My client at Compete forwarded me this Media Post story by Brian Morrissey - "Is Social Media Killing the Campaign Microsite." The big question is whether or not the ability to build brand pages (for free) in Facebook, for example, puts microsites out to pasture. I agree with my client that the two "strategies" can be mutually exclusive, but I also believe it's a sobering reminder to marketers that our industry continues to change almost too rapidly.

One day you're planning a cool microsite to launch a viral campaign, the next your moving off that wave and eying a nice Facebook strategy. I think the answer (this week) should be an integrated solution, but I also think it's time to reconsider the microsite model. As I said to my client, I can see the microsite morphing into a "content vessel" that contains the tools consumers(brand loyalists) need to converse (in the "conversation economy"). Rather than a destination, the microsite becomes a critical way-point.

If this is true, soon (if we're not already ;-))we'll be measuring campaign impact by how much "meta data" is spreading around the Web versus raw microsite traffic metrics. Either way brands are going to need expertise - from smart companies like Compete - to navigate the "behaviorally-changed" consumer of today.