The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

Review by Mark McLaren

The Cluetrain Manifesto started in 1999 as a set of 95 theses written in collaboration by four men who can rightfully be called Pioneers of Web 2.0: David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Christopher Locke and Rick Levine. The work was originally put together online and was later published as a book in 2000. You can read the book for free online: http://www.cluetrain.com

The Cluetrain’s theses were written in the style of theologian Martin Luther’s radical work, The Ninety-Five Theses, which launched the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses called for a break from the Catholic Church because, as he saw it, the Church had created an artificial barrier between man and God in order to increase its own wealth and power.

In 1999, the Cluetrain Manifesto authors saw the Internet as the source of a similar radical transformation. They believed that new methods of communication made possible by the Internet would break down a number of metaphorical and literal walls: walls between the corporation and its customers, between corporate leaders and their employees, and between groups of employees.

The name “Cluetrain” comes from a quote in the book that refers to a Fortune 500 company whose leaders could not see that it was heading in the wrong direction even though “the cluetrain stopped there” all the time (i.e., the signs were obvious to others).

The 95 theses section of the book opens with this statement: “A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. (…) Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It’s going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.”

According to the authors, the Industrial Revolution brought the advantages of mass production, especially economies of scale, but along with these came mass media and mass marketing, and the idea that employees were just cogs in the machine. Consumers were also treated as cogs – having no unique qualities. As long as they bought the stuff rolling off the production lines, business leaders were happy – and enriched.

Marketing to consumers meant broadcasting, from one to many, in a single direction: newspapers, magazines, radio and television. Consumers were told what to buy (exactly what others like them were buying). They had no way of expressing their individual preferences. As the saying goes, they could have any color they wanted as long as it was black.

People within companies fared no better. They were told what to think. They were told to maintain the wall between the company and the consumer. In this view, public relations is designed to present only that which the company wants to reveal, a kind of Leave It To Beaver image for public consumption. But the Internet changes everything. It is “enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media.” People are once again finding their true, human “voice”, and they are sharing information in all sorts of new ways. Consumers “know more than companies do about their own products,” and they are talking about it online.

The Manifesto’s authors saw and articulated in 1999 everything today’s social media marketer takes as a starting point:

· The market is a conversation.
· The Web is not hierarchical: with hyperlinks, anyone can link to anything, including negative reviews and ranting bloggers.
· There is no one central authority on the Web. Power has shifted, or will shift, to the masses. The Web is democratic.
· The Web is open: people can post anything they want!
· Although there is a lot of junk, there is also a lot of good information on the Web, and it will continue to grow.
· Like people, the Web has flaws. The Web is more “real” than mass media, and people like that.
· There are no borders, or at least borders are breaking down.
· On the Web, people can smell a sales pitch. Being transparent and being yourself works best.

All this is in the Manifesto. It’s what Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, and all the other social media gurus have built their careers on.

In the Manifesto, most of it is in extremely colorful language. The tone sometimes reminds me of my high school’s underground newspaper: self-righteous, sophomoric, bucking the system. Still, the message is dead on: In the twentieth century, “Corporate speech became mass produced ‘messages’ jammed into a one-way spam cannon aimed at a dream that hasn’t faded since: interchangeable consumers.”

There are plenty of political overtones. This is not a book written for business people or marketers. As Weinberger says, “the Web world is bigger than the business world.” As the authors see it, the freedom of the Internet will make businesses “come out and play.”

The bottom line for the authors is that the Internet will usher in an era of liberation and renewed conversation. “Conversing” means connecting on a “human” level rather than as part of a corporate, profit-driven power structure.

In the Manifesto, one clear symbol of corporate structure and method is data analysis. For David Weinberger, analytics is man’s attempt to control something that can’t really be controlled. In a sense, it’s dehumanizing, and it’s what the new world of Web relationships will necessarily overcome, because “The world is more like a huge set of messy hyperlinks than like a really big table of data.”

Today we can see businesses working day and night to quantify social networking interactions, to put “the conversation” into a spread sheet. Marketers have accepted the truths expressed by the Cluetrain authors, and they are intent on creating new ways to harness them. They still need to reach consumers, many of whom have discovered that their online “voice” carries a bit further than it did ten years ago. The loudest voices are the Influencers, people marketers really want to reach. Marketers can sometimes get their message out if they connect with the right influencers. It’s not broadcasting, but it usually works.

The Cluetrain Manifesto Authors

David Weinberger
http://twitter.com/dweinberger
http://www.johotheblog.com/

Doc Searls
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/

Christopher Locke
http://www.rageboy.com/blogger.html

Rick Levine
http://www.cluetrain.com/rick.html

Mark McLaren is an online marketing consultant and owner of McBuzz Communications. McBuzz specializes in search engine optimization, social media marketing and WordPress websites.
http://www.mcbuzz.com
http://twitter.com/mcbuzz

by Veronica

Maya and I attended Social Media Breakfast Seattle on January 19, and learned a lot about influencer engagement from Sean O’Driscoll of Ants Eye View. During the event, Sean gave away several copies of The Cluetrain Manifesto to the audience. Maya and I looked at each other and thought, bingo! It’s the perfect selection for our book club!

The Cluetrain Manifesto, which began as a web site in 1999, is more relevant than ever. It is about understanding the future of business, with great ideas and stories from business and technology leaders. The 10th anniversary edition includes some great new content, and Kathy Gill tells me it’s worth purchasing and re-reading.

Many of our book club participants are new to social media, so if you haven’t read this book, now is a great opportunity to pick it up and discuss it along with everyone. If you have read it, please do share your thoughts and join us during our tweet-chat session (TBA)!

Gary Vaynerchuck projected on the wall at our @readsm chat

Gary Vaynerchuck was kind enough to Skype with us ( @readsm) on Friday to talk about his book Crush It .

I loved Gary’s no nonsense approach in the book and the combination of his own stories, doses of inspiration and an awesome list of exactly what we need to do to become successful.

Here is one of the numerous questions we asked him the other day. Gary is FULL of energy and we LOVED talking to him. Thank you SO much Gary!

I enjoyed reading the book and learning from the book, but what I seemed to enjoy the most was the “social experience” around the book –

1. talking book with the others that came to the Reading Social Media meet – we had @Shih_wei, @heidimiller , @colinAC , @Warrens , @dakini_3 @mamikaze @giyen @pree @barbjacobucci there.
2. connecting with the author @garyvee was SUCH a treat! I am sure it had nothing to do with the fact that Gary is so famous these days. I have known Gary long enough to not be overcome by his star power The fact that we could talk to someone whose book we had just read was pretty fun by itself!
3. Finally, we videotaped our interview with Gary, a bunch of us asked questions, we took pictures and save so much more than the book for the future.

Here are some of the videos from our chat -

Hello to all Reading Social Media participants!

We wanted to catch up with everyone on what’s happening with our book club. On Friday, September 25, 2009, we had our very first wine and cheese night, hosted at Maya’s home. About a dozen people came and shared reviews and thoughts about Trust Agents.

Ben Resnick
Gwen Gyldenege
Veronica Sopher
Colleen Carrington
Warren Sukernek
Colin Christianson
Maya Bisineer
Pree Kolari
Skylar Kreisher
Barb Jacobucci
Shauna Causey

A big thank  you to Colleen Carrington! We used her slide deck to guide us through the discussion. Maya and Pree were the perfect hosts. Colin’s energy is absolutely contagious. Ben and Skylar contributed many fresh points of view, even without having read the book. Warren offered his voice of experience, which was greatly appreciated! Shauna had trouble tearing herself away from the party even though she still needed to pack for her vacation in Mexico. I had so much fun chatting with Barb and getting to know Gwen. Most of us stayed well past midnight!

The group agreed that Trust Agents is a great book for someone learning about social media. For October, we decided it would be good to visit some foundamentals, so we chose Groundswell. We’ll keep you posted on the next wine and cheese event. In the meantime, if you have ideas, thoughts and reviews of Groundswell, please don’t hesitate to share with us either on Twitter or here in the comments section. Thank you!

~Veronica

Time for a twitter chat! Let us meet on twitter and use the #readsm hashtag to talk #trustagents.  Twitter is a great place to meet and talk about anything – so why not #trustagents, right? It really does not matter how far along you are in the book, this is just an opportunity to talk about, extend ideas and exchange thoughts on how the ideas in the book apply to your life,  your industry, your domains and so on.

DATE AND TIME : Wednesday, Sept 23 11:30 – 12:30 p.m. PST (2:30 – 3:30 pm EST)

FORMAT: We will let the 6 secrets of #trustagents guide our conversation. Every 10 minutes we will shift from talking about one to the next. @readsm will tweet a question and let the conversation flow.

As a reminder, the 6 secrets of #trustagents are

• Make your own game (How are you making your own game?)

• One of Us ( Who is the one person, in your opinion, that reflects this characteristic?)

• The Archimedes Effect ( How do YOU leverage your skills to move ahead and above?)

• Agent Zero (Are you Agent Zero/connector to several networks? How do you achieve it? )

• Human Artist (How do you relate to others?)

• Build Armies (How do you convert a solo show into an army?)

SLIDES – Here are some really great slide decks from @colleencar, @weave and the man @chrisbrogan himself

TRUST DRIVES TRANSACTIONS: Why Marketing Must Go Social

View more presentations from Eric Weaver.

Almost forgot!!

One lucky participant will win a copy of #trustagents – so be sure to join in the chat!

In today’s age of transparency and with a plethora of social media tools, it is easier to learn by watching people everyday. And yes, I am now starting to people watch. Not my fault, all Chris Brogan and Julien

As I read the book “Trust Agents”, I am also watching closely a number of people referenced in the book, in the hopes of taking away more than just what is  in the book – and in the process I am watching Chris Brogan himself….reading his posts, watching him talk …

I have to say that I am impressed – almost to the point of disbelief. Chris Brogan is showing us that the concepts in his book work, by using them to market this very book. He has just been leveraging the trust he has built up to market his book …and as easy as it might seem to someone just watching him, I have a feeling none of it would have been possible if Chris Brogan had not gained our trust over the years.

And as he says in his blog post today -

So far, Julien and I have been very fortunate. Trust Agents hit the New York Times list within two days of the book coming out. The week after, we hit the Wall Street Journal list. That was you. YOU did all that, and I’m grateful.

As part of the promotion, I made a trade. I gave away 5 deals of “200 books for a 1/2 day of my time” and then gave away 4 (there’s still one left) of “300 books for a 1/2 day of my time.” That most definitely moved the needle. I’m in the midst of fulfilling all those requests, by the way. It’s a LOT of flying, but it’s also a great way to get out and meet great folks.

So Chris has just asked people to buy his book and they have.Because he has built people’s trust and provided them with value in the past. I know that is a big part of why I bought the book.

Today, he is asking people for ideas as to how he can tie Trust Agents to social change. There are so many great comments out on his post already, but I am thinking hard, really hard. I already have a book, but I continue to think harder about how we could figure out a win for a non-profit if we could only help him sell some books ….

What ideas do you have?

ReadingSocialMedia was born in Seattle. Trust Agents was the first book we chose because a number of us bought the book at Gnomedex 9.0 last month. It was also at Gnomedex that we heard @hardlynormal speak … Right at the start of Gnomedex, a number of us were involved with @Voluntweetup. Twestival is just a day away too and TwestivalSeattle is supporting @YouthCareSea.

Do YOU have any ideas as to how can tie Trust Agents to Social Good in the Seattle area or wherever YOU live?

There is a lot more we can do by putting our heads together – so if you have an idea, please do share it!

-Maya

Chapter 2 of Trust Agents talks about making one’s own game. It mentions many great examples: Wine Library TV, the Huffington Post, Google, etc. All of these are great stories of successful new games. If you’re reading this blog and Trust Agents, it is very likely that you, too, are thinking of or already knee-deep in creating a game of your own.

Let’s talk about the lighter side of games for a bit. Just for fun. My friend Karianne Stinson is very good at leading games on the spot, and she always gets participants thinking, talking and laughing. At BarCampSeattle 2009, Chris Downie led a fun session on inventive little social games, and the audience responded enthusiastically with their own ideas. Everyone loves to play great games.

What was your favorite childhood game? Did you ever improvise, or change/improve part of the rules?

Did you and your playmates come up with your own games? How did you get other kids to try your new game?

Image “Hopscotch” by D Sharon Pruitt.

I really just started reading the book Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. It is too early to review the book myself, but here are a few reviews from people around the web -

• Jason Baer wonders if Social Connectivity Can be Taught

And that’s the thing. In truth, this isn’t a business book. It’s a self-help book. If you’re looking for specific strategies to help your company or organization succeed using social media, Trust Agents is not the field guide you need.

In the comments Chris Brogan himself says “this is a business book for humans, not a social media book for social media types”

• Christopher Penn gives a thorough review of the book
• Jason Falls reviews the book here.
• Amber Naslund includes a few important concepts from the book in here review.

What do you think of the book so far?

Have you reviewed the book on your blog/site? Let us know, so we can link back  to it.

Don’t forget to follow @readsm on twitter , participate in our #readsm chats online AND meet avid readers locally to chat about the book!

-Maya

image: from ChrisBrogan’s twitter profile

It is with much excitement that we announce the very 1st selection for Reading Social Media: Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith! After much anticipation, the book was officially launched on August 24, 2009, and quickly made the New York Times Bestseller list.

Maya and Veronica got their hands on signed copies during Gnomedex weekend. You can buy your very own copy here.

A great companion to reading Trust Agents is to participate in its community on Facebook.

If you’ll be joining us for this month’s reading of Trust Agents, please post a comment here.  If you’re on Twitter, please include your Twitter name in the comment, and we’ll follow you back.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

~ Maya & Veronica