Scan this code....Anyone for a QR Code?

Scan this code with your phone for more information.


These instructions are popping up everywhere, but the 2d barcodes are hardly a new phenomenon. In existence since the late 1990s when the Japanese company Denso Wave launched their use in managing manufacturing inventory, quick response codes (or more commonly known as QR Codes) are emerging as the coolest tool in social media marketing around here.

More attractive and manageable than a long url, the QR Code can be quickly scanned by a smartphone user with the click of her phone's camera and the QR Code reader.

At the recent CASE District II conference, Patrick Donnelly and Matt Lindsay got all of us in higher education generating ideas how to tap into this resource. In their example, George Washington University used an invite piece called "Where's George" in which alumni scanned the code and were able to tweet, join a Facebook reunion group or reply to the event "before they got from their mailbox to their door." At the event, the code was included on nametags as well as T-shirts.

The creative minds in the room swirled with current and potential uses: on buildings to link to maps, on buses to track schedules, on landing pages to donate, on calendar web pages to retrieve event details and provide RSVPs, on business cards or publications to glean more information.

The beauty, as Patrick and Matt explained, is that the user will be linked to dynamic content that can always be up-to-date although the piece from which the QR Code is scanned may be outdated.

In a quick search of the web, it's easy to locate examples of QR Codes connecting people to raise awareness such as was the case with the campaign regarding the BP Oil spill last summer. The code was highly visible once a giant version of it was placed on the Thomas Reuters billboard in Times Square to "scan the tag, sign the petition, be the one, restorethegulf.com." Even ministries are getting in on the movement, with this recent piece in the Baptist Press describing one Oklahoma church's use of spray-chalking a stenciled version of its QR Code on sidewalks at a nearby college campus, and students scanning the codes as quickly as they were sprayed.

Anyone for a QR Code? There are plenty of free QR Code generators and QR Code readers to get started. Mine above was generated through my shorten and share http://bit.ly/ account.

Get yours and share; how are you using your code?

*QR Code is registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED

**CASE District II: Baltimore. Learn more. Connect more. Patrick Donnelly is currently Associate Creative Director for Development at The George Washington University. He has worked at the University as a designer for 4 years, and recently has completed his MBA. Matt Lindsay is Executive Director of Alumni Strategic Marketing & Communications, George Washington University.