Five Successful Ways to Use QR Codes | MarketingProfs

Loves me some square hieroglyphics. From MarketingProfs comes this piece on proper care and feeding

Here are some tips on making the most of QR codes.

  1. Use content that is unexpected and customized for that particular moment. Don’t just send customers to a generic website.
  2. Naturally integrate the codes into consumers’ lives. If you’re a wine brand, for example, offer intriguing recipe pairings or entertainment ideas.
  3. Use the technology to measure and deliver insight. Capture email addresses, locations, buying behavior, and more. Setting up a QR code without that extra layer is missing out on its value to you, the marketer.
  4. Make sure the QR codes are scannable. Just this year, Facebook painted a humongous QR code on the rooftop of its headquarters. This followed an early trend to place QR codes in impossible places. They are tough to scan when you’re a human being with your feet on the ground. Keep the size and placement of the QR code simple and convenient. Don’t oversize the codes, and don’t make them too tiny to be seen.
  5. Think about place-based advertising for QR codes. A Korean fast food place hung its codes outside, where the codes were only scannable when the sun cast shadows over them—at lunchtime. The reward for scanning was discounts and deals at the restaurant. Guinness added them to beer glasses, so the codes were only visible when the glass was filled with its dark beer. If you know where your consumers are, ask yourself what they need from you right that minute. The answer will deliver some clever ideas for valuable or fun content.
via mpdailyfix.com (note: the piece was contributed by Sherry Orel of Brand Connections; click through to see some examples - esp the Guiness!)

when my organization used these in fundraising event posters, I lobbied to have the code direct to a special registration form that included some mobile-optimized content about the event as well as the fields from the standard form. baby steps...

 

LinkedIn Integrates with MS Outlook, still not as good as Rapportive

from this week's announcement about LI integration with MS Outlook
Today, we’re really excited to share that the Outlook Social Connector for the next release of Office will no longer require an additional download to sync with LinkedIn. This means you just have to sign-in once with your LinkedIn credentials and immediately you’ll start seeing rich profile information, like photos and LinkedIn network activity for any connection that emails you. You’ll also see LinkedIn profile data surface when you view a People Card throughout the new Office experience.
via blog.linkedin.com (click for full announcement)

Back when I still used Outlook, I liked the Xobni plugin that did what it sounds like LinkedIn will do natively (woo hoo, saved myself an install!) in "the new MS office."

I think most people on Outlook tend to be corporate types, and outside the sales department, might not get a ton of value out of this feature beyond novelty ("hey, I never knew our CEO worked his way through HBS as an exotic dancer").

For freelance nation folks, I still recommend GMail with the Rapportive addon:

 

LinkedIn Introducing a Simpler Homepage | LinkedIn Blog

from the announcement on LinkedIn's blog:

Millions of you are coming to LinkedIn everyday to discover and discuss what matters most to your professional life. And today, we’ve started to roll out a simpler and easier way to navigate Homepage experience that offers quick access to the relevant information and updates that help you be great at your job.

So what’s new?

so what is new? I am seeing some design tweaks but it is not a reinvention. Think of it as the Marissa touch. She demonstrated with GMail that simpler is better... click through to read the full announcement.
It seems like part of the new look is to promote the existing LinkedIn today feature. Ron Medlin at Search Dog Marketing offers tips on how to leverage the bigger spotlight:

It looks like LinkedIn is putting a lot of effort to promote LinkedIn Today, and I believe this could be a great way to generate buzz around your business and establish your company as the go to resource in your industry.  The question is how does one get featured on Linked in Today. 

According to Linkedin they look at these three factors.

  1. The links that members share, like, and comment on the most
  2. Based on the industry assigned to profiles
  3. A higher preference is assigned to recent articles if they’re being shared quickly by a broad base of members

Here are some suggestions to help your articles get picked up in LinkedIn Today.

  1. Include a LinkedIn share button on your site
  2. Contact the LinkedIn business development team at publisher@linkedin.com
  3. Share your articles with your connections

 

some page tab apps begin to recover despite removal of default landing tab | inside facebook

back in march, facebook removed the default landing page feature as part of the shift to timeline. developers of landing page tab apps felt the pain, losing a ton of volume. a few are coming back, however, as this article in inside facebook describes. reason - the landing page isn't dead, you just have to work a little harder to get new visitors there. read the whole article there. 

The key difference since Timeline is that now page owners have to actively promote their tab applications, whereas previously the app was the first thing new visitors saw when they came to the page. Woobox’s DeCarlo says he immediately recognized this and when Timeline launched, Woobox added a feature to give page owners a short shareable URL with a customizable image, headline and summary that would appear when the link was posted to Facebook.

 

5 Twitter Tools Boost Marketing Effectiveness | Social Media Examiner

You may have seen some of these tools - but not all!
I especially like #1

Are you looking for new and creative ways to use Twitter?

Here are 5 lesser-known Twitter tools that your business should be using.

Each of these tools has unique capabilities that may help your business get an edge over your competitors. Oh, and all of these tools are free.

#1: Commun.it—Manage Your Community Efficiently

Commun.it is probably one of the best relationship-management tools out there. It helps you to cultivate your followers on Twitter and make important connections to build your business.

My favorite function is that it will look into your most up-to-date feed and organize your followers into three groups:

  • Influencers
  • Top supporters
  • Engaged Twitter users
community groups

Cultivate your relationships on Twitter based on groups.

By grouping your users, you’re able to focus on not only influential users but people who have previously shared your content and have taken the time to engage with you.

Another advantage of this tool is the ability to sort your list according to “most recent” or “highest rating,” which shows your top influencers based on their algorithm.

The tool is also very user-friendly. You can grow and manage your community fully from its dashboard.

There is also a “Consider to Follow” feature that gives you a list of people to consider following based on previous conversations, retweets and the followers who have been engaging you.

Read the rest on social media examiner

Ads on Tablets: 47% Engage, Says IAB | ClickZ

Nearly half, 47 percent, of tablet users say they engage with advertisements more than once a week. That's according to a recent report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and its Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.

On the smartphone side, 25 percent of users said they have the same weekly engagement. Following ad engagement, 80 percent of smartphone users and 89 percent of tablet users take action, said the report.

powerful stuff!

also in the clickz article, 30%+ of mobile users said they were likely to search for offers near their current location...

Twitter Now Allows Geo-Targeting to MSA level w Promoted Tweets | ClickZ

In a blog post, product manager Kevin Weil said that global brands using Promoted Tweets can now send tailored messages at different times and customized for users in different countries. With election season in full gear, the capability will come in handy for political advertisers looking to target specific messages to voters in key states and cities.

britishairways-twitterBritish Airways, Coca Cola, the Washington Post and Wendy's have beta-tested the targeting for several weeks, according to the blog post, and the feature is now available to all Promoted Tweets customers. Advertisers can compose targeted Tweets using the newly enhanced Tweet box in ads.twitter.com.

excerpt; click on link to see whole article

Twitter Ads Beating Facebook After All | ClickZ

 

In the rush to compare advertising engagement levels between Twitter and Facebook last week, TBG Digital made a hasty and significant error. The social media marketing vendor originally reported that Facebook mobile ads outperformed Twitter by at least four times, but days later it reversed its finding, admitting that it was "not comparing like for like."

While the desire to juxtapose largely incomparable channels like Twitter and Facebook is understandable, the fact of the matter is that most brands already know that such guesswork is an effort in futility. In its report, TBG Digital compared the click-through rates of Promoted Accounts on Twitter with Newsfeed ads on Facebook. "A more comparable product for Twitter would have been Promoted Tweets," it later noted.

However, the end result still doesn't carry much weight for brands. If Promoted Accounts and Newsfeed ads are akin to comparing apples to elephants, Promoted Tweets and Newsfeed ads are like apples and oranges. Neither of those directly compare, so advertisers learn little in the process.

Based on those misleading comparisons, TBG Digital drew the wrong conclusions. Facebook isn't beating Twitter on mobile ad engagement. Indeed, it appears to be doing quite the opposite.

excerpt; click on link to see whole article

edit your facebook comments: you CAN go back again (via me)

think twice, write once

Measure Twice, Cut Once

paraphrasing the old carpenter’s saw (get it? get it?), it is a good thing in the age of frictionless sharing and instant communication to think twice before unleashing your bon mots upon an unsuspecting world. it’s been possible for a while to censor your own posts and comments on facebook. with the latest update, users now have the option of editing comments instead of simply deleting them.

good news. you can now go back to less than perfect comments (and theoretically posts soon) and get all 20/20 hindsight on their behinds.

when edit means ‘delete’

facebook has allowed users to go back and remove or hide (in the new timeline) posts and comments for a while now. mouse over the top right cormer on a post of yours in your regular facebook stream and you will see an X pop, offering to delete the post. If you go to your own profile page, you see more options:

note that your edit options are limited – in this case, since the post came in through my rss reader, I am able to amend the source controls, but not the content itself. there are more options differ depending on the post. when you are tagged in someone’s picture, you first have the option of saying whether you want it to show up on your page at all (in your privacy settings). when it is there, your edit/delete options are a bit different:

edit pictures you're tagged in

check it out. you have the option to edit the date, add a location, and even reposition the picture. This does not affect the positioning on the poster’s page, but can make you look a little prettier on your own timeline (I tried, but there is simply no way to make myself look good here short of sliding myself out of the frame).

You can also untag yourself in the picture, which will also result in removing the image from your timeline.

when edit means edit

now, with your comments at least, you can do more. here is the initial post:

now a regrettable comment:

updating facebook comments 3

but I got the prized first comment spot! if I just delete, I’ll be buried somewhere down the list and it will no longer be about me, me, me. but look…

updating facebook comments 4

correct-o-mundo

editing facebook comments 5

and no one the wiser…but wait – what’s that “edited” thingie?

edit facebook comments 8

oh well – it’ll be like privacy settings and hardly anybody will see them.

editing facebook comments 9

and so that’s it. as I note above, it’s just comments that can be edited for now, but I expect soon we’ll see this for posts as well.

 

 

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Q&A: Fixing Typos in Facebook Comments (via NYT)

Q.

Is there a way to correct Facebook comments after you post them? I often notice hideous typos only after I’ve hit the Enter key.

A.

While it used to be that the only way to edit a bungled comment was to delete it, redo it and post it again, Facebook recently rolled out a new editing function that makes correcting typos much easier. To modify a comment after you have posted it, move the mouse cursor over the top right corner of the post until you see a pencil icon appear.

Click on the pencil icon to see a menu that offers the choice of Edit and Delete. Select the Edit option and the comment text is now ready for correction. Press the Enter key to post the edited version of the comment. If you select the wrong comment to fix or change your mind, press the Escape key on the keyboard to get out of the editing mode.

Facebook keeps track of modified comments so users can see any adjustments that have been made. Comments that have been retroactively corrected display an Edited link underneath the text. Clicking on the Edited link shows the editing history and changes made to that particular comment.

You can only edit your own comments on a page, but you can remove or report offending posts from others on your own Facebook page. To do so, move the mouse cursor over to the right side of the comment that annoyed you and click the X that appears next to it. A menu appears with the choices to Delete, Hide as Spam or Report as Abuse.