Some of you may remember we released our first widget onto the Web a just before Christmas. Thought I’d share the early returns - tracking data provided by Clearspring Technologies.
In case you missed it, here’s the widget:
Here’s how we seeded the widget
So far we’ve not done much promotion for the Widget. We placed it on the Myspace pages of 2, well connected Colts fans, and we sent the widget via E mail to 500 Colts fans who have pre-registered for our upcoming social networking site. I made the mistake of putting the html for the widget directly in the body of the E mail, which was a bad idea (as I learned) since not everyone’s E mail clients will display it properly. We should have shown a screen shot and offered a link to a Web page for people to go get the widget. We also notified the moderators of our fan forum
Speaking of links, one of the biggest challenges right now is that Myspace doesn’t allow links from widgets to outside sites. So while Myspace leads the way in terms of Colts widget locations, people who view the widget on myspace cannot click the links we’ve offered to get them back to our Web site. Clearspring is in negotiations with Myspace to fix this issue. Other social networking sites do not prevent links.
And here’s what we’re seeing so far
Below is a summary report from Clearspring. The overall report shows: number of locations where the widget is posted on the web, number of views it has received, and what Clearspring calls viral hubs. I’m just showing the summary here.
Here’s a look at number of locations over time
Sorry for the fuzzy image. I’m not much with graphics. But you can see the overall trend is going in the right direction. Allowing for a little dip through Holidays, we’re seeing decent adoption rates. Interestingly, a lot of our fans need to be taught what a widget actually is. We’re seeing the need for education. Perhaps we should not throw around the term “widget” and use words like “slide show” or something so that people will get it faster.
Plus, not everyone has a web page to put the widget. It will be nice when we can make a desktop version. I’m sure that will be popular, since we already offer a screen server product which pushes our latest action photos to fans who have downloaded the desktop application.
I’m told that Clearspring’s syndication and tracking services are not as fully developed as they eventually will be. We’re working together to study the “migration habits”. They’re collecting and sharing with me the adoption rates and places people are putting our widget. We hope to use this intelligence to improve our success over time. More on this in the future
Not really surprised many people don’t know what a widget is. I think you’re really on the bleeding edge and while MySpace might have a spot in the public mind I doubt they know what to call the bits of code they copy from YouTube etc to embed those hilarious videos.
Slideshow would probably help people understand or at least grasp the idea. Telling them there’s a widget is about as helpful as telling them there’s a Colts thing-a-ma-bob for their pages.
I think you and Paul are on the right track! Perhaps some other name for the widget? Or have a “Add the Colts to your Web Page” and then the link shows you the widget? In other words, let folks know what they can do and get with the widget… and then actually tell them that it is a widget?
I also wonder if they have a desktop version that works with Google Desktop or with Yahoo! Widgets?
Desktop version is in the works. Also, we made a new add for the widget. I’ll post it in the body of this blog post in a minute…see what you think.
Cool Idea!
I’m very interested in the whole Widget area on Blogs & Websites & think it is going to Explode this year!
I like the way U have Visual Images flashing - that is very Eye Catching to most people!
Cheers! Billy ;))