What’s your website good for?

(6 July, see update below) This is a theme I’ve been meaning to post about for a while. The tendency of more and more sites (especially agency ones) to be social media based - either blogs, or mirrors of online chat (like Twitter feeds).

The most recent example - Ad agency CP&B giving a lot of its site over to news, blog and twitter mentions.

Is a lot of this a publicity stunt, a way to get people to people to coo about something they’d never otherwise, a website? Hell yes, but in the long run, who cares?

That’s because long term the principle is I think sound - a realisation that especially online you are what people say about you, and that people don’t visit run of the mill brand sites for fun.

Anyway, a presentation that looks at some agency examples and what some smart people are saying about it, is above.

Update (6 July) - Ben Kunz has a good take on Crispin Porter and social engagement sites in general, pointing out that they are potentially as much threats as they are opportunities.

For example, someone could create a site all about you, pulling in feeds and online chatter, and there is little you could do about it:

“Aggregation, it seems, opens the doors for anyone to erect an exciting hub about a topic. Google has become the world’s largest case study of offering up content without ownership.

“If what people say about you has become more important than what you say, what happens if someone else gains control of your conversation first?”