2010 was deemed to be another year whereby businesses of all shapes and sizes would hop on that social media bandwagon and tell their web design guys to take a long vacation.
Is the era of web destinations and microsites coming to an end? Where the likes of FB and Flickr or other social mashup startup would promise the be all, end all for advertisers and brands as a place to squat.
Perhaps for some but in most cases there is still a use for those landing pages and microsites. However, they have evolved beyond eye-candy and become more functional and value driven than in the past.
Social sites have also offered up huge improvements for API integration and allowed for flexible development. A sort of “friendly takeover” of the private domain.
On the other hand social platforms are still very boxed in solutions and as much as they currently offer, they are not without the rounds of red tape and ever changing policies. This has taken wind out of sails and discourage many from solely positioning their brands on certain social platforms.
It’s unpredictable and risky investment dropping all eggs in the social space only to have them crushed should rules change…and most of the time without prior warning or sufficient reason.
Today FB announced it will not allow promotions to be carried out on it’s pages without prior consent and at least $10K worth of ads and a FB rep to oversee the promo.
Perhaps before jumping on the social bandwagon we should step onto it carefully and decide if it’s the right wagon.
