Its ethos describes an attitudinal shift in our culture that IMHO reaches beyond the internet and has implications for all aspects of business – not just sales & marketing.

Its contents will date, of course – but the authors will remain relevant in the context of the period.

Those interested in applying this kind of enlightened thinking to organisational design should also read Maverick by Ricardo Semler (another great older book).

Its ethos describes an attitudinal shift in our culture that IMHO reaches beyond the internet and has implications for all aspects of business – not just sales & marketing.

Its contents will date, of course – but the authors will remain relevant in the context of the period.

Those interested in applying this kind of enlightened thinking to organisational design should also read Maverick by Ricardo Semler (another great older book).

1. I’ve skimmed through the list of ideas in the Manifesto, but haven’t taken the time to read it yet. I will during the next month or so. I had heard of it before reading your blog post, when it was referred to at Remarkablogger a couple of months ago.

2. and 3. The only answer I can give here is that people are still talking about the Manifesto, so it does have some lasting impact.

1. I’ve skimmed through the list of ideas in the Manifesto, but haven’t taken the time to read it yet. I will during the next month or so. I had heard of it before reading your blog post, when it was referred to at Remarkablogger a couple of months ago.

2. and 3. The only answer I can give here is that people are still talking about the Manifesto, so it does have some lasting impact.

If you had posted this before 3/24/08, I would have said, “Yes, I heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto, but I am sick of all these thinly disguised sales pitches (i.e. The Internet Business Manifesto, the Death of AdSense).”
I had not realized that it was a ten-year old document.

However, on 3/24/08, I made my own dead tree copy and got a clue.

Believe it or not, many of these 95 points are part of the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Sales Rep certification program! Sadly, many radio ad reps ignore these precepts in the name of sales goals.

I believe that you are misinterpreting your graph. Remember the “S” curve?
You know it takes time for paradigm shifts to reach critical mass. After all, at the time of my comment, I was only the 222nd respondent.

Cut yourself some slack, and check out why I think Cluetrain will rumble on for the next ten years:

2. Is Cluetrain relevant today?
Sales and Marketing are symbiotic systems that continue to evolve.
The common ancestor of every phase of customer acquisition is the so-called door-to-door salesman.

During each epoch, new strains of this beast branched off and tried to survive in the wild. Who else remembers the carpet-bombing vacuum cleaner salesman?
His branch evolved into the highly sophisticated infomercial spokesperson?

How about the Avon Lady calling? She and her kin now do home parties, network marketing and direct sales online.

What prompted the evolutionary changes? I believe three things:
Attention Span, Consumer Awareness, Disposable Income. Of these three, only Attention Span has decreased, making it more challenging for the marketer to grab mind-share (branding).

Consumer Awareness evolves right along with every other human endeavor. This is the reason that scams eventually die, greedy companies fail and black-hat SEO gives only short-term gains. Marketers who relied solely on product-centric themes found their trumpet calls falling on deafened ears.

Increase in Disposable Income is the honeycomb. No marketer wastes time peddling his wares to folks who can’t afford them. (Let’s leave aside one nasty strain: the predator.) Yet, marketers who focus on the honeycomb without regarding the bees risk getting stung.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is the marketer’s analog to the beekeeper’s smoker. Calm the customers by showing that you care.

#78 sums it up nicely: “You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.”
Ironically, the Attention Deficit seems to apply to marketers as well, as they flit from tactic to tactic, disregarding long-term strategies.

3. Have the authors diminished in authority or will this always be a positive legacy?

Who knows where evolution will lead? Consumerism could be short-circuited by any number of tangential systems. An upsurge in spiritualism could relegate materialism to the dark closet of long-forgotten acquisitions.
Materials themselves could dwindle to the point that unnecessary production will cease.

On the other hand, a period of enlightenment could open the door to a new kind of supply and demand dynamic that is not based on wealth-building, but on interdependency building, a sort of idealized socialistic economy.

But, we live for today.

And the Cluetrain still leads the way!

Cheers,

Mitch

If you had posted this before 3/24/08, I would have said, “Yes, I heard of the Cluetrain Manifesto, but I am sick of all these thinly disguised sales pitches (i.e. The Internet Business Manifesto, the Death of AdSense).”
I had not realized that it was a ten-year old document.

However, on 3/24/08, I made my own dead tree copy and got a clue.

Believe it or not, many of these 95 points are part of the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Sales Rep certification program! Sadly, many radio ad reps ignore these precepts in the name of sales goals.

I believe that you are misinterpreting your graph. Remember the “S” curve?
You know it takes time for paradigm shifts to reach critical mass. After all, at the time of my comment, I was only the 222nd respondent.

Cut yourself some slack, and check out why I think Cluetrain will rumble on for the next ten years:

2. Is Cluetrain relevant today?
Sales and Marketing are symbiotic systems that continue to evolve.
The common ancestor of every phase of customer acquisition is the so-called door-to-door salesman.

During each epoch, new strains of this beast branched off and tried to survive in the wild. Who else remembers the carpet-bombing vacuum cleaner salesman?
His branch evolved into the highly sophisticated infomercial spokesperson?

How about the Avon Lady calling? She and her kin now do home parties, network marketing and direct sales online.

What prompted the evolutionary changes? I believe three things:
Attention Span, Consumer Awareness, Disposable Income. Of these three, only Attention Span has decreased, making it more challenging for the marketer to grab mind-share (branding).

Consumer Awareness evolves right along with every other human endeavor. This is the reason that scams eventually die, greedy companies fail and black-hat SEO gives only short-term gains. Marketers who relied solely on product-centric themes found their trumpet calls falling on deafened ears.

Increase in Disposable Income is the honeycomb. No marketer wastes time peddling his wares to folks who can’t afford them. (Let’s leave aside one nasty strain: the predator.) Yet, marketers who focus on the honeycomb without regarding the bees risk getting stung.

The Cluetrain Manifesto is the marketer’s analog to the beekeeper’s smoker. Calm the customers by showing that you care.

#78 sums it up nicely: “You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.”
Ironically, the Attention Deficit seems to apply to marketers as well, as they flit from tactic to tactic, disregarding long-term strategies.

3. Have the authors diminished in authority or will this always be a positive legacy?

Who knows where evolution will lead? Consumerism could be short-circuited by any number of tangential systems. An upsurge in spiritualism could relegate materialism to the dark closet of long-forgotten acquisitions.
Materials themselves could dwindle to the point that unnecessary production will cease.

On the other hand, a period of enlightenment could open the door to a new kind of supply and demand dynamic that is not based on wealth-building, but on interdependency building, a sort of idealized socialistic economy.

But, we live for today.

And the Cluetrain still leads the way!

Cheers,

Mitch

Is Cluetrain relevant today? – Definitely.

Have the authors diminished in authority or will this always be a positive legacy? : I believe this will always be a positive legacy… even if it becomes irrelevant down the road.. which I doubt would ever happen.

Is Cluetrain relevant today? – Definitely.

Have the authors diminished in authority or will this always be a positive legacy? : I believe this will always be a positive legacy… even if it becomes irrelevant down the road.. which I doubt would ever happen.

while I’m amazed that so many people in the online business haven’t read it, I’m not surprised.

In 1999/2000 a blindman successfully sued IBM and the Olympics Organising Committee for not having an accessible website. This was regarded as a legal precedent and reported all around the world.

Last year Target was taken to Court for pretty much the same thing.

What concerns me is that so many people entering the industry have no idea how we got here and the “groundrules” that are already in place thru hard won experience. (Groundrules is a poor choice of word I know, but I couldn’t think of another one quickly.)

I can’t think of any other profession where you can start practising without knowing what came before.

It’d be be like a doctor not knowing about penicillin, an architect not knowing the basics of how to keep a building up, or a lawyer not knowing legal history.

The net has been around long enough for there to be case history and precedent, but it is continually ignored.

while I’m amazed that so many people in the online business haven’t read it, I’m not surprised.

In 1999/2000 a blindman successfully sued IBM and the Olympics Organising Committee for not having an accessible website. This was regarded as a legal precedent and reported all around the world.

Last year Target was taken to Court for pretty much the same thing.

What concerns me is that so many people entering the industry have no idea how we got here and the “groundrules” that are already in place thru hard won experience. (Groundrules is a poor choice of word I know, but I couldn’t think of another one quickly.)

I can’t think of any other profession where you can start practising without knowing what came before.

It’d be be like a doctor not knowing about penicillin, an architect not knowing the basics of how to keep a building up, or a lawyer not knowing legal history.

The net has been around long enough for there to be case history and precedent, but it is continually ignored.

I haven’t read it and haven’t been insprited to.

I’d be motivated to perhaps if you quoted some stuff that convinced there were insights still relevant (I haven’t read it so don’t know).

It seems to me that almost all the IM stuff is founded on old ideas. This is not a criticism, just pointing out that a new medium for communication doesn’t change much. Comments aren’t all that different to talk back radio. Long sales letters (which I find intensely annoying and immediately click past) are taken directly from snail mail. Word of mouth is hardly a new concept. Getting attention (Seth Godin’s point – and one whose importance is hard to underestimate) is as old as advertising or even story-telling.

So there’s lots of hype talked about this stuff, but in practice I don’t see anything much different.

In brief: I’m a skeptic.

I haven’t read it and haven’t been insprited to.

I’d be motivated to perhaps if you quoted some stuff that convinced there were insights still relevant (I haven’t read it so don’t know).

It seems to me that almost all the IM stuff is founded on old ideas. This is not a criticism, just pointing out that a new medium for communication doesn’t change much. Comments aren’t all that different to talk back radio. Long sales letters (which I find intensely annoying and immediately click past) are taken directly from snail mail. Word of mouth is hardly a new concept. Getting attention (Seth Godin’s point – and one whose importance is hard to underestimate) is as old as advertising or even story-telling.

So there’s lots of hype talked about this stuff, but in practice I don’t see anything much different.

In brief: I’m a skeptic.

I didn’t agree with their take on everything but it did help me get a better sense of perspective – and an awareness of context, history and underpinning values.

Joanna

I didn’t agree with their take on everything but it did help me get a better sense of perspective – and an awareness of context, history and underpinning values.

Joanna

I haven’t read it yet. Being a programmer by trade I barely ever read old documents, because within a year they are no longer relevant in this industry.

It sounds like the cluetrain was very innovative at the time it was published, and may still be relevant today. However, having not read it my question is:

“Would I learn anything new by reading it or has everything in the cluetrain already been discussed to death online and offline since it’s release?”

PS. I understand there is value in reading older books, but as it is I don’t have time to read all the excellent current marketing information being produced. It would have to contain something AMAZING that I have never read before to make it on my TODO list.

I haven’t read it yet. Being a programmer by trade I barely ever read old documents, because within a year they are no longer relevant in this industry.

It sounds like the cluetrain was very innovative at the time it was published, and may still be relevant today. However, having not read it my question is:

“Would I learn anything new by reading it or has everything in the cluetrain already been discussed to death online and offline since it’s release?”

PS. I understand there is value in reading older books, but as it is I don’t have time to read all the excellent current marketing information being produced. It would have to contain something AMAZING that I have never read before to make it on my TODO list.