Since the dawn of digital marketing, a brand’s website has been the single biggest online focus for brands. However, with the evolution of social media growing at unheard of rates the era of the destination web seems to be drawing to a close – as the graphs below demonstrate, branded websites and microsites are losing traffic to social media destinations.

Today, to have an effective online presence requires a near omnipresence – an active presence across the social web. This means the creation of active profiles on popular social media sites with high reach (fish where the fish are), as well as the creation of (or “unlocking” of) content so that it’s easily distributable across networks. Freeing content to sit on or flow through “off-site” sources and platforms will enable web users to access unique content where they want to experience it and ensure they have the means to carry the message further – i.e. share the content with new audiences.

For brands, measuring success online will be less about measuring unique website visitors and more about measuring the flow and reach of content. Facebook has also recently added the functionality to allow brands to incorporate fan features directly on to their branded websites. Subsequently website content updates can be sent directly onto fans’ Facebook pages.

Through this kind of development we are likely to see the greater harmonisation between branded websites (hubs) and supporting social channels (spokes). One thing is for sure, we will stop creating content simply for websites and create content that will live across the decentralised web.

Branded Websites:

Social Platforms: