I suppose if I wrote that headline a few years ago, some would think I need to take a nice long vacation to recharge. But as I thought about today’s variety of tools from Twitter to Facebook to LinkedIn and more, it begs the question if the good old traditional website can ever do the heavy lifting of educating, branding, etc. the way it used to.

I think I’ve got the answer: It can’t.

It used to be that if you wanted to learn a lot about a company, you went to their website. You read the “About Us” section first and a few other relevant links. But you still had to GO THERE. Sure, as the owner of that site, you could do things to drive traffic to the site, but the behavior of your audience was still the same – you were making them come to your mountain. Agencies like mine have traditionally said if you wanted to see our work, just go to the website. Now all of us – not just agencies but all kinds of companies – have to re-think that idea. We have to create places that are relevant to where the conversation of our audiences are happening in order for people to find out about us.

So my Twitter stream is my website.
My company page on Facebook is my website.
My LinkedIn profile is my website.
Each microsite that houses a distinct type of e-newsletters is my website.
Before long, my SlideShare portfolio will be my website.
Heck, this blog is my website.

You want to know why? Because all that stuff gets and will get updated much more frequently than that other place. Most, if not all, of that stuff allows for back-and-forth commentary. I don’t have to bring a programmer into the conversation in order to make changes. I can engage in a world that’s operating at a much faster, more real-time pace. People are more likely to learn more about me and my agency through these methods than one place alone.

Speaking of which, what about that other place that has our company name in it followed by a .com? That’s still relevant too. I’m not comfortable with the idea of disregarding a “main” website altogether. Yet. But obviously with the fragmentation that’s resulted from social media, we have to be comfortable with the idea of giving our audience other choices beyond our primary website, don’t you agree? As we do, the All-Powerful Traditional Website as a main area for engagement will become more and more of an endangered species. Maybe we won’t always get to do funky Flash Intros about ourselves in those areas we operate in. But on the other hand, when we’re searching for a partner to do business with, we won’t always have to use a search engine in order to find each other’s websites for what is typically a 1-sided interaction.

I hear some people saying, “Yes, but our site has applications that encourage people to interact with one another.” Good for you. Seriously. But even if you have a blog running right down the middle of your site with clickable podcasts, videos and chat windows, the dynamic has changed such that you still have to get out from behind the storefront of your site and go to where the people are too.

If and when the concept of a main site disappears on a grander scale, we will all be forced to come together in different communities to socialize more with each other. You think you’ve seen social media now? Ha. If that happens, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Post to Twitter