Not too long ago, I wrote a blog post about what it’s like to not scan QR codes since I don’t have a smartphone. But recently I discovered that not having a smartphone might not be what’s really keeping my general demographic from scanning QR codes.
I’m a fairly recent college grad, and on campus I never really heard much about QR codes. As it turns out, that’s pretty normal for college students, according to a survey done by Archrival Youth Marketing. Archrival worked with 24 colleges in the U.S. and surveyed over 500 students about QR codes, and they compiled their findings in this infographic.
Perhaps the most surprising result is that 81.1% of students said they had a smartphone, but 58.1% said they were “very unlikely” to scan a QR code if they came across one. This question is, admittedly, a bit vague, but it still suggests that college students aren’t very interested in QR codes.
What interests me most is that only 21.5% of the students could actually scan a code when asked. Now, do students have a hard time scanning codes because they’re simply not interested in them, and therefore never figured out how to do it? Or do they avoid scanning QR codes because they’re a pain to actually scan?
Usability appears to be a problem when it comes to the college student experience of QR codes. My experience of trying to scan a code is very limited, of course, but now I wonder how off-putting it is to simply try to scan one. For a while I thought that taking a picture of a QR code would scan it, but I learned otherwise from my coworker, Jonathan Levey—who incidentally wrote an informative blog about QR codes from a technical perspective. Anyway, this shows that misconceptions about QR codes do persist.
From what I’ve learned, I think the success of using QR codes in marketing campaigns depends on their conveyed value and the ease of trying to scan them. Essentially, what scanners need is more information—a reason to scan the code and instruction on how to do it.
*Image provided by Michael M Grant on Flickr
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
You’ve spent hours deliberating over the title of your next blog post. You’ve taken polls among your friends, tried it out on your co-workers, and even thought about having it tattooed on your arm. But even with a killer headline for your next blog post, you could still lose your audience if you don’t have a killer introduction paragraph.
So, now that you have an amazing title, leverage it by making your introduction paragraph just as captivating. Try one of the following five techniques to improve your blog introductions:
- Ask a Question
While it may seem cliché, opening your blog post with a rhetorical question can help generate curiosity in your readers. By actively engaging in your blog post from the first paragraph, your readers will be more likely to continue reading until the end.
- Shock with a Statistic
Beginning your post with a shocking statistic or unusual fact is a great way to capture your readers’ attention. Plus, a statistic can be a great way to emphasize the point of your specific blog post.
- Incorporate an Analogy
Analogies, metaphors and similes are an important part of storytelling. Using these devices within your post can be equally as effective at capturing your audiences’ attention.
- Start with a Quote
Starting your post with an interesting quote from someone famous or influential can be a great way to grab your audiences’ attention while also adding credibility to your post.
- Tell a Story
Encouraging your audience to use their imagination and picture themselves in your post is a highly effective technique. This storytelling technique is a great way to get your readers engaged and interested in what you have to say.
While these five techniques are effective ways to make your opening paragraph engaging, there are other ways you can grab attention with your content creation. Use your imagination and create a post that is more than just a catchy headline, create a post that grabs your reader’s attention, and keeps it!
What are some techniques you use to make your blogs more interesting?
*Photo courtesy of jmoneyyyyyy through FlickrNo Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
At Fathom we have several education clients who have programs involved with fashion merchandising and fashion design, so I guess this blog post is for you, fashion students. Here's a motivational story on the power of online marketing - particulalrly blogging - as a way of establishing your industry authority among your peers.
Tavi Gevinson started her first blog when she was eleven years old and quickly gained the attention of adults involved in the industry - including entertaining fashionistas Courtney Love and Lady Gaga and Italian designer Miuccia Prada, among others. By the old age of 13 she was being invited to Fashion week events in Manhattan - covering the shows for her blog, which now features 4 editors and 40 freelance writers and photographers! Tavi comes across as smart, confident and youthfully humble in this BBC interview about her blogging "hobby."
What intriques me about Ms. Gevinson is not so much that she accomplished this early in her life, as many kids are prodigies and technology levels the playing field in many milieus, but that her practice of blogging established her as a recognizable voice in the world of fashion, and after that others in the industry began seeking her out. This is exactly what we tell many of our clients on an ongoing basis - that content marketing strategies like blogging are an excellent way to carve-out a space in their industry that establishes their expertise as well as provides ongoing information and education to their readers. "Value-added, " you might say.
Are you a business owner looking to harness and leverage the power of the Internet? We can help you do it. Reach out to us today and we'll gladly discuss your needs and the best strategies for your particular business and industry. It's what we do everyday for clients all across the country.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »It’s happened to everyone at least once. You arrive at a website and can’t find the information you need because the content is just awful. It’s hard to read, it doesn’t say anything or it’s so overloaded with SEO tactics that the meaning is completely lost. Before you get complaints about the content on your website, here are some questions you should ask yourself to find out if your content is crap.
- Have you read it out loud? If the content sounds awful when you read it out loud, it’s not going to sound any better if someone reads it silently. What’s one of the main causes of this? Besides simply poor writing, over-optimized content can muddy the waters. No one will understand your content if it’s stuffed with keywords.
- Do you find yourself wanting to reach for your red pen? The best web content is concise and gets to the point right away. If your content seems full of fluff, edit it immediately.
- Does your content only focus on features? It’s a common problem. You want your website to tout all of the amazing features your product or service offers, but what really gets people interested are the benefits. Go back to the drawing board and make sure you include benefits that will entice website visitors.
- Do you have spelling and grammatical errors? As a writer, I find poor grammar on a website to be extremely annoying, but writers aren’t the only ones who are bothered by spelling and grammatical errors. Proofread everything you write before your publish it to your website.
- Is your page easy on the eyes? While a beautiful website design can help, I’m really just talking about the way the content looks on the page. Long, bulky paragraphs are overwhelming to look at, whereas bulleted lists and subheads can break up the content into easy-to-digest, scannable copy. Content development goes beyond simply writing meaningful copy. It also includes organizing the content in a way that's easy to read.
Before publishing any content on your website, make sure it can pass these five questions.
1 Comment »Today I’m continuing my “Navigating YouTube Analytics” series to talk about the second section of YouTube Analytics: The Engagement Report. If you missed my previous post, you can learn about the Views Report here.
The Engagement Report is broken down into five sections: subscribers, likes and dislikes, favorites, comments and sharing. Each part offers insight into how your viewers interact with your videos.
***
Subscribers: This section shows the change in the number of subscribers to your channel. It also shows from where people are subscribing - whether it’s from your channel directly or from a specific video.
What You Can Learn: It’s important to gain relevant subscribers so that your videos can reach a better and larger audience. The crux of this section of the analytics is in understanding which videos produced the most subscribers. If a certain video gained more subscribers, you know that video is relevant to people and it’s something that motivates them to keep up with your channel.
Tip: To help boost these subscription numbers, consider adding a “subscribe” annotation button within your video that makes your viewer a subscriber when clicked upon; this facilitates more subscriptions effortlessly.
***
Likes and Dislikes: This section shows the likes and dislikes your channel received as a whole as well as each individual video.
What You Can Learn: The more likes you get, the more you can tell whether or not your audience likes your content. The number of likes can impact your YouTube and Google rankings, so it’s not an element you should ignore.
***
Favorites: The favorites section shows how many people added or removed your videos to or from their favorites list.
What You Can Learn: Similar to the Likes and Dislikes section, the net change in your Favorites can show which of your videos your viewers like enough to make a favorite.
***
Comments: The comments report maps out how many comments your channel received and how many comments each individual video received.
What You 
Can Learn: Comments are another big component to YouTube and Google video rankings. They are also the best way to communicate with your audience about your content. It is important to keep up with your comments and respond to viewers who take the time to engage with your videos.
Tip: Try providing extra information or goodies (perhaps a link to some relevant video they won’t have seen) when responding to viewers to make sure they know that you appreciate their time and business.
***
Sharing: This section outlines how many times viewers have shared each of your videos. It breaks the data down into the date each share took place as well as on what platform people shared the video (Twitter, Facebook, Linked In. etc.).
What You Can Learn: Shares may be the best way to measure your viewers’ engagement with your content. The only way a video goes viral, or just becomes successful, is if people share it. If your share numbers are low, that tells you that your video content isn’t inspiring viewers to share it.
Tip: To make something worth sharing, it either has to be entertaining, very informative or strike some kind of emotional key with the audience. If your videos don’t do one or more of those things, they will never get shared and never be successful.
***
Audience engagement with your videos is the best way to know if you’re successfully using video marketing. Even though it may be hard to put a monetary value on YouTube videos, you can set social goals surrounding audience engagement to know you’re successful.
No Comments yet, your thoughts are welcome. »
