The Web Ecosystem: Why Websites and Social Media Sites are Vital to Each Other’s Survival

Introducing Sara Przybylski - new EAFocus associate and guest blogger! Follow her on Twitter @MichiganPRGuru.

It seems the next big thing in social media is introduced every week. With the ever changing social sphere, many are questioning what online platforms are best for their brands. Is it just social media? If so, what social media sites? Or is it a combination of a website and social media?

As people spend more time surfing social media sites for the latest news on world politics, business, fashion and celebrity gossip, are websites even necessary for a brand to survive?While some may argue that brands don’t need a website to create a strong community and loyal customer base, I beg to differ.

Websites are the center of the online universe; the online platform that houses all information about a brand from the brands perspective. Websites are the starting and ending point for a company trying to develop a presence in the web ecosystem. A brand’s website is where anything a customer or potential customer can learn about the company is (well, should be) located.

However, in a day where your customers expect to be able to engage with you in conversation via the Internet, websites alone won’t keep you afloat. People expect to feel like they are important to a brand, that they can have two-way conversations and feel as though their opinion and voice count - and are being heard. It is for these reasons that social media sites are an important component to the web ecosystem. Yet social media sites supplement the branded content on the website, they don’t replace it.

Social media sites are the medium where the customer or potential customer engages with the brand to build a relationship and connect with other likeminded individuals who share a common interest in the brand. If someone lands on your website and wants to engage in a conversation about your brand but there are no social media sites connected to it, she will likely look for another similar brand to potentially build the relationship, i.e. the brand’s competition. Conversely, if the customer is engaging on a social media platform of the brand and wants to learn more about a specific product or make a purchase, she will seek out a website. 

Consider this example: as a company, you share information about a new feature added to an existing product via a photo on Facebook. An individual sees this photo because a friend of theirs “liked” the photo and it appeared in their newsfeed. Out of curiosity, the individual clicks on the photo to learn more. She is intrigued after reading a little more about the product but doesn’t fully comprehend what this new feature means as it relates to the brand as a whole. This photo has piqued the individual’s interest enough to visit your website to learn more about the product and, ultimately, your entire company.

This scenario presents the perfect synergy of the social media site and website working together in a thriving web ecosystem. The information you shared on the Facebook page piqued the interest of an individual who then visited your website to learn about other products and potentially make a purchase. In addition, this individual could decide to like the Facebook page, look for other social media pages to connect with to keep getting updated information about the brand, share this information with their social media networks and ultimately again, make a purchase. It is this viral and web like sharing that keeps the web ecosystem alive and thriving. Without a website to learn more about a company and the social media sites to engage with the brand, individuals are not being given the outlets and information they desire.

What do you think? Are websites at risk of extinction  in the web ecosystem?