Here's a look at a few ways your brand can take advantage of the users you're currently not talking to.

How much is your brand missing out by not employing a widget strategy? There's no easy answer to that, but since comScore starting tracking an audience of close to 300 million users, most brand managers have that itchy feeling like all their users are watching a TV channel that they just can't get space on.

Luckily, brands that haven't gotten in on widgets or mini-apps are closer than they think. Keeping the premise simple and the audience discourse in mind provides surprising amounts of lift in all kinds of places, which those experimenting with the medium are enjoying with great frequency.

So let's take a look at just a few of the ways brands are making a measurable difference in the space; ways your brand can take advantage of these hundreds of millions of users you're currently not talking to at all:

Micropayments

Typically thought of in terms of social media and online gaming, quite a bit of attention was paid to micropayments at SXSW Interactive recently. After all, it's a big way Facebook is paying the bills right now, and a bigger way that a lot of Facebook application creators are paying the bills.

For those not in the know, micropayments mean offering something of value for one or two dollars. It seems counter-intuitive to spend time on it as a brand because the amount paid is so small. But here's a hook: With micropayments usually comes an audience comfortable with saving their credit card information for one-click quick transactions.

You're essentially making a dollar into a click, which becomes easier for the user every time they do it. After all, it's just a dollar. Why not?

A lot of the micropayment action is happening right now in virtual gifts (more on this in the next section), and virtual items for avatars in multiplayer games. Along the way, they're already generating tens of millions of dollars in revenue.

But Facebook isn't the only platform taking micropayments all the way to the bank. Even though they've gotten the most press because they've taken this notion to the social media set, you can't overlook the way that iTunes has completely revolutionized the entire distribution model of music with micropayments.
 
Both of these ecosystems depend completely on the convenience of widgets. Without desktop applications tied to the internet, or web-based widgets providing intra-platform ease-of-use, the door is open.

So the question asked of brand managers now is, "What do you make that can be split into smaller objects?"

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