Rubicon Consulting, Inc. – Our Thinking – Newsletter – Cluetrain 2007: Ten Commandments for Communicating with People Online

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Cluetrain 2007: Ten Commandments for Communicating with People Online

Seven years ago, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, and David Weinberger posted an online document called the Cluetrain Manifesto . It laid out 95 principles for communicating with customers online. The Manifesto created big stir, was signed by a lot of people working in the tech industry, and turned into a book that sold well at the height of the Internet bubble. But since then it has been largely forgotten.

Seven years later, the Manifesto is a mixed bag. Some of its maxims are seriously out of date, and a few are just plain wrong. There are also some things missing. Because the document is long, and parts of it are badly off target, we’re reluctant to refer any of our clients to it today.

However, parts of the Manifesto are just plain brilliant, and deserve to be spray-painted on the walls of corporations around the world.

So here’s our take on the most important rules for people who communicate with customers online, combining our own thinking with the best of the Cluetrain. Think of it as Eau de Cluetrain , or perhaps…

Ten Commandments for Communicating with People Online

1. Engage, don’t sell. Traditional marketing is a lecture. Whether it’s TV ads, magazine spreads, product placement in movies, skywriting, whatever…communication flows one way, from advertiser to consumer. The Internet changes that. Online, almost all communication can be two-way. You create a banner ad and people click on it, you post a blog and people ask questions.

This creates a profound change in marketing. When there wasn’t any alternative to one-way marketing, people put up with it. But now that there’s an opportunity to communicate two-way, it’s incredibly rude to stay one-way.

A lot of companies have trouble understanding ...

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