Widgetsphere: New Playground For Marketers
by Graeme Thickins
If you're in the online marketing game and are not yet hip to widgets, listen up. Two emerging Web 2.0 technology firms focused in this space have a message for you. Those companies are Widgetbox and ClearSpring, both of which presented in a session on Tuesday afternoon at Web 2.0 Expo that was billed as "Using Widget Syndication for Online Marketing and Measurement".
What is a widget? According to Ed Anuff, CEO and
cofounder of Widgetbox, it's a "small piece of dynamic content" on your web site, blog,
or social network page. Sometimes they're also called badges. An example of a widget is
the Flash-based Flickr badge shown to the right, which is one I use in the sidebar of my
blog.
Why do you need a widget strategy?
Why would you want to have a widget strategy, asked Anuff? Because they're contextual and personalized, they're social, they're visual and interactive, and they're viral. "They let you take an experience and share it with others," he said. They allow for self-expression, they provide site enhancement, and they facilitate ads and commerce - for example, a shopping cart can be implemented in a widget.
"Some remarkable CPMs are being driven now by widgets," said Anuff, on the subject of advertising impact. In fact, he said, widgets have the potential to get "a lot more traffic than your web site." Widgets are driven by "prosumers," said Anuff, meaning producer-consumers - as in user-generated content.
How do you launch a widget? Well, you can use Widgetbox or similar sites to feature your widget. And you should set up special SEO-optimized widget landing pages, said Anuff. Tapping blogger and social networking power users was another recommendation. The syndication network that Widgetbox has set up already has more than 30,000 domains, Anuff said (reminding us that MySpace represents just one!). The firm also has amassed opt-in lists of 50,000 "power bloggers and social networks."
Also Widgetbox does some unique things with SEO - it claims to have more than 10,000 widget pages in Google. The widget analytics it provides integrates with your existing tracking systems. "You need to pay attention to your widget metrics," Anuff said, noting that impressions and clickthrough rates are not enough. "It's about getting that wildfire pickup we all desire," he said.
The birth of the widgetsphere
"We're witnessing the death of the portal and the birth of the widgetsphere," said the next speaker, Hooman Radfar - founder of Clearspring, another VC-backed widget syndication company. He said the old way was for portals to aggregate content for you. "But now the 'prosumer' is here, producing and consuming." Creation is easier than it was under the old portal model, bandwidth is cheaper, and we have Ajax and Flash. Radfar said that "we just need to give people the tools. Widgets are the building blocks for social aggregators." His definition of widgets: "Components that can be executed across multiple platforms without additional compilation."
Hooman Radfar
Radfar said that widgets are a part of a fundamental change in the platform of the web - "and the widgetspace is not just MySpace. It's hi5, bebo, and many others - even Nokia is doing it."
So, what can marketers or businesses do to take advantage of this movement? Radfar said that your strategy should be to "build a virtual destination in the widgetsphere." Use promotional widgets: "You can think of them as flyers." How this differs from advertising he didn't say - except you obviously aren't paying for placement here. This is social media, friends.
How to get started
A standard size for a widget is 150 by 300 pixels. Flash is generally used for social networks, while Javascript tends to be used for widgets on blogs and start pages. There are basically three ways you can go:
(1) build your own widgets;
(2) use destination-specific tools, such as at Google, or;
(3) go with an independent widget tools and syndication company like Clearspring.
Radfar recommends to "let the user play with your widget. Don't force them to download and post it. We've studied this and find it gets better results".
He noted other widget galleries where you can list your widgets, such as Google, TagWorld, and Typepad. And he stressed that widgets, which are really little apps, need to be measured. Keep adapting the widget, keep iterating. Other tools are available at Netvibes and PageFlakes, he said.
"Widgets are write once, run everywhere, and we've already served more than 2.5 billion of them," Radfar noted. In conclusion he said that a new platform is coming from Clearsping in May.
Widgetbox
Clearspring
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Great article. I attended this lecture and I have to say that you did a great job in highlighting the key points. In fact, I liked your article so much that I linked to it from my blog. :-)
Thanks, Ed. It's hard not to get excited about widgets if you're a marketer or social media professional. And the brewing controversy around MySpace not allowing them, and now Facebook saying they will, should sure make things interesting! Check this out at the Wired Listening Post blog. It's an evolving landscape....
How did you like Web 2.0 Expo?
cheers,
Graeme
Good write-up, but some serious gaps from the speakers on the importance of creating a solid end-user value prop. for having a widget in the first place. Widgets from marketers will only be useful to users if they meet some need or create some level of value exchange with a consumer, where both benefit. I hope these CEO's said something to this effect or even they don't get it. Else, marketing widgets will be ignored as one more self-serving catcall for users attention online. To say "You can think of them as flyers" is shortsighted. Widgets can be useful when they cut out all the crap from what's NOT working about advertising online now, they then provide some actual value to users other than "brand messaging". To see widgets as just another 'push' channel to consumers is to completely miss the power and simplicity of what a valuable widget experience can be for end users. Marketers better define that value prop. well or don't bother. Worst case, the web will just become polluted with ad-seeming widget crapplets everywhere, and miss the whole point of why widgets SHOULD NOT just be yet another mass advertising channel. Widgets are a chance to break with what's ineffective about advertising online, not mimic it. Making widgets into flyers is one way forward, but certainly not the most progressive way to provide your customer with something useful or meaningful from your brand.
1.Your link to WidgetBox is broken.
2.Do you have any specific recommendations for optimization of widget landing pages?
Great points, Matt. No more insight on these topics was provided by the speakers in their short talks, but there may be some detail on their sites. Sorry about that broken link, Daniel. My bad -- missing a slash. The correct Widgetbox link is here.
Matt, I agree that widgets can be used as more than flyers. The point that I made is that widgets can be used in short-run promotions, like flyers. However, they can also be thought of as televisions. When you are done watching a particular channel on a television, you do not throw away the TV - you change the channel. In a similar way, widgets that are built with the notion that new content can be streamed into them are like televisions. Make sense? Ping me if you have questions. I may post on this topic because several people have asked me about this as well. Peace out. :)
Your URLs to Widgetbox and Clearspring are both broken.
fixed the links.
I never got to attend this. This is the first time i have heard about widgets too, can someone clarify for me.
How do they differ from banner advertising apart from the fact vistors can downlaod them, preumably from your site and uplaod them to their own? It sounds really interesting and i'd like to know more.
I never got to attend this. This is the first time i have heard about widgets too, can someone clarify for me.
How do they differ from banner advertising apart from the fact vistors can downlaod them, preumably from your site and uplaod them to their own? It sounds really interesting and i'd like to know more.
how do I build my own widget?
you forgot about Widgipedia.com !!