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October 6, 2008 | 12:00 am
Social media widgets: Little effort, big results
Worried that a foray into social media will tick off executives, send Legal into a tailspin and dry up your budget? A social media widget might be the low-risk, low-cost answer to your concerns.
Widgets—also referred to as modules, snippets and plug-ins—are mini web applications that are easily embedded within a web page. Best of all, widgets are free to download in most cases so there's little monetary investment.
Widgets to consider:
While there are tens of thousands of widgets available, three have strong potential in the employee communications arena. They are:
 1. RATE
This widget allows site visitors to rate your content based on a 5-star rating system.
Benefit for visitors:
- Provides a mechanism for giving feedback
- Helps visitors find content rated favorably by their peers
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Benefit for internal communicators:
- Provides insight into standard web metrics (i.e., hits, page views, etc.)
- Drives improvements to writing
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 2. SHARE
This widget enables site visitors to send a link of the web page to their colleagues via e-mail.
Benefit for visitors:
- Enables and encourages quick and easy knowledge sharing
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Benefit for internal communicators:
- Helps identify key topics of interest
- Increases readership through content referral
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 3. SUBSCRIBE
This widget helps your visitors easily subscribe to your RSS feed using any feed reader.
Benefit for visitors:
- Allows visitors to opt-in to content of interest and control the flow of information they receive
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Benefit for internal communicators:
- Helps to manage one of employees greatest complaints: information overload
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