Web Widgets Article

MarketingProfs.com has just published my new article, "How Web Widgets Help with Viral Marketing". Don't hesitate to post your questions or comments here. And please feel free to send it to your friends and colleagues who might find it interesting.

Oh, and thanks to Brandon for proofreading the article and suggesting edits.

Comments

Dave said…

I enjoyed your article. I happen to be a maker of widgets and I can see that value that they add as a marketing tool. That said, I wonder how effective they really can be. I know that the blogger or myspace user will find value in them, but what kind of traffic do they drive? What kind of impression do they make really? I would love to do some real research in to this topic. Anyway, like I said I enjoyed your article. You can find some of my widgets at lemieuxster.com

Thu Apr 05, 12:27:00 AM 2007

Roger L. Cauvin said…

In the case of YouTube, the widget actually solves the #1 problem. MPEGs, AVIs, and QuickTime movies have existed for years. What was not straightforward was a non-HTML programmer quickly embedding the video in her web page. YouTube's widget made it easy. So, in retrospect, it's not too surprising that it was a big success.

Wed Apr 11, 02:49:00 PM 2007

Dancer Test

Are you left-brained or right-brained? Supposedly, your brain lateralization determines how you view this animation. Some people see her rotating clockwise. Others see her rotating counter-clockwise. Some see her unpredictably changing the direction of her rotation. Supposedly, people who see clockwise rotation are right brained. People who see counter-clockwise rotation are left brained. I originally came across this animation here .

Why Spreadsheets Suck for Prioritizing

The Goal As a company executive, you want confidence that your product team (which includes all the people, from all departments, responsible for product success) has a sound basis for deciding which items are on the product roadmap. You also want confidence the team is prioritizing the items in a smart way. What Should We Prioritize? The items the team prioritizes could be features, user stories, epics, market problems, themes, or experiments. Melissa Perri makes an excellent case for a " problem roadmap ", and, in general, I recommend focusing on the latter types of items. However, the topic of what types of items you should prioritize - and in what situations - is interesting and important but beyond the scope of this blog entry. A Sad but Familiar Story If there is significant controversy about priorities, then almost inevitably, a product manager or other member of the team decides to put together The Spreadsheet. I've done it. Some of the mos...

5 Ways Companies Make Product Decisions

In the last blog entry, we reviewed the four problems that companies face, or are trying to overcome, as they make product decisions . Now we'll look at the ways that most companies make their product decisions. Companies that develop, market, and sell products and solutions make strategic and ongoing tactical decisions. They decide what features to include in their products, what messages they will use to communicate the value of their products, what marketing tactics they will use, what prospective customers they will target, and many day-to-day choices. Whether or not these decisions are deliberate or ad hoc, most companies use some combination of the following ways of making product decisions. (A downloadable "map" that summarizes the product decision landscape is included at the end of this article.) Customer Wants Product decisions based on feature requests, focus groups, and what prospects and customers say they want. Companies are selling products to ...

Cauvin

Search This Blog