Barbara Walters Price

"The QR code has become the shortest distance between curiosity and information retrieval"

In an opinion piece on Mashable, Hamilton Chan tells us Why QR Codes Will Go Mainstream. I agree. The heart of the article:

... hyperlinks are now making their natural migration from desktop monitors to objects in the real world. We no longer need to be tethered to a desktop computer in order to use the internet to interact with the world around us. When you see something that you want information about, you no longer have to make a mental note to look it up later on Google. You can simply point your smartphone at the object and obtain the desired information without typing or speaking. In essence, the QR code has become the shortest distance between curiosity and information retrieval.

The beauty of QR codes is that they are an open-source and freely licensed standard. They cost nothing additional to add to printed materials and can be scanned by free readers on all smartphones and even some feature phones.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding QR codes yet some wonder why they are not more popular or better known.  Hamilton makes an astute observation:

Given our late adopter culture, tech trends should be expected to take a while here in the U.S. CDs were popular in Asia long before they made a dent in America. The same was true of DVDs, mobile phones, and now QR codes. Given this predisposition, the only way forward for any new technology is to be relentless in providing inherent value and easy uptake. By experimenting with QR codes early, advertisers can become adept at engaging with users on a mobile basis, so that when QR codes do hit the mainstream, they will be ready.

In the comment section on this opinion piece, several people where surprised that more people didn't know what QR codes are. The majority of the people I interact with daily (very bright financial professionals within an age range of 24 - 50) have no idea what a QR code is or how to use it. They are all tech-savvy. So, there are lots and lots of bright people who haven't heard or paid attention to this technology.

Because you've read this far, you can now say that you're not one of them. Consider how a QR code might work for you and your practice (or at least you personally).

To help, here is a good overview from Sundance Marketing Solutions. (Download a QR code scanner, and try the technology out on the QR codes on the "Questions" slide in this presentation. I think this is the easiest use of QR codes for professional service firms.)

QR Code Marketing Presentation

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Google's Personal Profile Takes Inspiration from Facebook

Google announced today that they have redesigned their Google Profile pages.  They now resemble the Info page on your Facebook profile.  Per Stan Schroeder of Mashable:

The new Profile looks a bit more like the Info page on your Facebook profile, with your photo in the top left corner, essential information about you below, while a scrapbook of photos and more detailed info about your occupation, employment, education and whereabouts dominating the biggest part of the page. The new design is not groundbreaking in any way, but it’s much nicer than before and it gets the job done.

See the example of the new design.

If you haven't already, you can set up your Google Profile by clicking here.

To edit your profile, visit profiles.google.com.

Other resources:

Decide what the world sees when it searches for you (Google Social Web Blog)

Share Your Online Identity with the World with enhanced Google profiles (TechBU)

Are you struggling to produce quality videos? Great advice from Ian Brodie.

I found Ian Brodie through the wonder that is the blogosphere.  Ian is a marketing consultant and consistently produces great content.  As a CMO who is struggling to produce business quality videos, I went looking for rescources, and I found a post from October 2010 by Ian helpful.

Entitled "Three Critical Mistakes to Avoid with Business Videos," Ian, through a video, discusses these mistakes:

1. It is important to look into the camera. (Memorize or get telepromter software - his explanatory comments go into more detail)
2. Make your gestures natural. (This can be one of the hardest things to do when recording a video. It feels so unnatural to speak to a camera instead of another person so Ian's advice is to practice, practice, practice. Your efforts will make a positive difference on how the video is received.)
3. Use an external mic.  (Ian notes that people tend to focus on picture quality and not sound quality when most cameras can produce good picture quality for the web.  However, if you use a camera with an internal mic, your sound quality can be horrendous, forcing you to reshoot the video, so use an external mic and make sure that your camera can support an external mic.)

Check out the comments to this post for further good information.

We have found that for us, if we can record in our offices rather than going off-site, we have a greater chance of getting the video completed, rather than just talked about, so I am interested in what kind of camera Ian uses and particularly, what kind of lighting he uses.

Another tip that I'll add is to keep the video short (Ian's is 3:11), to the point, and full of useful content.  Don't make it a commercial.  No one will watch.  If it's a long video, people will get bored and won't watch.  When developing content for the video, think about your ideal client and speak to a problem that they have and give them solutions.  That's the best content you can produce.  Then post to YouTube and Vimeo and have the video available on your website.

I'll keep you posted in our journey to produce videos.

 

Quora - what is it and how do you use it?

Quora is "a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question." (per Quora)

I joined Quora a few weeks ago and am still trying to figure out the best way to use it personally and professionally since it seems pretty jumbled and very tech-focused. I may find that I should concentrate on other things, yet I want to give it a try.

As such, I came across this article on Inc.com entitled "10 Tips on Using Quora for Business" by Tim Donnelly.  Tim began the article with helpful info about Quora:

Quora, the easy to navigate question-and-answer service built on a social-media backbone, has soared in popularity since launching in 2009. Founded by a Facebook CTO, the site has already attracted high-level executives, journalists, industry insiders, and entrepreneurs, all eager to answer a vast array of questions for free. The site is rife with crowd-sourced queries, with a comprehensive listing and incentive to stay in touch with a network of people.

But on a site whose range of topics stretches from "Do Silicon Valley VCs invest in European early-stage startups?" to "Given our current technology and with the proper training, would it be possible for someone to become Batman?" how can you maximize its potential for your business? We asked to a few Quora pioneers who've quickly found ways to take advantage of the site for their tip.

His 10 tips (each by a Quora user) where helpful. As with any top 10 list, the explanation attached to the main point is where the meat of the information is so read the article. In summary, his 10 points are:

1. Find new ideas to talk about
2. Open the lines of communication
3. Sharpen your communication skills
4. Don't self-promote
5. Ask good questions
6. Build a presence
7. Monitor and engage
8. Do market research
9. Prove your worthiness
10. Don't over-promote yourself

I will give Quora a chance for a while.  Our competitors are not present (yet, maybe) but some clients are and there are certainly industries we have specializion in that are members of the Quora community.  Are you using Quora and, if so, what has been your experience? 

My boss has a blog

Chris Mercer, CEO of Mercer Capital, has a new blog and he's got some great content.  The blog, ValuationSpeak, covers business valuation-related issues such as statutory fair value, business damages, valuation theory, and professional development.  If you are interested in those topics, bookmark it.



How to be awesome on Twitter

I love this presentation (and should take its advice) from Marta Majewska.  Learn and enjoy!

How To Be Awesome On Twitter?

View more presentations from Marta Majewska

Does your firm's website have a press page?

My firm's website does not have a press page but the idea is intriguing.  Tim Donnelly provides information on how to create a press page at "Website Design Tips for Your Press Page" at Inc.com.  Take a look.

 

Slideshare - leverage it to make you smarter (and look smarter)

In a post on Inc.com entitled "Slideshare: An Easy Way to Present," author Curt Finch got me thinking.  He noted how Sally Hogshead uses Slideshare on her blog.  I confess that I had relegated Slideshare only to LinkedIn but that post got me thinking about other possibilties. 

Then, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing (if you don't have his blog bookmarked, you should), provided another insightful and relevant post, "How to Keep Tabs on the Greatest Presentations Made Everyday."  He walks us through using Slideshare to search for the most recent presentations on a topic of our choice:

The way you make Slideshare show you the latest is to search using the tag attribute. Instead of using the search box just type your search into the address bar. So if I want presentations on small business I would type http://slideshare.net/tag/small-business into that address bar in my browser and presto – I get the most recent presentation in chronological order. But, it gets even better, I can subscribe to this search using an RSS reader like Google Reader and then each day I get the most current presentation sent my way. I can scroll through that day’s list and see if I want to view any or just ignore them all.

Check out both posts and begin to leverage Slideshare for your own purposes.

Biggest challenge for e-mail marketers (and marketing) in 2011

Tamara Gielen is an independent email and digital direct marketing consultant blogs at Be Relevent! E-Mail Marketing Blog.  Today she has posted a 6-minute video from Jeff Ginsberg from TheEmailGuide.com who interviewed many experts at the recent MarketingSherpa's Email Summit in Las Vegas.

There is good stuff here not only for e-mail marketers but for CMO's of professional service firms who use e-mail as a marketing tactic.  Take a look.

One women in the audience found out she died last year and someone else won a coloring contest

Have you Googled your name or your firm name lately?  If not, you should. Paula Black, of the blog In Black & White, noted recently that as part of what she does in giving a speech is to Google everyone in attendance. She did that in a recent speech and not everyone there "owned" the first page of results (the first 10 search results).

Per Paula:

Take a moment to google yourself. Are you on the 1st page? Is the content substantive? Are you proud of it? Does it add to your credibility? If the answer is NO to any of the questions, you can do something about it.

Consider writing a blog and articles on a consistent basis. This is the best way to dominate your name on google. Before I started writing articles and blogging I had 20% of the first page of google. One entry was my website and the other was Amazon where my books are sold. But now? I have 90% of the first page of google and that is out of 9.2 million entries. Yes... 9.2 million. 

There are a lot of Paula Blacks. And in addition, the shoe industry names their shoe styles with women's names and they often use the name Paula and you guessed it... they ALL come in black! Who can compete with women's shoes? I did! I dominate my name on the 1st page of google. Do YOU?

Good advice - even for those of us not competing with shoes.  I own 8 out of 10 on that coveted first page of results.  If you haven't done so, Google your name and your firm's name today.  If the results are not what you want them to be, take action.