Jimmy Gilmore

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.