The Cluetrain Manifesto at 25

— and Why We Need a New One

In 1999, a friend recommended I read a book with a title that sounded almost like an inside joke: The Cluetrain Manifesto. It promised “the end of business as usual.” At the time, I was working for a small start-up web hosting company with big ideas and along with many of my contemporaries, I devoured the book within a couple of days. What I found inside reshaped my thinking about marketing, business, and what was beginning to be called “social media.”

Here’s a link to the book.

The Cluetrain Manifesto was not a manual. It was a shout. Ninety-five short theses, written in blunt, human language. Its most famous line — “markets are conversations” — has echoed through my head, boardrooms and classrooms ever since. For me, it was a door opening. Marketing wasn’t just about sending messages to passive consumers via ‘the media’. It was about people, talking, connecting, arguing, laughing and judging whether your product or service is what you say it is, or if you’re just another chancer to avoid? — just as they do in real markets.

The internet made this chatter global. At the time, it felt radical. Looking back, it feels both prophetic and strangely naïve.

What Cluetrain got right

Markets are conversations.

In the 1990s, most companies still used scripted press releases, advertisements, and annual reports. Cluetrain told them: if you don’t talk like real humans, you’ll sound irrelevant. Today, entire industries are built on this principle. Social platforms are vast conversation engines. AI-generated content aims to do just this: echo the authentic voices of the humans in the market. So, where does this leave us humans – and marketers?

Authenticity matters.

Corporate voice was not cutting it online in the late 90s. People started to expect plain speech, humour, and honesty. That’s exactly what happened. The brands we follow today are the ones that sound least like multinational companies trying to sell us products and more like our friends with helpful advice.

Communities, not just audiences.

The Cluetrain authors understood that people online would form groups with their own power. From forums to fandoms to global campaigns like #MeToo, communities became the real engines of change. Perhaps this is what could happen again in the age of AI slop, but how do we recognise the authentic human voice in all this noise?

What they missed

The commodification of conversation.

Cluetrain imagined the internet as a free bazaar of talk. They didn’t see how quickly those conversations would be harvested, repackaged and monetised.

Surveillance capitalism.

The web didn’t just give people voices; it gave companies data. Every click became part of a profile for sale.

Polarisation and toxicity.

Open dialogue didn’t just create understanding. It also created a fertile ground for trolling, division, wild conspiracy theories, and radicalisation.

AI as a participant.

They never anticipated that 25 years on, conversations wouldn’t be limited to humans. Algorithms will filter them. Bots flood them, and that AI will generate much of what humans engage with online.

Other voices of the era

Cluetrain wasn’t alone. John Perry Barlow’s “Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace“ (1996) envisioned a borderless digital utopia. Wired’s “Long Boom” (1997) promised 25 years of peace and prosperity fuelled by the net. Lawrence Lessig’s Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999) warned that “code is law.” And David Weinberger, one of the Cluetrain authors, followed up with Small Pieces Loosely Joined (2002), a gentler meditation on how the web reshapes meaning.

Seen together, these texts reveal the mood of the time: optimism, idealism, and a belief that the internet would dissolve hierarchy. Some of it came true. Some of it now looks charmingly utopian.

Why these ideas still matter today

You don’t need Cluetrain to tell you social media matters, but its value today lies in three things:

It reminds us of the ideals.

Before ad platforms and influencers, the dream was simply that people could communicate directly with each other and with companies.

It shows how visions get bent.

The journey from manifesto to market illustrates how quickly ideals are commercialised.

It asks the right question.

If markets are conversations, how do we keep those conversations meaningful when bots, algorithms, and AI noise dominate?

Cluetrain’s value now lies not in being a guidebook but in being a mirror. It shows both what we gained and what we lost.

Towards a new manifesto

Cluetrain gave us 95 theses in 1999. Twenty-five years on, the questions are sharper and the stakes higher.

If we were to write a manifesto for marketing today, it might sound like this:

20 Theses

A manifesto for marketers, businesses, and anyone trying to speak like a human in the age of machines.

Markets are still conversations — but now half the room is bots. Listen harder.
The safest-sounding voice is usually the least trusted.
Content without voice is spam.
People don’t want brands to sound human. They want humans to sound human.
“Best practice” is a shortcut to sounding like everyone else.
Platforms don’t give you communities. They rent you an audience.
Noise is infinite. Clarity is scarce. Guard it.
The algorithm is not your customer. Stop writing for it.
Trust is earned in drops, lost in buckets. One careless post can empty both.
If your words wouldn’t make sense in a pub, they won’t make sense online.
Spin is debt. Transparency is credit.
Reach is vanity. Belonging is strength.
People forgive mistakes. They don’t forgive being treated like inventory.
If AI speaks for you, you’ve already lost your voice.
Jargon is camouflage. If you’re hiding, ask why.
No one wants to “engage with content.” They want problems solved and lives improved.
Business as usual is still the enemy.
The future of marketing isn’t louder. It’s clearer.
Attention isn’t won by tricks. It’s won by truth, told well.
Don’t try to sound different. Be different.

My final thoughts

When I read The Cluetrain Manifesto in 1999, it felt like the beginning of something: a call to drop the jargon and speak like humans. Twenty-five years later, the challenge has changed. It’s not just about sounding human, but about protecting the human element in a landscape of automation, polarisation, and endless feeds.

Cluetrain promised “the end of business as usual.” Maybe the real task in 2024 and beyond is to make sure marketing doesn’t return to business as usual — only this time, dressed up in AI clothing.

That’s the unfinished manifesto. And it’s still worth writing.

Cluetrain reminded us that markets are conversations. Twenty-five years on, those conversations are more complex than ever. If your business is ready to cut through the noise and build a web presence that actually works, I’d love to help. I’ve spent two decades working with small businesses to improve search results, strengthen sales, and speak in a voice that customers trust. Get in touch for a free consultation.