12 Cool Analogies to Help Explain Social Media
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Yesterday I wrote a Post on Collective-Thoughts, Wow, Social Media is a lot like High School!! . It is a humorous look at how Social Media has many similarities to High School. Both Social Media and High Schools have Popular Crowds, Clubs, The Bad Boys, Rule Breakers, Goodie-Goodies, Parties, Peer Pressure, and Gossip. I hope the readers enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I’ve learned that using analogies is a great way to explain things that are normally difficult to explain. There are many people on the net that find Social Media and Web 2.0 very confusing. Analogies help explain something confusing to an individual by comparing it with something they already understand. So, here I have listed 12 articles that use cool analogies to explain different aspects of Social Media.
Join the Conversation or Break Into the Conversation? - Sean at Grin & Grumble compares Social Media being a Pool and Bloggers being the different types of swimmers in the Pool of Social Media.
The “symphony” of social media - Dee Rambeau at CausePlanet.org writes a creative analogy comparing a symphony orchestra with social media.
Why Corporations Should Blog (Hint, it’s not SEO) - Josh Hallett at Hyku uses your love for your significant other to prove a point.
Marc Canter’s vision of the open social network - Chris at Particls Blog comparing Facebook and other Social Networks are like Shopping Centers.
Fly-Fishing Where the Fish Are - Ann Handley at Marketing Profs Daily Fix writes about fishing using flies was not unlike marketing using the tools of social media.
Social Media, the Pond Analogy and the Old Media Disconnect - sean at Scrollin’ On Dubs compares Marketing with the spreading of ripples in a glassy pond.
The Ethics Of Social Bookmarking - xrayspecs at The Internet Marketing Neophyte compares a new site to a piece of driftwood.
Social Media Marketing is Similar to a Fishing Tournament - Mark Laymon at Collective-Thoughts
Bookmarking Solutions: Quick Access vs. Long Term Storage - Jay White at Dumb Little Man compares Social Bookmarking to paper filing systems.
Advertising Tips (with Sex examples) - talisman.org explains what marketing is using Pick-up Lines and the such.
Online social networking, an extension to human evolution? Arun Radhakrishnan at TechRepublic talks about the relation between social networking and human evolution.
The Virtual world and the Real World - An Analogy - Karthik Vijayakumar at Water Droplets compares The virtual world to the real world.
Technorati Tags:social media, social bookmarking, social networking, analogies, social media marketing
8 Responses to “12 Cool Analogies to Help Explain Social Media”
By jblu on Dec 9, 2007 | Reply
Great compilation. I especially enjoyed the fly fishing analogy.
By Sean on Dec 9, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for including my swimming analogy along with the other posts. Your social media as high school post was great. Well done!
-Sean
By Blog Engage on Dec 9, 2007 | Reply
Sweet diagram you have there of Social networking. I just started a site thats all and only about blogs. I guess it would also be considered in this type of marketing wouldn’t it?
This technique is not only used for explaining things but most commonly used for brain storming
By DNYL in Budapest on Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
I especially loved your picture or diagram for Social Media Analogy!
Thanks
By Kristen on Dec 11, 2007 | Reply
I read Join the Conversation and I definitely think the High School analogy is the best.
Cheers!
By Mark Dykeman on Dec 12, 2007 | Reply
Great list of articles, Shana! And also, thank you for listing the article that I wrote at Dumb Little Man - cheers!
By Sam Freedoms Internet Markting Controversy Blog on Dec 13, 2007 | Reply
I was looking for an analogy of a big meat grinder, or Stark Trek’s The Borg but couldn’t find one. ;-(
By Matthew Peters on Dec 16, 2007 | Reply
That’s a great list of analogies. I like some more than others, but I think the most interesting thing to realize is that social media means different things to different people. It has not yet been quantified, and I’m not sure it is ever going to be. Thanks.