Increasingly, people are spending time on social networks such as Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter. The amount of time they spend on other websites is decreasing. So you could say: if my target group is mainly active on Facebook or Pinterest, do I still need to have my own company website? Or should I better lead my target group to where they already are?
According to Facebook it will happen
Last year, Stephen Haines, Facebook’s Commercial Director in the UK, said he expects corporate websites to disappear and shift to Facebook in the future. He argued that Starbucks, for example, has over 30 million fans on Facebook, while their website only attracts 1.8 million unique visitors per month. For Coca-Cola, the ratio is about 42 million likes against about 300,000 unique visitors per month.
The first example already exists, in the Netherlands.
It may seem like a crazy idea to do, but the first example already exists. Visitors to pepsi.nl are directly forwarded to an application within Facebook. The homepage is no longer accessible. The redirect will take you to Pepsi’s ‘Remix Machine’ application. Assuming that Pepsi in the Netherlands certainly attracts several tens of thousands of unique visitors per month, this action should also lead to a significant increase in the number of Facebook fans.
Campaign or structural
Pepsi uses it as a campaign. Personally, I also think this is the best way, if you’re even considering it. In a short period of time you can give your campaign a huge boost by temporarily redirecting your homepage to a special landing page, in this case within Facebook. Structurally, it’s not smart. Your website remains your ‘home’ and it is of course your property. If you forward your homepage to Facebook or YouTube, you no longer own it and you lose absolute control.
What are the advantages?
A company website is normally quite flat and generally offers few opportunities for interaction and discussion. Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, on the other hand, are social media that revolve around interaction. On these social networks you can achieve many times higher engagement than on your website and you can make a real connection with your target audience. Perhaps the value of a fan on Facebook is much higher than the value of a website visitor. This will differ per organization and type of company.
Not for everyone
Is it smart to forward your homepage to a social network during campaigns? Nine times out of ten probably not. You have to ask yourself very carefully what function your website has. What is your target? Why do you have a website? Then you have to ask yourself whether you could offer the same information within Facebook. If it turns out that you could also offer everything you offer on your website within Facebook, you still have to ask yourself: do people want that? Are they all on Facebook? How many people do I exclude now? Despite the fact that a large part of the online population in the Netherlands is a member of Facebook, this is by no means everyone. So you’re always going to exclude people. This is not an option for companies such as KLM and UPC that have much more information to offer and that carry out transactions online.
middle way
Je kunt ook een middenweg kiezen, zoals Heineken doet. Als je naar heineken.nl gaat kom je gewoon op de website van Heineken terecht, maar de homepage is volledig ingericht voor de ‘Rugnummers’ campagne die plaats vindt via Facebook. Met één klik ben je dan ook op Facebook. Een extra tussenstation dus, maar je hebt nog wel de mogelijkheid om de normale website te bezoeken en meer achtergrondinformatie op te zoeken.
Wel of niet doen?
Het is maar voor een beperkte hoeveelheid bedrijven aantrekkelijk om de homepage door te sturen naar een dedicated pagina van een campagne, of zelfs permanent door te sturen naar een sociaal netwerk. Met name het feit dat je een deel van je bezoekers uitsluit en dat je de controle uit handen geeft zijn belangrijke argumenten om het niet te doen.
Voor korte periodes tijdens campagnes, zoals bij de campagne van Pepsi, kunnen de voordelen zeker groter zijn dan de nadelen waardoor het zeer aantrekkelijk kan zijn om je vanaf je homepage-url door te linken.
