Ed note: For the purpose of this post, when I say the Internet I’m including all Internet marketing, including social media marketing.

Just about every meeting on social media or interactive marketing there is someone who says it’s just like ___. You can put what ever you want in that blank because it’s all been said. People love to use use analogies to describe things they don’t understand or they feel others don’t understand.

I’m guilty of this. So probably are you. 😉 (Yes, I just used an emoticon. This is the Internet so it’s OK.)

Before you go and say I’m wrong, indulge me for a moment.

Have you ever been in a meeting where someone said:

A billboard is like a print ad but bigger?

A direct mail piece is like a TV spot that comes in the mail?

Point of sale is like radio but it’s at a store?

A print ad is like a TV spot without any narration?

A radio spot is like a billboard that you don’t have to read?

Or a TV spot is like a direct mail piece that comes through your cable box?

OK so some of my analogies are fairly stupid but so are some of the ones I’ve heard in meetings. But you wouldn’t hear mine because the media I’m referencing are accepted and understood tools. Right now, I’d like to go on the record and say the Internet is like absolutely nothing else and should be full accepted and fully understood by anyone working in our industry. It’s been around awhile now and it is understandable (metrics out the wazoo). So from now on, let’s stop saying “the Internet is like” and start accepting it as grown-up, full-fledged part of our arsenal.

Posted on: March 11, 2010, by : Jimmy Gilmore