Zoetica Media

  • Home
  • Services
  • Speaking
  • About
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Contact

Widget 101: What They Are and Why You Should Consider Having One

April 19, 2007 by Kami Huyse

Share this:
Twitter0
Facebook0
Google+0
LinkedIn0
scraping window panes
scraping window panes,
originally uploaded by heyjude184.

Fellow blogger and reader of Communication Overtones, Rob LaGesse, pointed me to an excellent article about the importance of widgets and how to get started with them.

The article is a recap of a seminar on Widgets attended by Read/WriteWeb guest author Graeme Thickins at the Web 2.0 Expo this week in San Francisco.

At the New Communication Forum earlier this year, Shel Holtz in his closing session dubbed 2007 the “Year of the Widget.”

I agree with his assessment, and as PR professionals, I think that we need to sit up and take notice at how these tiny pieces of code will help to expand communication.

Before it was hijacked by techies, a widget was a slang term for a scraper used to remove paint from glass. And basically, that is what a widget is for a website or blog. It allows you to create (braded or unbranded) content that can be “scraped” from your site and added to another website. In other words, a web widget is a small piece of code that allows one to easily add dynamic content to a webpage.

For instance, on my company website, I use the Feedburner widget BuzzBoost to add dynamic headlines from my blog to the front page of my website.

Distributed Content

As a marketer there are many ways one could think of using this tool to disseminate a message and push a brand. But from the public relations standpoint, I think it is even more important to think of it as a way to distribute content. I have always felt that the role of public relations is to act as a resource of information, and the widget is one way to accomplish this.

Two immediate ideas:

  • In a crisis situation, you can make available a widget that both media and/or important stakeholders could add to their own websites to ensure the latest updates are spread to the widest possible audience.
  • For a more pedestrian use, why not “syndicate” content from your publications for people who are interested in your niche market to add to their site, or you could provide an educational quiz that tabulates on a remote site and sends the data back to you in aggregate – while at the same time adding dynamic content for those content generators interested in your topic.

In other words, get creative and make win-win widgets.

There are several sites that specialize in widgets, including ClearSpring, which help you to make, share and track widgets and Widgetbox, which is more of a YouTube-type clearinghouse site for making widgets more widely available.

Filed Under: Industry Trends, SocIal Media Tactics

About Kami Huyse

Kami Watson Huyse, CEO of Zoetica, is passionate about great communication. Working in Public Relations since 1994, and blogging since 2005, she has seen trends come and go, but one thing has stayed the same – people are looking for ways to authentically connect. She loves to connect with readers, so leave a comment or follow @kamichat on Twitter and connect there.

Subscribe to get the newsletter and premiums

Enter your email to subscribe:

  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

About Zoetica

Zoetica Swish SmallWelcome to Zoetica! We are an experienced team of communicators led by Kami Huyse who are dedicated to teaching you how to bring your communication to life with sound strategy, community building and solid success measures. Check out our blog, Zoetica Talks, browse our Resources, and check out our Sevices.We can't wait to get to know you better.

Recent Posts

  • Which Social Media Platforms to Use for Business in 2023
  • Creative Professionals, Get Ready for the Artificial Intelligence Takeover
  • The 5 Social Media Trends That Will Shape the Industry in 2023
  • The 5-Part Visibility Plan That Will Help Promote and Grow Your Business
  • Are You Ready for AI in Creative Work?

Zoetica in the News

5 Tools to Measure (and Manage) Reputation in Complex Environment PR News Byline

2014 trends for public relations, marketing and social media | Business | Kentucky.com (mobile mention) 

Digital PR & Social Media Guidebook – Contributing Author

How Communicators Can Get Started with PR Measurement, PR News Mention

Proving PR’s Value in the Age of ROI—How to Tie Results to Corporate Objectives | Bulldog Reporter (Speaker)

A Gnawing Crisis in PR: Measuring The ROI on Social Media Channels, PR News Byline

Named as one of AGBeat's top 50 industry influencers in 2014

Will Houston B2B companies answer the social media call? - Houston Business Journal

Social Media Measurement Twitter Chat: Evaluating Impact of Social Media on Foundation Outcomes (with tweets) · RWJF (Moderator)

Top 100 Social Media Power Influencers in Houston 2013

Named as one of 30 PR Experts You Should Follow on Twitter by e-releases

BusinessWire Congrats for Making the Top 100 Women on Twitter

Posts by Topic

Zoetica Talks

 

#SMBHOU

Influencer Outreach

Best Ranked

Measurement

Book Shelf

Nonprofit and CSR

Community

Online Ethics

CoolTools

Social Media Tactics

Crisis

Guidelines

How To

Social Networks

Humor

Speaking

Trends

Strategy

Latest Tweets

Tweets by @kamichat
© Zoetica, LLC | Disclaimer | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 - Zoetica Media · designed/developed by Petersen Media Group