I have been very surprised with the response to my past three blogs on QR Codes both on my web site and in discussions it has generated in LinkedIn groups. I think part of the interest is generated by the rapid market growth of smart phones and tablets. There are 5.3 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide and use of smart phone technologies in countries such as Japan and Korea is way ahead of the U.S.A. Another reason may be the interest among early adaptors. According to Arbitron/Edison Research’s study of the Social Habit 2011 nearly 60% of Frequent Social Networkers use smart phones as opposed to only 31% of the general population. So here is a hodge-podge of remarks, suggestions and links from some of the many people who responded to my blogs over the past couple of weeks.
How QR Codes are being used
- Newspaper Ads: Ryan Litwiller works at a newspaper and has noticed a sharp rise in QR Codes in newspaper ads.
- Track with Bit.ly URLs: Brandon Aday, of Aday Interactive, added QR Codes to his business cards, postcards and Aday Interactive’s Facebook FanPage Profile Image and uses Bit.ly URLs to track the traffic.
- SlimAds: Lavisha Mirpuri makes a mobile optimized ad using Slimads and generates a QR Code of the URL. Here is an example of his ad: http://www.slimads.com/slimads/tiny?B921BB22
- Brochures: Rob DeMartini, the marketing manager for Armanio McKenna, uses QR codes on outbound marketing such as their brochures, postcards and has included them in their tradeshow booths at various events.
- Wine Labels: Michele Bosc of Château des Charmes started putting QR codes on the back labels of their wine about 2 years ago and she believes they were the first winery in North America to so. See the label above. She said they use it like a dynamic version of their back label, which is static the moment it's printed. When Château des Charmes started no one really knew about QR Codes. Now they are everywhere.
QR Code Resources
- QR Code Primer: Michele Bosc has made a really great QR Code Primer that is available on the Château des Charmes website.
- The Mobile Revolution: Naomi McElynn is in charge of Mobile Media Strategy at CKB2B Marketing. She has a great pdf guide on The Mobile Revolution & B2B..
- Vector Based QR Code Generator: Rob DeMartini uses the Little Idiot QR Code Generator because it will produce a vector-based image for high quality printing.
- QR Code Pros: Allan Tone told us about QR Code Pros, a service that not only generates QR Codes but provides microsites for your content. There are free and professional levels of services that integrate social media sharing, streaming video and Google analytics integration. Sign up for a free account and give it a spin.
I’ve signed up for a free account at QR Code Pros and I continue to experiment with LinkBlots. I’ve made personal contact code and printed them on the back of my business cards and I’ll see how that goes. Scan the code to the right and let me know what you think.
Considering the interest in QR Codes it seems like this is going to be a growing area of interest. I am always interested in your ideas, suggestions and thoughts so don’t be shy, let me know what you think below. If you are interested in what Image Media Partners has to offer or if you would like an analysis of your Social Media marketing efforts let us know.
Photo Credit: Château des Charmes
