Helping Businesses Catch the Cluetrain
Back in the misty reaches of time — just before the last millennium turned, to be precise — four smart people got together to write about the growing gap between companies and markets. The result was called "The Cluetrain Manifesto", a cogent and plainly-written set of theses about how the Internet changes some of the fundamental behaviors of markets.
While I would like to think that many of the manifesto's theses are widely understood, I am consistently proven wrong.
For example, some time ago I wrote a simple post about how I was looking for a Free Software/Open Source analog for Basecamp. A few years later, this is one of the most visited posts on my blog — I guess that many other people are looking for the same thing.
As a result of the moderately high Google rank of the post, I get a message every month or so encouraging me to try some random proprietary software as a service offering. Just today I received a message from the marketing manager for the Projjex Software Corporation. The message read as follows:
I read your blog on Basecamp with interest. We have just launched an innovative online service called Projjex (at www.projjex.com) that I think you'll find interesting.
Projjex is a web-based collaborative task manager that helps small teams share their work. Teams can share tasks, documents, notes, meetings and time. It's easy to use, runs completely in a browser, and has a fully functional free version.
Our customers are loving it!
It is very clear that this person either A.) did not read the post, B.) did not understand the post or C.) didn't realize (or perhaps care) that their message wasn't on target.
In any case, it is still an instance of someone needing to take more responsibility in how they perform their job. Each time you send a message out on behalf of your company — especially if you send the message out to an audience that is highly networked and where individual members of that audience may have more visibility on the Web than your entire company — you need to ensure that you are sending an appropriate message.
Like most of us, I receive a large amount of unsolicited bulk e-mail that I can't do a great deal about – I can use spam filtering solutions, participate in blacklists, contribute to anti-spam efforts, etc. However, when I receive what amounts to junk mail from a company that has some reputation at stake, I think that I (and others) can do a great deal to help encourage these companies to communicate more responsibly.
A simple approach could be to maintain an archive of ill-conceived marketing messages, along with recommendations on improving the messaging so that it might actually engage the people who want the relevant offering.
The website that the archive lives on could also include a feature to "Cluetrain" a company: that is to enable registered users to publish an open letter in response to a given marketing or public relations message. A collection of form letters would be prepared in order to help maintain a professional tone and to save people time. Given a feature like this, it would be easy to see how often a company gets cluetrained and if they have already been cluetrained for a given issue. It would also provide a valuable feedback mechanism for communications professionals who want to up their game.
Hrm. The more that I think about it, the more that I like the idea. I think that I'll put something online in the next few weeks.
Tags: Chris Locke, Cluetrain, Cluetrain Manifesto, David Weinberger, Doc Searls, Free Software, Google, marketing, Miscellaneous, Open Source, PR, public relations, Rick Locke, wiki, WikipediaRelated posts
Posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 20:55
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