I just typed a nice, long entry reviewing Cluetrain only to find that my session had timed out and I lost the entire thing when I tried to publish it. AARARGHARGHAGRHAHRGH! I’ll try again to recapture my thoughts, which I was so proud of.
After reading assigned sections of The Cluetrain Manifesto, I am amazed at the difference in tone between several entries. I agreed with the ideas behind The 95 Theses, but I wondered what the authors had experience that day that left them so bitter and angry towards the existing market/audience system. Was it that they were forced to eat soggy Cheerios? Or did they have an experience similar to Julie Snyder’s with MCI, as shared through NPR’s This American Life episode #253: The Middle of Nowhere? In it, Julie attempts to rectify an overcharge on her account, but nine months later is stuck in bureaucratic neglect and playing the company’s games. Give it a listen; it’s frustratingly refreshing. And while the Foreword (written by someone else) and Elevator Rap are not as aggressive as the 95 Theses, they share the same contempt for the ‘current’ design of markets and audiences.
But then I reached the Introduction. Wow! Did the same four people write this section? This section is filled with hope and optimism, and left me believing that the Internet can change business and the world with it. The relationship between markets and audiences is shifting drastically. Markets, and the humans inside of them, are becoming audiences and audiences are, well, remaining audiences. But now everyone in the audience can have a voice, and everyone has an opportunity to hear that voice. The companies that hear the voices and truly listen are better poised to adapt their identities to better fit in with the new design. And once they evolve, they are better equipped to function in the new community envisioned by the Cluetrain authors.
Alas, the authors have poured themselves a new, crunchy bowl of Cheerios. (And Movable Type has left my bowl out for too long.)
Related Articles
No user responded in this post