Free QR codes and Short Links are Big with Bitly

Ever get links inside emails that are so long they wrap around and around? All too often they don't work.  If you want to shorten a web page address, use bitly.com.  Unlike some  other url shorteners, bitly tracks click-throughs and creates QR codes too! And for more prolific or public entities, bitly lets a corporation brand its own shortener.  While that gets technical, here's two introductory 60 second videos to get you started.

 

 

First, an on-screen demonstration of how to use bitly to shorten long webpage urls:

 

 

And, this second video shows how to get a QR code from the shortened link. 

 

 Organizations can use QR codes on business cards, ads, and brochures for example to allow people with smartphones to quickly get online to the business's offer page, video or website.

 

With Bitly, shortening links and making QR codes are simple, fun and free to do!

Businesses don't need an advertising agency to create a QR code.  To learn more, read my previous post on QR codes.

 

 

To create these videos I used the Camtica Screen Recorder Software which is the webpage url featured in the bitly video above. I downloaded the software and put these together intuitively without reading more than the page featured above -- so it's really simple to learn and use.  I did have to do a few takes though to get it right because I was ad-libbing! And Camtica can also take a video of the presenter speaking as part of the screen shot, but I chose not to do that for this demonstration. Maybe next time!

Basically, Camtica easily lets you record any desktop activity with voice, webcam and animated mouse clicks.  I really liked the yellow highligher around the mouse. A nice feature.  The resulting video can be saved in various formats including AVI and WMV.  I also uploaded these two demos to YouTube.  So Camtica is a great way to:

• To create professional screen recordings, demonstrations, presentations, screencasts, tutorials and more
• To generate effective videos that help you train, teach, sell and more
• To create demonstration videos for any software programs
• To show customers how to use your product
• To create on-demand interactive training, tutorials for school or college class
• To create a set of videos answering your most frequently asked questions
• To share your recordings on YouTube, Screencast.com and other videos sites

It also:

• Records entire desktop, selected rectangle region, dynamic region around mouse cursor, webcam
• Records anything on the screen including windows, objects, menus, full screen and rectangular regions
• Records desktop screen with audio and webcam together - personalizing your videos by including a webcam movie of yourself over * your desktop at any position
• Records video chats, Skype video calls, games, flash movies played on sites
• Offers Free lifetime updates and upgrades

I am looking forward to using it more in the future, but now I need to turn my attention back to work!  Thanks for reading and commenting, and letting me wish you a Happy 2012!

Lorelei 

QR Codes Smart for Business Marketing

Finding out which ads capture the attention of customers has always been a challenge for marketers. Getting results is usually an accumulation of a variety of tactics including advertising, trade shows, web promotion, media coverage, business cards, networking, referrals etc etc.

Now, with QR codes, everything from business cards to brochures, from t-shirts to tattoos can be tracked for their specific contribution to directing traffic to your website or online video.

Quick Response codes are barcodes that can be scanned by smartphones and tablets that have a camera and access to the Internet. Once the phone scans the code, the phone is taken online to an Internet site. QR codes can point to your company website, a coupon, a video, product information--anything you can host online. The QR code is as simple as taking a picture and it adds rich, more detailed content than any single marketing tool could. Plus, it's trackable, so you can see results of a marketing tool or for a full campaign.

As QR codes appear on more and more ads, information that captures your attention can now be captured and saved on your smartphone. I've used it to promote events, in traditional and online advertising, printed materials and more, for clients. It helps me know and show where the results are being generated. With useage growing in Canada by nearly 500% quarter over quarter, QR codes will become more commonplace, and more used by consumers.

To use a QR codes, download a QR code reader to your smartphone. One of the most popular is i-nigma. To download the i-nigma QR reader, text the word barcode to 393939. You will receive a text message back with a link to their download site.

To start using and tracking QR codes in your marketing, email info@pinnacleresults.ca