I had a fun (for me, at least) Twitter debate this Monday with CRM consultant Brian Vellmure. Brian made the mistake of touting one of my least-favorite books of all time – The Cluetrain Manifesto – as a ‘must read’, to which I objected.
Why?
Because while the fundamental premise of Cluetrain – that increasingly-networked customers will communicate with each other – is a no-brainer; the conclusion and prescription – that ‘everything has changed’ and that companies need to invest heavily in ‘dialogue’ (or ‘community’ or ‘Social Media’) to ‘engage’ in those dialogues, is simply not correct – and leads companies down the path of investing and focusing on the wrong things.
Certainly there’s nothing wrong with building a community – nor is there anything wrong with serving healthy food in your cafeteria or having a fichus tree in your lobby.
But your Social Media strategy is not a competitive advantage – and it’s not a competitive disadvantage if you don’t do it.
I cited Apple as an example. Apple is about as ‘open’ as East Germany, Steve Jobs doesn’t blog, and the company is notorious for command-and-control management. Yet for some strange reason, customers keep lining up to buy their products.
Why? Great marketing (albeit not ‘social’ marketing – just the opposite) – and great products.
Brian in turn suggested that Apple’s model is ‘not sustainable’. I disagree.
Interested in what others think. Am I wrong? Is my skepticism misplaced?
And Brian – thanks for engaging. I like you – but I still don’t like the book.
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