The Cluetrain Manifesto Revisited: Past is Prologue, Part 3 - Ed Keller

On May 22 Brad Fay39s and my new book THE FACETOFACE BOOK Why Real Relationships Rule in a Digital Marketplace will be published You can download a free excerpt from the book here or buy it online here As part of our research we looked at the history of word of mouth and social influence and were reminded that the past is indeed prologue My first blog on this topic reviewed the seminal work of Columbia Professors Paul Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz amp8211 Personal Influence Part two discussed the origins of wordofmouth advertising in the 1960s and its relevance to today In this third and final look back I turn to the Cluetrain Manifesto published in 1999 We live in the social media age of Facebook Twitter and their brethren Who foretold the current new ageIn 1999 The Cluetrain Manifesto went live It laid out a vision of how people will live and why business must change in the Internet age It began with these words quotA powerful global conversation has begun Through the Internet people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed As a result markets are getting smarter and faster than most companiesquotThe message for business was that as networked markets learn to speak in a natural and genuine voice that quotcan39t be fakedquot respect is being lost quotfor companies unable or unwilling to speak as they doquot Cluetrain argued for a shift toward more authentic communications and away from marketing hype Companies should talk with consumers not at them and they should nurture consumertoconsumer conversation about their brands as wellWas Cluetrain correct that we had entered a new era And was it mainly attributable to the rise of the InternetThesis 1 of The Cluetrain Manifesto set the stage quotMarkets are conversationsquot For most of human history it declared people did business face to face in open markets where conversation between buyers and sellers was valued and motivating quotThe first markets were filled with people not abstractions or statistical aggregates they were the places where supply met demand with a firm handshake Buyers and sellers looked each other in the eye met and connected The first markets were places for exchange where people came to buy what others had to sell and to talkquotWith the rise of the industrial revolution and then the age of mass media Cluetrain argued persontoperson connection was lost to the detriment of consumers and of business But with the rise of the Internet said Cluetrain people are returning to the quotera of conversationquot Businesses that seize the opportunity and change will thrive it argued those that fight it will struggle The keys to business success in this new era quotLoosen up Lighten up And shut up for a while Listen for a change By listening marketing will relearn how to talkquotThe Cluetrain Manifesto was prescient in many ways even if it took many businesses almost another decade to become comfortable with the idea of being quotopenquot and quotsocialquotAt the same time Cluetrain was incorrect in one important way While the internet is making consumer conversations more visible to companies we actually never left the era of conversation Consumers have always made their decisions in a social context and have sought authentic communications with brands The reason is that people are social animals whose survival depends on our being not merely the strongest or most aggressive but on being collaborative Recent advances in neuroscience evolutionary biology psychology and related fields have made it increasingly clear that we are hardwired to be social and always have beenFor all the impressive growth of online social networks they are not the Holy Grail of marketing When looked at in the context of the quottotal socialquot opportunity they are one very small part of the overall picture and needs to be seen as such And true to John Naisbitt39s quothigh tech high touchquot megatrend online social networking is no substitute for the power and impact of facetoface communications Real world conversations amp8211 most of which take place facetoface amp8211 are still the dominant mode of communication by a very wide margin and they are the most trusted and persuasiveToday39s consumer marketplace is highly social but not because of particular platforms or technologies The businesses that will be most successful in the future are the ones that embrace a model that puts people first amp8211 rather than technology amp8211 at the center of products campaigns and market strategies The great social wave we are experiencing today is an opportunity that no business can afford to ignore or look at myopically It39s happening all around us amp8211 and much to the continuing surprise of many it39s mostly happening facetoface in the real world with all forms of media and marketing having the opportunity to contributeEd Keller CEO of the Keller Fay Group has been called quotone of the most recognized names in word of mouthquot The publication of Keller39s book The Influentials has been called the quotseminal moment in the development of word of mouthquot His new book The FacetoFace Book is coming out in May 2012 You can follow Ed Keller on Twitter Facebook and Google or contact him directly at ekellerkellerfaycomRead all Edamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at WOM MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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The Cluetrain Manifesto Revisited: Past is Prologue, Part 3 - Ed Keller

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