I spent all day in a conference celebrating the 10th anniversary of “The Cluetrain Manifesto,” a document written at the beginning of the Internet Revolution that predicted huge changes in marketing ahead. The central tenet of the Manifesto was that, empowered by the Internet, customers had wrested control from vendors, and all markets had become conversations. Think Yelp., or even Angie’s List, which has begun to rate doctors as well as plumbers and painters.

If markets are conversations, and depend on relationships, how are we doing? Let me take it back a step. Who *are* our customers? Are they the consumers who come to our site to find out where to take their recyclables? Or are they the governmental entities that contribute to the database, updating it and making it possible for us to make the claim that we have the biggest, best, database on recycling and product stewardship in the nation? Or are they the companies who license our content, our database, or our brand to further their sustainability initiatives.

Obviously, they are all our customers. And I don’t think we are listening to their conversations hard enough. For example, I believe we need a social network to listen to our government partners, and a real blog to encouarge conversations with our users (although we’ve begun that process on Facebook and Twitter.)

And what about the people who actually pay us?  What is our method for dialoguing with them?

We have a long way to go in our conversations. People of Earth911: where do we start? We are behind the power curve in participating in the online conversation. I think we’re fine on the phone, but our customers are also online.

Comments? Suggestions?

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