Widget Strategies & Social Platforms

Jeremiah Owyang (Forrester Research), Hooman Radfar (Clearspring Technologies, Inc.), Walker Fenton(NewsGator), Pam Webber (Widgetbox), Ben Pashman (Gigya)

Jeremiah – moderator. 2/3 of online teens visit social networking sites daily. only 8% use them daily. what do they do? see frends are up to; send messages; peeping at somsone’s profile that don’t know; look for someone that do know.

nothing says anything about money.

challenges – difficult to monetize. metrics; spammy; lots of clones; multiple APIs; poor user experience.

Jeremiah – give a simple description of yor niche.
Hooman – connect users and advertisers.
Walker – a kitchen. aggregator.
Pam – ‘colorme mine’. build your own widget.
Ben – spine within a growing body.

measurement and ROI – no industry std. Hooman – can get some of it technically (click throughs, etc.) but therer is education gap to connect with metrics already used by companies.. “How does it measure up to flyers and coupons?” Can see direct bump up when use coupon. How do online approaches do this?

challenges for branding (consumers own brand, not company) – many things can not be done online. Pam talked about difficulties. “Do not want to have brand on specific web site” can not easily be done. Better to evangelize the brand by giving users the ability. can try to prevent general types (i.e. X-rated sites) but at end of the day, it is in user’s control.

Ben – for some brands do not need help getting out (porshe) but how do smaller groups find out if anyone is using their widget. can’t be easily one virally. try doing with advertising unit. low clickthrough.

Hooman – how do you make money? 2 distinct markets – social market (facebook) – traditional (banners, etc.) build CPI network..

this requires standardization to work. widget lives on other sites so who owns money. some people want just distribution. some want money. how to reconcile. CPI (cost per impression) also called CPM

Strategy is dependent on goal. do you want them to look at it or to install. need to define market objective. Then design widgets for use. Walker – define what top 2 things your website is for. Then design widgets that allow them to take it away.

Biggest misconception – Pam – need to really understand website. so putting ebay widget on Facebook not relaly useful since most people do not go to FB to buy things. better widget will drive traffic. Ben – if you build it, they will come. Mixing desktop widget with social software. Does your widget live up to the “make my day” question. Does it make people smile and want to send it out to friends? If so, it is useful.