My Name is Kate (via Mowser)

Five Essentials for Your Next QR Code Campaign

We recently finished helping a client run a QR code promotion. It was the first QR code campaign I worked on directly; it was also the client's first. The campaign lasted a week and was loosely modelled on a scavenger hunt. We placed eleven QR codes across a variety of print and online placements, using five partners in addition to the client's own properties. Twice a day we released clues on the client's Facebook fan page as to the locations of the codes. And for every QR code you found, you gained an entry into a draw for a prize.

A few things came up during the campaign that I thought I would share here for when you're doing your next QR Code campaign. Either things we anticipated, didn't think would be a big deal and turned into a big deal - or things we didn't really anticipate and had a bit of a scramble about.

Kate's Five Things You Should Do for Your Next QR Code Campaign

1. Always have a non-smartphone option for entry.

There's a reason we pay lawyers a lot of money. My client's lawyers, in reviewing the contest guidelines, made sure we had a way to enter the contest if you didn't have a smart phone. I wasn't too concerned because a) who DOESN'T have a smart phone (ahem, my own arrogance and naivetÃ©) and b) if for some reason you didn't have a smartphone, I expected people to just say "Hmm, guess I won't enter" (more personal arrogance and naivetÃ©).

I was SHOCKED by the number of people who left angry, angry comments on the Facebook wall about having to have a smart phone to enter. Accusations of discrimination and threats to boycott were rife. It was epic. The interesting thing was we actually put everywhere we promoted the contest, a note to see the Rules & Regs for a way to enter if you didn't have a smart phone. People don't read. So the community manager patiently (and in a much more friendly tone than I would have mustered) answered each accusation with a link to the Rules & Regs. What was especially awesome is that other fans started answering as well - which rekindled my faith in the self-policing of online communities.

But the point is, if we hadn't had that option in the Rules & Regs, it would have been quite a different story. So make sure if you're using a non-ubiquitous technology as a contest entry, that you have a lower-tech, alternate way to enter.

2. Test test test, especially with your client's boss's boss's phone configuration.

All the case studies about running any kind of QR Code campaign or promotion says to test, Test, TEST! Different hardware, different OS versions, different QR Code readers. We did this. I even had a testing matrix. It was a thing of beauty. But, we approached our testing by figuring out which phone/OS combinations were the most popular - both in Canada (using data from ComScore's MobiLens) as well as with the client's stakeholders by checking their web stats. Here's the overview data from ComScore:

Continue reading "Five Essentials for Your Next QR Code Campaign" »

18 July 2011 in Canadian, Geek, Marketing, Mobile, Technology & the Internet, Work-life | Permalink | Comments (2)

Ebb and Flow

Yesterday, I was struggling with a new posture in my yoga practice.

My instructor came up to me and said, "Sometimes, I like to pretend that I don't have any tension."

Photo Credit: beedieu

14 June 2011 in Inspire | Permalink | Comments (0)

One Smart Way to Keep Your Social Network Spam-free (or at least spam-low)

This blog (and most of my blogs, really) run on Typepad. Typepad has a "social networking" aspect to it - it allows people to "follow" you. In the last couple of months they ran into a massive spam follow problem seemingly as part of their free microblog service. They have now put in some functionality for Tyepapd users to take control of who they want following them which is great, if not a little late in coming.

I was thinking about how this all could be prevented in the first place and I came across this piece of functionality on Goodreads (my social network of choice for books and reading) - the Challenge Question. So simple, yet so effective.

This is what it looks like in your profile settings:

And this is how it appears when you make a friend request:

Now, LinkedIn does something like this when you ask to make a network connection. But it pre-populates with standard "We should connect on LinkedIn" which 97.6% of the people who send me a request don't bother to edit. So I like GoodRead's approach where they give you an example Challenge Question, but leave you to actually fill it in.

For an additional level of security (in case you are reading classified documents and then posting about it on a social network), you can also specify a one-word Challenge Answer. When you activate this option, it looks like this:

I really like how the example prompts change as this Challenge and Response is intended to be much more personal.

This kind of functionality would really help with spam reduction but would also create stronger "weak ties" that are key to maintaining online social network relationships. What would really be great is if this data were then stored and visible in your view of your friend's profile on that particular social network (so, when Ben (the example above) looks at my profile on Goodreads, he would see how I answered his challenge question). That would go a long way towards maintaining those weak ties.

I look my friends on Facebook and while I have made a half-hearted attempt to organize them into lists (conference buddy, Squidoo lensmaster, person I met at a Tweetup once who is best friends with at least 5 of my friends), it's ineffective and there are still several people who I am just not 100% sure who they are.

LinkedIn in does something very smart in that they allow you to add notes and tags to an individual's profile.

But again, it is after the fact. Prompt me for this information when I accept/make a connection request.

I don't use services like Sales Force, or any real contact management system, but I imagine that they have similar kinds of note/tag mechanisms.

Has anyone seen other social network spam filters/meta info collecting like the above that they particularly like? Or, do you have any tips on how you organize your friends/contacts on the various services? This kind of meta content around our online social lives seems to be a cruicial component that isn't widely available yet, but should be.

19 May 2011 in Branding & User Experience, Product Development, Social Media | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Evolution of Geek

Flowtown has an awesome infographic on The Evolution of Geek. And I swear, it's like they looked at my high school year book picture to create the illustration for the D&D Geek.

Something I learned from their infographic is that geek is a variant of geck, a word from the 1500's indicating fool or simpleton. Wikipedia, of course, goes into a bit more detail:

The word geek is a slang term, with different meanings ranging from "a computer expert or enthusiast" to "a carnival performer who performs sensationally morbid or disgusting acts", with a general pejorative meaning of "a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual".^[1]

This word comes from English dialect geek, geck: fool, freak; from Low German geck, from Middle Low German. The root geck still survives in Dutch and Afrikaans gek: crazy, as well as someGerman dialects, and in the Alsatian word Gickeleshut: geek's hat, used in carnivals.^[2]

Formerly, in 18th century Austria-Hungary, Gecken were freaks shown by some circuses. In 19th century, in North-America, the term geek referred to a freak in circus side-shows. In some cases, its performance included biting the head off a live chicken. The 1976 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary included only the definition regarding geek shows.

Although often considered as a pejorative, the term is also often used self-referentially without malice or as a source of pride - an example is the 'Geek Squad' of the Best Buy company.

So, any of these geeks resonate with you?

18 May 2011 in Chuckling, Infograph-tastic, Meme It Up!, Technology & the Internet | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Art of Marketing is Coming to Vancouver - You Could Win a Ticket!

Update: We have a winner - Tai Scott has won the random draw. Thanks to all of you who entered! And remember, we do have a discount code you can use to purchase a ticket - see below.

After the election last night, I figure we could all use some good news. So, here you go ... the awesome conference The Art of Marketing is FINALLY coming to Vancouver on June 9, 2011. Speakers include:

Guy Kawasaki - Creativity & Innovation Gary Vaynerchuk - Branding & Word of Mouth Marketing William Taylor - Strategy & Competition Mitch Joel - Digital Marketing & Social Media Avinash Kaushik- Brand Measurement: Metrics & Analytics

But here's the really great part ... I have a pair of tickets to give away!

Here's how to win them: Simply leave comment below letting me know why you want to go and who you would take with you.

For example, "I am super-excited to see Avinash Kaushik - I can always learn more about analytics and he is THE MAN when it comes to metrics. I'd take my boss, Bill. Because Bill is pretty clueless about social media and he could certainly benefit from hearing some of these folks talk."

As a bonus, if you tweet about my contest and post a link to your tweet in your comment, I'll give you two entries.

I'll keep the contest open til 5PM PST on Friday, May 13. I'll draw a winner sometime over the weekend, get in contact with them, and post here on the following Monday or Tuesday.

If you're not in Vancouver, don't fret - I'll have something for you after May 13!

And, if you don't really like contests and just want to register for the Art of Marketing, you can save $50 off the regular ticket price by using my promo code MNIK. Or, just click on this link to register - it has my promo code built it. So, regular ticket price is $399 - with my code only $349 (or, if you get a VIP Pass, it would only be $449).

Disclaimers:

This contest just includes two tickets - no travel, meals or guaranteed rubbing elbows with Mitch Joel. So if you are based in Saskatoon or Edmonton, you have to get here through your own devices. My decision on the winner is final. Disclosure: The Art of Marketing is giving me a ticket to attend as well. Yes, I know this conference is all dudes. They are really smart, engaging dudes, so I think it will be worth your while. I would love to see more women speaking at The Art of's events and I have mentioned that to the organizers.

I'd love to see you at the Art of Marketing. Leave a comment below and enter. And then watch this video to get all excited about the conference :)

This page contained an embedded video. Click here to view it.

03 May 2011 in Canadian, Marketing, Shill, Social Media, Work-life | Permalink | Comments (16)