Seems the first thesis* of The Cluetrain Manifesto is still relevant, eight years later, as Jeremy Pepper reports in one of a few posts from what appears to be a marketing conference of some sort. But there’s apparently still plenty of clueless marketers out there.
[David] Weinberger [one of the four original Cluetrain authors]: I always see senior people think that they can do the work of marketing, because they do not understand the real value of marketing. There is an uptake of “markets are conversations” and done with enthusiasm, but my blood curdles because marketers have trouble entering the conversation. It’s hard for them to be the bloggers, because it is hard for CEOs and marketers to be bloggers, because they have been trained to talk one way, have an interest in presenting the conversation in one way. Marketers are trying to figure out a way into the conversation, and the first instinct is to talk – they want to bring the conversation in, but it’s going on already on the outside.
* markets are conversations
Andy writes! 