Something that was mentioned at the Social Network World Forum the other day, was Michael Donnelly of Coca Cola's idea of "just because you build it, they won't come." And a question I often ask internally is - when was the last time you visited a brand website for fun?
I mean think about, when you weren't doing so as part of your job, when did you actually click on the website of a company just for the sake of it - to try out all the bells and whistles that they've installed to try and pull you in.
Sure sometimes it happens, but we know it happens a lot less than five or ten years ago, as people are off doing loads of other interesting things.
That's one reason why I thought the Skittles website was as a concept (if not through all the details) a success. It challenged the notion that a lot of a brand's website is necessary and became simply a mirror of its social media content.
However, if you are looking to publish content online, you could do worse than to follow the ten publishing principles that Seetha Kumar, the controller of BBC Online, has published on the BBC Internet blog.
They are:
1 - Websites should meet a clearly defined audience need
2 - They should do one thing really well
3 - They shouldn't duplicate what's already been published
4 - Any website is only ever as good as it's worst page
5 - Accessibility is not an optional extra
6 - Provide maximum routes to content
7 - Allow people to take that content away with them ("don't reinvent Facebook or Bebo")
8 - Don't attempt to do everything yourselves, provide other high quality links instead and allow people to leave.
9 - It doesn't have to be one size fits all (if your organisation has more than one site), but users need to know where they are
10 - Make personalisation unobtrusive and transparent, respect privacy
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