Facebook’s Timeline for brands: finally a cure for the ‘ghost towns of the internet’:
In this guest post, Daniel Monheit argues that Facebook’s new Timeline for brands will save the internet from abandoned brochureware websites.
Ghost towns of the internet? Yup. We’ve all seen them. Truth be told, many of us have even played an active roll in creating them. They’re the traditional brochure site that’s become part of any brands’ ‘non negotiables’ over the last ten years. The five pager with ‘home’, ‘about’, ‘product range’, ‘news’, ‘contact’ and if you’re really lucky, ‘view our old TV commercials’. I know it sounds archaic, but in 2012 they’re still a reality, and have become a brand staple just like a name, a logo and a URL.
On the day they launch, both brand team and agency are proud as punch – but it seldom lasts. ‘Build website’ gets crossed off the to do list. New projects take attention and priority. The stats stop getting reviewed. Products don’t get updated. ‘News’ becomes embarrassingly old. Rust sets in, and before you know it, the site’s abandoned. Nobody visits. Nobody cares.
Cue tumbleweed.
I think this is a great move by Facebook to make the history and story of a brand front and centre. Forcing these brands to communicate in a more authentic way.
Still I am forever shocked by how much power Facebook can have and how easily they can move the goal posts (eg, no call to actions allowed in the main banner on your page).
Au contraire, website readers will very soon tire of a brandscape totally lacking diversity and the individual touch.
If companies cannot effectively and strategically manage the sites they have now, how does adding MORE sites for them to manage make them more effective at doing so?
Bright shiny toys are wonderful for a few days, then get abandoned.
Companies need to work on their core strategy and culture, place web at the centre of their marketing and communications activity and build from there.
Once they have the culture and strategy right, Facebook timelines may become an effective tactic in appropriate situations.
If the point of this article is that FB provides a cheaper way to build a site that no-one cares about/looks at then, I agree with you Daniel.
More sites are discovered using Google than FB so no guarantees that a’ghost town’ site on the web won’t be a ghost town site on FB.
Good post. Cheers
Not saying that FB might one day go the way MySpace went… but putting all your eggs in the FB basket may eventually look extremely short-sighted… so don’t forget about other media neutral destinations for driving consumers… where you will have complete control… not just what the media owner wants you to have
Yeah, because nobody uses Google to search for products and services anymore, they browse on Facebook. Seriously?
Detach from Z-balls.
FB will definitely go the way of Myspace, it’s already happening.
That’s an angle I hadn’t come across before but a good point – many are arguing that with the advent of timeline, facebook are willing companies to invest more time and more resources into community managers to keep on top of populating their accounts with fresh content. The flip side of the coin you’ve outlined here is interesting – that the reverse could be true and fb could be providing a way for companies not interesting in constant customer interaction to spend a week of time making their page an attractive museum and leaving it there as a valuable, though not dialogic, environment. Both views could be true, they dont have to be mutually exclusive. Thanks for sharing.
Luke W
Community Manager
OneDesk
@Me… where are they going? It’s not google+ that place really is a ghost town.