Social Media's Universal Soldiers and Other Metaphors

There's the dinner party metaphor, where the brand is the host, creating an interactive, entertaining environment for its guests. "The food you're serving is the content," said Karen Premo, a principal at Booz & Co.

Then there are the sports metaphors. Traditional marketing is like football. A quarterback calls one of a set number of plays and executes it, lots of stopping and starting happens, and every player is a specialist of some sort.