More WebProNews Videos

Businesses are still struggling with finding the right social media strategies, let alone strategies for check-in apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and the recently launched Facebook Places. WebProNews spoke with Lawrence Coburn, CEO of geolocation app provider DoubleDutch about where this industry is headed and what it means for businesses looking to take advantage. 

"I think it’s still early days," he tells us. "I think a huge step for the whole industry was when Facebook Places launched a check-in. And I think the big question that we all need to answer is like ‘is the check-in becoming a gesture that’s gonna be as common as a status update?’ which is, you know, Twitter’s thing…I think it is. I think we’ve passed critical mass, especially with Facebook in the game."

"What Facebook did is they launched a very basic service, and with a couple exceptions," he adds. "They did some pretty cool stuff, but for the most part, it’s very basic."

Facebook has over half a billion users, so naturally, when the company launched Facebook Places, a lot questions surfaced about other check-in services. Would they be able to compete with such a monster? 

"It looks to me like Foursquare has weathered the storm with Facebook’s initial launch, and I don’t think Foursquare’s going anywhere," Coburn says. "I think they’re gonna keep growing. I do think that there’s gonna be a shake-out, like right now there’s probably 10 or 15 consumer-facing check-in apps, and I don’t know if the market can support all those identical apps, but I think we’ll see some fragmentation as well."

"I think the real competition from the Facebook ecoystem is gonna come from third-party developers like Zynga that build on top of the Facebook Places API, because you’ll notice with Facebook Places that they haven’t done anything with like virtual goods like badges or points, and these are some of the main attractions of Foursquare and Gowalla," he adds. "So they’ve just left that open, but I know that third-party developers won’t be so shy, and they’ll come in and make games, because there’s a lot of good game developers on Facebook."

Games are one thing, and there are ways businesses can take advantage of games themselves, but is there more to this phenomenon than just games? Real business applications? 

"I think that location is so fundamental that it has its chance to be its own mega-hit in it’s own right," Coburn says. "Think about it. You want to know where your friends are. You want to know where your family is. You need to know where your co-workers are….To me it’s almost more fundamental than like a status update, which if you had to pitch Twitter to me on paper now, if I had never seen it, it would be a tough sell, but it worked. It became like a communication channel in its own right."

"Right now you hear about a lot of campaigns that big brands are doing with Foursquare, in terms of giving away free stuff, I think Gowalla gave away a bunch of New Jersey Nets tickets. Then there’s like deals with Starbucks and I think, Brightkite," he says. "It’s all interesting stuff, but I think there’s a lot of experimentation, trying to see where the value is for big brands…We do know this: if a consumer tells you (a brand, a company) where they are, it’s a big deal." 

"It’s almost like a search query that isn’t going to Google," he continues. "It’s like they’re telling you ‘I’m here, what do you have for me?’ and that’s an opportunity for brands and marketers, and I think we’re gonna figure it out as to where the monetary value is."

Have you found interesting ways to use check-in apps for your business? Comment here.

At the recent Pubcon conference in Las Vegas, Lawrence presented on a panel about viral marketing where he focused on using widgets as a way to drive traffic and links. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this session since I was presentingon a different panel at the same time, but Karen and Jolina did and they came back with excellent feedback. Multiple people mentioned this session to me actually, including Rand Fishkin in this video interview.

There’s no doubt in my mind that widgets are going to be gaining a lot of attention from creative online marketers in the coming months, so what better time than now to talk to someone who is already in the thick of widget marketing? Read on to discover what widgets are, how they work, see some widget examples, learn about measuring widget results, resources and what Lawrence’s opinion is regarding whether widget marketing is just a passing fad or tactic.

Tell us about yourself and how did you start working with widgets?

I’ve been running a large social network and consumer ratings community called RateItAll since 1999. My interest in widgets was sparked by seeing the success that other online communities (like MySpace) have had in allowing their users to embed widgets, and the related success that widget publishers (like YouTube) have had in pushing their reach out beyond the confines of their domain.

With the possible exception of Google AdSense, the growing widget ecosystem is the single largest development in web publishing that I’ve seen in my seven plus years in the business.

What exactly IS a widget and how do they work?

When I talk about widgets, I am referring to web widgets – chunks of embeddable code that can be grabbed on one site, and embedded in another. Depending on who you’re talking to, widgets can also be referred to as gadgets, modules, badges, or blog bling. One of the neatest things about web widgets is that you don’t have to be a developer to make use of them. Anybody who understands copy/paste is able to display widgetized content or functionality on their own blog, social networking profile page, or personal web site. It’s sort of like opening up the world of mash-ups to non-technical web users.

What are some of the benefits to using widgets and how can they help companies engage in viral marketing?

From a site perspective, widgets are all about providing your users with the tools to promote your business. A properly executed widget can spread like wild fire – introducing your site’s content / functionality to new users who may not have known your site existed. Widgets are especially interesting to me as a site owner as a means of acquiring new customers at a minimal cost, pushing my site’s reach out to all corners of the Web, leveraging my site’s existing content, reducing my site’s dependence on SEO, and providing a nice source of organic, one-way, inbound links.

How do you measure the effect of a widget?

Widget analytics is still in its infancy. Currently, you can get a rough idea of how many times your widget has gotten picked up by doing backlink searches on Google, Yahoo, or Technorati using the “site:” qualifier to isolate the big widget aggregators like MySpace. Inbound traffic from widgets can be measured by checking your log files. However, as of now, there are no off the shelf solutions to help widget publishers understand exactly how folks are engaging with their widgets. There’s a company called Clearspring that is working on this problem, and I look forward to seeing how they progress.

Is it possible that widgets are just a fad like link baiting and social media?

Your question assumes that link baiting and social media are in fact fads, which I don’t think is accurate. (Perhaps “tactics” would be a better characterization – Lee) At their core, widgets are really about providing more control and a better experience to web users. Specifically, they’re about giving users the ability to be able to call up specific content and functionality when and where they want it. Now that the genie is out of the bottle, so to speak, I don’t think that widgets are going away. Even if the largest aggregagators were to make the unwise decision to start blocking widget embeds, other communities would step up to take their place.

People like being able to customize their online presences with widgets. It’s a way for folks to provide a better experience to their friends / readers, and a way to broadcast to the world a little bit about themselves. I see widgets as part of the larger movements of citizen publishing and customization – which few would argue are fads.

What are some good examples of widgets?

A widget that I think is great is the iLike widget. iLike is a social music discovery site that features an iTunes plug in that captures all of your iTunes listening behavior. iLike spits out a widget that displays your most recently listened to tracks, as well as your top bands overall. The widget is also a music player that allows readers to play samples of the songs from your own iTunes history. This widget is updated in real time, and is a great example of a widget that is powered by implicit, personalized data.

Bitty Browser is another widget that I like, that I think provides a glimpse of the next generation of widgets. Bitty Browser is an embeddable web browser, that allows publishers to embed mini versions of their favorite sites within the expience of another site. Unlike most widgets which offer snapshots of content, Bitty Browser enables a fully functional experience within the body of the widget.

A third widget that I’m a big fan of is the community widget provided by MyBlogLog. The MyBlogLog widget attempts to provide social networking functionality like user profiles and user to user messaging across various blog properties. Blog publishers embed the MyBlogLog code in their sidebars, and MyBlogLog displays thumbnail photos of the blog’s readers within the widget. Clicking on a thumbnail launches the reader’s MyBlogLog profile page, and allows basic social network functionality like testimonials and messaging. Readers are also assigned to blog communities based on their reading habits, and introductions are facilitated to similar readers.

What are some useful resources for people that want to know more about widgets?

Sexy Widget is my own blog, and focuses almost exclusively on widget best practices and widget reviews.

Mashable is a great Web 2.0 blog that covers a lot of widget related news, including Mashable Labs which has some good stats on widget penetration on MySpace. Richard MacManus over at Read / Write Web also follows widgets closely, along with other Web 2.0 stuff. Other widget focused blogs include Widgify, Flying Seeds, and Widgets Lab. The guy who I consider the leading proponent of widgets on the web is VC blogger Fred Wilson of A VC. His blog is cluttered with just about every widget under the sun, and he invented the term “microchunking” which I think was a precursor to the whole widget movement.

What was your favorite part about the recent Las Vegas Pubcon?

The best presentation that I saw at Pubcon was Rand Fishkin’s stuff on linkbaiting. The most useful off the cuff remarks came from Todd Friesen, AKA Oilman. He mentioned something in passing that has helped me a lot in how to think about leveraging internal links for SEO purposes. I thought Guy Kawasaki gave a great keynote. As usual with Pubcons however, the real value comes from late night conversations with folks like Werty, Caveman, Stuntdubl, Jeff Coyle, RogerD, and Martinibuster.

Comments

Tag:

Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Yahoo! My Web | Furl

Bookmark WebProNews:

Lee Odden is President and Founder of
TopRank Online Marketing, specializing in organic SEO, blog
marketing and online public relations. He’s been cited as a search
marketing expert by publications including U.S. News & World Report and
The Economist and has implemented successful search marketing programs
with top BtoB companies of all sizes. Odden shares his marketing
expertise at Online Marketing Blog offering
daily news, interviews and best practices.