Use QR Codes to Get More Facebook Likes

A store had this large QR code poster at the entrance window that read – “Like our Facebook Page for offers.” I scanned the QR code with my mobile phone and it redirected me to the store’s website that wasn’t quite mobile-friendly. I spent around 8 seconds on the website but couldn’t locate the Facebook Like button and left.

It was a missed opportunity for the brand as the QR Code failed to generate an additional Like on the Facebook Page.

QR Code that links to a Facebook Like button

Encourage Social Action with QR Codes

What the store really needs is a dedicated landing page that would provide customers an option to quickly “Like” the Facebook Page without confusing them with too many options. Also, the design of this page has to be mobile friendly as there’s a 99.99% probability that customers would use a mobile phone to scan the QR code on the go.

Scan this QR Code for a sample.

If you would like to build a similar landing page that encourages people to Like your Facebook Page and Follow you on Twitter, you can start with this simple template. The changes you need to make include:

• Line #83 – Replace the website name and URL with your official site.
• Line #97 – Replace “example” with your Facebook Page username.
• Line #100 – Replace “example” with your Twitter handle
• Line #107-110 – Add your phone number, email and a link to Google Maps.
• Line #136 – Replace UA-XX with your Google Analytics ID.

Save the file with a .html extension and upload it to a web server. Generate a QR Code of that URL and paste the new image outside your store.

Social QR Code

We are using Google Analytics on the Landing Page and hence we can easily determine how many people have actually scanned the QR code image. You can directly point the QR Code to your Facebook Page as well but then we are losing an opportunity to track the visitor and the effectiveness of our social campaign.

One more thing. The mobile-friendly landing page is using “tel” to link to the store’s phone number and thus your customers can click that link to directly call you from their mobile phone.

And if all this sounds too much work, you can always use web based services like Scan.me or Linkify to create “social” landing pages but then you don’t have enough control on the design and the pages look more like an advertisement of another brand.

Increase the Battery Life of your Wireless Mouse

Turn off your wireless mouse and keyboard manually to improve battery life

There’s a little on/off switch on the bottom of your wireless mouse that you can use to manually turn off the mice when its not in use. This may slightly extend the battery life of your mouse in case you aren’t having one of the newer mice models that automatically switch off when left idle for a long period.

The problem is how do you remember that you have to turn off the wireless mouse (and the keyboard) when you are done for the day?

One option would be that you you use the built-in Windows Task Scheduler or the Group Policy Editor to display a reminder message on the screen every time you log off or shut down the computer. This is both geeky and requires too many steps.

Then there’s a simpler option as well. You can change the default “System Shutdown” and “System Logoff” sounds to a voice message that reminds you to turn off the mice before you are leave the computer. Here’s a sample sound (.wav file) created with Listen.

Open the Control Panel in Windows and search for Change System Sounds. Choose the “Exit Windows” event and browse for your .wav file to set it as the default sound for the event. Do the same for “Windows Logoff” event and you’ll never forget to turn off your wireless mouse and keyboard again.

Increase the Battery Life of your Mouse

Speaking of battery life, here are some additional tips courtesy Logitech that may further push the battery life of your wireless mouse.

1. Get a light-colored mouse pad. While your mice may work well on your black granite table or even transparent surfaces like glass, they are best avoided as they cause the tracking sensor in the mouse to use more power.
2. Your wireless mouse ships with a nano receiver that is put into the USB port of your computer. Make sure the USB receiver and the mice are close to each other else use an USB extension cable for the receiver.
3. For best results, replace both batteries at the same time and avoid mixing brands. Logitech suggests using alkaline batteries as non-alkaline batteries, such as NiMH or NiCd, operate at a lower voltage and may negatively impact the battery life of your mouse.
4. Turn off the mouse manually when you are travelling. While the mice may go to sleep /standby mode when not being used, they’ll wake up when they move around inside your bag and this consumes battery power.

Use YouTube as an Endless Music Player

Sometimes you just want to use YouTube like a radio, an endless music player running in the background that moves from one song to another while you work on other tasks.

YouTube playlists are a popular option but YouTube does have some built-in tools as well, like YouTube Disco and YouTube Leanback, that let you watch an uninterrupted stream of music videos from your favorite artists and bands.

YouTube transformed into an online music radio

YouTube as a Music Radio

There’s a new YouTube mashup in town, available at appspot.com, that’s built around the same concept of “endless music” but offers a more pleasing and uncluttered UI. You search for your favorite song and the app will create an unending playlist of music video based on that song.

The app internally uses YouTube’s own Related API to find music videos similar to your base song but if the algorithms aren’t working right, you can always skip the song or switch to a different music playlist available on the right. Worth a bookmark.

Your Facebook Pages have a Résumé

All Facebook Pages have a public profile that mostly contains has the contact information of the business, an overview and key milestones – the official Facebook Pages of Facebook and Starbucks are some good examples here.

Facebook now uses the word “résumé” to refer to this section (see screenshot above) but the term in the Page title is only visible to search engine bots and other users who aren’t logged into Facebook (thanks Waqas).

This change is limited to Facebook Pages at this time but if the same  is extended to personal profiles, Facebook users will need to take their profiles more seriously as Facebook may then outrank LinkedIn profiles for job related searches in Google because of that important keyword “résumé”  in the page title.