Personally, I tend to compare new technological inventions to activities of people in pre-internet age. For example, e-mail replaces regular mail, on-line news replaces newspapers, and so on. When virtual replaces physical, a couple of things tend to happen. First, it doesn’t replace it completely, but does take away a big chunk. Second, it takes traditional concept to a much higher level, makes it a lot faster, more pervasive and allows use by people to a much greater degree.

With web 2.0, I compare places such as Facebook to a public square, where a lot of people come to willingly, some dressed up, some dressed down. A lot of people make appointments to meet their friends there. Some meet new people and make new friends. There are a lots of forums, public speeches, presentations, poetry reading, protests, and so on.

Corporations frequently use such public places in various ways. For example, many just place prominently seen advertising. Others have “walking” or “driving” advertising. Many go out there to introduce a new product, by letting people see it, feel it, test it, try it. Others, hand out flyers, or send people to do random surveys and so on.

Extending a “public square” concept to a digital world, this is how I think many corporations could behave in a web 2.0 spaces such as Facebook and many others. Looking at Social networking sites this way should help corporations come up with strategies that are most suitable for them.

However, I have been trying to find the best analogy to Twitter in a real world… Does it exist, or is it purely a virtual phenomenon? Finding an analogy might help make possible strategies a bit easier…