Rockin' With Social Network Widgets

What would our social networks be without glitter text, slideshows and personal countdown meters? Apparently these social network widgets are worth a little something given news that RockYou secured $35 million today. RockYou is a provider of widgets and applications for the web such as photo slideshows, glitter text, customized Facebook applications and voicemail accessories that are simple to use and enable people to frequently refresh their online style. 

Outside of the popularity of SuperWall and the vampire and zombie applications, today’s news proves that there is a business for widget makers and a great opportunity for companies to understand the ways in which consumers are using social networking tools. Companies such as Paramount, New Line Cinema, Sony, Microsoft, and CBS are already benefiting from millions of unique site visitors by sponsoring social network widgets or tools.

Some interesting facts for consideration:

•  RockYou has over 35 million users, serving over 180 million widget views per day in more than 200 countries.
• RockYou applications are customized for easy integration across all social networks including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, Tagged and hi5.
• RockYou’s cost-effective, results-focused advertising platform is the largest Ad Network on Facebook today.
• New applications can reach over 100k users in 24 hours, spanning a suite of applications across multiple publishing partners.

A common question that seems to pop up each day on LinkedIn is how do you monetize or benefit from social tools? Who is using them and how? Various opinions and open-ended comments are out there and everyone is trying to understand how to increase eyeballs or quite frankly, increase sales of products and services by leveraging social media tools.  comScore is trying to do just that with its Widget media Metrix.

According to Forrester research, U.S.marketers spent $600 million advertising on social media, a sliver of the $18 billion spent on interactive advertising that year and that number is expected to surge to $6.9 billion by 2012.

Companies who are consumer-focused should consider widgets and other social tools as the marketing and advertising paradigms continue to evolve away from traditional media.

More on this subject… Please share your comments or experiences with widget marketing - especially successes.

Rock on,

Melissa Hourigan