Digital Diva • Do we still need brand websites? …or will a Facebook Page do?

Do we still need brand websites? …or will a Facebook Page do?

With the current digital buzz about Foursquare sign-posts, Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages and apps that do everything, AdAge.com asked “do brand websites still matter?”

It’s a good question and one that I’m sure marketing manager or brand manager is pondering. Having just spent a great deal of money on a gorgeous looking brand website, do you now have to abandon all that hard work in favour of the latest social media channel?

The quick answer is “not at the moment”.

It’s still too early to tell if Facebook’s dream of becoming ‘the Internet’ is going to happen. Not if Google has anything to do with it!

So, for now, websites aren’t going away. In fact AdAge.com thinks they might be more important than ever, but serving a different and evolved purpose today, especially in this new “social” context.

At the end of the day, brands today live a decentralized, if not fragmented, existence. The brand “home” has extended itself into a network of smaller residences and rented apartments — or what we might call “brand stands” — all primed for meeting and interacting with the consumer at various stages in the purchase, loyalty or advocacy cycle.

A Facebook fan page is a classic brand stand.

A smart website feeds and refreshes the brand stands. It anchors the brand database, arguably the most coveted asset, and sets the tone and standard for the brand’s ethos and attitude about feedback, expression and service. Put another way, it establishes that first critical (often unforgettable) impression. A great website also smartly syndicates, re-circulates and curates social content from the brand stands.

AdAge.com went on to speak two truths:

Brand Website are Important for Paid, Owned, Earned Media

If you are entering a POEM (paid, owned, earned media) mix model, brand websites are key. They:

anchor the owned
reinforce the paid
incubate the earned

Don’t forget that you OWN that website. It’s 100% yours and no-one can change their policies, pulling the rug from under your feet.

Brand Websites are Important for Search

If search results are material to either your brand’s reputation or purchase cycle, websites take on an elevated level of significance, as they consistently index at the top of search results.

But still, lots of brands are not properly planning out their digital activity.

And so we inevitably have lots of “work-arounds” — essentially, rapidly assembled (and mostly “social”) brand stands without a cohesive or coordinated center.

Hence the overnight brand Twitter account, or the sometimes over-priced “mini-site.”

In the short term, that’s good for innovation, but it starts to get tricky, if not risky, for short- and long-term brand equity.

Consumers hate inconsistency and duplicity.

So what brands need today is a complete rethink and “refresh” of their site strategy. Flexibility and agility should be the orders of the day.

They also need open feedback protocols and warm welcome mats (for example, the friendly and inviting “contact us”) that drive consistency with the happy brand faces on all the external brand stands.
They need to empower visitors with easy search and discovery, and enable tons of pass-along opportunity.
Most important, they need to be built to feed the next generation of brand stands sitting on mobile devices and app platforms, many of which will encompass next-generation e-commerce.

Content, Content, Content

Think of your next website as the mission-critical building block from which social media, mobile, e-commerce and other digital innovation draw.

Keep in mind the skill that will be necessary to make all this come together. Indeed, curation, co-creation and distributed community management are the new lynchpins of “content management.”

So again, don’t throw away the website. Listen, adapt and restock the exploding network of brand stands.

Think less about “web master” and more about social “spoke caster.”