When you first go onto the official One Direction website, the first thing you see on their welcome page is their music video. This has been done for promotion; to make people watch the video again, even before they've even gotten onto the site. Below the video on the left you can also see links to Amazon, HMV and iTunes so that people can easily buy the song, and on the right there are icons for Facebook and Twitter so that it is easy to interact and share. This interactivity has been shown throughout the website, as you can see below.
If you navigate through the website, there are buttons to 'like', tweet or comment on any of the stories, filling the purpose of two things: targeting the core audience and gaining publicity. Nowadays, almost every teenager has a Facebook account, and many are starting to get Twitter accounts, especially those who are into music and celebrities. So by adding Facebook and Twitter connections on the website, this is targeting their audience of (pre)teen females by adding something that they are familiar with, and something that they can use for interactivity. If they click on any of the buttons, they can 'share' their information on their accounts, therefore adding publicity by showing the website to their friends (who the majority of should like the band too).
If you scroll down to the bottom of every page they also have the icons for Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, leading to their official pages, allowing people to 'become a fan', 'follow' them or subscribe and watch their videos.
Finally they also have a separate page called 'Newsletter', where fans can easily sign up and recieve emailed newsletters every so often, updating them with all the latest news. News can range from updating fans on when their next single is out, any signings that are coming up, and competitions.
There are quite a lot of competitions that appear every now and then on the website too to get fans involved, for example their European campaign 'Bring 1D To Me.' Here, they allow fans from Sweden, Holland, Germany and Italy to show why they love One Direction; by taking fan photos, creating fan art, and getting as many people to click on the website/tweet about One Direction. From this, again they get publicity as fans are again tweeting/writing on Facebook about the band, and are also getting their friends involved. And by making it a competition where the prize is to meet the boys, there is a huge incentive for fans to get involved.
Apart from interacting via social networking, the website also allows fans to get involved with the band by actually buying their music and merchandise. There are pictures and links showing us where to buy the single on almost every page, and there is also a separate link called 'Shop'. This links you to their other website onedirectionstore, where fans can buy merchandise ranging from posters and calendars to jewellery and apparel.
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