More and more I see many business, especially those in the entertainment business moving to Social media to update customers and followers on schedule changes, sales, upcoming events and other fluid information. These same businesses have gone from updated websites to using their websites to host content such as stadium maps, ticket contact information, rules on what can be brought into the concert/event and other legal/boring types of information.
I liken websites usage to that of an encyclopedia - a bunch of information that is not likely to change anytime soon, but is not necessarily up to date. Another example of this locally is the Shipwreck website has basic park hours, but for current information on any given day it is better to use their Facebook page which is updated with daily with park hours based on changing weather conditions.
I wonder how long before we as consumers simply "follow" or "friend" the bars, parks, concert halls, sports teams, musicians, etc. instead of actually going to their websites for information. I also wonder if other business venues will follow suit, maybe Kohl's will announce a new sale on twitter and you simply use your phone to show the tweetpon instead of logging into their site and downloading a pdf coupon pamphlet on all their sales this weekend. Will car dealerships provide customer loyalty points and discounts to those that like them, friend them, and follow them? (yes I realize that some already do this)
As third party apps become more popular allowing users to link all their accounts in one simple interface and these interfaces become more user friendly allowing you to choose to send out updates to one social media site or all, or just some of the ones you use. This ability will be yet another nail in the proverbial coffin of updated websites. In the long run I think websites will become the static unchanging/seldom changing information while social media sites will be the latest and greatest information, though not in as much detail.
Just my thoughts - Mike von Keyserling
There are a few nice third party services that can combine social media accounts. I personally use hoote suite which you can combine almost every social media platform.
ReplyDeleteI don't know that social media will take the place of websites because of database sizes, but the use of iframes and api's will continue to grow to allow much more site integration.