I read the Cluetrain Manifesto when it first came out around 2000. It was eye-opening and inspiring at the time, and there was plenty of buzz around the main concept that markets are conversations and businesses need to get involved. I haven’t read it since and recently just ran across the Web site (via Jeremiah Owyang’s blog) and re-read the 95 theses. Now, almost 10 years later, it’s amazing how even more powerful the authors’ ideas are in the advent of social media.
Maybe your bosses, colleagues or clients seem to be dragging their heels into this “new-fangled” social media thing. Remind them that it’s been around for quite a long time. It’s as old as word-of-mouth marketing. Buy them a copy of the book, send them to the site or give them this PDF of the 95 Theses. Because if they don’t get off their butts and find effective ways to use social media, they’ll be kicked to the rear.
If you haven’t read the Cluetrain Manifesto recently, read it again–you can read it for free online. It emphasizes the importance of social media to an organization’s future: the unique opportunity to have conversations about your products and services in places where those conversations are already happening…with or without you. And if you’re not there, your competition probably is.
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