5 Really Cool Ways to Use QR Codes
New to QR codes? Read this primer first.
Ever since AT&T announced that they would be releasing a QR Code Scanning app for Blackberry and Android phones, those in the know have been a buzz that QR is finally poised to take hold in the U.S., and I agree.
Here are 5 cool ways to use QR codes that go beyond the more common uses:
1. Get followers on Twitter via Texting
Subscribe to my tweets via SMS
In addition to URLs and contact information, QR Codes can be used to create standard text messages. Scanning a QR code with a text message embedded in it opens the user's text message app and autofills the recipient and message fields with information from the QR code. All the user has to do is click Send.
Thanks to Twitter's new Fast Follow feature, your audience can follow your Twitter account without using Twitter. Texting "Follow @Username" to the number 40404 will subscribe you to @Username's tweets via text message. So if you want to follow me from your phone, just text "Follow @TechDagan" to 40404. Every time I tweet, it'll be sent to your phone via text message.
So if you want to make it easy for people to get updates from you via text message, create a QR code that generates a text message to subscribe them to your tweets. It's so easy, your subscribers don't even need to know that you're using Twitter to do it. You could use the service to:
- send out daily or weekly coupons/specials
- send out announcements about an upcoming event, an ongoing crisis or an oil spill
- deliver timely tips and tricks your audience will enjoy
Here's what's so amazing: Because this service is provided through Twitter, there are loads of ways to automate the delivery for free.
2. Create an interactive scavenger hunt
Offer your audience a great prize for being the first to finish a scavenger hunt. Start by generating QR codes with the GPS coordinates of each location your contestants will visit.
Hide the QR code at each location and let contestants unlock the clues to the where the code is hidden by tweeting, with location turned on, from the location and including a special hashtag. Monitor your contestants via Twitter and DM them the clue for each location as soon as they tweet from that spot.
You could also integrate with Facebook, Foursquare or even Flickr.
3. Scan a QR, get a QR
Create a QR code that takes mobile users to a special page that . . . generates a custom QR that displays on their phone. Then have them scan their custom QR at your booth, register, or whatever to see what they've won.
For example, to generate buzz for an upcoming concert, you could run an add that includes a QR code directing users to a special website. At the site, users take a quiz to demonstrate their knowledge of the band. At the end of the quiz, the user has a special QR code saved as an image on their mobile phone. Scanning their custom QR code at the local record store lets them know whether or not they've won free backstage passes to the concert.
That's just one example, the ideas here are close to endless.
4. Add reader comments to a printed article
For newspapers and magainzes, including a unique QR code with each of the articles they publish in their print editions could be a great way to allow their print readers to enjoy the benefits of the social Web. Scanning the QR code would take you to a page optimized for mobile devices where users can read comments shared by other users and leave their own comments. You could also offer links to other online resources readers may find interesting. It's a great way to bridge the gap between online and off and to introduce your existing readership to your flashy new online edition.
5. Share product reviews from the retail shelf
Including a QR code in your product packaging can link potential buyers to product reviews, demo and how-to videos, or even a pre-sales support team that could give them answers to any questions or concerns they have before buying the product.
Let's face it, today's sales people aren't always as well-trained as they used to be. Trying to sell a cool new video game? Link your QR code to an online video that demos the game. Selling wine? Link to tasting notes, reviews and recipes. Manufacture electronic devices? Link to your product reviews on CNET or Amazon.
Those are some of my ideas of what you can already to. As the technology evolves and becomes more common place, I'm sure people will come up with even more awesome things!
What are you doing with QR codes?
QR Codes: What They Are, What They Do
QR Code linking to this post.
QR Code linking to this post.
What is a QR Code?
A Quick Response Code is just a 2-D barcode, which, instead of being read/scanned from left to right, is also read top to bottom. In short, it can store a lot more data than the barcodes we're used to seeing.
Surprisingly, QR Codes are nothing new. In fact, they were invented in 1994, the same year that Yahoo! was founded and before most of us were on the Net. Their original purpose was as part of an advanced package tracking process, similar to the 2-D barcodes in use by carriers like UPS. Today, though, they can be used to store all sorts of interesting information, such as:
- contact information
- URLs
- SMS messages
- GPS coordinates
- text
Current and upcoming uses
QR Code's ability to store long URLs is a big part of their recent integration into mobile phones (okay, recent in the U.S.), but they can do a lot more than just store a URL. And, if you're creative, even that can be a pretty exciting prospect.
Interactive print ads
When it comes to linking people with online content, print ads have it hard. For that matter, so do TV ads. It's just too hard to remember that the information you're interested in is at http://www.polarisindustries.com/en-us/Victory-Motorcycles/Experience/. It's way easier to remember http://ExperienceVictory.com, which is why micro-sites came into fashion to begin with. But they pose all sorts of challenges of their own; not the least of which is that you still have to rely on your audience's ability to recall the URL when they're ready to view your content.
QR Codes resolve that problem by allowing you to link to a long, complicated URL right from the print ad. Your audience need only pull out their smart phones and be whimsically whisked away to your content.
Already, QR Codes have found their way onto billboards, movie posters and even television commercials. Advertisers still have to overcome the challenge that smartphone users in the U.S. are still the minority, and even they may prefer to interact with content on their desktop PCs. But technologies for sharing content between your mobile device and desktop computer are starting to arrive.
Business cards and badges
We're also starting to see QR codes embedded with contact information and printed on business cards and conference badges. Meet someone whose contact information you want to keep? Scan their business card or conference badge and your phone prompts you to store them as a new contact (much better than collecting a stack of business cards).
Google Places integration
If your organization is claimed on Google Places, then you have access to a custom QR code from Google that links visitors directly to your Google Places page. I've noticed the Google Places window decal with the QR code at a number of businesses. Personally, I think affixing the decal to your organization's storefront windows is a bit useless, but it would make since to include it in a print ad. Someone interested in stopping by could scan the QR code and get a link to call your organization, directions to your location, your hours, etc.
Looking forward
In August, AT&T announced that they would be releasing their own QR Code app for Blackberry and Android phones. Users would be able to scan QR Codes and even generate their own.
Most smartphone platforms already have apps available to read the codes, but AT&T's announcement means it's likely that they will include the app on all of their new phones by default. And that means that a good number of people are about to have the ability to read QR codes.
These are just a few examples of what people are already doing with QR codes. What are you using them for?
Localizing Twitter: Geo Searching From Tweetdeck, Seesmic and More
Updated: Added a video demonstrating a geo search in TweetDeck.
Like most businesses, my clients are only interested in the geographic areas that they offer their services in, which can make using Twitter to its full potential a bit difficult. For international corporations, finding your audience on Twitter is easy. Just come up with a list of good keywords and start searching. Ford, for example, is probably interested in what someone is saying about the Ford Taurus whether it's being said in Detroit, Atlanta or Denmark—it's all relevant to them. But what about a Vespa dealer in San Francisco or a hospital in Sacramento? To them, location matters. And without it, they're lost in a sea of noise.
How to limit your search
Most of the (good) consultants counseling clients on using Twitter to accomplish communication goals (be they marketing, public relations, investor relations, or whatever) are recommending that they spend a lot of their time listening. Listen to what your audiences are saying about you. Listen to understand the community. Listen so that when you speak you're relevant and appropriate for the community. But how do you limit your listening to your audience?
Define your keywords
Start by determining the keywords that matter to you. For the Vespa dealer, the keywords are probably "Vespa" and "scooter" and the hashtags "#vespa" and "#scooter". For the hospital, they could include "emergency room," "pediatrician," and "cancer." Once you identify the keywords you think your audience is using, try searching them on the Twitter website (http://search.twitter.com). Don't bother with localings or geocoding your search, just see what kind of results you get in the whole wide Twitterverse.
You'll probably find that a good number of the search results aren't quite what you're looking for. We call that noise. The tweets you are looking for are called signal. And the game is to keep a high signal-to-noise ratio. Refining your search terms is easiest when you have a huge number of tweets to search, so (again) don't geocode quite yet. Just refine your search.
Search local tweets from Twitter's website (geo search)
Once, you have your refined keywords it's time to see who's using them in your area. Start by using Twitter's own Advanced Search tool. You can find it by clicking on "Advanced Search" from the Twitter Search page (http://search.twitter.com). Type your keywords into the Any of These Words field, then add your city name to the Near This Place field and choose the distance from your city to search within.
This is an important step because it's easiest to refine your keywords using Twitter's own search tool. But in the next section we'll show you how to use Twitter clients like TweetDeck, Seesmic, HootSuite and MediaFunnel.
While you're playing with your search terms you'll probably start to notice that Twitter searches local tweets by attaching two qualifiers to your search terms, Near and Within. Like this:
vespa scooter #vespa #scooter near:"San Francisco, CA" within:100mi
The Near qualifier specifies the location you want to limit your search to, and the Within qualifier identifies the distance from the location from which tweets should be included. The kicker, though, is that adding these qualifiers to a search only works in Seesmic. Other clients tested while research this post (e.g. TweetDeck and HooteSuite) weren't able to use the geo qualifiers. But there's another way to limit your search.
How to do it all from your favorite Twitter client
Let's face it, not too many of use use Twitter's website to tweet or search, and Seesmic is cool but not quite right for everyone. So here's how to limit your searches to a specific geographic area in almost any Twitter client:
- Figure out the latitude and longitude in the point at the center of your search area.
- Figure out the maximum distance from that point that you want to include in your search.
- Add the Geocode qualifier to your search.
Geocoding your search
The Geocode qualifier includes three pieces of information:
- the latitude of the center point for your search area
- the longitude of the center point for your search area
- the distance from the center point to include in your search
It's constructed like this: geocode:[latitude],[longitude],[distance][distance unit]
Example 1: Search for the word "scooter" within 100 miles of San Francisco
- San Francisco's latitude and longitude are Lat: 37.77493 and Lon: -122.419415
- I want to include tweets from within 100 mi of that point
scooter geocode:37.77493,-122.419415,100mi
Example 2: Search for the words "pediatrician" and "good" within 50 mi of Sacramento, Calif.
- Sacramento, Calif.'s latitude and longitude are Lat: 38.581572 Lon: -121.4944
- I want to include tweets from within 50 mi of that point
pediatrician & good geocode:38.581572,-121.4944,50mi
If you want to specify a distance in kilometers instead of miles simply substitute "mi" form "km".
Want more? Watch this demo video:
Want to watch in full screen? Click the 
button at the bottom of the video.
Taking full advantage
Now that you've got your favorite Twitter client keeping you up to date on local tweets with your refined keywords, consider looking into a client like MediaFunnel that can send you email alerts at regular intervals. I get an email every three hours that includes all of the tweets from my service area that include my keywords.
What do you do to focus your Twitter engagement?
Despite Studies & Reports, Twitter Still Matters
Back in March, Barracuda Labs took a hiatus from developing hardware-based spam, virus and web filters to release a report about Twitter and its users.
The report isn't really surprising to those that follow Twitter in the news. There have been loads of reports, studies and analyses pointing to the fact that the majority of Twitter's users are not responsible for content creation on the network, and a lot of new users quickly leave.
Personally, I think all of the study ballyhoo misses the point entirely.
Here is some of what Barracuda highlighted in the press release announcing their report:
- Only 21 percent of Twitter users are actual True Twitter Users.
- Overall, users are becoming more active on Twitter.
- 49 percent of Twitter users, and 48 of the top 100 most followed Twitter users, joined during the Twitter Red Carpet Era, indicating the significant impact celebrities have on the social networking landscape as they bring their real-world fans over to Twitter.
What I take issue with is Barracuda's definition of a True Twitter User:
‘True Twitter User’ is defined as a user that has at least 10 followers, follows at least 10 people, and has tweeted at least 10 times.
How To Hide Games From Your Facebook News Feed
Want to remove an annoying game, application, page or even friend from your News Feeds on Facebook? It's really easy to do.
This short video shows you how to hide and unhide applications, pages and friends in your News Feed.
The video is in HD, so click the button to watch it in full-screen mode.
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Recent Posts
- 5 Really Cool Ways to Use QR Codes
- QR Codes: What They Are, What They Do
- Localizing Twitter: Geo Searching From Tweetdeck, Seesmic and More
- Despite Studies & Reports, Twitter Still Matters
- How To Hide Games From Your Facebook News Feed
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It's Just My Opinion by The Epyllion Co. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at www.epyllionco.com/blogs/dagan.