Social Networks are Your Local Pub

February 5, 2008 · Comments

pub Walking out the door the other night to watch the SuperBowl last night was interesting. I walked past the Barking Dog (another bar), past the Ale House (another bar), past the Carriage Wheel, and then into the Stage 2 Cinema Pub, which is normally a movie theater, but when there’s a big sports event, it transforms into a great place to watch a game. I realized that any one of those places I walked past had people watching the game. I knew that each one of those places had “regulars” and “visitors,” and a sense of what’s okay and what draws disapproving stares. Sounds a bit like social networks, if you squint.

What Happens at Pubs

Pistachio called Twitter a village. That’s one way to look at it, as lots of different things happen there, and her analogy works out well. I’m going to go another way. I’m going to call Twitter what happens at a pub. And I’m going to call Utterz and Facebook and Seesmic and Yahoo Groups and Digg all kinds of other pubs. Jonathan Schwartz blogged recently about Sun’s intent to reinvigorate their software communities. Another pub.

Pubs are where people talk. There’s news. There’s gossip. There are deals and selling. There are pronouncements. There are silly moments. There are conversations, and chance, random happenings. The thing is, pubs aren’t where you do things. It’s where you talk about things. Right? It might be where the seed of ideas comes from (lots of the work of the Founding Fathers of the United States happened in pubs, for example), but the actual work and doing took place elsewhere.

Are Pubs Necessary?

Hell, yes. Pub is short for public house, and there is a long history of the value pubs have served to several nations. They are places where people of all backgrounds can gather, though as it true with most of social situations, some feel left out, or unwelcome at certain pubs. In general, overall, pubs are common ground, where people can come to be refreshed, to talk, to meet with like-minded and dissenting people alike.

If Social Networks are Pubs

First, be ready to buy someone else a drink. Take that as a metaphor for sharing overall. If you’re a marketer, share something of value to me. If you’re an aspiring blogger, ask to hear my story first. If you’re a salesman, do something for me before launching into what’s in it for you.

Second, mind the place. Pubs everywhere aren’t run by the barkeep. They’re run by the people who come there often enough to keep the place set straight, who know when a stranger might need welcoming, and who will keep an eye out for the place while you’re taking care of something in the back. This means a two-way relationship with the barkeep/management and the regulars. How you manage that makes all the difference in the world.

Lastly, if you look through that lens and consider these networks pubs, and consider the other people here are pubgoers, one thing comes right to mind: it’s not what you do inside the pub that makes you or changes you or gives you something to call your own. It’s what you do outside the pub that counts in the long run.

So, with this in mind, let’s talk about pubs. Where do you go for your “drinks?” Where is the conversation good? What are you getting out of this pub of yours for discourse, for new ideas, for challenges that you can then take outside the pub to work upon? Or is my idea all suds and no beer? You tell me.

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.

Get the entire series by subscribing to this blog, and subscribe to my free newsletter here.

Photo credit, Pixel fixer

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

ChrisBrogan.com runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress

Thesis WordPress theme

Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.

With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like ChrisBrogan.com, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.

  • Maria Tamis
    Pubs can have an online register where people can mark their schedules and availability. Anyway a nice idea - innovative LBS :)

    ps3 manette
  • That's a kickass point, Karl. I think you're right about the need for non-persistent information. You're right. We are leaving a trail behind us that will forever be part of our record.

    Definitely something to think about.
  • karl
    The analogy stops right away with a very simple thing.

    In Pubs, you do not record conversations. Those silly and serious moments are remembered, not archived and mostly forgotten. And it is why there is a possible social life.

    When Mr Smith, who was quite drunk, and showed his dick in an unfortunate moment, there was no record of his dicks for years in the pub. Plus if the owner snapped a photo and puts it on his wall, he could ask to be removed without too much troubles. There was only one copy of it. And other pubs might have heard about it by "you know what gossips" which takes time to travel and is also forgotten.

    Forgetting and slow sharing of information is an essential part of social life.
  • ivy
    This is definitely a good analogy -- and not just for social networking sites. I visit often a blog over at NYT called DreamHomeDiaries. The people who write the blog are dreadful -- but the comment community is the aces. It's like the joint that sells lousy food or has a surly barkeep but where everybody hangs out anyway because you can be sure of finding somebody to talk to.
  • Excellent analogy Chris.

    I use the same idea to host my informal 'social graph' roundup at http://www.buy-me-a-pint.com

    In the UK, a pint, of course, means a pint of beer, consumed down the pub. And a UK pint is ≈ 1.0320567435 U.S. dry pints - so now you know.

    Cheers!
  • I have some thoughts on this. One point to make is that some people naturally acquire lots of contacts throughout their experiences, and that by making gestures and connections and reconnections every now and again, the general masses feel "touched" or "tended" or however you want to say that they feel heard and seen for a moment. Thereafter, it's a matter of using the tools at your disposal to make those contacts stay "warm" between connections.

    Here's where the online universe makes this SO easy and wonderful.

    We have Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, and more things to do that we can keep those touches in mind.

    If I'm lucky and the newsletter ships tomorrow, it'll have more on this topic.
  • Chris, I'm with you on the analogy, I think it might be one of the best yet. However, I think we need to consider that some pubs are busy all the time (lending to opportunity for conversation and the exchange of ideas) and some pubs are pretty lame (meaning no one is there to make good conversation) and the some pubs have sold out (overly loud music, too much a sports bar theme or just flat out overwhelming). I find myspace to fit this last category because i am constantly overwhelmed with useless junk and spam.

    I find that networking IS exclusive in a way because anyone can go out and get 5000 friends, but it doesn't really mean you are interacting with the group.

    So how do you expand you friends with more meaningful/useful relationships and better conversations?

    How do we make finding appropriate new connections easier and the convos more valuable?
  • Hi Chris, while I like your social pub analogy, I'm afraid sometimes it can turn into an exclusive nightclub.
    Not sure if you ever read Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch, butI do think of it sometimes in this social media world when you see people race for a larger number of friends, rank on Technorati etc on their quest for greater influence.
    I guess what I'm talking about is authenticity in our communication and community. You might see that kind of communication in a pub more often than a club.

    Perhaps it is because in a pub we share real stories, let down our guard a little and keep things real. Clubs are more prone to cliques, anonymity and rank. Both social. Different social dynamics.
  • Chris - Like @pistachio's "village" post, I enjoyed this piece a lot. The point in your post that really resonated with me was the fact that like pubs or public houses, communities have been around for hundreds of years. Yes, there is a scale and immediacy that comes with these new communities like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, but the benefits i.e. conversation, sharing and networking are the same. Thanks for writing!
  • Sarah Griffiths
    Oh and Chris, you make for a great bar-tender, evidence of your feedback proves. Well done.
  • Rob
    Having been an honorary guest at many a Pub in Ireland during my travels, there's just one thing missing from your analogy. As a visitor, you do feel like an outsider. As a regular, chances are you're at the Pub way too much for your good.

    I think a lot of people in the social media scene need to resist going to the "Pub" every day. There's a general lack of focus... lots of stumbling... half truths... that's if you can put up with hearing drunken stories over and over. That's how I feel when I open my RSS reader every morning.
  • Sarah- this really rounds out the post. Heck, you should've written the post. Oh wait, you already did years ago. : ) Thanks for playing along with this slow learner.
  • Sarah Griffiths
    Along with giving an analogy to the venue / the network, I thought up at Uni (in 2002) and believe resonates with today, about how social networks will form communities and participators will be valued along the lines of their participation with the group and interest in overall cause.

    I used analogy of football fans, thus Chris’s post mentioning about watching sport in the Pub made me remember and acts as extension to the pub / the venue analogy, also answering the question "which pubs I like to visit"

    It was my thinking (must dig out the essay now !) that different types of football (or soccer as you call it) fans resonate with visitors to social networks:

    Fine weather fan: (Turn up if not much else to do)

    Brand fan: (Wants to be with the in crowd)

    Supporter: (Gets updates to team scores – Facebook = reviews notifications)

    Loyal supporter: (Regular visitor to games & score board: Facebook = reviews notifications & contributes with activities gets others involved)

    Imagine if you turned up to a pub, filled with the Loyal supporters, without a (brand) FC T-shirt would be on the outside, soon they would realise that you don’t actually know what your talking about (last FC manager was rubbish comments), supporters however, (well if your not offensive and slate their players/things they love), then you could form some good banter with them (happily tell you why last FC manager was rubbish).

    Brand fan, they wouldn’t be great for conversation only there out of image and fine weather fan, you can integrate with them, but don’t expect them to be there next week ( I am a bit like that on Twitter).

    Thus it’s not all about buying a drink, it communicating at right level & speed and most importantly showing interest in the cause.

    You can walk into any pub and watch the sport as long as you can judge from the outside the support status of the fans. Does that make sense ! Thus believe as new social networks are formed to get interest, they will need to provide free trials before sign up.

    Networks like Facebook & Myspace are good pubs for me and my peers as it doesn't matter what level of fan status you are at, everyone is welcome. You soon come to realise who is regular and make sure you chat to them first and possibly buy them a drink !


    In summary:

    In my analogy I see myself as:

    Fair weather fan: Twitter, Other blog communities

    Brand fan: Could be a virtual world

    Supporter: MySpace

    Loyal supporter: Facebook
  • Avi
    I think the analogy holds. I see where people are coming from identifying twitter as a pub of sorts, but I actually think my pub of choice is broader than twitter.

    The sense of a pub atmosphere that exists in the blogosphere is created by the enthusiasm and willingness of the regulars, ppl winning SEMMYs and other rockstars as you call them. Fostering fruitful discussion and exploration in your own corner of the pub on a blog for instance, adds to the positive atmosphere of the pub. The commitment of all frequenters and community members to be present and responsive to the concerns of newcomers and each other bears this out.

    While twitter may be an important and increasingly more central place in the pub, the real juicy tidbits that keep me coming back come more often from the posts and comments of blogs I frequent than the 140 chars of a tweet and the response they illicit.
  • julien
    damn, i've seen this bar in the picture before... where is it?
  • Chris, best analogy ever about social media. Of course you know my pub is twitter. Facebook is a pub I visit every now and then but I feel out of place. :)

    -Jeff
    http://blog.zemote.com
  • Here in Oregon we take our pubs (and our beer) very seriously. I even have a little personal code of conduct for what I will and won't do in the pub and brew realm.

    A great craft beer and some good pub eats just scream for conversation and real dialog. You can't sip from a local kolsch and eat a burger with an egg on top without feeling right with the world and adjusting your discourse accordingly.

    But, importantly, it's the crafts beers and the real food that do it. If I was drinking bud light and eating McDonalds fries, it would be an entirely different deal. Actually, I just wouldn't participate at all.

    A keg and a deep fryer do not a pub make. RSS and rounded edges on the logo do not a good social experience make.

    I remember the first time someone spammed me via Facebook. They thought it wasn't spam because it wasn't email. Oh, ... it was spam, it just looked different.

    It ain't what the pub does that makes it the pub. It's what the pub is that makes it what it is.

    Paul Colligan
  • Remind me to buy you a round at our next social media event. This is a GREAT analogy!

    There are some pubs you go to for the beverages alone, there are some that have great comfort food, and there are others where, when we walk in, we're greeted with a familiar smile and called by name. And there are social networks that function accordingly.

    The question is, are you willing to spend time at these places and make them your own, or are you just passing through, sampling what each has to offer without really participating?
blog comments powered by Disqus

Previous post:

Next post: