By Nicole Fletcher

Clients often ask me why they should blog.”I’m an accountant/lawyer/clothing store/Insert brand here,” they say, “What could I possibly blog about and why would I waste my time?” Well friends/clients/future bloggers I’m here to give you the low down, the 411, the how to and the why.

Blogs offer brands from startups to corporate giants the opportunity to flex their creative muscles, to ruffle their feathers, if you will. The voice behind the business gives your brand a personality and human-like qualities, which clients, customers and future business people love. Consumers want to support brands they can relate to, brands that they feel comfortable with, brands they might consider friends. After all, who better to do business with or help you when you’re in need than a real live living and breathing human?

Back to the point: Why you should blog and how you should do it.

Step 1. Have a plan. Know how your voice is going to sound in both the blogger and the social sphere. These voices must be consistent as they are both integral parts of your social media marketing strategy.

Step 2. What are you going to post? Know what ‘vibe’ you want to give off. Will you post videos, pictures, quotes, articles or all of the above? Make sure you’re having fun while you’re posting and that you would want to read your posts yourself! If you don’t find what you’re posting interesting and you ARE your brand, how can you expect anyone else to? Feel free to post brand/industry related information like event recaps, invites, updates, innovations, pics etc, but make sure not to be purely self promotional – customers don’t want to hear you talk about how awesome you are. Sorry.

Step 3. Make Time. Blogging is fun. Post fun things, write what you think, look for unanswered questions, inspire conversation.

Step 4. Don’t be afraid to link back to yourself. Pick keyword phrases in your content that are industry related (ie: what you think people would be searching for to find your company website – Places to Stay in San Diego for a San Diego Hotel for example) and link those back to your website. This will do wonders for your SEO (search engine optimization)- driving traffic to your website and increasing your brand visibility.

Step 5. Push your blog posts our to your social networks. If you don’t already have social networks in place, well that’s another conversation entirely (email me Nicole@jacobtyler.com) but if you do, link to them, tweet about them, ask people what they think and perhaps consider implementing an internal social media policy – thereby inspiring your employees to really invest in the brand and get the word out there. Remember: It’s easy to bring already established communities into your own community than it is to create them from scratch.

In a nut shell, blogging is fun! If you need help setting one up, I’d be happy to help- but if you feel confident, check out wordpress or tumblr- two awesome blogging platforms created for you blogging pleasure.

Here’s to blogging, blogs and being a blogger.

By Nicole Fletcher

What will they think of next? New age vending machines from Wall literally measure your smile (15 times per second mind you) and if you’re really and truly happy, they reward you with a free ice cream of your choice. FURTHER, you can even share it to your facebook so all your friends know you’re happy too!
Watch the Share Happy Video

After reading this post yesterday, we decided it deserved prominent placement on our beloved blog. With Jacob Tyler now offering QR Codes as part of our social media strategy here’s an awesome post by Scott Cappel, President of Sorrento Mesa Printing. As time passes and QR codes become more mainstream, they really will transform the way we interact with the world while we are actually in it. In all honestly, I had a hard time with the concept but in reading this post, among others, they really do provide the most direct line of communication between you and everything around you, as opposed to going home and looking up what you remember from your day when you get there. Without further chatter, enjoy the post….

QR or Quick Response codes enable print media and web mobile media to work together. With any smartphone (iPhone, Blackberry, Droid etc.) enabled with a QR Reader app (free software that can be downloaded) you can click a picture of the QR code and it will launch your smartphone’s browser and take you to whatever URL is embedded within the code.

QR codes were invented in 1994 by the Japanese corporation Denso Wave. Originally designed to track parts in vehicle production they have now become an open source ISO standard free for the world to use. Because of its 2 dimensional design it is capable of encoding up to 7,089 characters. This is far more data than a typical one dimensional bar code such as the standard UPC symbol. A QR code can therefore encode any web address no matter the length of the URL.

Here are a few examples of how QR codes can be used in your print media:

• A Realtor can place a QR code on the printed information sheet outside of a home for sale. A prospective buyer can snap a picture of the QR code which contains a URL taking the user to a YouTube video featuring a virtual tour of the home.
• At a scientific conference poster session, a scientist could place a QR code on their poster containing a URL leading directly to a PDF of the poster so as colleagues reviewed the poster’s content they could also save a PDF to their phone and email it to colleagues not in attendance.
• An online retailer can send out postcards in a direct marketing campaign that would include a QR code containing a URL to an interior page on their site containing a discount or a promotion only available via the QR code. This would drive mobile customers to the promotion with the additional benefit of allowing measurement of the effectiveness of the postcard campaign.
• A manufacturer of equipment could use QR codes in their instruction manuals that would have direct links to their website or YouTube highlighting “how to” videos complementing the information in the manual.
• The image at the top is our CEO Scott’s business card with a QR code on the back which leads to his public profile on LinkedIn. This is a natural extension of the business card’s content where a more detailed bio is now available to the reader.

It is clear that QR codes are incredibly versatile and are only limited by your imagination. QR codes can encode a static URL or can also be dynamic in nature. QR codes can embed PURL (Personal URL) technology in a cross media direct marketing campaign so that response can be measured in a very detailed way.

At Sorrento Mesa Printing we have many new and innovative ways to incorporate QR codes into your print projects. If you are interested, just let us know. Below are some resources you might find helpful.

QR Code Reader Apps:

• Kaywa Reader
• Neoreader
• BeeTag Reader
• Barcodes Reader for iPhone
• BlackBerry Mesenger 5.0
• QuickMark Reader
• i-nigma Reader
• Upcode Reader
• ScanLife Reader

By Nicole Fletcher

…And so do I, but there some things you might not know about this long awaited miracle day in the cellular telephone world and so here I am to break it down for you.

Verizon Wireless announced recently that they would be getting the iPhone FINALLY after years of exclusivity with AT&T. It will be available for order to current customers on Feb 3 and released to the public on Feb 10. Aesthetics of the phones are virtually identical across service providers BUT there are a few fundamental differences the networks aren’t broadcasting as much as they should. For one, Verizon’s network lacks the ability to multi-task like the AT&T iphone in that while you’re on a call, don’t expect to be able to browse the web. You head me right folks, while your call may remain in tact (unlike the shotty AT&T service), you will not be able to search for the nearest sushi joint, look up reviews and make a reservation as the old commercial suggests. If you already have an iPhone and are sick and tired of not being able to to use it as a phone but have grown accustomed to this feature, it might be a tough switch.

These negatives being said, Verizon just announced a $30 unlimited data plan while AT&T offers 2GB of data for $25/mo. Further, AT&T customers still need to pay $20/mo for tethering (when the iPhone can be used as a wireless modem for a computer) while Verizon iPhones can act as a hub for up to 5 phones (pricing is still TBD).

Personally, I want an iPhone but worry about the Verizon Network’s ability to handle the traffic. Will they encounter the same problems as AT&T with the addition of this wondrous smart phone? If a phone can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, is it really a smart phone? As much as I want it STAT, I might be inclined to wait out the bugs that come with Feb 10. Also, there are rumors circulating regarding 4G’s launch for iPhone this summer and that’s certainly a silver lining on the tech horizon.

In closing here’s a few fun stats for you:
-Over 50% of US citizens will have a smart phone by 2011.
-91% of the US is mobile.
-38 is the median age of a texter.
-By 2013, mobile traffic will surpass online web surfing.

We’re heading in the mobile direction. Are you coming with?