I’ve just been revisiting The Cluetrain Manifesto as part of the book I’m writing on social media ROI.
Some of the original 95 theses are thus:
2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors;
3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice;
4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives, dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is typically open, natural, uncontrived;
5. People recognise each other as such from the sound of this voice;
32. Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language;
75. If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it something interesting for a change.
It’s amazing how prescient those theses were.
Now that Facebook seemingly rules the online world, the need to engage with audiences in a human voice, not a corporate one, is more important than ever.
I get asked many times at the workshops and seminars I run how a business can build an audience. The answer is simple: be interesting and interested. It’s simple conversational etiquette: the more interested in others you are, the more they will come to see you as a friend not a foe. Find out about your audience’s fears, their frustrations, their failures, their successes, their dreams, their day-to-day experience.
The more you know the more you can tailor something to help them achieve more or solve their problems.
They’d be willing to pay you for that.
image taken from http://brucemctague.com/interested-not-interesting