purchase it.
The Cluetrain has, in many respects, become a victim of it’s own success. For some people it has become part of the dotcom culture, but to dismiss it lightly would be a grave error. The Cluetrain Manifesto has a lot to offer communications professionals across all marketing disciplines.
Personally, my only (small) gripe with the book is that it can come across as a little too idealistic. It tends to ignore the realities of heavier workloads, increased pressure and less support.
But it excels at challenging you to evaluate how you are communicating, how you are trying to engage your audiences and the effectiveness of your efforts. The Cluetrain encourages you to step back from the usual (and familiar) corporate speak and to instead engage with people one-on-one. If ever there was a theme for PR on the Internet, this is it.
As it states in Thesis 26:
“Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of the markets.”
If you don’t have it, buy it. If you have it, read it again.
Finally I can’t finish without mentioning The Gluetrain Manifesto which takes a satirical look at the Cluetrain. In particular their version of the Cluetrain’s 95 theses always brings a smile to my face:
1. Markets are conversations. Conversations are markets. Markets are he as you are we and we are all together. – Indeed
Read on….
Murphy's Law 