QR Codes and Analytics Tracking

I was about to go to bed when I decided to try one more thing.

You know the QR Codes that everyone is getting into now, they’ve been around forever but now are being used intelligently, and all you need is software on a mobile device that has a camera so it can take a picture of the QR codes.

There’s a couple things you need to know.

1. Bit.ly and Goo.gl now make QR codes automatically when you shorten a url using their platforms – read about it in a recent TechCrunch post titled –   With Their Own QR Code Trick, Bit.ly Eats Google’s Balls.

2. QR Codes are the interface for Web Analytics is the 3D world, our world.

Normally, you’d have a JavaScript beacon tag that fires off a script when a browser renders a website that a visitor comes to, but that’s just for websites.  What happens when we visit a restaurant, say, and look at a menu (like I often do and did at Havana Central).  How would I fire off a tag there?  After all, I’m not a browser – or am I?  Maybe I am.

Take that QR code up in my post – it’s an executive summary of my book on Social Media Analytics that’s on my DropBox.   By making a shortened link bit.ly just created a QR code for the file/page.

But what if it was a item on a restaurant’s menu where you could use a QR reader to get more information.  Or maybe it’s some other thing we want people to interact with – doesn’t matter.  What matters is Bit.ly counts every time someone takes a picture of the QR code I have up in this blog and gives me stats on it, stats you can now have too.

I think there’s a lot of power here that hardly any one has tapped, and I’ll have a lot to say about it in my book.  Meanwhile, here’s some more from TechCrunch

Yes, just like with goo.gl, now you can add “.qr” to the end of any bit.ly link (including custom ones, like our own tcrn.ch) and you’ll be taken to a page with a QR code for that link. But look closely. Below the QR code, the Bit.ly fish is about to eat something — some colorful balls. You know, the same colorful balls associated with Google.

Bit.ly is clearly taking a shot at their rival, whoentered the URL shortening game last December and two weeks ago opened their product to the public. Both now offer anyone on the web a simple way to shorten a link and get analytics on the usage of the link. Google says their version is the “stablest, most secure, and fastest URL shortener on the web.” Bit.ly, once again, is telling Google to suck.it.

Enjoy and have fun with this – start using QR codes intelligently to track your campaigns  and take back some of the “ultraviolet” data that can become visible with just a little bit of ingenuity and thought.

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