“Beep! Beep!” With an improvisational swipe and swoosh of a pen light, my sister and I would transform our bedroom into a grocery store. The novelty of being able to scan a bar code and have it transfer information seemed so cool. We’d play store and library endlessly for hours – we’d even cut out little pieces of paper, scratch parallel lines and scribble bunches of numbers with zeros to create bar codes and then tape them on anything that wasn’t nailed down.
Looks like I’m a kid again because now smart phones just got smarter and more fun! Who needs a phony pen light when you’ve got a bonafide scanner in your own smartphone camera?!
We all thought that Facebook was innovative with its ability to connect people all over the world. Now QR Codes can connect, inform, entertain, track, update, … just about everything but slice and dice a salad!
So what is a QR Code you puzzle?
Simple: QR Codes are barcodes that your phone “reads” and the links to websites or other media.
Now that I know what it is, how do I use a QR Code you ask…
Also simple: Open the QR Code App and use your phone’s camera to “read” the code and you’ll immediately be linked to a website, virtual tour, coupon, up to the minute interest rates, anything!
Fabulous eh?! Now here’s the most awesome kicker – remember how I told you how my sister and I would make our own bar codes with little scraps of paper and pen… well, you can make your own QR Codes – no, not with pen and paper – that’s so last millennium… you can create your very own unique QR Code so easily. There’s a ton of websites with FREE services, but I recommend beqrious.com/qrode/create and http:delivr.com/qr-code-generator. These two sites let you create and save your codes as a PDF, GIF, and EPS format.
Now that you’ve created a custom QR Code, what do I do with a custom QR Code you ask? Well, just like my sister and I did – you put it everywhere! Get it imprinted on a key tag, magnet, sticky note, business cards… the options to publicize your brand with promotional products is endless!
