Published in 2001 before blogs become popular, The Cluetrain Manifesto decribes how the Internet has changed (or should change) how businesses do business.
People are no longer content to be fed a company’s message through commercials. With the advent of online communication, especially blogs, customers have the ability to discuss a business’s products and services with each other, which in turn has the potential to damage that business’s reputation. How will you respond and defend yourself? Get on the cluetrain, people!
The authors came up with their own 95 theses, which are just as revolutionary and paradigm-shifting as Martin Luther’s own. A sampling:
2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.
6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.
12. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than companies do about their own products. And whether the news is good or bad, they tell everyone.
25. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to the people with whom they hope to create relationships.
53. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market.
Read the entire book online.
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