The Web as a City

I have been reading David Meerman Scott’s excellent book: “The New Rules of Marketing & PR.” This book is well-researched, well-thought out, and goes into great detail about the current state of social media. I will be posting a lot more about this book (and other books) over time.

One idea that I found intriguing was Scott’s metaphor of “the Web as a city.” He describes this as follows:

• The Internet is the city square

• Corporate sites are storefronts on Main Street that are peddling product

• Craigslist is like the bulletin board at the entrance of a store

• eBay is a garage sale

• Amazon is a bookstore

• Media sites are city newspapers

• Chat rooms and forums are pubs and saloons

He then goes into detail about how social media and the social networking aspect are the way people interact in bars, clubs, associations, and parties in the city. He describes Twitter as the girls going to the ladies’ room to talk about the guys. Of course, this analogy can be carried on at some length, but it really helps to visualize the impact of social vis a vis offline.

More to come…