The growth of social media has taught us several things about consumer behavior. For one, people have an overwhelming desire to congregate, share experiences and evangelize about products. Another is that with the popularity of social aggregators and lifestreaming, people want to centralize their interest-related information rather than going several places to search for it.

This means that pharma marketers need to make product information relevant to several different-and sometimes divergent-audiences at the same time, while making personal connections and delivering unique online experiences to each.  Intelligent campaigns shouldn’t drive everyone to the same singular URL. Instead, they should be directed to destinations that are individualized by therapeutic category, treatment plan or area of specialization.

So does that mean that the standard generic company or product website is dead, as many have proclaimed? Not quite.

The generic website, whatever its role, is evolving, as is the way we use the Internet today. Where a product site was once the be-all and end-all, today it is more of a tourist info center on the information superhighway, pointing consumers in the right direction to interact with your product in the way that suits them best.

But that doesn’t mean that destination sites don’t hold value as a centralized location for information. Consumers still need someplace to go to get information on your product. It’s just that general sites have taken on a different level of importance now, especially when it comes to Search Engine Optimization for pulling in more “natural” and unpaid search results.

So what’s the best way to swim with the most current stream of online consumers and stay relevant without relying solely on a destination website? Be everything to everyone in your target audience. Instead of expecting consumers to search for you, shift the strategy to focus on being wherever they look online and customize your content, URLs and strategy to match their interests.