Goin’ Mobile: What marketers need to know about short codes and bar codes
When it comes to sending coupons, calls, or content to mobile phones, marketers need to understand the abilities and advantages of mobile short codes and bar codes.
Short Codes. Short codes (short numbers) are special SMS texting numbers that marketers can leverage for voting, ordering, and content delivery. To initiate these requests, consumers typically text keywords to the short code.
For example, if you text “socialmeteor” to 41411, you’ll be invited to join Social Meteor’s mobile discussion group. (setup using Textmarks)
There are two kinds of short codes, shared and dedicated. Dedicated short codes are owned by a single company. They take several weeks to set up and can cost anywhere from $15,000 to $30,000 per year.
Shared short codes are used simultaneously by several companies. These are managed by services such as TextMarks and Mozes.
Bar Codes. Scannable (Quick Reference) 2D mobile barcodes are two-dimensional bar codes that you can capture using a cellphone camera. Then, barcodes must be decoded to deliver the requested content. For example, the barcode shown to the right will automatically send a recipient to the socialmeteor.com home page. (If you have a cellphone camera, you can test the code now by taking a picture of it from your computer screen and decoding it on your phone — or your PC after downloading it.)
Barcodes can be created at no cost by using services such as 2D Sense. You can create 2D barcodes in several formats including QR (shown), Datamatrix, Dandelion, and Blotcode. Basically, each of these are souped-up versions of the traditional barcode that are capable of delivering more data.
The downside of barcodes is the reliability they deliver. Because there are many cellphone camera variations and the quality of photos vary, barcodes deliver mixed results. At a recent meeting, I had to take eight photos of a QR barcode using a IPhone 3G before I was able to capture a photo image that was capable of decoding the desired information.
Short codes and barcodes both allow marketers to track and deliver and content at a campaign or channel level by using unique short codes, short code keywords or bar codes. However, given the popularity, prevalence, and reliability of short codes in the US, it’s probably best for marketers to bypass barcodes in favor of short codes.
Credits: Cartoon courtesy T. McCracken @ McHumor.com
Biblical Barcodes?
Some believe barcode tattoos to be a sign of the apocalypse speculated about in the Christian Bible which states people will “receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark of the beast”.
I’m not part of that group…but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy this YouTube video from Scott Blake.
there is a qr code reader app for the iphone called QuickMark. you don’t need to take photos of the code, just point the camera to the barcode and it automatically detects it. makes scanning so much easier.
Bar codes are the mark of the beast. Google, Twitter and Facebook combine to create a listening device more powerful and insidious than anything the NSA ever conceived and I’m out of Twinkies in my bunker! What year is it?
SMS business cards via contxts: Something anyone can use for free. Send ‘socialmeteor’ to 50500 to try it out.