Attempting to change traditional business practices, The Cluetrain Manifesto has helped organizations withstand the new-wave digital generation. It is a compilation of ideas and theories about the Internets impact on society, more specifically business, and informally gives insight into the world of e-commerce. The manifesto’s four authors have offered ideas about the role consumer’s play in the larger-scale marketplace and suggest that amendments must be made to any organization ready to take on the digital world. The introduction of the Internet has networked consumers into a web of interconnectivity and businesses must account for an unlimited access of knowledge.
Chapter 2 opens with the following rhetorical question. “We know telephones are for talking with people, televisions are for watching programs and highways are for driving. So what’s the Web for?” I once learned in another media class at Lehigh that the Internet gives people the opportunity to choose what they want to read, when they want to read it, giving consumers the ability to avoid entire categories and topics if need be. The Internet has given the public more independence and freedom in terms of content consumption. Consequently, the Web promotes customizability. Users have the ability to shape content, and become an integral part of the ever-growing, ever-evolving world that is the Internet. About 10 years ago, when The Cluetrain Manifesto was first published and released, usability and participation on the Web had not nearly peaked the way it has now.
Since the rise of the Internet, reader discussion and participation has increased tremendously. People are more likely to post their own input, feedback, and information on the Web, generating extended discussion and multiplying consumer’s informational in-take. Easy-to-use forums such as Blogger, Twitter, and YouTube among others, have enabled consumers to become producers of information and open up conversations globally.
“Blogs are one element of the conversational landscape we foresaw when we wrote Cluetrain, but social networking on the scale we see today was just a hazy premonition. In hindsight, one of the keys to accelerating the social changes we described in Cluetrain has been reducing or eliminating barriers to entry, reducing friction stopping people from participating in conversations.”
I could not agree more with the idea to eliminate barriers of entry. Ideally, everyone will one day have access to the Web, taking the global network even further and ultimately changing the way business is run. Twitter is the perfect example of participating in a continuous, worldwide conversation, thus expanding the marketplace of ideas and changing business forever. In just 140 characters, people are given the opportunity to express themselves freely, in a never-ending conversation. Twitter led to a transformation in the business world, specifically in terms of promotion. The site can essentially be used for self-promotion, community relations, crisis management, business promotion, and public relations. Today, a majority of companies have a social media department, where their sole job is to promote their company through technological means. Social Media, specifically Twitter, has transformed communication into a real-time conversation.
Chapter 5 of the Cluetrain Manifesto goes deeper into the characteristics of the Web, specifically discussing the structure and navigation. According to a list featured in the book, the Web can be described as hyperlinked, decentralized, and open and direct. The Web occurs in “hyper time,” contains rich data, and is without borders or boundaries. Although all characteristics are important to make note of, I think the one worth mentioning is the idea that the Web is hyperlinked, which is changing and transforming business rapidly.
In an anecdote featured on page 199, a hyperlinked organization is seen in action. Described, is a sales representative with a customer who is having problems with a product. Unfortunately, the sales representative does not know how to fix it and thus goes outside her normal network to seek help. Through e-mail, and other research tools found on the Web, she was able to find the necessary solution to alleviate the customer’s problem.
“As organizations become hyperlinked, they spawn hyperlinked committees, hyperlinked task forces, hyperlinked affiliations, hyperlinked interest groups, hyperlinked communities, hyperlinked cheering squads, hyperlinked pen pals, and hyperlinked attitudes. Humans seem to fill up every available social niche just as nature itself abhors an ecological vacuum.”
Hyperlinking has created a world of interconnectivity, affording consumers unlimited knowledge. The Cluetrain Manifesto says it perfectly in that “A page with no links is literally a dead end on the Web.” Today, almost everything online is hyperlinked, and I could not agree with the book more, in that all companies and businesses should learn from the successes seen on the Web, and transform their networks into hyperlinked organizations.
The Cluetrain Manifesto was an eye-opener in terms of business and marketing and more specifically how we, consumers, play such a large role. Prior to reading the book, I had little insight into the effects the Internet would have on industry in general. Now, I understand the importance of interconnectivity and personalization, which in my opinion is what the Web is primarily based around.
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