You and 6234 others (real-life persons) Like this .. SowiSocial “where offline meets online”

It was in my search for some cultural events in Amsterdam, that I found this article. Visitors of the “ Stadsschouwburg” (a theatre) in Amsterdam have the possibility to inform their Facebook-friends, whether or not they like the theatre, its plays and other facilities. Put shortly, a real-life Like-button. This has been made possible by special key ring which contains a RFID-chip (Radio Frequency Identification). This chip will be linked to the personal Facebook account of the visitor and will send information to their Facebook page including the “like” announcement, pictures and a link containing more information. This linking can be done in terminals on location, or at home online with a personal code. In the theatre there have been installed several SowiSocial-spots at which visitors can hold their key ring against (see image and movie). The key ring will be returned and reset at the end of each visit. 



Image 1 - How SowiSocial works

    

Movie 1 -  A SowiSocial-spot at which visitors can hold their key ring against

It will not be unlikely that this sort of linking systems between online and offline are the future.  Since several years it is possible to like online things, such as websites. Now it is also possible to “Like” things real life and make this public online. Imagine cinemas, restaurants, public transport and festivals equipped with SowiSocial spots and where it is possible to give your opinion as a customer.

In my search for more information I found out, that one of the world’s leading companies Coca-Cola implemented this already in the summer of 2010 during a summer camp for Israeli youth. More functions and possibilities of this concept are shown in the trailer below.

Movie 2 - The real-life Like button implemented by Coca-Cola

Will these real-life Like-buttons will be as successful as their forerunners? After all, the success and importance of online Like-buttons for companies and institutions has been discussed often and I share this opinion.  Facebook has millions of users who use Facebook on a daily basis. As a company or institution you should try to use Facebook as a medium to redirect a part of these users to your website/company. This can be done by Facebook pages and profiles, but also by integrating the Like-button onto your own website, and nowadays also into real-life activities. Below you can find some advantages of the online Like-button, which mainly will also apply for the real-life Like-button.

1. First, the Like-button will be associated with Facebook, a website which nowadays is very popular and also known as a reliable and important website. Users will assign these features also to your company and its online or offline activities. Or as Peter Garety said: “When people see the Facebook logo and like button on your site, they will feel that assurance that your site and its content are legitimate. “ In my opinion this statement will also apply for the real-life Like-buttons. Imagine such spots in restaurants, where you can see that 4,550 other people Like that particular Italian restaurant…

2. Like-buttons are also an excellent example of worth-of-mouth advertising, which has been made very easy by the coming of the internet. When a Facebook user “likes” something it will be shown to all their friends through that person’s Facebook newsfeed.

3. Most importantly, the online Like-button is very easy to implement. This can be done by making a Facebook page (people can like a company and institution there) OR a Like-button can be implemented on the website of the company itself. The real-life Like-buttons are also relatively easy to implement, because of the usage of Radio Frequency Identification.This a method which has been used by millions of companies/institutions all over the world yet witch many advantages and only some minor disadvantages.

Would you LIKE real-like Like-buttons? Why?  Where would you  like to see such SowiSocial spots? Let me know and lets get the discussion started!

QR codes… A social media trend for 2011

Last week I met some friends for lunch and while eating my bread I saw some remarkable signs in a magazine. A friend of mine made a picture with her Smartphone of one of the signs and she was redirected to a website. I was amazed!
That same day I started looking for a new subject for my blog and I found a blog describing social media trends for 2011. One of these trends were QR scans. Before, I had never seen these signs and on this day I suddendly saw them twice. This made me curious and I went out for research and learned some interesting thing about QR codes, which I would like to share with you !

So what is a QR (Quick Response) Code?
Wikipedia defines QR codes as followed

a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data

How does a QR code look like?
Below you can see two examples of a QR code. As you can notice they look very similar to each other, and yet, they are different from each other.


  

Figure 1 - QR code containing a url to my blog




Figure 2 - QR code containing data about latitude and longitude of the city Tilburg, Netherlands



How does it work?
Nowadays, more and more people have smartphones, which contain QR scanners. So pictures can be made of the QR codes and people will be redirected to the information saved within the code. As mentioned before this can be an URL, text or other data, such as phone numbers and adresses. Figure 3 shows us the concept of scanning QR scans in a very simple way.



Figure 3 - How a QR works

Qr codes are even finding their way into popular TV series. Here an example of QR codes being used in the popular crime TVserie CSI.

                                                               Movie 1 - QR codes in CSI


Are QR scans really the future?
In my opinion they are! They can be put everywhere. On billboards, direct mail, bus stops, on businesscards  and so on on on..

A research on smartphones was conducted by The Future Labaratory and revealed that smartphones have enormous influence on the way people live, think and feel. One of the most important outcomes was that smartphones no longer are associated with geeky people indoors. Instead, smartphones are getting more and more accesible for everyone and are being associated with discovering more and also in a more easily way.QR codes contribute to this in such manner, that it becomes easy to load information onto your mobile by simply making a picture of a QR code.
For marketers QR codes are a way to fill the gap between print and mobile marketingcommunication and to respond to the changing needs of their (potential) customers. Advantages are the ability for marketers to track the response of "clickers" and the response rate. Also ROI (return on investment) can be calculated easily and marketingexpenses can be justified.


Make QR codes yourself!
There are many sites where QR codes can be made. I found this website of Kaywa QR code and thought it was very practical. So go one and find out yourself!

I'm curious to find out where you have seen these QR codes? Do you think they are practical?
Let me know!

The usage of Social Media.. MSN, Hyves and then Facebook?

Hi everybody,

Welcome to my first blog! My name is Desiree Peters, 22 years old, living in Tilburg and studying Business Communication and Digital Media. During the next couple of weeks I will be writing blogs about interesting subjects that have been discussed by lecturers of different courses. This first blog is about Social Media.


Nowadays we spend much of our free time on the internet and also on Social Media. Giving examples of Social Media is easy. We all know Twitter, Hyves, Facebook, and MSN.. You name it or most people are using it or have used several forms of it. However, looking back at the past years makes me wonder whether there is a sort of logical order in which we tend to use Social Media. During my entire High School period I mainly used MSN and in my last school year I started using Hyves as well. My personal usage of Facebook started later on, after I went on an exchange to Germany three years ago. Many exchange students were using Facebook at that time and I did not want to differ AND of course I did not want to miss out on the opportunity to snoop in the life of others =). Although I'm still using MSN, Hyves and Facebook, I have noticed a reduction in time usage. I have got the feeling that Facebook is a more appropriate and accepted form of Social Media for somebody of my age (22 years) and that MSN and/or Hyves are more childish. Do you also think that we grew over some forms of Social Media? Or do you think it depends on your personal preferences?

Let me know what you think !