Mobile marketing is about a lot more than crafting a code that doesn’t ugly-up your print material. The success is in the mobile content, service or interaction delivered. These blogs show off (and often skewer) coded marketing campaigns. Reading through them will get you up to speed on what not to do pretty quick.
2D Barcode Strategy “News, Analysis & Commentary on 2D Barcodes, QR Codes and All Other Mobile Codes” @r_marquis
Grizzled marketing veteran Roger Marquis tears code-misusing brands a new one in his critical, valuable look at selected mobile strategies. We should all have such an insightful eye guiding our marketing efforts.
2D Code “QR Code and Two Dimensional Bar Codes, News, Views and Analysis” @RogerSmolski
An “international organization of QR code enthusiasts”, this multi-man blog has all the latest sightings.
Mobile Marketing FAIL “An Opportunity to Learn” @kjmcivor
Another group blog that takes apart crappy mobile experiences. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.
QR Anywhere “Captains of the QR Code Galaxy” @Tappinn
Nick Ford, co-founder of mobile tagging agency Tappinn, and “official Captain of The QR Code Galaxy”, dissects QR marketing.
QR Arts “Mobile Tagging Experts and QrCode Consulting” @QrArts
Patrick Donnelly, also a 2D Code contributer, blogs here on QR stuff. Patrick is keenly artistic, lovingly creating beautiful QR art along with his commercial work.
Facebook. I used to love you, but I had to kill you.
Whether there’s a Facebook exodus come May 31 or not, I have really sobered up to the whole MySpace/Friendster/’it was the style at the time’ social network fad issue. I didn’t believe in it until now. I mean, I knew intellectually that once upon a time MySpace got cool and then uncool, but was sure that could never happen to Facebook. They have half a billion users, for pity’s sake. Like 1/16th of the earth. What could happen to bugger that up?
Facebook’s recent PR shitstorm has largely played out among the digerati, and my sense is that the Average User will continue tending their Farmville real estate come the end of May, oblivious to arcane issues of private data and opt-outs and personalization. That may come to pass, but my faith has been badly shaken.
Like a spooked investor, I see the danger of putting all your eggs in one basket. Building a large Facebook following—instead of a more robust social strategy—could be an unfortunate resource sinkhole, should the bubble burst and the massive social network hustle itself right out of business.
Let’s be proactive and pretend, for a minute, that Facebook is on its last legs as a home for brands.
What’s a marketer to do? Here are some ideas for staying afloat in an uncertain social future.
Diversify your assets
If your core contribution is viral content, spread it out. Use Facebook to point fans to content and foster discussion there, but use YouTube and your own blog/site to host the original stuff. If you’ve just been riding the wave so far and not really developing your own content to share, get busy.
Make real friends & find out where else they hang out
You should already be doing this, but be sure to engage your active Facebook commenters to the point where you feel you really know each other. Google ‘em and follow them on Twitter or on their own blogs. Make the relationship bigger than Facebook, which will help make it deeper anyway. Should a new network arise to take FB’s place, these will be the people you’ll refriend.
Host an IRL event pronto
Get your social scene out and mingling for real as soon as possible. If you’re a non-profit, stage a volunteer event. If you’re a small business, invite people over for a (insert product here) tasting or a workshop. Move the virtual to real life now. This capitalizes on the work you’ve done so far. The point of meeting these people online was to take them to the next level of interaction with your business anyway.
Insource the connections you’ve made
Got an email newsletter, a mailing list, an inhouse CRM strategy? Migrate your new bffs to your own platform. Bring them into the fold. Throw them a discount if you can, and try to attach them to your brand’s inner circle. If you’ve got your own communication strategy running parallel, now would be a good time to solidify subscribers drawn from your FB fans. Invite them personally.
Tactica Interactive, Winnipeg-based interactive agency & my husband’s company, recently launched the Reason to Live campaign with the Manitoba Suicide Line. The launch, held at Klinic, featured Minister of Healthy Living Jim Rondeau & some moving Aboriginal singing from one of the campaign participants and his father.
“A key component to this approach is the use of social marketing strategies to reach youth in particular, and spread the message about the resource,” says Tim Wall, Director of Counselling Services at Klinic. According to Janet Smith, Program Manager for the Manitoba Suicide Line, “using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can play a critical role in suicide prevention and engage youth in conversations that promote awareness, understanding and help-seeking behaviours”.
The viral components of the campaign, designed for easy social sharing on Facebook and Twitter, include several powerful videos telling the stories of Manitobans whose lives have been affected by suicide. Watch for yourself; the first-person accounts are very compelling. Tactica’s social media strategy is already having an impact, according to program managers; with callers indicating they’d seen the message of hope online.
The challenge with this project was that it needed to have a social component, but there was no content to share. Tactica had to figure out what was the most compelling aspect of the Suicide Line’s work, which was of course the personal accounts of people who’ve dealt with suicide. Tactica decided to produce a series of videos, the most direct and easily shareable method of storytelling. If you want people to talk, you’ve got to give them something to talk about.
Nice to meet you
Thanks for the comments & the kind words. Best place to get my immediate attention is Twitter, but you could also email me.
