Fine Print

“What?! You mean you haven’t — gasp — got a widget yet?”

That’s the social media equivalent faux pas of asking in the ’80s if you had a cellphone the size of a brick, and that you needed a suitcase to carry its battery around in. Hernia be damned, at least you could call the other five people who owned one and shout, “Hello, hello, you’re breaking up!”  for two minutes before the juice ran out.

It seems that these days, if you haven’t got a widget, then you’re not maximizing your branding opportunity. I agree to some extent — widgets can be great, but only if they’re useful. If they can report the weather in your locale, and ping you to grab an umbrella if it starts to rain, or enables you to check your business referrals on five different social networks, then, cool … where do I get that from?

So much the better if your client has its logo at the top, or a link to its website in a prominent position. It will be “their” widget that makes your life easier. Job done.

But, I don’t think that you should create a widget just because it’s the latest fad, or the current “in” thing to do. You have to decide if your client will get value from it, what they expect to gain from it and whether the developer gets the exact brief on how it is expected to perform.

Further to that, Wal-Mart today announced its new widget, called “101 Days of Summer Staycations” to help people enjoy the summer, and suggest tips and products on a daily basis. Personally, this type of widget doesn’t appeal to me because I know what I plan to do this summer, but each to their own.

And, if you do decide to go ahead and make a widget, The Buzz Bin has some timely advice.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada