Widgetmania

Everywhere you turn, people are talking about the power of widgets. They are seen as the savior of the music industry and the key to viral marketing. Yet, most artists do not really understand what widgets really are or how they work. While the concept behind them is simple, the key, as with any form of viral marketing, is how to make them ubiquitous.

The idea of a widget is not dissimilar to that of a hyperlink (which is now commonly referred to as merely a "link"). Hyperlinks were designed to make it simple to incorporate references to one piece of content (e.g., an article, image, sound, etc.) into another. By clicking on the link, you are connected to another page or piece of content. Hypertext language, which is the basis of links, was created in the nascent days of the Web to make the idea of a world wide web possible to do without having to be an expert in computer programming.

A widget can be thought of as a glorified hyperlink. Specifically, a widget is a graphic user interface (GUI) that references a specific set of content. It is like a mini-application that "looks" back to a central location for its content and then displays it with some sort of graphical, frame. Some widgets can be full-fledged applications that are standalone. There are 1000's of such widgets available ranging from games to weather forecasts to currency conversions. Others, such as those referenced here, are promotional devices to play or sell music.

Anyone who has placed a video or a song in their Myspace page has been using the widget technology. The only difference between then and now is that it is incredibly easy to create your own content, design a widget and then make that widget available for placement on any website or blog.

A widget is a way to wrap the content into a neat, little package that users, fans, relatives, etc. can pass around and post wherever they want. This package is actually empty. The content is a dynamic feed that looks to a source location every time the widget is opened. This is the key to a widget's functionality and cool factor. Every widget has source code that is designed to be easily copied and placed on another web page.

Since a widget is always looking back to its source for the content, that makes it a very powerful marketing device. Imagine if you placed an ad in Billboard for your new album. Then, two months later, you want to promote a new artist and wish you had put their name in the ad. With a widget, it would be like being able to send an update to every copy of that Billboard magazine containing your ad. It would be like someone picking up a copy of a two-month old Billboard and the ad is suddenly changed. (Ed: Since I have not referenced a major movie in several columns, allow me to do so now.) This concept was very clearly and creatively demonstrated in the Harry Potter books (which date back to 1997, years before widgets were used). If you recall, the photos in the Daily Prophet were dynamic and continuously updated. They moved and changed depending on the actions of the person in the photos.

A widget is the same idea. Even if a widget is placed on 1000's of different websites and blogs, you can update all of them instantly. This means that you can add new songs, send updates to your tour schedule, post new concert photos, etc. A widget is always looking back to its source to see what content it should be displaying. So if you change the source, the widget updates automatically everywhere. It doesn't matter how many sites have the widgets. All of them will be updated as soon as you change their source content.

Creating a widget is very simple and the cost is nominal, if not free. Most of the online content sites have a free widget creation service. This includes Yahoo, AOL, Youtube, Flickr, etc. Additionally, there are many other free widget creation sites like Gydget, Sprout, etc. You can even download software to do this on your own computer. Some of these software are shareware and freeware. All you need is a place to store your content. If you have a hosting service for your website, you already have such a place. If not, then finding a cheap or free hosting solution is amazingly easy nowadays.

It is fun to make your own widget. Most programs are a click and drag functionality. It is not an exaggeration to say that you can create your own widget in 5-10 minutes. But the obvious question is: then what? As with any other viral marketing tool, the creation of the tool is the easy part. Spreading the word is the hard part. The goal of widgets is to offer your fans and supporters to have an easy way to share the music that they love. Most widgets come with a "share this widget" link that displays the source code needed to embed the widget into a site.

Enticing fans to use your widget and share it with their friends is never easy. There are many pundits offering advice as to the best strategy for such viral marketing campaigns. It may be hard to prove that a widget's use is specifically tied to the success of a particular song or artist. The key factor to remember is that widgets represent another powerful tool in the arsenal of artists and labels. Fortunately, it is as easy as creating a Myspace page. Every artist and label should explore the power of widgets and start using them right away.