Tag Archive for qr code

WIIFM – What’s In It For Me?

May 18, 2011 Molly White No comments

Why Should People Like Your Brand On Facebook? Or Follow You On Twitter?

WIIFM, stands for What’s In It For Me?  It’s a simple principle that I learned when I was slinging copiers.  When you sell something your customer is thinking these 5 words and you need to be able to give them an answer.  The same principle applies for your social media sites.

You see and hear it everyday now, like us on Facebook, Follow Us on Twitter, or maybe it’s just a logo, or the simple F and T at the bottom of the ad. More often than not, the brand’s location on these sites isn’t listed and even less often than that do they tell you WHY you should like them or follow them. And after you see these ads, how often are you taking the time to go onto Facebook and Twitter, and find these brands to follow and like them?  Seldem, right? Right!

Give people a REASON to like you and to follow you and TELL THEM where to find you!  For instance, if I were to use print advertising, I would include, Like me on Facebook at Facebook.com/MollyWhiteMarketing or Follow me on Twitter @MollyWhite for all the latest news and information about social media for businesses!

So Why should people like or follow you?  What’s on your Facebook Page?  If you were a customer or client what would you want to see?

QR Codes

The most basic description of QR Cdoes is that they are a way to connect the non digital world with the digital world.  Using apps for your smartphone like ScanLife, RedLaser and others, your phone reads the quirky square bar code, and translates it to information.  It can simply be a link or it can be a complete set of contact information that can be instantly stored on your phone.

Old Navy recently held an in store Easter Egg Hunt, but instead of searching for eggs, you searched for giant QR code posters.  Scan them, and they took you to a page where you entered your email address, and then it randomly generated a message to let you know if you had found the “golden” egg.  I was at the store (surprise, surprise ;) ) while the campaign took place and even my 4 year old daughter got into the game and helped me to find all 15 codes.

A quick scan of some of your incoming direct mail pieces and ads in magazines will show that QR codes are becoming more and more common.  You can implement them in your marketing too.  Instead of listing your website in an ad, include the QR code for it.  Do the same with your social media addresses.  Use them on your business cards so that people can instantly store your contact info!  Have fun with them!  The possibilities are endless.

Connect with me to learn about all of the latest news and information in the world of social media!

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Why is Everyone Checking In?

March 19, 2010 Molly White No comments

The SXSW event (an interactive media conference in Austin, TX) was this past weekend and many people in my twitter stream were in attendance.  I knew this not only because they tweeted about it, but also because they were checking in like crazy at all the events.

Checking in, huh? What? What’s that?

Checking in is the latest craze in social media.  It is mostly mobile, due to the fact that you should be physically present at a location when you check-in.  Depending on the location based service, you can win badges, claim titles, leave information about the location, and/or review the location.  You can also see the information that others have left behind.

Some of the location based services have made check-ins into a game, helping to generate buzz and encourage people to use their service, while others have made their mark by encouraging people to leave detailed reviews. Gowalla and Foursquare are the two most well known services and are as of the latest report, neck and neck with each other in terms of users.

So what’s all the fuss about? There are several aspects of location based social media that are important to businesses.

1) the review side; obviously good reviews are desirable and the more good reviews a business can accrue, the better.  When someone is using a social service to search for a specific type of business, i.e. a bar, restaurant, retail location, in a targeted area, they are more likely to frequent the business that is the most well reviewed.

2) the competition side; to gain points, badges, and titles in the location game, a person must visit a business with great frequency, thus encouraging people to come back the same business over and over.

3) On both the review and gaming side is customer data.  By utilizing social location services businesses can get a glimpse of their customers habits. Businesses can see when people are most likely to visit, what they like the most, or dislike the most, and so much more.

4)Many of the services auto-populate to a person’s twitter and Facebook news feeds.  For example, unless I tell Foursquare not to, it posts to my Twitter stream and to my Facebook account, informing all of my friends about my location.  This can encourage dialogue and further recommendations or not, about whatever business that I am visiting.

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Facebook is going to be getting into the game as well. Techcrunch is reporting that Facebook is going to use QR codes to allow people to check-in at businesses. What a great tie-in that would be to a businesses fan page!

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The benefits of being involved in social location are many. If you and your business haven’t yet gotten on board the social location train, you should consider it.  There are creative marketing campaigns that can be directed specifically towards the social location services and your customers can have a lot of fun with it in the process.  Even the BBJ is talking about it!

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