Fidget with Widgets and Extend Your Brand's Reach
Amanda Watlington, Ph.D., A.P.R.,
Searching For Profit, Charlestown, MA
Nov 27, 2007, 02:16
Widgets can help broaden your brand's reach even in the midst of the ever-growing volume of advertising information flooding the online space and the gusher of personalized content created by individuals. Widgets are portable chunks of code that can be installed, by cutting and pasting, into the code of any webpage or even onto the desktop. They are usually written in JavaScript or Flash and run by themselves. They are everywhere -- on websites as badges and on desktops as tools. They are simple and powerful marketing tools.
Widget, 'wi-jət, "A component of a graphical user interface that the user interacts with." Etymology: a blend of "window" and "gadget" (1924). Examples include the Windows Vista Sidebar add-ins, Mac Dashboard, iGoogle, toolbars from Google and Yahoo!. You've seen them in the form of calendars, clocks, weather info, photo viewer, games, memory usage meters, etc. Website widgets include Google AdSense ads and AddThis.com bookmark reminder buttons.
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According to data released by media measurement service comScore, in June 2007, 239 million widgets were used by Internet users in the U.S. This represents almost half of the online population, over 87 million people. How would you like to get a share of these individuals interacting with your brand? It isn't hard; it costs almost nothing. Here's the catch though: for your widget to gain users, it must provide the user a reason to download it.
If users like your widget, they will download it and everyone who sees their site, their blog, or profile on MySpace or Facebook, will see your widget and by extension your brand. These visitors may even download your widget for their own use and continue to spread your message virally. This extends your brand's reach at almost no cost to you. You readily track your widget's dispersion and see how many individuals have downloaded and viewed.
It is not hard to get started with widgets. You do not have to be a programmer. However, if you want a special type of widget, you may want to have a programmer write one for you. They are not terribly hard to build, and many programmers can write the code for a widget in a just a few hours. With the addition of Google's Open Social for social sharing of widgets (http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/faq.html) making it ever easier to create and share widgets, we can expect an explosion of new widgets being shared on social networking sites.
Not sure what kind of widget you should create? Visit the galleries of widgets available for download at WidgetGallery.com (Yahoo! Konfabulator) or Widgetbox.com. Once you have visited the galleries you may find a widget that you can use. With many widgets you may be allowed to "borrow" and modify to make it your own. For example, how about a countdown clock for your next major event, or an MP3 player that plays your most recent podcasts, or some other idea. Snipperoo.com and Widgetbox.com make it easy for you to borrow an existing widget, remix and customize it for your own.
If you already have a blog, you can turn it into a widget in a matter of minutes with the help of Widgetbox.com. You can then place your blidget -- blog widget -- on your own site or social networking sites. If you are new to widgets, a well-thought out blidget may be the answer. For example, you could easily create a blog that includes just an array of your product offering, turn it into a blidget, and voila, you have an instant shareable marketing medium. If you use Widgetbox to create your blidget, you will even get statistics on its use. The cost: a few hours of your time. So, what's getting in your way? Get busy and fidget with widgets to extend your brand's reach. Everyone else is.
Amanda Watlington is a frequent speaker at Search Engine Strategies, AdTech, and other conferences. She is the principal of Searching for Profit, Charlestown, Massachusetts.
