This post marks the first of 8 in which we’ll look at the Cluetrain Manifesto chapter by chapter. Read the Intro and Preface, along with Lindsay’s post below. Then chime in on the conversation as often as you’d like. Comments will close on Sunday, Feb. 23.  This discussion is for the graduate students in the class, but others are free to join in.

by Lindsay Kuntzman

The Cluetrain Manifesto: Preface, Foreword, Manifesto, and Introduction

The Internet has had a tremendous impact on society: individuals all over the globe can talk with one another, companies can sell their products, news can be shared, and more. The change that the Internet has brought can be seen particularly in business. The preface, foreword, manifesto, and introduction to the book, The Cluetrain Manifesto, all share two themes — the theme of people changing how business works and the theme of humanizing the voice of business.

As individuals we all have various interests. One look around Internet chat rooms, message boards, and discussion forums should reveal those differences. As a result of those differing interests, we cannot be grouped together as consumers in one mass market. Instead, niche markets or “micromarkets” have developed with the Internet increasing their development. With this growth of niche markets on the Internet, old marketing methods will not work to reach consumers.

The techniques that businesses once used for selling and marketing their products are no longer as effective with the Internet. As David Weinberger wrote for his section of the preface, “We’re not on the Web primarily to shop, to be marketed to, to receive business ‘messages,’ or to download missives from the HR Department. We’re there to invent a new world” (p. xii). For businesses, joining that new world might entail some adjustments — the typical “top-down” communication from corporate will no longer work. Instead, everyone, both outside and inside the company, has the ability to join and influence the conversation. As it was stated in the preface by Christopher Locke, “…the web has not brought… passive couch-potato consumers” (p. x).

With the Internet, individuals will no longer passively receive messages; instead, they will enter conversations. In Rick Levine’s section of the preface, he wrote, “…people talk to each other about businesses, wax enthusiastic about their loves and hates, and businesses ignore those conversations at their peril” (p. xiii). Businesses must enter the conversation — simply communicating in an asymmetrical manner and disseminating information can be detrimental. The easiest way for an organization to enter the conversation is to begin speaking in a human voice.

Too often companies use “corporate-speak” when talking with people. As the beginning of the manifesto states, “Most corporations…know how to talk…of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal” (p. xxi). But in order for companies to communicate in a human voice, it will be necessary to allow real individuals to speak for them. Businesses already have individual employees who have the ability to enter the marketplace of conversations — however, many businesses appear more comfortable putting forth their corporate messages.

In the introduction it is stated that the Internet resembles old-world bazaars. It is a place where people can go to interact with one another and hear the human voice (p. xxxi). The human voice heard around the Internet is “in sharp contrast to the…homogenized broadcast media, sterilized mass ‘culture,’ and the enforced anonymity of bureaucratic organizations” (p. xxxi). Organizations not willing to communicate in their human voices will find it difficult to connect with their key publics.

Although the Internet has changed business, it is not ìthe end of commerceî (p. xxxii). Instead, it is a chance for organizations to change and integrate themselves as a part of a consumer’s life. With regards to the two themes that emerged from these sections of the book, that humans are changing how businesses operate, and businesses must learn to speak in a human voice, I would like to pose three questions:

First, number 74 of the 95 theses is that, “We are immune to advertising. Just forget it” (p. xxvii). If we believe we are immune to advertising, will all advertising-dependent media (such as radio, magazines, broadcast television, etc.) become extinct one day?

Second, a part of number 93 of the 95 theses is, “We’re both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall today, but theyíre really just an annoyance. We know they’re coming downî (p. xxviii). With global competition, proprietary information, and the high cost of research development, how can the ‘wall’ between conversations ever come down completely?”

Finally, how can public relations practitioners help companies learn to speak in a human voice?