At the 2008 WidgetWeb Expo, I think all but just a few of the two dozen+ presenters felt compelled to give an explanation of what a widget is. Considering the audience was one of the most motivated group of widget developers/users/consumers on the planet, I thought this more than a bit odd. After a little bit of thought, however, I came to the conclusion that the explanations were clarifications of their own particular view … that the concept is far from clear and that there is no consensus on what exactly a widget is.

There are start page widgets, web widgets, social network widgets and even desktop widgets. They can be simple or complex. They can be coded in a myriad of programming languages.

Sooo, I decided to come up with my own metaphor for describing what a widget is to the average layperson. Here goes …

Let me start the metaphor by having you think of your business as a home-based business out in the suburbs. The house itself is your web presence. Got it?

OK, now think about how MOST businesses conduct marketing. They build billboards, they post flyers, they send postcards to people, they publish yellowpage ads, etc. All of these tactics are performed with the intent of motivating people (located elsewhere) to come to your place of business (your house - your web site). Getting people to get off their duffs to come see your wares is no small feat — especially on the web.

Now, consider the nearby small town or city. In our metaphor, these are social networks (MySpace, FaceBook, etc.). This is where all of the warm bodies are located. All of those people are milling about, doing their day-to-day tasks. Are they ripe to get an in-your-face advertising pitch? NO WAY! How about your well crafted billboard advertisement. Doesn’t work. It is, indeed, a marketing case of “water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.” Tens of millions of consumers that are aggressively insulating themselves from marketing messages.
The way I see it, you have four options;

ONE — Build a new city. If you control the city and can get people to occupy it, you’ll have a ready and waiting group of people who might be consumers of your goods and services. But what a monstrous task that is!… building your own social network is NO small feat!

TWO — Continue marketing your services the old fashioned way. The tried and true marketing strategies of days-gone-by require no extra learning curve on your part but they still work … kinda.

THREE — Learn about the New Rules of Marketing and PR. Now we’re talking. Best use of the web and technology to make direct contact with the consumer.

But, there’s another way. Back to our metaphor …Â

FOUR — Pack up some (or all) of your business into a cart, take it into the city and park it on a street corner. Surrounded by millions of consumers, you’re sure to land sales you never would have made by waiting patiently back at your house. Are you ready? …. the cart is a widget!Â

Through widgets, consumers are exposed to your company (content, products, services, etc.) without having to leave the social networks, communities, blogs, web pages or even their own desktop. The cart … uhhh, I mean widget, provides the content conveniently and immediately. The widget makes it easy for them to spread the word about you virally to all of their friends, and the connections you make are facilitated by the networks and communities where the widget is placed.

The next logical question for you is, “what kind of widget can I make for my business?”  Good question … give me a call if you’d like to chat about that (888-825-3300)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.