This weekend I went widget shopping! I installed (and unstalled) lots of widgets until I found a few good ones that might be appropriate for nonprofits. Here are my notes and reflections.
Where to find widgets
There are three general types of sources to find widgets to install on your organization's blog or web site:
1. The particular Web2.0 Social Networking Tool or Service
Many widgets I came across are designed to work with various Web 2.0 social networking tools like del.icio.us, flickr, blip.tv, Technorati, etc. So, if you are already using one of those services and want to integrate content onto your blog, check on their web site first. Now, they may not be calling it a widget, some refer to as "badges."
Here's a few widget/badgets that I ended up installing and keeping:
Flickr Widget/Badge: If your organization is using flickr to say run a photo content or a community tagging project, it makes sense to add a flickr badge to your web site. The Flickr widget lets you select all your photos, a particular tag or group. It lets you customize the color, size, format, number of photos, etc.
Technorati Search Widget: If anything else, I use the search widget on my blog to retrieve posts I wrote about a while ago, but can't quite remember when or what category I filed them in. Visitors or readers might find the search useful as well. There are a lot of search widgets and thankfully Christine Herron did an exhaustive review of search widgets so i didn't have to do that. (Hear her talk about widgets here)
There are also some creative ways to build community (or create silos) using search on your blog. For example, the Non-Profit Tech Blog installed custom search feature using the google coop. It searches searches only a smaller portion of the Internet. In this case, it searches nptech oriented blogs.
Message/IM Widgets: I installed the message widget from Odeo and the IM/Chat Widget from Meebo. Follow the link above to my other posts and thoughts about these two and some of the issues around using. I think they could work, but depends on your audience. I did, however, find another excellent comment line at Emergency Trap Blog (he left a comment in one of the posts). Its from MobaTalk and has a better interface and also automatically shares messages you've received. Downside, not free.
ChipIn (fundraising widget) - Still in beta. My particular test raised $25 for my project in less than 24 hours!
RSS Widgets: I installed grazr which easily puts my bloglines feeds that I'm reading on my sidebar in a nifty little directory. It helps automate your blogroll. FeedBurner has recently partnered to offers customizable widgets for your feed. I'm gonna go play with that in a minute.
2. A Widget Gallery or Directory for your Blogging Platform
I'm not a techy, so I use typepad. Typepad has integrated widgets into the blogging platform, so adding a widget is even easier than cut and paste! It's one click! There is a widget gallery where you can go shopping for widgets.
There are also other platform-specific widget directories: wordpress (here and here) and blogger If you're on another platform, try the Squidoo Widget Finder Lens.
I went through the typepad collection and installed (unstalled) a lot of them because, to be honest, some did not hold promise for a nonprofit org blog. With that said, the collection is growing and I did find the ultimately easy to install and just what I wanted delicious linkroll widget here, The Vidzu Audience Poll Widget (here) as well as a few other good possibilities for the nonprofit blogs here, here, here, and here.
Since widgets installation is integrated with my blogging platform it was one less click to install or unstall -- and not time consuming.
I played around with the widget that allows we to easily stream my delicious links on my sidebar. (If you're not using typepad, don't despair, you can grab the code for a number of delicious widgets here, here, and here) I am a big tagger so this was a must-have widget for me. However, I don't want stream my entire collection of links though. So, set it to stream based on the tag "linkblog" and that way I can relate the links to current posts or whatever theme I'm researching.
3. Third-Party Widget Directory and Aggregator Sites
There are widget directory sites like snipperoo which organize various widgets for end-users to pluck and install and for widget developers to upload and share. However, what the newest thing is something called a "Widget Aggregator." As described at the recent Widget Live Conference "New widget aggregators are forming to organize and classify the world of widgets into simple and easy to deploy collections. These aggregators offer one widget box to rule them all, creating a single point of integration for new widget users."
Widgetbox For bloggers like me, Widgetbox offers a Widget panel. Once this panel is placed into a sidebar of a blog, any widget can be added simply via drag and drop. It supports a range of blogging platforms.
Although the interface was a little geeky - after clicking around - it was very easy to install (and unstall) and update the widgets and panels I installed. I installed the following via widgetbox:
Scrolling RSS Reader that allowed me to add up to 3 feeds. I used it to stream headlines from other places I blog. Again, if an organization has multiple blogs or is trying to weave the blog into a main web site, this an excellent widget to do so.
Linked In Profile: I'm not quite sure how an organization might use this one, but Amy Schwartz mentions the linked in profile in her post about the social media press release.
Drawing Widget: This was for fun, I couldn't resist it.
There were a lot more widgets available and definitely worth exploring for ideas and ways to enhance your blog community.
My summary on all of this:
-Widgets have the potential of extending the distribution and connection of a nonprofit's content and can also can be useful in amplifying the community s associated with an organization's web site or blog.
-Widgets are easy to use and install and do not require special technical skills - they're fun too!
How to get started ...
-Successfully using widget to realize outcomes is going to be a matter of experimentation and learning. Above all, the widget needs to be connected with your blog's content, readers' interests, and amplify conversation.
-Pick a few widgets, install them, and track them over a period of a month or so. Figure out if your strategy is bringing in new traffic, generating more comments/activity on your blog, etc. If not, do be aware to ditch it.
Beth,
You stated above that the downside to mobatalk was that it wasn't free.
MyChingo/MobaTalk has a FREE membership, with full functionality as the paid memberships - the only difference is that the free accounts have a 2-minute per message limit.
Posted by: Michael Bailey | November 08, 2006 at 07:09 PM