The King of all social sites

I was listening to an interesting conversation on the radio this morning. The two DJs were discussing the self-help book market, and how Oprah has single handedly changed the book industry into a self-help marketplace, filled with thousands of books targeting every flaw possible. Their entire conversation was a question of whether you were tired of reading self-help, and if you were at the point of accepting who you are, no matter how happy (or unhappy) you truly are.

I love a great debate to find out different view points. And the entire conversation was interesting. But that’s not what I took away from the 20 minutes I spent in my car.

Somewhere in the middle of the conversation, one of the DJs mentioned they were looking at buying Oprah’s latest book choice by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth. So she went over to Amazon. She spent 30 seconds talking about her Amazon experience, and how she feels its the greatest website on earth. Where else can you go to find anything you are looking for, find a great price, and read a ton of reviews to find out if you really should make the purchase.

And it got me to thinking - what makes a site social? Isn’t a social site about sharing ideas and opinions? Isn’t it about becoming a part of the experience?

So instead of talking MySpace and Facebook all the time, why not start with one of the oldest social sites online? You can create your profile. You can write reviews. You can add your opinions and comments, and link back to your sites.

Hmmmm….