The Cluetrain Manifesto

The End of Business as Usual

by Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger

Perseus © 2000
190 pages

Focus Take-Aways
Leadership
• The Internet changes everything.
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
• Markets began as conversations.
Corporate Finance
Human Resources
• The Internet turns marketing into a conversation again.
Technology
Production & Logistics • The Internet subverts hierarchies.
Small Business
Economics & Politics • Online markets are very different from mass markets.
Industries & Regions
Career Development • Companies need to gain a sense of humor.
Personal Finance
Self Improvement
• A sense of humor involves humility, honesty, values and a point of view.
Ideas & Trends
• Companies are afraid.

• Fear keeps companies at a distance from their customers.

• The Internet forces companies to get intimate with their customers.

Rating (10 is best)

Overall Applicability Innovation Style

9 8 10 10

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 Relevance
What You Will Learn
In this Abstract, you will learn: 1) How the Internet has broken mass markets into
individual conversations; 2) Why your company consequently must create intimate
relationships with communities of your customers; and 3) Why the Web is subversive,
unless you use it correctly.

Recommendation
The Cluetrain Manifesto was one of the seminal books of the dot.com bubble era, but
reading it now is like waking with a hangover and looking at all of the empty bottles, each
of which seemed like a great idea at the time. The Internet changed everything, all right.
Those who can bite back the irony long enough to see the big picture and keep reading
will find some valuable practical advice on using the now-not-so-new-technology of the
Web to do business more effectively. getAbstract.com recommends this pivotal book for
the sake of your sense of perspective (or to give you a critically necessary background if
you are too young to remember when Amazon was just a river).

Abstract
Turning Marketing Back into a Conversation
Markets are nothing more or less than conversations among human beings with human
voices. Voices come naturally and sound natural. People who hear a voice can recognize
that the speaker is a human being. By contrast, mass marketing is not a conversation —
“No one’s asking it is an address. The Internet restores the element of human conversation to marketing.
you to decide if This fact has several consequences:
you want to run
your business
• “Hyperlinks subvert hierarchies,” so conversations join people in new ways.
using the Web. It’s
a done deal.” • People use the Internet to get information from each other instead of from vendors.
• Companies can and must communicate conversationally with their markets.
• Positioning means taking a position, reflecting values the market cares about.
• The Internet allows customers to find new suppliers instantaneously.
• To develop loyal customers, companies must join the customers’ communities.
• Employees also use the Internet to communicate.
• As a result, corporations (and unions) can no longer control information.
• A healthy Intranet makes it possible for workers to organize in new ways.
“There are no
secrets. The net- Companies that fail to grasp the implications of the market as conversation will surely
worked market
knows more than
stumble. Old-fashioned command-and-control management just won’t work in the new
companies do wired world. Whether addressing customers or employees or a wider audience, company
about their own leaders have to recognize that a company isn’t what it used to be. In the brave new world
products. And of the Internet, companies are little more than legal fictions. Although the legal fiction
whether the news
is good or bad, may have legal significance, it usually has no practical identity. The people who use its
they tell everyone.” products or services don’t care about the legal status of the entity with which they deal
— people only care about people. Markets are conversations. Companies have a choice
— lock themselves off behind a wall of corporate rhetoric, brochures and outmoded,
mass-market communications — or come down to earth and talk to people directly, by
participating in the great, networked conversation of the market.
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 The Bizarre Bazaar of the Internet
The Internet is not a mass market. It’s more like an ancient bazaar. It’s full of
entertainment, talk, argument, oddball spontaneity and strange, colorful characters. The
“Elvis said it best: Internet is a creative force because it allows so many things to happen, so many people
‘We can’t go on to come together just to play. The World Wide Web encourages freedom.
together with sus-
picious minds’.”
Many companies are afraid of the Internet, recognizing that change threatens their
control. But there’s no rolling back the tide of change. The Internet is a global force.
Interestingly enough, it became arguably the most important force affecting business
precisely because business ignored it for so long. Executives and managers did not build
the Internet. Creative people did it by playing with ideas and possibilities, by asking
“What if?” and trying the “if” to find out what happened. The Internet was a big forum
with no censors, no barriers to conversation, and — for a long time — no advertising.
In the early days, the Internet wasn’t even illustrated. It had no pictures. The closest
people came to images were little drawings made out of ASCII characters. Without the
“Command-and- richness and texture of multimedia, what did the Internet offer that kept people coming
control manage- back: simply speech — the opportunity to converse. Although there were no official
ment styles both
derive from and gatekeepers, the community of people following a conversation did not suffer fools
reinforce bureau- gladly. Anyone with a weak argument, poor mind or flaccid commitment could expect to
cracy, power trip- be “flamed” severely. This imposed a sort of discipline on the net, the kind of discipline
ping and an overall
culture of para-
that demanded the best conversation people could provide.
noia.”
Television was a deadening, mind-numbing force that congealed people into a
homogenous mass. The Internet was just the opposite — when Joe Six-Pack came online,
he woke up. He got savvy, learned how to question, how to get information, how to turn
the tables on the corporation. The Internet connects people, not to a stream of corporate
marketing material, but to each other. By bringing them together, allowing them to talk
to and learn from each other, the Internet empowers people, rendering the old principles
of mass production, mass marketing and mass media obsolete.
But most companies haven’t got a clue. They approach the Internet audience as an
“Paranoia kills undifferentiated mass market, which it is not. Business is now more about differences than
conversation. similarity, diversity instead of conformity, heterogeneity instead of homogeneity, breaking
That’s its point.
But lack of open
rules instead of making them. It’s more important to be first than be right. The best is
conversation kills the enemy of the good — the perfect is the enemy of the better. The Internet demands
companies.” the truth. People can’t be packaged. Companies need to understand that the Internet is
not a collection of market segments, but a loose coalition of communities and “knowledge
ecologies.” In the old days, companies broadcast a message. Now, they must learn to invite
people to participate in a conversation. Companies must make themselves inviting.
The old concept of a corporate voice, booming out obtuse jargon and impenetrable spin,
is dead. Clear, firm nouns and verbs must replace the fuzzy, inflated vocabulary that
has leached the meaning out of business conversations. Don’t say that you deliver an
‘equitable internal system of salary increments;’ say that you pay your employees fairly.
“There are two Don’t claim to ‘maximize inherent customer variables,’ when you mean that you work
conversations
going on. One
hard to connect with individual consumers.
inside the com-
pany. One with Your new corporate voice must be genuine. The best place for your customers to hear this
the market.” true voice is on your company’s website. In that forum, you must demonstrate clarity,
honesty, intensity and passionate interest in your consumers. The mere appearance of
friendly warmth won’t sustain the conversation you are seeking. If you want to look like
The Cluetrain Manifesto © Copyright 2003 getAbstract 3 of 5
 you care, you must act with real caring. Through your website, hear and respond to your
customers, join their core communities and build trusting relationships. If you lie in this
“In most cases, setting, you will be on the receiving end of the commercial equivalent of lying to your
neither conversa- spouse: market rejection. The truth, and nothing but the truth, will work for you today.
tion is going very
well. Almost invari- Customers demand more of companies now, and so do employees. Corporate intranets
ably, the cause of
are an internal force for revolutionary change. Most executives don’t know how to
failure can be
traced to obsolete harness the potential power of “internal anarchy.” Empowerment comes from the bottom
notions of com- up, not from the top down. Thus, it is a mistake to believe in management, a kind of
mand and control.” twentieth century myth. It is a comforting myth. People who believe it can believe that
risk is low, because someone is managing risk. They can believe that things will go
smoothly, because they are being managed. They can believe that life is fair, because
someone is managing for fairness.
The myth of management is relatively new. For most of history, people assumed
that chaos was the rule and control was the exception. The truth is, for most of
history, people were right. No one can really manage a business. Executives can run
a business, but they can’t manage it. Too many things are uncontrollable: competitors
“Smart companies
will get out of the
may cut prices, a big customer may fail and global economic forces may overthrow the
way and help the foundations of your business plan.
inevitable to
happen sooner.” The management myth gave rise to a management culture, which included
professionalism. Professionalism demanded a certain uniformity in dress, a certain
posture and a certain internal censorship to prevent unacceptable jokes and
conversations. To keep their jobs, people abided by the conventions of professionalism.
But they resented the demand for conformity, a demand that they give up their unique
voices or their identities. Nothing is more fundamental to your identity than your voice.
Your voice is more than the sound that comes out of your mouth. It is your choice of
words, your tone, your mood, your enthusiasm — it is the expression of who you are
“Markets do not and what you feel at any given point in time.
want to talk to
flacks and huck-
sters. They want The myth of management and the culture of professionalism suppressed people’s voices.
to participate in It couldn’t eliminate them, but it drove them underground. The Web restores the public’s
the conversations voices. Although people may still have to abide by certain professional constraints while
going on behind
the corporate fire-
they are in the workplace, the Web allows them an opportunity to get together away
wall.” from the workplace. People may be physical conformists in the workplace, but spiritual
anarchists on the Web. On the Web, you can say things you can’t say in the office, and
people will listen to your voice. And talk back. And the conversation will make you free.
The Web will make you free.

Any customer or employee can use the Internet to communicate instantly with thousands
of others. Discontented customers can let lots of other prospective customers know
right away what they think about your company. Ditto disgruntled employees. You can’t
“As markets, as control what people say about you.
workers, we won-
der why you’re
The first markets, those ancient bazaars, were full of talk and conversation. People
not listening. You
seem to be speak- got together spontaneously. The Internet has restored conversation to marketing. The
ing a different lan- “Message” — one-way communication — was an attribute of mass marketing. But
guage.” people don’t want messages; they want conversations. Ironically, marketing has mainly
been about sending messages to people who don’t want them, don’t want to pay attention
and don’t care. Marketing has become a cat-and-mouse game. People try to discover
The Cluetrain Manifesto © Copyright 2003 getAbstract 4 of 5
 ways to escape the messages that marketers keep trying to deliver. The Web allows the
mice to turn the tables on the cat. People can take control of the message, so they can
scrutinize it, discuss it, dissect it, ridicule it and play with it. The Web is a subversive
“The inflated self- force not only because it allows people to talk about products and experiences, but
important jargon also because it allows them to compare a company’s performance with its messages —
you sling around
— in the press, at publicly, mercilessly and continuously. For companies, this means:
your conferences
— what’s that got • Public relations become private relations — Instead of pushing out hype that journalists
to do with us?” ignore, the best PR professionals will provide information and stories journalists want.
• Advertising is now “Word of Web” — Ads don’t work on the Web; conversations do,
so make sure your websites allow dialogue.
• Be what you say you are — You might as well. Your employees are part of the big
conversation, whether you like it or not. You can’t stop even the lowliest clerk from
joining a mailing list or a newsgroup and answering someone’s question or com-
plaint. Everyone can see you as you are, and you can’t get away with lying.

What makes the Web so different and so powerful?

“We want you to • The Web is hyperlinked — Anyone can link anything to anything else on the Web,
drop your trip, without asking permission. So the Web is constantly evolving and uncontrollable.
come out of your
neurotic self-
• The Web is decentralized — Nobody is in charge here.
involvement, join • The Web works in hyper time — People visit it when they please, and move around
the party.” it on their own time.
• The Web is open — Anyone can come to the Web.
• The Web is direct — People can talk directly to each other, without intermediaries.
• The Web is a rich source — Information is abundant and accessible.
• The Web is broken — And, no one will ever “fix” it. It is big, complex and unman-
ageable, so how could it be anything but broken, and how could it ever be fixed?
• The Web is borderless — It has no passports, customs checks or clear property rights.

So what do you do about all of this? Try to be honest. Don’t try to snow your customers
or your employees. Be human. Play. And remember — the Internet changes everything.

About The Author

Rick Levine is co-founder of WordofMouth.com and a former web architect for Sun
Microsystems’ Java Software group. Christopher Locke publishes Entropy Gradient
Reversals and has written for Forbes, Internet World, Information Week and The Industry
Standard. Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal and co-founder of a Silicon Valley
advertising agency. David Weinberger is editor of JOHO (Journal of the Hyperlinked
Organization) and has written for Wired, Information Week and The New York Times.

Buzz-Words
Cluetrain / Hyper time / Hyperlinked / Private relations

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