From fish to facials (book your next spa treatment with one click or scan), QR codes are popping up everywhere. Little squares of code – like a two-dimensional bar code – can link print and digital content in ways we barely imagined a short while ago.
Flexible and free, QR codes have the capacity to drive comparison shoppers from one store to another. Or they can drive a wine buyer to a page on a winemaker’s site that contains far more info than any label or shelf-tag could convey. QR codes are even being used to send neurosurgeons to Youtube videos of recent surgical technique. (I’ll spare you that link. You’re welcome.)
As a speaker at the recent TECHmunch conference, (“Understanding Trends to Enrich Content” was our panel), I anticipated that many of the food writers, bloggers, copywrting services, photographers and others in attendance would have QR scanning apps on their smart phones. I printed my QR code on my speaker badge and put stickers with the QR code on the business cards I brought to hand out.
Guess how many people scanned my badge? Zero.
Guess how many people had a code I could scan? Zero.
And this was a TECH conference.
Use of QR codes among writers remains low. How can this free, clever tool continue to be overlooked? How might it help you?
A Hypothetical Conference
We’ve all been to conferences where we gather cards anticipating all the new relationships we’ll build. Buoyed by the face-to-face meetings, you go home with a stack of cards and the best intentions. A month or two later, that stack of cards is still sitting on your desk.
In a parallel universe, savvy journalists have downloaded a free app that reads these codes. (I like i-nigma it works more consistently than AT&T’s which keeps displaying me as a point on a map in Arkansas.) QR codes are printed on your badge, business cards, or on a simple piece of paper you can carry with you and slip into your wallet, your credentials/badge/name tag holder.
In this parallel planet and conference, everyone has done the same.
An opportunity to reach out to that editor occurs and you realize you already have their contact info in your phone. Name, phone, URL, email address. It’s all there.
Let’s say you talked to an editor about a story you might pitch to him. Suddenly there’s an event in his city that makes your idea perfect. Can he find your card? Doesn’t need to – the info’s already in his hands, on his phone. In fact, when he goes to the URL he scanned in with one simple click, he’s right on your clips page.
Evolving Tags
Kimtag: is a new iteration of the QR code. It links social media hubs to your contact info in one easy to read profile page. You can direct readers to your Facebook page, Twitter stream, your recent clips page, a particular post on your blog that might be relevant to your conference.
So why not take your afternoon break to load your Kimtag: data and build your first QR code. Once you do it, you’ll start noticing them all over.
And people will start noticing you, too.
Image courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
