Livingston

Dec
20
2007

Cluetrain Manifesto versus Cult of the Amateur

Yesterday on Now Is Gone, I recommended five books (in addition to the text of the same name).  Two of them were diametrically opposed books, the Cluetrain Manifesto and the Cult of the Amateur.

It’s hard to escape the influence of these two books. This video discusses the two books and includes interviews with Chris Brogan and Doug Haslam. I met Chris and Doug at the Social Media Breakfast IV in Boston. Thanks to Bryan Person for having me.



And from the book review on Now Is Gone:

You can’t market in social media environments without reading the Cluetrain Manifesto. It’s the dream of the new conversation, the heart and soul of every blogger and socially engaged individual. It understands the spirit of new media environments, and makes some pointed comments about marketing to people instead of the masses.

Yet at the same time, Cluetrain is flawed in that it represents an ideal, a beautiful one, but one that may not be obtained. Of particular relevance to marketers are the passages by Christopher Locke and Doc Searls.

This next one pained me. I really didn’t want to recommend it as Keen’s reactionary prose often reads like neo-conservative rants from Pat Buchanan. At times his hypocritical depiction of web 2.0 users as monkeys reminded me of Joseph Goebbels.

Yet this book does finally cede that web 2.0 will not go away, and that a balance will need to be struck with traditional media. That’s why I recommended Keen’s book. Because old media is not going to go away, and eventually the social media trend will level off, creating a need to integrate outreach across both forms. Somewhere between Cluetrain and Keen lies the end result. Readers who find Keen’s kvetching to be tiresome should just skip to the final chapter on solutions. I wish I had.

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by Geoff Livingston | Interviews |

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