Having a natter - the social web
The whole social media hype has been puzzling us of late. In that: we can't work out why there's any hype about it.
It all seems so self-evident, y'know, the whole buzz about 'the web as a social medium' thing. Of course it's a social medium: it's the most public facet of a communications technology: the Internet. It's whole raison d’être is to allow people to talk! Sounds awfully social to us.
Maybe the confusion has arisen because it's social activity mediated by a keyboard and a screen, instead of drinks at a bar; or it might be that it was invented by geeks, who are meant to be uncommunicative and socially awkward.
Whatever, there are a lot of people in the marketing industry and business wondering how to understand the rise of the web as a social space for all of us, not just the geeks. We recommend reading 'The cluetrain manifesto'.
It was a big hit among the online crowd about 10 years ago. It's not about how to construct a Twitter strategy, more one of how to think about the 'net. Oh, and it's free to read it online. A quick quote:
"Through the Internet, the people in your markets are discovering and inventing new ways to converse. They're talking about your business. They're telling one another the truth, in very human voices...
...You have two choices. You can continue to lock yourself behind facile corporate words and happytalk brochures.
Or you can join the conversation."How current does that sound?
http://www.cluetrain.com/book/index.html
