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Foursquare and QR Codes.

January 31, 2012 By 1 Comment

As you know I am really a fan of Foursquare. Recently I found this cool little app for the iPhone, called foursQR. Android users are out of luck for now, but hopefully the app soon will join the most widely used mobile platform.

The app lets you check into a venue by scanning a QR code. I think this is very good for business owners and event or venue managers.

The immediate use cases that come to mind for me are these:

  • Large area that could be considered one venue can easily be split and people can check into the right area. Think baseball stadium, amusement park, outdoor mall.
  • Venues that are overshadowed by many other surrounding venues.
  • Venues that are not in line of sight from the GPS and are hard to find.
  • Businesses with checkin specials. Why not make it easier for people to checkin and connect with you?

I got wind of this app from Chris Thompson on his article: iPhone app uses a QR code to check you in on foursquare, and I thought it was a great find.

The app is $.99 and it should be a welcome additional tool in the arsenal of any Foursquare venue manager or business trying to maximize their geotargeted social media approach.

Yes, I know QR codes aren’t all that, in fact Chris points out some of the downsides of this app. I still like QR Codes and think they’re a good solution for businesses and for some people. And if they help get a few more eyeballs on your product, store or service, then why not use them?

Filed Under: Blog stuff, Foursquare Tagged With: , , , ,

How do you run your business with social media

December 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A great interview by Piers Morgan. Gary Vaynerchuck talks social media, the Thank You Economy and the future of business. The interview is a bit dated, but there are still a lot of good bits and pieces of information that is very timely for businesses right now.

I just love Gary’s enthusiasm and energy. I love that he’s living what he talks about and he is pretty cutting edge. In this video, he answers several questions, like:

The numbers at the end of each line is the time in the video where the topic is covered.

  • What does it take to succeed in business today? 00:41
  • What’s the secret of your success? 01:10
  • Modern version of customer care. 03:30
  • Where and what do you need to you start a business online? 05:05
  • KNOW your craft 06:20
  • Know your network, context is important. 09:00
  • Keeping up with the Joneses 09:30 – It’s NOT about the numbers. It’s about the engagement.
  • What would Gary Vaynerchuck have said to President Obama? 10:30
  • How do you manage the “bad stuff” for your kids? 11:00
  • Social media is overthrowing governments… and you think it doesn’t matter for your business? LOL 12:30
  • The Game has changed 13:05
  • Kids are smarter, informed but is it good? 13:20
  • Businesses “get it” but they just play by their own rules. They need to adapt. 14:30
  • How would you promote my show (Piers)? 15:35
  • Quora, Tumblr, Twitter & it’s not about you!
  • You have to humanize yourself. 16:35
  • Twitter has brought freedom. 17:05

Filed Under: Blog stuff Tagged With: , , , ,

Don’t miss the comments – WP Tip #007

October 9, 2011 By 24 Comments

Comments are a big part of blogging. Comments let you join in the conversation with your readers when they give you feedback, and it also lets you expand your horizons by listening.

Make sure you set a system in place that will notify you when you get a new comment on your website. This will help you reply to your guests in a timely fashion. A good comment notification system also allows for other people to subscribe to the comment thread in the post so that they can get notified of what other people have to say.

Subscribe to Comments is a pretty good plugin that helps you with this tip. If you’d like to use something a little more sophisticated, perhaps you should look into a full-blown comments system like Disqus or Intensedebate. Both of these will be covered in a blogpost soon.

Filed Under: 365 WordPress Tips Tagged With: , , ,