Best Practices

Top 6 Widget Mistakes


Recently Business Week published an article entitled When Facebook Ads Flop - part of its CEO Guide to Widgets which highlighted 10 Widgets that flopped on Facebook.  While the article was quite good and identifying the symptoms of widget malaise, we didn’t necessarily agree in every instance with the authors and their diagnosis of what went wrong.  Here’s our analysis of the top 6 widget mistakes we see here at MuseStorm in our work with agencies, brand marketers, and entertainment companies.

Mistake #1:  Not understanding the demographics of the various social networks and how they differ
Case in Point
AMC Entertainment
Breaking Bad: Chemical Codebreaker
Peak installs: 7,700
Began generating traffic: Dec. 28, 2007

What Business Week had to say
“I really love this show. But let’s say I’m a high school student who’s hopped onto Facebook after getting home from school. What’s the last thing I want to think about? A chem quiz! Beautifully executed Flash piece that requires too much thinking, provides too little reward.”

What The Pros Know
Actually the problem is different than this.  The show features a 40-something Chemistry teacher and appeals to an older demographic and not to Facebook generation.  Although Facebook reaches 51 million people world wide, remember that the number of people most likely to spread your widget virally belong to a very specific demographic:  younger and more socially connected.  These aren’t the folks who watch a ton of TV and when they do they tend to tune in to reality TV not this kind of black comedy/drama.

Mistake #2: Forgetting that content is king and queen when it comes to viral marketing
Case in Point
Blockbuster
Movie Clique
Peak installs: 68,900
Began generating traffic: Nov. 7, 2007

What BusinessWeek had to say
Blockbuster faces some stiff competition with its Movie Clique widget, which lets Facebook film buffs rate and suggest movies to friends. Its peak of 2,516 daily active users is miniscule compared to Flixster Movie’s peak of 2.3 million daily active users. By Feb. 11, Movie Clique daily active users dropped to 453.

Hofstetter: “When a branded version goes up against an identical nonbranded app without an extra value or nuance attached to it, nonbranded will win every time. An alternate option would be to partner with and tap into (Flixster’s) already large user base.”

What The Pros Know
When it comes to viral marketing, it is important to remember that content is king and queen, trumping even your brand.  Users will post and share your widget because they like the content it contains, find it useful, entertaining, or energizing.

Mistake #3:  Letting your widget go stale
Case In Point
Electronic Arts (ERTS)
My Need for Speed
Peak installs: 54,200
Began generating traffic: Nov. 20, 2007

What BusinessWeek had to say:
The Need for Speed ProStreet widget lets players of the popular racing game post in-game screen shots and stats to their Facebook profile. The number of daily active users surged to 2,976 about a week after the game’s official release but had plummeted to 512 by Feb. 11.

Weaver: “This is a great example of those Facebook apps that require you to sign up friends before you can even start using them. Note to developers: huge turnoff. Forced ‘virality’ didn’t work with Amway, either.”

What The Pros Know
We concur that this was a problem.  But the biggest problem with this widget wasn’t this.  Based on the data we have, it seems more likely that this widget got stale and the folks at Electronic Arts did not have the technology at hand to up date their widget to keep the people engaged with their widget on an ongoing basis.  The best practice that is emerging is to refresh your content and/or the programming (code) at least 1x per week. 

Mistake #4:  Over relying on generic content; lack of exclusive content
Case In Point
Verizon Tones
Peak installs: 4,800
Began generating traffic: Nov. 10, 2007

What Business Week Had to Say
With the Verizon Tones widget, Facebook users can find a ringtone and suggest it to a friend. Of course, anyone who downloads the ringtone will have to pay for it. The application had 218 daily active users at its peak in January. The number dropped to 35 by Feb. 11.

Weaver: “Sending ring tones to friends isn’t a bad idea. But how do you know if they’re on Verizon’s network? The cheesy stock photography of supposedly related cell-phone users is faux hip and doesn’t smell very authentic.”

What the Pros Know
In spite of its many problems, this widget might have still met wit success had it offered free ringtones from known artists to everyone who posted it on their profile page on Facebook.  Facebook is largely a non-commercial environment; people go there to interact with their friends and not with companies.  So before you ask someone to do something for your company - make sure the widget offers content that is useful or otherwise not available elsewhere.  The novelty value of widgets is long gone.  That said, exclusive content is a great way to give back to the end users and move them up the engagement ladder ... from passive participant, to semi-active participant, to brand zealot.  And when it comes to a brand-oriented widget like Verizon’s - dangling exclusive content may well have been required to get people to post this widget on their site.

Mistake #5:  Not considering your widget in a competitive context
Case in Point
eBay (EBAY)
To Go
Peak installs: 1,600
Began generating traffic: Aug. 29, 2007

What Business Week Had to Say
With eBay’s To Go widget, the auction site’s bargain hunters can highlight their favorite eBay discoveries on their Facebook profiles. Even at its peak, on Aug. 30, 2007, the widget had a meager 30 daily active users. By Feb. 11 the number had dwindled to 10.

Armano: “EBay To Go seems like a good idea. The question is, do people want to interact with eBay through Facebook? Maybe making something portable because you can isn’t always the best strategy.”

What the Pros Know
The best Facebook applications integrate into the social graph at Facebook in a deep and not superficial way.  As Josh Lewensohn , over at WebWare points out, eBay’s Facebook application did not do this and this - more than anything else - probably accounts for its lukewarm reception. 


Mistake #6:  Not seeding or fueling your campaign
Case in Point
All of the Above

What the Pros Know
Viral marketing campaigns based on widgets and social applications go through four distinct phases. Which means you want to explicitly consider strategies to seed your widget - say by paying for a modest number of installs up front - and fueling - watching your widget/social application closely to understand when engagement with your content is starting to fall off and then being proactive with strategies to fuel continued engagement with your widget.

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