The Cluetrain Manifesto (10th Anniversary Edition)

Hypertext is inherently nonhierarchical and antibureaucratic. It does not reinforce loyalty and obedience; it encourages idle speculation and loose talk. It encourages stories.

When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked marketplace.

Companies attempting to “position” themselves need to take a position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market actually cares about.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.

We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules to slow us down.

Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

Your tired notions of “the market” make our eyes glaze over. We don’t recognize ourselves in your projections—perhaps because we know we’re already elsewhere. 72. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are creating it.

Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.

They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.