Website vs. Web Space

Having a website is becoming less and less necessary. As social sites keep popping up, the emphasis for most people will shift to how much web space you own rather than how big your site is.

People are no longer looking for you on your website. Instead, they’re looking for you where they happen to be, which is often a large community like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.

If you’re not there, you might as well not exist. At least in the minds of those who use those sites. And if you think those opinions aren’t important, think about this: as recently as last December, a Boston-sized population joined Facebook every day. That’s probably more people than you want to shut out of your online life.

Of course, social networking sites are not always a direct replacement of the traditional person website. And especially not an ecommerce website. The point here is that the size of your web presence is no longer connected to the size of your website. Instead, the success of your web presence has become based on your ability to connect with people where they already are; in other words, increasing your web space.

Liberating, right? Instead of a huge About Me webpage, link over to your Facebook profile. Thinking of a bulk Employment page to recruit? Might as well point people to your LinkedIn page. Do you have short headlines to announce? Why not Twitter them instead?

Websites are supposed to generate some sort of action. Unless you’re an ecommerce site trying to convert visits into sales, your personal site can (and should be) slim, to-the-point, and more of a portal to places people can find you.

Yes, your no one cares much about your personal website anymore. It’s no more than a glorified business card, so you might as well make it the size of one.