Your website's radical new role in the social web
Graphic: Metro Denver’s website is built to shuttle people to meaningful content, wherever it might be.While every marketer seems to be immersed in Web 2.0 these days, let’s not overlook the changing role of the organization’s website in this marketing mix. If you’re not re-thinking the role of your traditional website, you should be!
Websites began as digital receptacles for traditional print content and slowly evolved to be more interactive and useful. The social web is changing all that … radically. Today, there are thousands of places to store and promote company content, and not all of it is going to be generated by friends. That’s why a new core strategy must be to populate the social web with as much accurate and useful content as possible. In my classes, I refer to this as an organization’s “information eco-system,” and it must be systematically maintained, monitored and nurtured.
Your website is no longer just a “destination.” In this environment, the company website becomes a content engine and quarterback, efficiently directing people throughout the eco-system to the news, information and applications they need to meet their needs, wherever it might be.
In research I’ve been conducting on the use of social media among economic development organizations, I came across a terrific case study in Metro Denver. Denver has methodically populated its information eco-system with rich and meaningful content, including a top-notch blog. Search the social web, and it will inevitably lead you to content that guides you back to the website, which is organized into user-friendly buckets of information. Need to go back out to the ecosystem? Links to social media connections are right on Denver’s landing page. This is a brilliant example of putting customer needs at the forefront of strategy, execution and design.
As you hurtle onto the social web, don’t leave your website behind or your social media presence will be sub-optimized!
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Comment Of The Week
From Paul Castain
"I’ve had this discussion many times and find myself feeling rather silly for referring to Social Media as being “spiritual”. But I too, stand by that description. The context I was using it in is the same as yours but I was driving at a different point. When we embrace social media and just spew information, we don’t interact and we shamelessly self promote, in many ways we are being disrespectful to the spirituality of the venue."[more]Welcome to {grow}
MARK W. SCHAEFER
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow. Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark
By Jim LeBlanc, August 27, 2009 @ 12:14 pm
Great perspective. A simple idea that is really being overlooked. BTW, your blog has become my daily marketing lesson!!! Incredibly interesting and also entertaining.
By George Tong, August 27, 2009 @ 1:30 pm
Great article! My company's website is going through an entire redesign right now. I will definetly keep these lessons in mind!
By George Morris @ Imulus, August 27, 2009 @ 9:34 pm
Thanks for the post and the compliments. We are the agency which worked with MetroDenver EDC to design and build the site. We're glad that you like the site!
By MARK W. SCHAEFER, August 27, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
Well done, George. Truly a wonderful achievement from your team. Sorry I didn't know about you to give you credit on the blog!
By George Morris @ Imulus, August 29, 2009 @ 2:59 am
No worries. We're just glad you liked the site so much. In fact we're planning on giving it a face-lift here in the next few months. Maybe we could give you a sneak peak if you are interested?