


<p>From major corporations to personal brands, the right social media handle can be the difference between getting lost in the crowd and standing out online. These handles are like a unique fingerprint across platforms, and their presentation on business cards, websites, product packaging, and marketing materials can leave a lasting impression.</p>



<p>While it may sound like a simple thing, there is a strategy to it, and we’re here to show you exactly that. This guide walks you through seven actionable steps to list your social media handles effectively.&nbsp;</p>



<p>From crafting consistent handles to harnessing modern tools like QR codes and integrating your profiles into video content, you&#8217;ll discover practical strategies to boost your brand&#8217;s following and make your social profiles easily accessible.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 1: Choose consistent and memorable social media handles</strong></h2>



<p>Being consistent with your social media handles builds recognition and allows your audience to find you across different platforms. Think of your handle as your digital signature – the more consistent it is, the more memorable you become.</p>



<p>Inconsistent handles, on the other hand, could confuse your audience. Imagine a small business called &#8220;Green Leaf Gardens,&#8221; which has different handles on each platform:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Instagram: @greenleafgardens</li>



<li>Twitter: @GLGardens2023</li>



<li>Facebook: @greenleaflandscaping</li>



<li>TikTok: @thegardeningexperts</li>



<li>LinkedIn: @green-leaf-gardens-llc</li>
</ul>



<p>The mix of abbreviations, numbers, and different business names confuses potential customers and dilutes brand recognition. Using @greenleafgardens consistently (or a close variation if the exact handle isn&#8217;t available) would create a stronger, more memorable online presence.</p>



<p>So, how can you prevent that?&nbsp;</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Pick a handle that&#8217;s up for grabs on all the platforms that matter to you. </strong>We&#8217;re talking Instagram, <a href="https://twitter.com/">Twitter (now X)</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/">TikTok</a>, and any niche networks where your audience hangs out.</li>



<li><strong>Keep it short and sweet.</strong> The simpler your handle, the easier it is to remember and type.</li>



<li><strong>Make sure it reflects your brand. </strong>Your handle should give people a taste of who you are or what you do.</li>
</ol>



<p><strong><img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f4a1.png" alt="💡" class="wp-smiley" />Pro tip:</strong> <em>Start with the social platforms where your audience spends most of their time. But don&#8217;t stop there – grab your handle on emerging platforms, too, even if you&#8217;re not ready to use them yet – you might need them in the future.</em></p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Use Namechk and KnowEm to ensure handle availability</strong></h3>



<p>Before you commit to a handle, take it for a test drive. Free tools like <a href="https://namechk.com/">Namechk</a> or <a href="https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/knowem-social-media-usern/mbkgomeeoffmnhnkmngelnbfbhoggmpm">KnowEm</a> can show you if your dream handle is available across multiple social media platforms and domains.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If your first-choice handle is taken, don&#8217;t panic. Get creative with variations that still keep your <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/10/personal-branding-tools/">brand identity</a> intact. Maybe add your location or an industry keyword. For example, @JohnDoeBakeryNYC tells people who you are, what you do, and where you&#8217;re based.</p>



<p>And here&#8217;s a crucial step many folks overlook: <strong>check for potential trademark issues</strong>. The last thing you want is a legal headache down the road. A quick search of your local trademark office can save you a world of trouble.</p>



<p><strong><img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f4a1.png" alt="💡" class="wp-smiley" />Pro tip:</strong> <em>If you&#8217;re unsure about potential trademark conflicts, it&#8217;s worth chatting with a legal pro specializing in intellectual property.</em></p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 2: Optimize handles for each platform&#8217;s format</strong></h2>



<p>Each social media platform has its own handle requirements that you need to be aware of.&nbsp;</p>



<p>For example, the <strong>character limitations are different</strong>. Twitter (now X) has a 15-character limit, while Instagram gives you a bit more breathing room with 30 characters. LinkedIn takes a different approach, using URLs like linkedin.com/in/username without the &#8220;@&#8221; symbol.&nbsp; Sometimes, you might need to tweak your handle slightly to fit a platform&#8217;s requirements. That&#8217;s okay, but try to keep it as close to your brand name as possible.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Now, let&#8217;s talk symbols. On most platforms – Twitter, Instagram, TikTok – your handle starts with an &#8220;@&#8221; symbol. It&#8217;s like a universal &#8220;hey, this is a social media handle&#8221; sign. However, platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook often skip the &#8220;@&#8221; and use the full profile URL instead.</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s a hot tip: <strong>avoid unnecessary symbols or numbers in your handle</strong> unless they&#8217;re essential to your brand identity. Sure, @JaneDoe_123_NYC might be available, but it&#8217;s a mouthful to say out loud and a pain to type. Keep it clean and simple.</p>



<p>Different platforms have different purposes, and your handle should adapt accordingly. LinkedIn, for instance, is all about professional networking. So, your handle there might be more formal than your fun, casual Instagram handle.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Finally, don&#8217;t forget to create a custom URL where possible. On LinkedIn or Facebook, you can often set up a custom URL (like linkedin.com/in/YourBrandName) that aligns closely with your handles on other platforms. It&#8217;s an easy way to keep your brand consistent across the board.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 3: Display social media handles on marketing materials creatively</strong></h2>



<p>Your marketing materials are a great opportunity to plug your social media handles and are often the first thing people look for in business cards, brochures, and product packages. Here&#8217;s how to make the most of it:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Use clear, readable fonts: </strong>Choose fonts that are easy on the eyes, especially for smaller spaces like business cards, and make your handles stand out without overwhelming the design.</li>



<li><strong>Incorporate social media icons: </strong>Place recognizable icons (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) next to your handles and in your email signatures. They have to be high-resolution and align with your overall branding.</li>



<li><strong>Showcase handles on product packaging:  </strong>If you sell physical products, use that space to encourage social engagement. For example, you can include your handles with a call-to-action like &#8220;Tag us on Instagram!&#8221;</li>



<li><strong>Leverage event materials: </strong>Print your social handles on banners, posters, and promotional merchandise. You could also use items like T-shirts or tote bags to encourage attendees to follow you online.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 4: Display your social handles in one place with Gravatar</strong></h2>



<p>Promoting your social media handles across platforms can complicate things for your target audience, so the best course of action is to use a centralized page where they can find everything.&nbsp;</p>



<p><a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> is a free tool that lets you create a dynamic profile and include different types of information for your audience to see, including your verified social media profiles and other important links.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="333" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-profile-links-new-2.png?w=660" alt="Gravatar verified accounts section" class="wp-image-2415" />



<p>The most important feature of Gravatar is its automatic synchronization – update your profile in one place, and it will reflect across all connected platforms, which includes <a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a>, <a href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI</a>, <a href="http://wordpress.com">WordPress.com</a>, <a href="https://github.com/">GitHub</a>, and more! </p>



<p>On top of that, Gravatar allows you to verify your accounts, adding a layer of trust and authority. This is especially valuable for online personalities, entrepreneurs, CEOs, artists, and other professionals.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In short, this is the perfect place for you to add all your social handles and easily share them across your website, email signatures, business cards, and marketing materials. You can do this by adding your <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/26/link-your-gravatar-profile-with-a-free-custom-domain/">personal Gravatar .link URL</a> or generating a QR code directly from the platform.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="660" height="436" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-qr-code.png?w=660" alt="Gravatar QR code" class="wp-image-2416" />



<p>This can be extremely useful as it provides users with instant access to all your verified social profiles with one quick scan.</p>



<p>Gravatar lets you create a cohesive, professional online presence that boosts your brand&#8217;s visibility and credibility. It ensures that your audience knows they&#8217;re connecting with the real you, no matter which platform they&#8217;re on.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 5: Leverage QR codes to simplify access</strong></h2>



<p>Speaking of QR codes, here&#8217;s how to utilize them effectively.&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Use reliable, free QR code generators</strong> such as <a href="https://www.qr-code-generator.com/">QR Code Generator</a>, <a href="https://scanova.io/">Scanova</a>, or <a href="http://bit.ly">Bit.ly</a> to create scannable links for individual platforms or a single page listing all your profiles (e.g., a Gravatar profile or <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/10/21/linktree-alternatives/">Linktree page</a>). As noted above, if you have a Gravatar profile, you get a QR code for free and won’t have to use external tools. </li>



<li><strong>Always test your QR codes</strong> before implementation to ensure they direct users to the correct destination.</li>
</ul>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Include QR codes in physical assets</strong> like business cards, product packaging, in-store displays, printed advertisements, and flyers.</li>



<li><strong>Develop platform-specific QR codes. </strong>If your target audience favors different social networks, create separate QR codes for each platform. Alternatively, use a single QR code to direct people to a central page listing all your social handles.</li>



<li><strong>Opt for dynamic QR codes when possible. </strong>Unlike static codes, dynamic versions can be updated after printing, providing flexibility if you need to change the destination link. This feature lets you modify your digital information without reprinting materials if you update your social handles.</li>
</ul>



<p>Remember, QR codes are most effective when paired with clear instructions and a compelling reason to scan. Provide context for what users will gain by scanning – whether it&#8217;s access to exclusive content, special offers, or a comprehensive view of your social profiles.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 6: List social media handles on your website and landing pages</strong></h2>



<p>Your website and landing pages are prime real estate for showcasing your social media handles. By strategically integrating these handles, you can create a true connection between your web presence and social profiles.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Include social media icons in key website locations</strong></h3>



<p>Social media icons are a standard and effective method to display your handles on your website. These icons typically link directly to your social profiles, allowing visitors to follow you with a single click, which is why it’s good to place them in prominent areas like the header, footer, and contact sections of your website. This ensures visitors can easily access your handles regardless of which page they&#8217;re on.</p>



<p>It’s also recommended that you use branded, recognizable icons to maintain a professional appearance and keep the user experience consistent. Still, make sure that they fit your website&#8217;s <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/05/user-profile-page-examples/">design and color scheme</a>.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Embedding live social media feeds</strong></h3>



<p>Display live content from various platforms, such as Instagram posts, Twitter/X updates, or TikTok videos on strategic pages. For example, if you’re a food blogger, you could include an instagram feed with mouth-watering content that will entice people to follow you there.&nbsp;</p>



<p>What’s important here is to make it as easy as possible for readers to find you, and the best way to do this is through CTA buttons. Place them at the end of blog posts, on product pages, or in pop-ups. Direct visitors to your social platforms with clear, actionable prompts.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Optimize social media links for mobile users</strong></h3>



<p>With a significant portion of web traffic coming from mobile devices, remember to make your social media links mobile-friendly. Here’s how to do that:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Make links easily tappable: </strong>Icons and links have to be large enough for easy interaction on mobile screens. Avoid clustering links too closely together to prevent accidental taps.</li>



<li><strong>Ensure responsive design: </strong>Verify that linked pages are optimized for mobile browsing and test the user experience across various devices and screen sizes.</li>



<li><strong>Consider load times: </strong>Slow-loading social media elements can frustrate users and decrease engagement, so don’t forget to optimize icon images and linked content for quick loading on mobile networks.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 7: Promote social media handles in video and audio content</strong></h2>



<p>Incorporating your social media handles into video and audio content can significantly boost your online presence. This approach allows you to reach audiences across multiple platforms and encourages cross-platform engagement.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Display social media handles as text overlays in videos</strong></h3>



<p>Text overlays are an effective way to make your handles visible without disrupting the main content of your videos.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Use lower-thirds for handle display</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Place your handles in the bottom section of the video, commonly known as lower-thirds.</li>



<li>Ensure the text is clear and easy to read on both desktop and mobile devices.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Match branding with font choice</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Select fonts that align with your overall brand aesthetic.</li>



<li>Keep the text professional and easily legible.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Balance visibility and subtlety</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Make sure your handles are noticeable without overwhelming the video&#8217;s visuals.</li>



<li>Consider using semi-transparent overlays to minimize distraction.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Add social media handles to the description box of video platforms</strong></h3>



<p>Video platforms like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a>, TikTok, and <a href="https://vimeo.com/">Vimeo</a> offer valuable space in their description boxes for promoting your handles.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Prioritize handle placement</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>List your most important handles at the top of the description.</li>



<li>Use clickable links to make it easy for viewers to follow you immediately after watching.</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Tailor approach for different platforms</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>On TikTok, where space is limited, focus on your primary handle in the caption or on-screen text.</li>



<li>For YouTube, utilize the expanded description space to list multiple handles and provide context.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Mention handles verbally in video and audio content</strong></h3>



<p>Verbal mentions of your social media handles can reinforce them and prompt your audience to follow you. However, you need to be strategic: Include handle mentions at the start, during transitions, or at the end of your content. For longer content like podcasts, naturally incorporate handle mentions during topic transitions.</p>



<p>We also recommend briefly explaining what kind of content followers can expect on each platform and using a call-to-action approach, encouraging listeners to connect with you on social media.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Include social media handles in end screens or outro segments</strong></h3>



<p>End screens and outros are prime locations for promoting your social media handles, as viewers often decide what to do next after finishing a video.</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Create branded end screens</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Design clear, visually appealing end screens that prominently feature your handles.</li>



<li>Include CTAs like, &#8220;Follow us on Instagram @YourHandle for behind-the-scenes content.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
</li>



<li><strong>Utilize platform-specific features</strong>
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>On YouTube, use the end screen feature to display clickable social media icons alongside your handles.</li>



<li>Ensure these elements are easily clickable on both desktop and mobile devices.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Promote social handles during live streams</strong></h3>



<p>Live streams offer real-time opportunities to promote your social media handles while interacting directly with your audience. Use a persistent on-screen graphic showing your primary social media handles and rotate different handles throughout the stream if you&#8217;re active on multiple platforms.</p>



<p>You can also verbally encourage follows by periodically reminding viewers to follow you on other platforms and highlighting exclusive content or benefits available on specific social media channels.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Utilize social media handle watermarks in visual content</strong></h3>



<p>Watermarks ensure your handle remains visible even if your video is shared across different platforms. Place the watermark in a corner of the video where it won&#8217;t distract from the content and ensure it&#8217;s noticeable enough for viewers to remember and easily read.</p>



<p>Remember to be consistent! Use the same watermark design across all your video content for brand recognition. Consider using your primary social media handle as the watermark for maximum impact.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Take control of your online presence with Gravatar today</strong></h2>



<p>Effectively listing and promoting your social media handles is crucial for building a strong online presence. Consistency and visibility are key, but so is efficiency. Managing multiple social media profiles can become time-consuming, especially when updating handles or ensuring consistency across platforms.</p>



<p><a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> offers a straightforward solution for organizing your online presence, making it easier for others to find and follow your profiles without having to manage multiple platforms. With Gravatar, you can:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Create a centralized profile listing links to all your social media accounts, website, portfolio, and other online presences.</li>



<li>Link to your Gravatar profile in email signatures, websites, business cards, and even physical marketing materials using a QR code.</li>



<li>Verify your social media accounts and links, adding a layer of trust and authority to your online presence.</li>
</ul>



<p>Whether you&#8217;re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or social media manager, Gravatar provides a streamlined solution to keep your social media handles up-to-date and visible across your digital footprint.</p>



<p>Take the first step in simplifying your online presence management. <a href="https://gravatar.com/">Create your Gravatar profile now</a> and start showcasing your social media handles across all platforms with ease.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Nov 2024 21:56:02 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ronnie Burt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:39;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"Do The Woo Community: How to Follow Do The Woo on the Fediverse";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=86782";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://dothewoo.io/blog/how-to-follow-do-the-woo-on-the-fediverse/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:152:"Do The Woo has joined the Fediverse, allowing users to engage with episodes and blog posts across decentralized platforms like Mastodon and Threads.net.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Mon, 11 Nov 2024 09:42:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:18:"Matthias Pfefferle";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:40;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:75:"Gravatar: Gravatar’s Guide: Crafting an Outstanding Digital Business Card";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2388";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:70:"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/08/creating-a-digital-business-card/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:9797:"<p>Imagine that you&#8217;re at a networking event, eager to make connections, but you&#8217;ve run out of business cards. Or worse, you hand someone a card only to realize it has outdated information. Situations like these highlight why professionals are turning to digital business cards. These modern alternatives offer a dynamic way to share your contact details and personal brand, complete with rich media content and real-time updates.</p>



<p>Digital business cards shine in both online (as a <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/08/28/level-up-your-profile-3-cool-new-features-for-your-link-in-bio/">link in bio</a> tool, in the footer of contact pages and emails) and offline (in-person networking and <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/08/02/organizational-benefits-of-efficient-contact-sharing/">contact sharing</a>) settings.<strong> </strong>So, whether you&#8217;re adding them to your email signature or sharing them at in-person events, they make networking and follow-ups much easier.&nbsp;</p>



<p><img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f331.png" alt="🌱" class="wp-smiley" /> As a bonus, they&#8217;re environmentally friendly, reducing paper waste.</p>



<p>However, creating an effective digital business card comes with challenges. Many solutions can be costly, and designing one without the necessary skills can be daunting. Thankfully, <a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> exists – a completely free and powerful platform for crafting digital business cards.</p>



<p>This guide will show you how to use Gravatar to create a professional, eye-catching digital business card – no design expertise required!</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Necessary features and design elements for your digital business card</strong></h2>



<p>While it’s good to be creative and unique with your digital business card, you still need some essential elements. Let’s see what they are:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Profile photo:</strong> It&#8217;s often the first thing people notice, so choose a clear, well-lit, high-quality headshot that reflects your professional persona.</li>



<li><strong>Contact information:</strong> Include the essentials such as name, job title, company, email, and phone number. Remember, digital cards allow for easy updating if any details change.</li>



<li><strong>Social media links: </strong>Add links to your relevant social profiles. This expands your networking reach, allowing connections to engage with you on multiple platforms.</li>



<li><strong>Personal website or portfolio link:</strong> Showcase your work and drive traffic to your site by including a link to your personal website or portfolio.</li>



<li><strong>Brief bio or tagline: </strong>Craft a concise personal statement that encapsulates your professional identity or unique selling point. Keep it short, sharp, and memorable.</li>



<li><strong>Customization options:</strong> Your digital card should align with your personal brand, especially the visuals, such as the color scheme, fonts, and overall design. For example, you could use the same font as you would on your website but also include an effective one-liner like you would on LinkedIn.&nbsp;</li>



<li><strong>Sharing methods: </strong>Ensure your digital card is easily shareable both online and offline. For example, you can create your own QR code that people can scan and access your card in seconds. Online, the most effective way is to have a <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/26/link-your-gravatar-profile-with-a-free-custom-domain/">nice, short, custom URL</a>.&nbsp;</li>



<li><strong>Easy follow-ups and contact: </strong>Your business card needs to make it easy for people to follow up and contact you when they want to. That means including your email signature in your business card, or links to contact forms.&nbsp;</li>



<li><strong>Privacy controls: </strong>Make sure you can control what information is visible and to whom. This flexibility allows you to tailor your card for different professional contexts.</li>



<li><strong>Integration capabilities: </strong>Consider how your digital card might connect with other tools you use regularly, such as CRM systems or other professional platforms.</li>
</ul>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Create a stunning digital business card with Gravatar – no design skills needed</strong></h2>



<img width="2492" height="1298" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-new-homepage.png" alt="Gravatar homepage" class="wp-image-2391" />



<p>Enter Gravatar: your free ticket to a globally recognized digital identity. This platform is a powerful tool for managing your online presence across thousands of websites and services. Think of it as your universal digital business card and <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/04/10/personal-branding-tools/">personal branding hub</a> all rolled into one.</p>



<img width="1032" height="776" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ronnie-gravatar-profile.png" alt="Ronnie Burt’s Gravatar profile" class="wp-image-2392" />



<p>What sets Gravatar apart? Its simplicity. You don&#8217;t need to be a design guru to create a standout profile. Just upload an avatar and fill in your details, and you&#8217;re good to go. But don&#8217;t let the ease of use fool you – there&#8217;s plenty of room for customization. You can play with background colors, tweak button hues, or add a custom-branded header and footer.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="1613" height="919" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-profile-edit-page.png" alt="Demo profile in Gravatar" class="wp-image-2393" />



<p>You can even rearrange the layout to suit your style. And for those who want to go the extra mile, why not embed a video introduction? It&#8217;s all about making your digital card uniquely you.</p>



<p>Here&#8217;s what you can pack into your Gravatar profile:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Your chosen avatar image (make it a good one!)</li>



<li>Name and a snappy biography</li>



<li>Contact information (email, website)</li>



<li>Links to your social media profiles</li>



<li>Other relevant links (portfolio, projects, etc.)</li>
</ul>



<p>But here&#8217;s where Gravatar really shines: <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/02/27/gravatar-manifesto-one-profile-everywhere/"><strong>automatic synchronization</strong></a>. Update your profile once, and those changes instantly appear across all connected platforms&nbsp; – no more scrambling to update multiple online profiles when you change jobs or contact details. This ensures your personal brand stays consistent everywhere you appear online, from professional forums to project collaborations.&nbsp;</p>



<p>And for those <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/06/16/how-to-network-at-a-conference/">in-person networking moments</a>, you can generate a QR code for your Gravatar profile and watch as people scan their way straight to your digital doorstep.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Android and Apple Wallet Support, Too</h2>



<img width="2800" height="1720" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/image.png" alt="" class="wp-image-2427" />



<p>Never fumble for a business card again. Your Gravatar profile now lives in your phone&#8217;s wallet!</p>



<p><strong>Quick Setup:</strong></p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li>Log into your Gravatar profile</li>



<li>Click the &#8216;Share profile&#8217; button</li>



<li>Select &#8216;Add to Apple Wallet&#8217; or &#8216;Add to Google Wallet&#8217;</li>



<li>Tap to add &#8211; you&#8217;re done!</li>
</ol>



<p><strong>Why You&#8217;ll Love It:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Always on hand &#8211; even when your phone is offline</li>



<li>Share your profile with a quick tap</li>



<li>Updates automatically when you change your Gravatar</li>



<li>Looks sleek in your digital wallet</li>



<li>Perfect for conferences and meetups</li>



<li>More eco-friendly than paper cards</li>
</ul>



<p><img src="https://s0.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/twemoji/2/72x72/1f31f.png" alt="🌟" class="wp-smiley" /> <strong>Here&#8217;s a neat trick</strong>: Gravatar integrates with comment systems on many blogs and news sites. This means your digital business card can pop up alongside your online contributions, turning everyday interactions into potential networking gold.</p>



<img width="1744" height="952" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/gravatar-comment-section.png" alt="Responses to comments in Gravatar" class="wp-image-2394" />



<p>So, ready to create a digital business card that works as hard as you do? Let&#8217;s dive into how you can make Gravatar work its magic for your professional brand.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Future-proof your networking: Create a digital business card with Gravatar</strong></h2>



<p>Gravatar isn&#8217;t just another digital business card platform – it&#8217;s a revolution in online networking. Its unique email-based system allows you to manage multiple online identities effortlessly. And with thousands of integrated platforms, your Gravatar profile becomes a centralized hub for your digital presence.</p>



<p>Worried about design skills or costs? Gravatar eliminates these common hurdles. It&#8217;s free, user-friendly, and doesn&#8217;t require a degree in graphic design to look professional.</p>



<p>Head to <a href="http://gravatar.com">Gravatar.com</a> and create your free profile using your email address. It&#8217;s time to build a digital business card that works as hard as you do!</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Nov 2024 22:13:23 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ronnie Burt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:41;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"Do The Woo Community: Friday Shares: This Week’s Must-Reads and Community Highlights v3";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=86767";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:89:"https://dothewoo.io/blog/friday-shares-this-weeks-must-reads-and-community-highlights-v3/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:168:"This week’s highlights include WordPress 6.7 updates, community events, sponsorship calls, new resources, and insights into web development and e-commerce strategies.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Nov 2024 10:42:28 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:42;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:52:"WPTavern: WooCommerce Set to Launch New Logo in 2025";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=179174";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:63:"https://wptavern.com/woocommerce-set-to-launch-new-logo-in-2025";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2561:"<p>WooCommerce is all set to roll out a <a href="https://x.com/WooCommerce/status/1851315035047379219">new logo</a> in early 2025. Tamara Niesen, Chief Marketing Officer at Woo told WP Tavern, “We saw an opportunity to evolve the brand so it aligns with our new product vision and gives us a solid foundation for continuing to grow our business. The new direction helps us stand out. It’s bold, fresh, and communicates what we do and who we’re for.”</p>







<p>The updated logo, featuring a lively purple and white color palette, has already sparked a buzz in the WordPress community. It showcases “WOO” in white against a deep purple background, sometimes transitioning into a shopping cart, with the “O”s doubling as wheels—perfectly representing a platform that powers millions of online stores worldwide.</p>



<p>Jay Walsh, Director of Communications at WooCommerce.com, shared that they recently discussed plans around the Woo and WooCommerce brand and identity during the keynote session of this year’s WooSesh. The team teased a refreshed WooCommerce logo treatment during the keynote, which is part of the wider effort to make the Woo brand, voice, and identity bolder and more engaging for current and future merchants.&nbsp;</p>



<p>“Evolving our brand and our main product is crucial to our strategy of growing new stores, reaching new merchants, and maintaining our position as the world’s most popular commerce platform”, he explained.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The animated logo has been a hit, drawing comments like “one of the best logos I&#8217;ve seen in a while” to “This is so darn cool.” BobWP of Do the Woo Podcast <a href="https://x.com/BobWP/status/1851528372054061090">tweeted</a>, “In case you missed this. And coming from someone who used to design logos professionally, the simplest ideas, which now seem obvious, are the hardest. Great job!”&nbsp;</p>



<p>Remkus de Vries of Within WordPress newsletter, shared his excitement <a href="https://x.com/remkusdevries/status/1851552009662386658">saying</a>, “It&#8217;s very rare to see a rebrand with a new logo where I immediately go &#8220;Wow, that&#8217;s a huge improvement, I love it&#8221;, but when I saw this last week, that&#8217;s exactly what I thought.”</p>



<p>Despite the enthusiasm, a few critics questioned the color choice, but WooCommerce Product Lead James Kemp has <a href="https://x.com/jamesckemp/status/1851355951166603264">assured</a> that “the whole rebrand is super vibrant and the purple has been enhanced.”</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Fri, 08 Nov 2024 08:35:50 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:43;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:73:"Gravatar: Choosing the Right Personalization Tool: Top 7 for Your Website";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:32:"http://blog.gravatar.com/?p=2252";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:67:"https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/11/07/website-personalization-tools/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:22795:"<p>Are you struggling with high bounce rates and lackluster conversions on your website? You&#8217;re not alone. Many businesses find it hard to create engaging, relevant experiences for their online visitors, leading to missed opportunities and lost revenue because, as shown in a recent McKinsey report, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying#/">71% of consumers now expect personalized interactions from companies</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If you don’t provide them with one, you’re losing business, plain and simple.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Thankfully, there are many website personalization tools that are transforming how businesses connect with their audience online. These tools enable companies to deliver individualized experiences that resonate with each visitor, going beyond traditional segment-based approaches.&nbsp;</p>



<p>In the following sections, we&#8217;ll explore the top 7 personalization tools and their features, showing you how to unlock new levels of engagement and business success.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Introducing the top 7 website personalization tools</strong></h2>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>1.</strong> <strong>Gravatar</strong></h3>



<img width="1473" height="918" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gravatar-profiles-as-a-service.png" alt="Gravatar homepage" class="wp-image-2255" />



<p><a href="https://gravatar.com/">Gravatar</a> is a unique tool in the world of website personalization. It simplifies user profile management and enhances personalization based on users&#8217; email addresses, offering a distinct advantage by utilizing data already provided by users. This approach allows developers to personalize site experiences without extensive data collection.</p>



<p>Gravatar offers two powerful APIs for integration:</p>



<ol class="wp-block-list">
<li><a href="https://docs.gravatar.com/api/avatars/images/">The Avatar API</a> that is designed specifically for requesting avatars.</li>



<li><a href="https://docs.gravatar.com/">The Profiles-As-A-Service API</a>, which enables developers to import comprehensive profile information.</li>
</ol>



<p>These APIs create a centralized hub where users can update their information once, and it syncs across all Gravatar-integrated sites. Gravatar has also introduced <em>Interests</em>, allowing users to list specific topics they&#8217;re interested in – something that can change the game for website owners looking to understand user preferences.&nbsp;</p>



<img width="1511" height="865" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gravatar-interests-section.png" alt="Gravatar Interests section" class="wp-image-2256" />



<p>For example, an e-commerce site could show personalized product recommendations based on these interests.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Users can create a <a href="https://blog.gravatar.com/2024/05/09/wordpress-profile-page/">single avatar profile page</a> associated with their email address.</li>
</ul>



<img width="1032" height="776" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ronnie-gravatar-profile.png" alt="Example of a Gravatar profile page" class="wp-image-2257" />



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>This profile automatically appears on any Gravatar-enabled site, providing a consistent identity across platforms.</li>



<li>Users can add important information such as avatar, bio, pronouns, and job info – update once, sync everywhere.</li>



<li>Gravatar is natively supported by <a href="https://wordpress.org/">WordPress</a>, enabling effortless avatar management for WordPress users and developers without additional plugins or code.</li>
</ul>



<p>For developers looking to import user profiles, integration with Gravatar&#8217;s profile API is needed. To streamline the user experience, it&#8217;s recommended to explain to users that they can control their avatar and profile information directly from their Gravatar profile.</p>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Gravatar is particularly beneficial for developers, bloggers, and business owners. It provides a consistent brand image across platforms and maximizes engagement by offering personalized user experiences.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> Gravatar integrates with popular platforms like <a href="http://wordpress.com">WordPress.com</a>, <a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a>, <a href="https://openai.com/">OpenAI</a>, <a href="https://www.figma.com/">Figma</a>, and <a href="https://mailchimp.com/">Mailchimp</a>, demonstrating its versatility and wide-reaching impact.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> One of Gravatar&#8217;s standout features is its pricing model – or lack of. It&#8217;s a completely free service for site owners, developers, and users, and is run and supported by <a href="https://automattic.com/">Automattic</a>. There&#8217;s no paid version and no usage limits, making it an accessible option for businesses of all sizes.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>2. Dynamic Yield&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="379" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/dynamic-yield-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Dynamic Yield homepage" class="wp-image-2258" />



<p><a href="https://www.dynamicyield.com/">Dynamic Yield</a> is a powerful player in the website personalization arena, known for delivering personalized onsite experiences through AI-powered targeting and real-time analytics.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Contextually relevant content:</strong> Delivers personalized content based on user behavior and preferences. For instance, a returning visitor interested in sports might see sports-related content prominently displayed on the homepage.</li>



<li><strong>Product recommendations:</strong> Uses AI to suggest products based on browsing history and purchase patterns. An online retailer could use this to show complementary items to those in a user&#8217;s cart.</li>



<li><strong>Personalized messages:</strong> Tailors messaging based on visitor behavior and characteristics. A travel website might show different promotional messages to first-time visitors versus frequent bookers.</li>



<li><strong>Real-time personalization:</strong> Adapts content in real-time as users interact with the site. For example, a news site could reshuffle article placement based on what the user clicks on during their visit.</li>
</ul>



<p>Dynamic Yield integrates well with other tools to enhance personalization efforts, particularly <a href="https://segment.com/twilio/">Twilio Segment</a>, a customer data platform enabling real-time data collection and action.</p>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can use Dynamic Yield to increase engagement and conversion rates, such as personalizing homepage experiences for returning visitors.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> <a href="https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html">McDonald&#8217;s</a>, <a href="https://www.pacsun.com/?srsltid=AfmBOopO0JjIGm5h8VDxzygttVVXvTEK6hTqyyXzFsLeCnaxG9mugNBs">PacSun</a>, <a href="https://www.cotopaxi.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorz7QhfPrt0CHN8RFdUjv_7VPTjcywAtK4ykdXSoYwhBNXT6eh8">Cotopaxi</a>, among others.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> Dynamic Yield offers a customized pricing model tailored to each client&#8217;s specific needs and scale. For detailed pricing information, you&#8217;ll need to <a href="https://www.dynamicyield.com/request-demo/">contact their sales team</a> directly.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>3. Optimizely</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="406" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/optimizely-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Optimizley homepage" class="wp-image-2259" />



<p><a href="https://www.optimizely.com/">Optimizely</a> is a leading digital experience platform that empowers businesses to create, experiment, and personalize user experiences.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>A/B testing and multivariate testing: </strong>Allows testing of different page versions to identify the most effective elements. An e-commerce site could test different product page layouts to see which leads to more purchases.</li>



<li><strong>AI-driven optimization:</strong> Uses machine learning to automatically optimize experiences. This could involve automatically adjusting the placement of call-to-action buttons based on user interaction patterns.</li>



<li><strong>Personalized content delivery: </strong>Serves different content to different user segments based on their data. A software company might show different feature highlights to enterprise visitors versus small business owners.</li>



<li><strong>Integrations:</strong> Make the most out of Optimizely by combining it with tools like Twilio Segment, <a href="https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/analytics/">Google Analytics</a>, and <a href="https://business.adobe.com/">Adobe Experience Cloud</a>.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can increase engagement and conversion rates by running A/B tests on different versions of their product pages to identify the most effective elements.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> <a href="https://www.ebay.com/">eBay</a>, <a href="https://www.americanexpress.com/">American Express</a>, <a href="https://www.dolby.com/">Dolby</a>, <a href="https://www.fjallraven.com/eu/en-gb/">Fjallraven</a>, among others.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> Optimizely offers a customized pricing model tailored to each client&#8217;s specific needs and scale. <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/plans/">Contact their sales team directly</a> for detailed pricing information.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>4. HubSpot&nbsp;</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="393" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/hubspot-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Hubspot homepage" class="wp-image-2260" />



<p><a href="https://www.hubspot.com/">HubSpot</a> is a popular all-in-one CRM platform offering many powerful tools for marketing, sales, and customer service, with a strong emphasis on website personalization.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Smart Content: </strong>Dynamically adjusts website content based on user attributes and behavior. For example, a B2B site could show different case studies to visitors from different industries.</li>



<li><strong>Personalized CTAs:</strong> Displays different call-to-action buttons to different user segments. A SaaS company might show a &#8220;<em>Start Free Trial</em>&#8221; CTA to new visitors and an &#8220;<em>Upgrade Now</em>&#8221; CTA to existing customers.</li>



<li><strong>Automated workflows:</strong> Creates personalized user journeys based on user actions and characteristics. This could involve sending a series of targeted emails based on which resources a user has downloaded.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can use HubSpot to increase engagement and conversion rates by delivering targeted CTAs to specific visitor groups.</p>



<p><strong>Used By:</strong> <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/">Tripadvisor</a>, <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/">Eventbrite</a>, <a href="https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/">WeightWatchers</a>, and more.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> HubSpot offers <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/pricing/marketing/enterprise?hubs_content=www.hubspot.com%2F&hubs_content-cta=nav-pricing&term=annual">tiered pricing plans</a> for their different products, which include marketing, sales, service, content, operations, and commerce. All of them start at $15/month per seat and can go up to $3,600/month, depending on what you need. They also have many free tools, so you can get a taste of the platform before you commit to subscribing.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>5. Hyperise</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="407" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/hyperise-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Hyperise homepage" class="wp-image-2261" />



<p><a href="https://hyperise.com/">Hyperise</a> is a personalization platform that allows businesses to dynamically personalize images and content across various digital touchpoints.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Dynamic image personalization: </strong>Customizes images based on user data. A real estate site could show property images with the visitor&#8217;s name on the &#8220;For Sale&#8221; sign.</li>



<li><strong>Personalized text overlays: </strong>Adds personalized text to images or videos. An online course platform could add the user&#8217;s name to certificate images in promotional materials.</li>



<li><strong>CRM integration:</strong> Pulls data from CRM systems to personalize content. This allows for using detailed customer information, like past purchases or support interactions, in personalizing the web experience.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can use Hyperise to create personalized landing pages for different audience segments, enhancing relevance and engagement.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> <a href="https://www.g2.com/">G2</a>, <a href="http://placer.ai">Placer.ai</a>, <a href="https://www.salesloft.com/">SalesLoft</a>, and <a href="https://orca.security/">Orca Security</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> Hyperise offers various pricing plans, depending on what you want included. Their <em>Images </em>plan costs $69/month per seat and lets you create personalized images for your outreach. The other two tiers include adding a website and videos.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>6. Marketing Cloud Personalization by Salesforce</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="360" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/salesforce-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Salesforce marketing personalization homepage" class="wp-image-2262" />



<p><a href="https://www.salesforce.com/eu/">Salesforce</a>, formerly known as Evergage, is a comprehensive customer data platform that now also includes a personalization engine as part of its marketing tools. Businesses can use their tools to create individualized experiences across multiple channels, including web, mobile, and email.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Real-time segmentation:</strong> Groups users based on their current behavior and historical data. An airline website could segment users based on their typical flight patterns and current browsing behavior.</li>



<li><strong>Dynamic content personalization:</strong> Adapts content in real-time based on user segments and behavior. A media streaming service could adjust its homepage layout based on the user&#8217;s viewing history and current trends.</li>



<li><strong>Journey orchestration</strong>: Creates and manages personalized customer journeys across multiple touchpoints. A bank could create different communication sequences for customers based on their life events, like buying a house or starting a business.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can use Salesforce for personalized product recommendations and content tailored to individual shopping behaviors.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> <a href="https://www.generalmills.com/">General Mills</a>, <a href="https://www.formula1.com/">Formula 1</a>, <a href="https://www.accenture.com/us-en">Accenture</a>, among others.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> This service comes in <a href="https://www.salesforce.com/marketing/pricing/">three tiers</a>: Marketing Cloud Engagement, Marketing Cloud Account Engagement, and Marketing Cloud Growth Edition. The first two tiers go for $1,250/month, while the third is $1,500/month per organization.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>7. Yieldify</strong></h3>



<img width="660" height="385" src="https://blog.gravatar.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/yieldify-homepage.png?w=660" alt="Yieldify homepage" class="wp-image-2263" />



<p><a href="https://www.yieldify.com/">Yieldify</a> is a platform designed to optimize customer journeys through personalized experiences and conversion rate optimization, focusing on e-commerce businesses.</p>



<p><strong>Best features:</strong></p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li><strong>Personalized overlays and pop-ups: </strong>Creates targeted messages that appear based on user behavior. An e-commerce site could show a discount pop-up to users who are about to leave the site without purchasing.</li>



<li><strong>Behavioral targeting: </strong>Tailors experiences based on user actions and characteristics. A fashion retailer could show different promotional banners to users based on the categories they&#8217;ve been browsing.</li>



<li><strong>Data-driven insights:</strong> Provides analytics to help understand user behavior and optimize personalization strategies. This could help identify which personalization tactics are most effective for different user segments.</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Use cases:</strong> Businesses can use Yieldify to reduce cart abandonment through exit-intent pop-ups and promote special offers based on user behavior.</p>



<p><strong>Used by:</strong> <a href="https://www.lacoste.com/">Lacoste</a>, <a href="https://www.kiehls.com/">Kiehls</a>, <a href="https://int.clarins.com/">Clarins</a>, <a href="https://www.thenorthface.com/">The North Face</a>, among others.</p>



<p><strong>Price:</strong> Yieldify offers customized pricing based on specific needs. <a href="https://www.yieldify.com/get-started/">Contact them directly</a> to get started and obtain pricing information.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Selecting the ideal personalization tools for your website</strong></h2>



<p>Choosing the right personalization tools for your website is crucial for maximizing engagement and conversion rates. Here&#8217;s how to approach this important decision:</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 1: Understand your needs</strong></h3>



<p>Before selecting a tool, identify your specific goals and challenges. Are you looking to improve user engagement, increase conversion rates, or streamline user profile management? Assess your current marketing stack and identify integration needs to ensure quick and easy implementation.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 2: Evaluate key features</strong></h3>



<p>Create a list of essential features you need in a personalization tool. Consider factors such as:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Ease of use and integration</li>



<li>A/B testing capabilities</li>



<li>Real-time analytics</li>



<li>User-friendly interfaces to reduce the learning curve for your team</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Don&#8217;t overlook the importance of data privacy and security.</strong> Tools like Gravatar emphasize user control over personal information, allowing users to edit their public profiles and share only what they&#8217;re comfortable with. Ensure the tool complies with regulations such as <a href="https://gdpr-info.eu/">GDPR</a> and <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa">CCPA</a> for legal data handling practices.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 3: Analyze cost and ROI</strong></h3>



<p>Consider both short-term costs and long-term value when evaluating tools. Low-cost and free tools like Gravatar offer high value and low risk, making them excellent starting points for personalization efforts.</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 4: Success stories</strong></h3>



<p>Look at real-world examples of companies successfully using personalization tools to drive growth. For instance, a great example of successful personalization is the plant-based cosmetics brand <a href="https://int.clarins.com/">Clarins</a> which <a href="https://www.yieldify.com/success-stories/clarins/">increased conversions by 20% using Yieldify</a>. Some of the strategies they implemented include:&nbsp;</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Adding virtual consultations to help users find the best products.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Guiding users to book a complimentary phone consultation with a specialist on category pages.&nbsp;</li>



<li>Re-engaging shoppers who try to change tabs with special overlays that include basket reminders and introducing Clarins’ three complimentary products that they offer with each order.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>



<p>Looking at examples like this will show you the full potential of the specific platform and maybe even give you some ideas on how you can implement similar strategies in your own business.&nbsp;</p>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Step 5: Make an informed decision</strong></h3>



<p>Finally, whenever you can, take advantage of demos to better understand each tool&#8217;s capabilities before making a decision. Weigh the risk versus reward, keeping in mind that tools like Gravatar offer easy integration and are free to use, making them a low-risk option to start with.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading"><strong>Unlock the potential of your website with personalization tools&nbsp;</strong></h2>



<p>Website personalization tools are powerful assets in enhancing customer engagement and boosting conversion rates. By tailoring user experiences, these tools provide a significant competitive advantage. In fact, <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying">companies excelling at personalization generate 40% more revenue than their counterparts</a>.</p>



<p>When choosing personalization tools, consider factors like powerful features, integration capabilities, and ROI measurement.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Gravatar stands out with its unique advantage of utilizing existing user data for personalization without extensive on-site data collection. Its Profile API allows developers to create more detailed and personalized user experiences by integrating additional user information into their websites.</p>



<p>As you explore the tools we&#8217;ve discussed, consider how they align with your business needs. Remember, <a href="https://gravatar.com/developers/new-application">Gravatar is an excellent starting point</a> – it&#8217;s both highly useful and free.&nbsp;</p>



<p>So what are you waiting for? Take the best out of website personalization and create experiences that your users will love!&nbsp;</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Nov 2024 17:33:58 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:11:"Ronnie Burt";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:44;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:102:"Do The Woo Community: Do the Woo is Trailbazing the Fediverse with Matthias Pfefferle and Derek Hanson";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=86690";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://dothewoo.io/do-the-woo-is-trailbazing-the-fediverse-with-matthias-pfefferle-and-derek-hanson/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:87:"Do the Woo is on the Fediverse with multi-authors, audio distribution and more to come.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Thu, 07 Nov 2024 10:15:06 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:45;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:112:"Do The Woo Community: Press Release: Do the Woo 4.0 Official Launch, Elevating Voices in the WordPress Community";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:43:"https://dothewoo.io/?post_type=blog&p=86703";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:54:"https://dothewoo.io/blog/press-release-do-the-woo-4-0/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:125:"Press Release: The official launch of the Do the Woo Podcast Channel 4.0 takes place during WordCamp Europe in Turino, Italy.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:00:33 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:46;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WPTavern: #144 – Damon Cook &amp; Seth Rubenstein on the Transformational Interactivity API";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:48:"https://wptavern.com/?post_type=podcast&p=178900";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:101:"https://wptavern.com/podcast/144-damon-cook-seth-rubenstein-on-the-transformational-interactivity-api";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:41793:"Transcript<div>
<p>[00:00:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Welcome to the Jukebox podcast from WP Tavern. My name is Nathan Wrigley. Jukebox is a podcast, which is dedicated to all things, WordPress. The people, the events, the plugins, the blocks, the themes, and in this case, how the Interactivity API will transform your WordPress websites.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to subscribe to the podcast, you can do that by searching for WP Tavern in your podcast player of choice. Or by going to wptavern.com/feed/podcast. And you can copy that URL into most podcasts players.</p>



<p>If you have a topic that you&#8217;d like us to feature on the podcast, I&#8217;m keen to hear from you and hopefully get you, or your idea, featured on the show. Head to wptavern.com/contact/jukebox and use the form there.</p>



<p>So on the podcast today we have Damon Cook and Seth Rubenstein.</p>



<p>Damon Cook is a developer advocate with WP Engine, and previously worked as a front end developer at several WordPress focused agencies.</p>



<p>Seth Rubenstein began his WordPress journey in college, and is now the lead engineer at the Pew Research Center, where he works on interactive WordPress applications.</p>



<p>This is the last of the podcast recorded at WordCamp, us 2024, and our focus today is the interactivity API. You may not be familiar with what this is and why it matters, so Damon and Seth will break it down, and explain how it might transform your WordPress websites in the future.</p>



<p>Damon starts off by defining what an interactive website is, giving examples such as single page applications, and dynamic elements like tabs and accordions. Seth adds his perspective on how interactivity aids both the end user, and website editors. Making for a more compelling user experience and efficient content creation.</p>



<p>We get into why WordPress needed an interactivity API, even though the platform already supports libraries, like React. The interactivity API provides a standardized way to create dynamic content, which is essential for modern web expectations.</p>



<p>We also highlight real-world examples, including faceted searching and filtering, which have been successfully implemented using this API.</p>



<p>The conversation also touches on performance improvements brought by the API, emphasizing how it can offload server resources by only updating necessary content.</p>



<p>Towards the end we explore how the API is being used in Gutenberg blocks, and how it supports both developers and site builders.</p>



<p>Damon and Seth also discussed the project&#8217;s development, encouraging more contributions and feedback from the community.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re intrigued by improving your websites&#8217; interactivity and performance, this episode is for you.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;d like to find out more, you can find all of the links in the show notes by heading to wptavern.com/podcast, where you&#8217;ll find all the other episodes as well.</p>



<p>And so without further delay, I bring you Damon Cook and Seth Rubenstein.</p>



<p>I am joined on the podcast today by Damon Cook and Seth Rubenstein. Hello.</p>



<p>[00:03:40] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Hey, how&#8217;s it going?</p>



<p>[00:03:41] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, really, really nice thank you. That&#8217;s Damon.</p>



<p>[00:03:44] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Hello, I&#8217;m Seth.</p>



<p>[00:03:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much. We&#8217;re at WordCamp US, it&#8217;s happening in Oregon. It is the month of September 2024, and I&#8217;m being joined by Damon and Seth so that we can talk about the Interactivity API.</p>



<p>Before we get into that, I think it&#8217;s probably important to paint a picture of both of you, what your background is with WordPress technology, et cetera. So we&#8217;ll just keep this very brief. Let&#8217;s go for Damon first. Damon, just tell us a little bit about you, your potted bio, if you like.</p>



<p>[00:04:10] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Sure, yeah. Well, I started out as a WordPress front end developer at WordPress. There&#8217;s several different WordPress focused agencies, and now I&#8217;m a developer advocate with WP Engine.</p>



<p>[00:04:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you very much. And Seth?</p>



<p>[00:04:23] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> My first time using WordPress was in college. I converted all of our websites to WordPress multi-site, as like the assistant web developer. And from there I just kept going, and that was just my career track from then on, just WordPress all the time. And now I am the lead engineer at the Pew Research Center, where we have a WordPress platform that we&#8217;ve made ourselves, and we work on a lot of interactive WordPress applications.</p>



<p>[00:04:43] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Just staying on your bios just for a moment, what does the Pew Research Center do? I&#8217;ve not heard of them before.</p>



<p>[00:04:49] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> We are a non-partisan, non advocacy social science research organisation. So we basically study the American public and where they are, what they think on certain issues. And we do a lot of public polling and things like that, and we report that back. So we&#8217;re kind of like a nonprofit news organisation.</p>



<p>[00:05:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Gosh, okay thank you. That&#8217;s really interesting.</p>



<p>Okay, let&#8217;s open it up and talk about the subject at hand today. So we&#8217;ve got both of these gentlemen here to talk about the Interactivity API. I think probably we should first deal with the topic of, what is an interactive website?</p>



<p>Probably, dear listener, if you&#8217;re listening to this, you might know this already, but I have an intuition that some people won&#8217;t. So, what are the benefits of having an interactive website? And whoever wants to answer that, pick up the mic and go for it.</p>



<p>[00:05:30] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I think the classic example is that of a single page application. So the idea of being able to navigate from page to page, or section to section even, and just have things that seem seamless, so the page isn&#8217;t refreshing, that is a pretty common scenario. But there&#8217;s also lots of other interactive pieces like tabs, accordions, all that stuff gets really helpful when you reach for the Interactivity API in creating stuff like that.</p>



<p>[00:05:59] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> I don&#8217;t have anything to add to that. I guess what I would say is, on the other side of it besides the front end user, the kind of, your visitor, I think the interactivity part of a website kind of also can help out your editors, and how they&#8217;re building content, and making more engaging content.</p>



<p>I think this will be interesting because I think, you know, Damon might have a kind of perspective of the front end user, and I&#8217;m definitely coming from a perspective of, how can I scale up my editorial team&#8217;s ability to create interactive content? And not so much like what it looks like on the front end.</p>



<p>[00:06:27] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So there&#8217;s an interesting distinction there. So, does the work that you are doing touch on both the front end and the back end? So it&#8217;s not just for the forward facing, user facing part of a WordPress website. This is things that you can do in the back end, the admin side of things too.</p>



<p>[00:06:40] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah, it&#8217;s how editors create interactive bits of content, and how those interactive bits of content might interact with each other. Because I think right now, without the Interactivity API, that kind of content is static and siloed on the page.</p>



<p>[00:06:52] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> We will link in the show notes to all of the different places, and no doubt one of the first links will be to the project itself, the Interactivity, API. But I guess I have to ask the question, why is this even a project in WordPress? Is it that WordPress historically wasn&#8217;t particularly adapted towards interactive content?</p>



<p>I mean, we know how to publish posts and pages, and once you&#8217;ve done that, that&#8217;s kind of it. You&#8217;ve done it, and there&#8217;s no interactivity there. Is this something that has been, I don&#8217;t know, more recently thought was necessary? Is this something that you think should be in Core? Let&#8217;s just take that. Has WordPress been bad at interactivity historically?</p>



<p>[00:07:28] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I don&#8217;t think that it&#8217;s been bad historically, I think that it&#8217;s more of kind of a, I guess a technology trend of leaning into libraries like React or Preact, which Interactivity is built upon. So I think it&#8217;s more of a trend, but also, yeah, a necessity in Core, because folks are trying to build these types of experiences, and we want to have a standardised way for them to be able to do that, and not have to pull in a bunch of different libraries. And although they still can, you know, there&#8217;s a standardised and backwards compatible way for them to do it. So that&#8217;s the idea.</p>



<p class="ticss-13c01dd4">[00:08:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you. Seth, anything to add?</p>



<p>[00:08:06] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah. I don&#8217;t think WordPress has done a bad job on interactivity in the past, you know, ships with jQuery, ships with React, that&#8217;s all available to you. I think the Interactivity API is kind of looking at how developers have been creating front end experience with React, and narrowing that down to be like the right tool set for blocks and for block developers specifically.</p>



<p>[00:08:26] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So it&#8217;s about having the right tooling. Something standardised that everybody can get their teeth into, that every developer understands.</p>



<p>[00:08:32] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah, and something that fits the blocks kind of model I think, a little bit better than some of these other frameworks.</p>



<p>[00:08:38] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, that&#8217;s great. So give us some examples of good interactivity on the internet. So we could limit ourselves to WordPress, but let&#8217;s not do that. Let&#8217;s just go out there and try to pick good examples.</p>



<p>Really, I guess we could be talking about Google Docs, we could be talking about websites, we could be talking about anything. Do you want to just rattle off a few things where you&#8217;ve seen and you&#8217;ve been impressed, and thought, ah okay, there&#8217;s a good example. The only reason I&#8217;m asking this really is so that the listener can just get an idea of what interactivity means.</p>



<p>[00:09:05] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Sure. And I&#8217;m actually going to set up Seth, because I think a lot of the things that his organisation is creating are representative of what folks kind of need. So I&#8217;ll set him up for that.</p>



<p>[00:09:17] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> And I&#8217;ll say the word that he&#8217;s probably thinking of, facets. Amazon, you&#8217;re browsing Amazon, you want to narrow down the content that you&#8217;re looking at. Those facets on the left hand side, filters, aggregations, whatever you want to call them. I think this has probably been our biggest success with the Interactivity API, is developing out facet blocks.</p>



<p>And with the Interactivity API what that would let you do is just server side hydrate data before it gets back to the client. And you can browse through all this content, and do it in a performant way that you just couldn&#8217;t do before. Or you could, but it would take a lot of work on your part to build out the framework and the technology to handle all that.</p>



<p>And so now that&#8217;s just in the box in WordPress free to use. So we can probably touch on facets a little bit more later, but I think that&#8217;s probably the best use case for the Interactivity API thus far.</p>



<p>[00:10:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Let&#8217;s dig into that a little bit. So when you say facets, my head is immediately going to things like, I don&#8217;t know, the posts and pages, table layout, or something like that. And the fact that, if I want to get to post number 11, I might have to click a button, wait for a moment whilst the page refreshes, there&#8217;s obviously something going on there, page refresh, I&#8217;m contacting the server and what have you. Is the idea here that, a bit like, I don&#8217;t know, if I scroll on Google, I would be able to automatically upload more pages, more posts, that kind of thing? And then be able to, I don&#8217;t know, say filter them, show me only the ones that are authored by me, or ones with featured images, and that would all happen on the fly.</p>



<p>[00:10:35] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah. So, you know, you can filter by author, by taxonomies, category, custom taxonomies, whatever, date, et cetera. And those results just update in real time, without you having to refresh the page.</p>



<p>You can paginate through those results without having to refresh the page. That, of course, is great for the end user, but it&#8217;s also great on the backend because you&#8217;re saving server resources without having to re-render that entire page every single time. So you&#8217;re only rendering out what&#8217;s changed.</p>



<p>So in that way, great for the end user and great for you as a website operator, because the Interactivity API kind of offloads some of that performance overhead that way.</p>



<p>[00:11:07] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Yeah, okay. I have children, and they have been born in a world where the mobile phone is completely ubiquitous. And the idea of anything refreshing to them just seems like an anathema, just a pointless thing. You know, you want to open an app, and from that moment just everything happens. You scroll, there&#8217;s more to see, you press back, it just immediately loads and what have you.</p>



<p>Is that kind of where we&#8217;re going with the internet? And what I mean by that is, sites where you&#8217;ve got to click a button to see another further piece of content, or for your shopping cart to be updated, or whatever it may be, that just seems like the 1990s almost.</p>



<p>Is it a bit of that? Is it just we&#8217;re kind of keeping up with the times? And the expectation from the next generation of users is going to be, well, if it isn&#8217;t interactive, I&#8217;m not sticking around. So if I&#8217;ve got a, I don&#8217;t know, a WooCommerce store or something like that, it&#8217;s going to be painful for a user to have to refresh, click a button to go to a cart, wait for it to load and all that. It&#8217;s just, like I said, the 1990s.</p>



<p>[00:12:05] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Yeah, I think a lot of it does touch on that and, yeah, just reaching out to that kind of experience. But, yeah, I think Seth touched on this, but the performance impact is pretty great about the Interactivity API because you&#8217;re only updating the sections, or components on the page that are really relevant to what the user is doing. So that has a performance impact. It makes things feel seamless, faster, and I think that&#8217;s a lot of probably what we&#8217;re all looking for at the end of the day.</p>



<p>[00:12:30] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It feels like something more native to the device that you are on. So it feels like a Mac app, or a Windows app, or an Android, or an iPhone app. Does that kind of make sense? It just feels like we&#8217;re in the modern world, not in the old world where any kind of refresh just seems bizarre, frankly. Anything to add, Seth?</p>



<p>[00:12:46] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> You know, I think the coolest part about this is it basically lets you take a PHP application and turn it into a single page JavaScript app. I mean, that&#8217;s really what the Interactivity API as a whole is doing. And I think that&#8217;s what developers are looking for these days. Look at, you know, Next.js, and frameworks like that that are really grown and are really popular. And I think that this kind of API just is an answer to those for WordPress developers.</p>



<p>[00:13:06] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> So if I were a developer and I was, I don&#8217;t know, creating plugins, themes, blocks, whatever it may be, where do I go and find out about this? How do I get my teeth into the project? So you might want to drop a URL at this point, wherever you want to point us.</p>



<p>[00:13:20] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Sure. Well, I can tell you how I find it because I Google it. I Google it myself. Interactivity API Handbook, I&#8217;m pretty sure that&#8217;s where you&#8217;ll find it, and developer.wordpress.org. The documentation is very thorough, and up to date, and complete. And I think that&#8217;s what&#8217;s excites me about this API because it&#8217;s a very discreet project that kind of got pulled together and, yeah, the documentation is really up to date and great, so that&#8217;s where I&#8217;d go.</p>



<p>[00:13:47] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, I will link to that in the show notes. And probably a good idea, dear listener, to pause at this point, go and check that out and then come back and hit play.</p>



<p>So from the developer sort of point of view, how baked is it? How complete is it? Is there a lot that you have achieved already? Is there a big roadmap for things that you want to achieve?</p>



<p>I know that&#8217;s going to be difficult to encapsulate in a few sentences, but just tell us the state of the project now for developers listening to this, they might have some intuitions as, okay, that sounds like something I could use right now, as opposed to the roadmap features that are still going to come.</p>



<p>[00:14:17] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Sure. No, it is quite complete and ready to use, and the documentation can even step you through how to integrate it into an existing block. You can even spin up a new block with the Interactivity API already baked in.</p>



<p>Some of the future roadmap areas is, I know that we&#8217;re still working on like client side navigation, and then pulling in kind of different modules. Like I know one experiment that&#8217;s being explored is, there&#8217;s a package for accessibility. So just the general idea of speaking, screen reader, passing along. So these APIs have been in WordPress for a while, like some of the accessibility packages. So there&#8217;s explorations in kind of porting that over, and pulling it in, because the Interactivity APIs uses JavaScript modules for a lot of this. So it&#8217;s kind of re jigging, I guess, some of the code and pulling in some of these packages so that developers can use kind of those old, not old, but accessibility features, and have all that compatibility baked in.</p>



<p>So that&#8217;s some of the areas that are still getting integrated, and I&#8217;m excited for them. And I think that&#8217;s on the roadmap right now, and there&#8217;s folks contributing towards it.</p>



<p>[00:15:24] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> The modules area is probably, I think probably the area that it needs the most work, and hopefully the most amount of work is going into. I would say that&#8217;s probably one of the roughest parts of the Interactivity API right now is, if you need to use an external script, or kind of library, or framework, it&#8217;s a little difficult to get that in. So I think that&#8217;s probably where the most amount of work&#8217;s going to be going.</p>



<p>And I think there&#8217;s some work going on WordPress URL, bringing that in as well. And there&#8217;s a few more directives too, to the API, that are being added like wp-show which should be interesting, that should let you dynamically hydrate elements on the page in a different way. I won&#8217;t go to like all the technical details on that, but there are some additional features that are coming to the Interactivity API, beyond just the module stuff. So there are, in the Interactivity API parlance, there are new directives coming soon.</p>



<p>[00:16:05] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think for anybody who is a developer, you&#8217;re going to be fine looking at the documentation. But if I say any acronym on this podcast, I always get some pushback from people who are not developers, WordPress end users. So let&#8217;s address that.</p>



<p>Is there going to be functionality within the Interactivity API, although it&#8217;s there, and it is part of the Interactivity API, will be available to just builders of websites? People who have their own blog, or their own property, they&#8217;re not interested in WordPress from a technical point of view. Is there anything that they can do with it so that they can have this sort of dynamic content? Or is it mainly going to be through the work that developers do, through plugins, and blocks, and what have you?</p>



<p>[00:16:44] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Right now. It&#8217;s live, already on your site if you&#8217;re running kind of the latest version of WordPress. The light box in the image block is using the Interactivity API. So site builders are already gaining that Core query, already has interactivity built in. So does the pagination block. So your publication pages can already be kind of a single page JavaScript app. So Core is adding that stuff in and, yeah, obviously plugin developers will also hopefully add interactivity to their plugins, but it&#8217;s already there for site builders.</p>



<p>[00:17:11] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> It feels like we&#8217;ve gone down the road in WordPress where everybody&#8217;s done their own thing with interactivity. The page builders have done, well, not just the page builders as one block, but each page builder has done a different thing. You&#8217;ve got these multitude of plugins that do the sort of facet searching and all of that kind of thing.</p>



<p>The idea that there&#8217;s just going to be this one thing, I suppose in a sense you kind of want the Interactivity API to not really be that well known about. The idea is for it to sort of fade into the background and nobody even realise that there&#8217;s a thing. Is that sort of doing down the project a little bit, or is that kind of the point? If nobody knows it exists, but it works, that&#8217;s kind of the ideal.</p>



<p>[00:17:45] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Yeah, I mean these APIs are in the background, yeah, for developers to explore, and use, and pull in, and integrate. But yeah, at the end of the day, the end user shouldn&#8217;t know about it, have to know about any of this, and just, have a great experience. So yeah, I think that&#8217;s the idea.</p>



<p>[00:18:00] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Where do you learn what you should be working on? So the team of volunteers and seconded people that are working on the Interactivity API, who are you listening to? Where do you get your feedback from? And I know in the open source world, it&#8217;s hard to get that feedback. And you might be just listening to a dozen voices, interested people, or there may be, I don&#8217;t know, hundreds of people talking to you. But to drive it forward, who are you listening to? Where do you get your intuitions as to what should be on the roadmap?</p>



<p>[00:18:25] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> There is a Make Slack Group, it&#8217;s Interactivity API I believe, or Core Interactivity API room. But there&#8217;s some great contributors in there, and I&#8217;m probably going to mess up all their names but there&#8217;s Jon Surrell, I believe, and Greg Ziółkowski. I apologise Greg, I tried. But they are very active contributors and I probably feel like the least contributor. But, yeah, they&#8217;ve been doing a great job.</p>



<p>I think what it comes down to historically, the Frontity team, I&#8217;m not sure if you&#8217;re familiar with that project, but back in the day they kind of got integrated. All these smart folks into Automattic as full-time contributors, and a lot of them have been driving this project daily and contributing towards it, and they&#8217;ve been doing an amazing job. Some other folks, I think from Google, also contribute a lot towards Interactivity API. So that&#8217;s what I follow, they&#8217;re all in that room a lot and very active.</p>



<p>[00:19:20] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> That&#8217;s almost everybody. I don&#8217;t know if you mentioned Luis, he&#8217;s kind of my main point of contact. I ping him with questions, or ideas or, hey, we&#8217;re going to try to do this, does this sound crazy to do with the Interactivity API? And he&#8217;s pretty receptive.</p>



<p>[00:19:32] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Would it be fair to say that you could do with some more helpers though? I think in the open source world we could always use some more people flocking around any particular given project. Is that something that you&#8217;d be interested in? I don&#8217;t know, one of the intentions of a podcast like this is to make things like that happen but, yeah, is that a thing?</p>



<p>[00:19:47] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> I would like to see a lot more people using an API. You know, we&#8217;re trying to push the limits of the API, and I think it&#8217;s important that we all kind of try to push the limits and see where it needs additional work, or where we might need extra functionality. So I&#8217;d love to see a lot more people using it because I just don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s gotten kind of the critical mass yet.</p>



<p>[00:20:04] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Can you give us some nice examples that I could link to in the show notes of situations where you&#8217;ve seen, specifically the Interactivity API. We mentioned earlier about, you know, general websites and what have you.</p>



<p>Are there any good examples where you&#8217;ve seen somebody using it, so that if there is a developer looking at this, they can go, oh okay, that&#8217;s the kind of thing we&#8217;re talking about.</p>



<p>[00:20:21] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I certainly can share some links. I have some repos on GitHub where I&#8217;ve built custom blocks and I&#8217;ve done, I believe there&#8217;s a YouTube, at least a recording of a presentation where I&#8217;ve gone step through building, some of these custom blocks and they&#8217;re all in my repo.</p>



<p>I was going to hand it off to Seth, I guess again, because I know one block that stood out to me that him and his team have created is like a, well, I think you have a poll, but also like a table filtering. I mean, I think those are pretty common experiences that we see on sites, and they&#8217;ve done a great job in creating that seamless experience of filtering.</p>



<p>[00:20:56] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> I can just gush for a moment. If you want a good example, www.pewresearch.org, almost everything that you&#8217;re going to see there is using the Interactivity API. Mega Menus, MailChimp newsletter signups, facets, pagination, table of contents. That updates as you scroll through the page, because the chapter blocks report using the Interactivity API to the table of contents block, which is separate, their position. Data tables, charts, quizzes, you name it, pretty much everything that we have on our website is using the Interactivity API at this point.</p>



<p>There&#8217;s a few plugins that we still have to convert, it&#8217;s actually only two. But almost everything that you see there is using the API, and almost all that code is available for free open source on github.com/pewresearch.</p>



<p>[00:21:39] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Did you do that yourself because you are knee deep in the weeds of this, and so you could understand easily how to do that? Or would it be true to say that the developer documents that you&#8217;ve just mentioned would steer any, air quotes, competent developer to be able to achieve that? Or is it just that you know, you&#8217;ve got the Interactivity API, you also work for this organisation, so the two met.</p>



<p>[00:21:58] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> I think it&#8217;s because we wanted to provide learning resources, we wanted to provide a use case of, here&#8217;s what is possible. Obviously I&#8217;m talking about a lot of blocks that are interactive, but one of the things that I could really go into is our concept around the Interactivity API.</p>



<p>I think a lot of examples that people can point to, it&#8217;s a very specific use case. This block is a collapsible block, you click on it and it expands. We&#8217;ve taken a different approach, something that we call Atomic Interactive Blocks. And so we&#8217;ll make a block and it will have some interactivity instructions and functionality, but the point of that is to be dropped into another block, which has its own interactivity, and instructions, and functionality, and so on and so forth.</p>



<p>And so what we&#8217;ve really done is made a library of interactive blocks that kind of act like React components, and that you can drop them in other use cases and style them however you want, but what they do is defined maybe higher up.</p>



<p>Yeah, so I think to me that&#8217;s really the power of the Interactivity API, because what that allows us to do is, as developers, is just maintain a small library of blocks that are programmed to do a lot of things, and interact with a lot of other blocks, but then hand off styling, and content, and all that stuff to designers and other people.</p>



<p>For me, that&#8217;s been the coolest part about the Interactivity API, is this abstraction out of a block of what it does. We can go into it more, but the interactive stores can communicate with one another, and so you can have block A do a very specific thing, you click on it and it opens. And maybe you put that inside of block B, and block B is aware, well, when block A is set to be open, when its state is set to be open, I need to do this. And so, you know, you can imagine, you can make a button block, and use that in infinite applications.</p>



<p>The way that we approach it though, that block can dynamically target an interactive store rather than statically being set to just do this one thing in this one interactive store. So all of those GitHub repos will provide examples of how that kind of system works, and how you might approach the same thing for your organisation or website.</p>



<p>[00:23:48] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I think what Seth touched upon is interesting because I think it says a lot kind of to how the API has been built to abstract some of these ideas, and just shared state between components. So like you touched on, a button can be shared, and so many are used in so many contexts, but to be able to abstract that and share state, and the interactivity between these components is, it shows a lot of, the API has been built smartly so that it can be explored and experimented with, which is neat.</p>



<p>[00:24:19] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think one thing about this topic is that it is possible, probably, to go a bit overboard with being interactive. I&#8217;ve got the API, I know how to use it now, I&#8217;m going to make everything interactive. And I guess there&#8217;s a point where you&#8217;ve got to tell yourself, slow down, not everything needs to be interactive. So let&#8217;s just go into that. Are there any uses which you would say, yeah, you could do that interactively but we probably shouldn&#8217;t? Are there any times where you think, let&#8217;s put the brakes on?</p>



<p>[00:24:45] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I mean, I think any developer will kind of realise when they&#8217;ve maybe over-engineered something. There&#8217;s always going too far and making everything, yeah. You&#8217;ll know I think if you&#8217;re trying to make everything interactive, every paragraph or, you know, it&#8217;s just kind of pointless. But the exciting part is that you can experiment and explore, interact with these APIs and see what you can do. And find the edges of what you can do, and what you should do, or shouldn&#8217;t do, that&#8217;s the fun part.</p>



<p>[00:25:10] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah, I will say that, is it possible that you can do too much? For sure. Technically speaking though, is it possible that you can do too much? I don&#8217;t think so. Like I said, we have a lot of interactivity blocks on a page, and the performance has been great. So I don&#8217;t think there should be a concern of like, oh, I&#8217;m overdoing it with using the Interactivity API in terms of performance. I think the more things you make with the Interactivity API, the better performance you&#8217;re going to get.</p>



<p>[00:25:33] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Let&#8217;s just speak to the performance side of things because you mentioned technically how it&#8217;s achieved a little bit, but could we just develop that a little bit? And you&#8217;ve definitely said performance isn&#8217;t affected, or performance is really great a number of times. What does that actually mean? So if I&#8217;m using this, is it a more performant website because it&#8217;s, I don&#8217;t know, it&#8217;s loading content asynchronously or what have you?</p>



<p>Has there been any situations where you&#8217;ve had to, I don&#8217;t know, refactor things because the performance took a dip. Performance at the moment is everybody&#8217;s big worry, isn&#8217;t it? Because, you know, Google takes those metrics and ranks you accordingly. So we kind of want to know that if we make this thing interactive, it&#8217;s not going to suddenly impact our score. And I know that Google does take note of these kind of things.</p>



<p>[00:26:11] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> Yeah, I think on the performance bit, I mean, to get a little technical, what makes it so performant is kind of that idea of server side hydration, right? You click on something and that element changes, and that can happen client side, but if it needs a new data, that in the past has meant refreshing the page or doing something really kind of complex and technical.</p>



<p>Now when the data changes and when that element needs to change, that one element re renders on the server, and then it&#8217;s returned back to the client, not the whole page. So that right there is an immediate performance savings because you&#8217;re not having to render a whole page out again, just to get this one little bit of changed information on a page.</p>



<p>[00:26:45] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Let&#8217;s get into probably the final thing for today, and that is the accessibility perspective of things. It&#8217;s become the watch word I think of 2023, 2024, and probably it&#8217;ll carry on, rightly so.</p>



<p>Has there been any accessibility concerns? Because obviously if you&#8217;re updating content live on the page, is there anything that we need to be concerned about if we&#8217;re developing with the Interactivity API in terms of the accessibility, I don&#8217;t know, screen readers or other assistive technologies.</p>



<p>[00:27:12] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> Sure, yeah. I think it&#8217;s always a challenge in building your components, and making sure they&#8217;re interactive. So I think that it&#8217;s really kind of just abstracting things, trying to figure out what your HTML is, what your CSS is, and then layering on the Interactivity API. I know that some of the extensions of pulling in like strings of information that are being updated on the page, like some of the older packages, like the accessibility, or a11y, for the acronym. Some of these packages that have been in Core for a while, they&#8217;re being ported over into the Interactivity API.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s something that&#8217;s kind of on the roadmap and being explored right now, so that we can have some of these screen reader updates for components, and on the page be integrated with the Interactivity API. So that&#8217;s, yeah, definitely something that&#8217;s being explored.</p>



<p>But also, yeah, a lot of it is more of just the approach because just the markup and the CSS alone, having the knowledge of how to make that accessible is always a practice, an art form, and something that is always, can be improved.</p>



<p>[00:28:17] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Okay, thank you. Anything, Seth?</p>



<p>[00:28:19] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> I think that there&#8217;s actually probably better accessibility that you&#8217;re going to get out of the Interactivity API. You know, I know that screen readers and assistive technologies have come a long way, but if a lot of your website relied on React, and other JavaScript frameworks that render after the page has been rendered, that could pose a problem for accessibility technologies. Here, all that stuff is pre-hydrated and pre-rendered before the page even loads. So your markup&#8217;s ready to go as soon as the page loads, which is actually great.</p>



<p>[00:28:46] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> I think probably time has caught up with us. But before we go, we did mention the URLs and where you can find the project. Let&#8217;s just, firstly, go through where we can find you individually. So that might be an email, a Twitter handle, or whatever it might be. So let&#8217;s go to Damon first. Where can people find you if they&#8217;re interested in catching up?</p>



<p>[00:29:03] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> I think probably the easiest is X, I still call it Twitter. I am dcook. I&#8217;m always open. Yeah, reach out. I think 99% of my Twitter timeline is sharing WordPress ideas, outreach links. So yeah, you&#8217;ll find me for any WordPress stuff there.</p>



<p>[00:29:21] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you so much. And, Seth?</p>



<p>[00:29:22] <strong>Seth Rubenstein:</strong> You can also find me on Twitter, which I refuse to call X. Twitter.com/sethrubenstein. And I also share a bunch of Interactivity API and WordPress stuff.</p>



<p>[00:29:29] <strong>Nathan Wrigley:</strong> Thank you. So this is the bit where I ask, is there anything that we missed? Is there something that you desperately wanted to get across that I failed to ask?</p>



<p>[00:29:36] <strong>Damon Cook:</strong> To go back just a little bit, he was touching on performance. So one thing actually I wanted to speak to was the idea of the Interactivity API is a standard means for developers to pull in these kind of libraries and do interactivity experiences. And so using this API, you&#8217;re relying on, you know, a simple small bit of source code that is going to be integrated on every page. So that performance impact of not having to pull in an entire library, so it makes it a smaller source code that&#8217;s being pulled in, so that has a huge performance impact as well.</p>
</div>



<p>On the podcast today we have <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/damon-cook/">Damon Cook</a> and <a href="https://us.wordcamp.org/2024/speaker/seth-rubenstein/">Seth Rubenstein</a>.</p>



<p>This is the last of the podcasts recorded at WordCamp US 2024, and our focus today is the Interactivity API. You may not be familiar with what this is and why it matters, so Damon and Seth will break it down, and explain how it might transform your WordPress websites in the future.</p>



<p>Damon starts off by defining what an interactive website is, giving examples such as single-page applications and dynamic elements like tabs and accordions. Seth adds his perspective on how interactivity aids both the end-user and website editors, making for a more compelling user experience and efficient content creation.</p>



<p>We get into why WordPress needed an Interactivity API, even though the platform already supports libraries like React. The Interactivity API provides a standardised way to create dynamic content, which is essential for modern web expectations.</p>



<p>We also highlight real-world examples, including faceted searching and filtering, which have been successfully implemented using this API. The conversation also touches on performance improvements brought by the API, emphasising how it can offload server resources by only updating necessary content.</p>



<p>Towards the end, we explore how the API is already being used in Gutenberg blocks and how it supports both developers and site builders. Damon and Seth also discuss the project&#8217;s development, encouraging more contributions and feedback from the community.</p>



<p>If you&#8217;re intrigued by improving your WordPress site’s interactivity and performance, this episode is for you.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Useful links</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.pewresearch.org">Pew Research Center</a></p>



<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/block-editor/reference-guides/interactivity-api/">Interactivity API Handbook</a></p>



<p><a href="https://developer.wordpress.org">WordPress Developer Resources</a></p>



<p><a href="https://frontity.org">Frontity</a></p>



<p><a href="https://github.com/pewresearch">Pew Research Center on GitHub</a></p>



<p><a href="https://x.com/dcook/">Damon&#8217;s X</a></p>



<p><a href="https://x.com/dcook/">Seth&#8217;s X</a></p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Nathan Wrigley";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:47;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:117:"Do The Woo Community: The Future of Distributed Social Media on WordPress with Robert Windisch and Matthias Pfefferle";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:28:"https://dothewoo.io/?p=86671";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:116:"https://dothewoo.io/the-future-of-distributed-social-media-on-wordpress-with-robert-windisch-and-matthias-pfefferle/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:178:"In this episode, Abha discusses WordPress's potential evolution into a distributed social media platform with Matthias and Robert, emphasizing community engagement and new tools.";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Nov 2024 10:23:45 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:5:"BobWP";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:48;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:93:"WPTavern: WordCamp Asia and WordCamp Europe Added to Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship Program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://wptavern.com/?p=178985";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:104:"https://wptavern.com/wordcamp-asia-and-wordcamp-europe-added-to-kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-program";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:2901:"<p>As announced at the <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2024/meeting-minutes/">2024 WordPress Foundation Meeting</a>, the  <a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/projects/kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship/">Kim Parsell Memorial Scholarship</a> has been expanded to include WordCamp Europe and WordCamp Asia. Traditionally supporting a woman WordPress contributor to attend WordCamp US, the scholarship now assists women facing financial challenges in attending these three flagship WordCamp events.</p>



<p>The scholarship honors <a href="https://wordpress.org/news/2019/11/people-of-wordpress-kim-parsell/">Kim Parsell</a>, a cherished member of the WordPress community and regarded as one of the first “women of WordPress”. Known fondly as #wpmom, Kim was a dedicated volunteer who devoted countless hours to the WordPress project and was a strong advocate for women entering the tech industry.</p>



<p>In 2014, Kim received a travel stipend from the WordPress Foundation, allowing her to attend the WordPress Community Summit held alongside WordCamp San Francisco—a transformative experience she cherished.The WordPress Foundation now offers this scholarship in her memory.</p>



<p>The<a href="https://wordpressfoundation.org/news/2024/kim-parsell-memorial-scholarship-expands-to-wordcamp-asia-and-wordcamp-europe/"> announcement post</a> states: “ This expansion honors Kim’s legacy and her dedication to inclusivity and diversity within the WordPress community, making it possible for more community members to attend these inspiring events.”</p>



<p>To qualify, applicants must:</p>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Identify as a woman</li>



<li>Actively contribute to the WordPress project</li>



<li>Have never attended WordCamp Asia or WordCamp Europe before</li>



<li>Require financial assistance to attend WordCamp Asia or WordCamp Europe 2025</li>
</ul>



<p><strong>Applications are open until November 30, 2024, for both <a href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/wcasia-2025-kim-parsell-scholarship-application">WordCamp Asia</a> and <a href="https://wordcampcentral.survey.fm/wceu-2025-kim-parsell-scholarship-application">WordCamp Europe</a>, with notifications sent by December 21, 2024. </strong> Applications for WordCamp US will open in the coming months. The scholarship covers travel to the host city, hotel accommodation for the event duration, and a WordCamp ticket. It does not include airport transfers, meals, or other incidental expenses.</p>



<p>The scholarship’s inaugural recipient in 2015 was <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/anyssa/">Anyssa Ferreira</a>, a Brazilian designer, feminist, and WordPress community activist. Last year, it was awarded to <a href="https://profiles.wordpress.org/cnormandigital/">Cynthia Norman</a>, a WordPress developer and Web designer, with a background in training and education.</p>";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:7:"pubDate";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:31:"Wed, 06 Nov 2024 04:48:30 +0000";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}s:32:"http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";a:1:{s:7:"creator";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:7:"Jyolsna";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}}}}i:49;a:6:{s:4:"data";s:13:"
	
	
	
	
	
	
";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";s:5:"child";a:2:{s:0:"";a:5:{s:5:"title";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:14:"Matt: I Voted!";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"guid";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:23:"https://ma.tt/?p=129655";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:4:"link";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:30:"https://ma.tt/2024/11/i-voted/";s:7:"attribs";a:0:{}s:8:"xml_base";s:0:"";s:17:"xml_base_explicit";b:0;s:8:"xml_lang";s:0:"";}}s:11:"description";a:1:{i:0;a:5:{s:4:"data";s:485:"<p>It was a huge pain in the butt, because my mail-in ballot didn&#8217;t register properly, but I found a last-minute flight to Houston and this morning walked over to <a href="https://www.emanuelhouston.org/">Congregation Emanu El</a> and voted. It is our most sacred duty as a citizen. I encourage every American to vote.</p>



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