Galaxy Ninja

Widgets are programmed to open up efficiency in a wide variety of ways. Web widgets are a great way to create extended functionality on your website, blog, social profiles and even email. When we can create functionality on our personal or company sites, which matches the familiar brand of powerful social networks such as facebook and Twitter we can strengthen our brand. Furthermore, when a user comes across this familiar functionality right from your site, they are more likely to stay, shop around and/or join your communities. Facebook and youtube.com are the second and third most trafficked sites in the world. The easier it is to pull traffic from, and create connections on these powerful social sites, the easier it will be to achieve any of the goals you set for your site. Also, in this post you will find resources to make you own widgets. Buttons, badges, banners, widgets and icons - what is the difference? Firstly, I want to shed some light on the jargon. Basically, Banners (usually wider in width) are the same as buttons, and social media icons. These usually consist of a high quality images representing the logo of the social network. We highly recommend having these images on your site to help take on the brand of these popular sites, as well as create community on the sites. Check out iconfinder.com to get a look at a ton of high quality icons and social media buttons. *Note – it is very good to also have a prominent link from sites like twitter, youtube and yes... even myspace. This referral traffic can be a huge boost for your blog or website! See Social Networking to get more of a heads up on this idea… A badge once was just another name for an icon, or button. However, facebook is changing the way we talk about social media badges. Now, if you type facebook widgets into Google, the first thing that comes up is a page about badges (see below). This shows the power of these popular social sites and their ability to change the rules. Whether we say widget or badge- the link below has some great ways to share your unique facebook content on your website or blog. So, that leaves us with social media widgets. This can be anything from your well known "like this" button, to a live twitter stream directly on your site. Programmers are constantly coming up with new widgets, as this is a way to aggregate content all over the web. Widgets for facebook: The infamous "like this" button Check out this badge page for four great widgets - http://www.facebook.com/badges/ Aside from your like and badge recommendations above counter widgets are great. Not only for facebook, but for sites like stumble upon, Digg and twitter as well. This counter functionality is definitely a plus for aggregating content. This style of share button announces the credibility of your content, while simultaneously attracting someone to share. Digg digg and tweetmeme (if you have a wordpress site these are plugins you can add) are two great ways to quickly incorporate this style of share and like widget functionality. Twitter Widgets: Twitter widgets allow you to post twitter updates live to your website or social pages in real time. Widgets for Youtube and Myspace: You can create your own widgets for youtube and myspace here. Additional Resources: This page on widgetbox has some great apps for Myspace. - http://www.widgetbox.com/tag/myspace Cool facebook fanpage - http://www.facebook.com/WidgetsForFree If you enjoyed this post about your social widgets, icons, banners and buttons please use them to SHARE AWAY... : )

Filed under: Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube by Eric Carter