Many of the 95 Theses resonated with me since the majority of them were about “sticking it to the man” and going against the hierarchical norm of the business structure since the unstructured markets are getting stronger and smarter by the minute. The public sphere is a place where people can come together in a marketplace and discuss ideas freely amongst themselves in an open and honest environment. As society progresses and the social media marketing aspect grows larger the “little man” is starting to play a bigger role than ever before. The voice of the consumer is starting to be heard more and more clearly. Underestimated smaller players are starting to have a much larger role in the game. Much of the advertising that we see today comes from word of mouth or ratings from consumers themselves via blog posts, Twiter, Facebook, and even Instagram for those Apple users. Nobdy likes “in your face” advertisements that impede on the serenity of your internet webpage that you are looking at, the secret to good advertising is to get positive reinforcement from the little guy themselves and for them to unknowingly advertise for you. The best and most productive advertising comes from the human consumer voice itself.
I have 2 specific favorites from the 95 Theses. The first is number 50 “ Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority”. This thesis used to be my favorite because it states that knowledge and good ideas can come from anywhere today, especially from those younger and newer employees who do not have high positions in the chain of command where the minds are fresher and have a different take on many ideas that could be put forth.
The second is number 29 “Elvis said it best: “We can’t go on together with suspicious minds”. Originally my eye was drawn to this thesis because it happens to be one of my favorite songs, my dad used to sing it to me all the time when I was younger and we would dance to it until dusk. I never really thought about what the song was truly about until right now though. I had not realized what an important lesson my dad, and Elvis, were in fact teaching me but once I started thinking about it, this thesis instantly became my number one. The next line in the song is “ …we can’t build our dreams on suspicious minds”. This song is telling us that we need to trust the people we are working with (or in a relationship with) in order to have a functional product produced and get the outcome, or dreams, that were intended. Being suspicious of the advertiser that they have an ulterior motive and not giving them the full trust that they want will neither benefit the advertiser nor the consumer. Although, at the end of the day, people do not trust until that trust is earned. So for the advertiser to achieve the desired outcome, they must earn the consumers trust and invalidate those suspicions. In turn, once the little people trust the big corporations, they will positively reinforce their products using the various social networking tools and rating sites which benefits both consumers and advertisers.
Hashtagging Heidi - MIT3373 Blog 