I peeped in on #MM (Marketer Monday) chat on, well, Monday, and someone said something that caught my eye. They said, “It really makes me frustrated when I go to the trouble of scanning a QR code and I get taken to a regular old website page that I could have just typed in myself.”
Darn right.
There are a lot of really nice and shiny tools out there, but I worry that people are gravitating towards those tools without thinking about how those tools could really make a difference. “If I use this shiny tool, my marketing will be awesome,” I seem to hear. Because people and companies are so desperate to use these new tools, they are using the tools for things the tools are really not meant to do. It’s like being really excited about your new car and then trying to use the new car to make a smoothie. Car is still awesome. Functionality in the smoothie realm – negligible.
Are you:
Using Twitter to coax people onto your “sell” page
Using your blog to publish news releases
Using QR codes to take people to your homepage
Using your company’s Facebook page to post product pictures
I’m just not sure these are the best uses for these tools. If you really want to plan something dynamic for a shiny tool like a QR code or a Twitter account, take a step back and plan it out. The tools will remain shiny while you think about how you can best use them.
Are you using tools in the best way possible? Does the shininess of the tool mean that the action is automatically new and innovative? What do you think?
Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/clix
I dunno, to me it’s easier to take a QR picture with my smartphone than it is to type in the URL. Either way, an app is opened and an action is taken.
That said, sure a mobile site a QR would go to is good, however many real estate companies don’t yet have mobile sites developed for their company-provided web sites.
Just because the whole system isn’t “together” doesn’t mean newer parts aren’t fun.
Planning is good but when you’re not the developer, sometimes innovation happens less quickly than one would like. Google Goggles, released a year ago on certain brands, hasn’t taken off quickly. QR codes, on the other hand, are easily read by an easily downloaded reader and will access either a mobile or non-mobile site. For those who live and die by smartphones and who eschew typing long URL’s into an onscreen or tiny keyboard, QR codes are of benefit.
But that’s not the whole story. We plead with IT departments to move forward with the innovations while keeping the company locked-down tech department safe. There will always be lags in any new technology as to keeping all the parts together, but if something will help even one consumer connect in a better way, why not use it, and use it wisely and judiciously?
Gina Kay Landis, REALTOR
ginakay dot landis at gmail.com
You raise some very good points. I guess it still comes back to having a plan though. If you *are* taking people to a website or a homepage, are you taking them to something that would be easy to read on the go? Are you looking at ways to track traffic you’re getting from mobile devices? My main fear is that people are just using tools because it’s the cool thing to do. Where is the impact? What is the use of it?
@Margie — AGREED!
There’s nothing more frustrating as one trying to help people push the boundaries of the social web and the internet.
I’m all for QR Codes, but very few are done right…and even though it’s easier to just make it go to a homepage (I hate when a QR Code sends me to a facebook page. How am I supposed to do anything with that on my phone?!), the point of new technology is not to show that you can use new technology, it’s to make it an easier experience on users.
As a developer, if I use a QR code, I have a specific QR site that I develop. It “swipes”, it has a call to aciton, it should move the person who used it to want to call me, email me, tweet me, facebook me…anything.
And if you’re using a new technology, pay someone (not IT) to do it right. Sure, it’s easier and cheaper to send it to IT, but if you want something done right, don’t use a hammer to tighten screws. 😉
Yes, Sometimes i do, they really help me to do my work more easier, But sometimes it really make my screw shape bad, so using up the strong head type screw really helps, And yes thank you for discussing this matter with us.