The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual

Illustrative of just how fast things change, this tenth-anniversary edition may at first strike you as an anachronistic historical oddity, or at best a mile-marker in the rear view mirror: we've moved beyond pull marketing, through blogs, to the fever pitch of Facebook pages and Twitter. But though the bullet train of social marketing flies fast, the Cluetrain of marketing to the needs and interests of (what we now call) the community rolls much more slowly. There's still time to get on board this train ... and sadly too many empty seats on board, at that!

A brilliant book that must be read by every businessperson, marketer and advertiser. If you are starting a business and/or planning to sell your goods/services online - read this book.
This book wonderfully explains who the internet consumer are, what they are like and what they like. A definite eye-opener.

I only wish that the author's update the book with the changes that the web has brought about in business and the way it is conducted and marketed today. While I do sense a lot of what the authors said in the book, being implemented, the turning of the tide and changing of the mindset and the advancement of the revolution, I'd still like to hear from them how today's e-companies are measuring up on their scale.

Loved this book.

"Win, lose or draw, armed only with imagination we're gonna rip the fucking lid off", quote I can still remember from this book 15 years later.

Quite a big impact on me when I was first starting out in business/it.

"What if the real power of the Web lay not in the technology behind it, but in the profound changes it brings to the way people interact with business? And what if these changes were altering the nature of your company as profoundly as they have changed your markets? With language as sharp and compelling as its observations, www.cluetrain.com burst unexpectedly onto the scene with 95 Theses to ignite a vibrant and viral conversation, making hash of corporate assumptions about the nature of online business. Provocative, outrageous and wickedly smart, the manifesto has challenged executives from Global 1000 companies to sign-on or risk missing a genuine revolution.
Expanding on ideas and insights first nailed up on the Web, The Cluetrain show more Manifesto both signals and explores a sea change already nearing flood tide in today's wired world. Through the internet, people are discovering new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a result, markets are getting smarter faster than most companies. Whether management understands it or not, networked employees are an integral part of these borderless conversations. Today, customers and employees are communicating with each other in language that is natural, open, direct and often funny. Companies that aren't listening to these exchanges are missing a dire warning. Companies that aren't engaging in them are missing an unprecedented opportunity.
A rich tapestry of anecdotes, object lessons, parodies, insights and predictions, The Cluetrain Manifesto illustrates how the Internet has radically reframed the ""immutable laws"" of business -- and what business needs to know to weather the seismic aftershocks." show less

OK I loved it and still do. But, now we're living it and don't have time to talk or think about it. We just have to make it happen. And, boy is it a tough birthing process. It is all dated and speculative about what we now know to be true. I am excited and optimistic for the change that's coming.

A classic on the profound changes that the internet age is bringing to our life and culture, especially in the area of "business". As a bonus, you get a couple of chapter written in Weinberger's terse, wry style.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a book that was written in 2000. Although its only six years ago, this book seems ahead of its time. quite simply, Cluetrain talks the politics and ethos of web 2.0 and library 2.0.

Why I hear you ask? Or perhaps you don't. Well the Cluetrain manifesto discusses the importance of the web as a form of social networking. The four different writers of the book set up a 95 point theses, and number 9 goes as follows:-

'Networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms of social organisation and knowledge exchange to emerge.'

The Cluetrain manifesto is a very good read. Some of it is a bit 'pie in the sky' (who remembers 95 different principles?). But it does point out that social networking in bussiness is good show more and the new way of aiding business and end users.

I got this for an amazing £2.76 on Amazon
This was second hand as well. But i would highly recommend the book. show less