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Use QR Codes. Everywhere. All the time
We are increasingly seeing QR Codes in public – those pixelated black-and-white squares, such as the one in the top right corner of this page. They enable anyone with a smartphone to point it at the code and be taken instantly to a website (or phone number, or other embedded text information). More information: Wikipedia | YouTube clips.
The opportunities are endless, says Keepa Service blog. Contact cards, tracts, church roadside signage, press advertising, even t-shirts.
With camera-equipped smartphones now outselling cheaper phones in the West, soon the majority of phone users will be routinely reading QR Codes using an easily installed phone app. Now is the time to ‘think QR’. We are at the tipping point – their use is about to jump exponentially.
Creating a QR Code is very easy. There are a number of online generators (including Goo.gl which will provide you with clickthru stats) that create a downloadable graphic in seconds, for you to save and insert into any document.
Phones can easily read a tiny QR Code on a business card, or a large one at the other side of the street. You can even project them onscreen in a church meeting or PowerPoint seminar, so people can access websites easily. Although primarily to code an URL, phone number or contact info, you can alternatively code 250 characters of any text. Scan this one with your phone ►
Churches, please consider not only displaying your URLs visibly on the outside of your buildings, but also adding a large QR Code that can be accessed from the road. And in every type of printed literature – books, articles, tracts, church newsletters and bulletins, church contact cards, adverts, anything. Even car window stickers. Check these pages from Mobile Ministry Magazine on QR Codes: For church news | Business card | Using QR Code to start converations | Example seminary publication and OurChurch’s blog posts: What is a QR Code? (and 4 other things you should know about them) | QR Codes: 10 Ways Churches Can Use Them | QR codes & smartphones make for smart ministry.
Because their use is still relatively limited, people may be more inquisitive to check the URL of a church or outreach site they randomly encounter.
Are you using QR Codes in an innovative way? Please share your experience via the ‘comment’ link below.
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We’ve been all about QR codes for a number of years now at MMM. Unforuntately, there’s just not much use of them in churches, many groups are simply looking for others to lead the way before they are comfortable in using this tech.
As a site, we’ve used QR codes as a means of for people to take a snapshot of the URL of a blog post – as it was mentioned to us before that point that people were commonly huddling around a PC to look at an article. Having the QR code there allowed all of them to get the URL of the piece, and then have it on their mobiles instantly for archiving or sharing. We kept that for about a year, and its unfortunately something that didn’t make it over into the default design of things when we moved to WordPress.
Personally (Antoine, founder/primary voice of MMM): I have been using QR codes on paper business cards for the better part of the last 2.5yrs. They served both as a means of demonstrating the technology, as well as helping to illustrate the point of MMM. These days, I’ve moved from doing the QR code on a business card and now have the QR code as part of the “skin” that’s on my mobile device. When contact information is asked for, I simply show them the rear of the mobile and they can use whatever QR code reading application they want. In some cases, it starts conversations with those that know about the code.
Yea, that’s about it. I don’t see it elsewhere, hence having the heart to do these experiments.
Thanks Antoine, interesting. I guess it would also be possible – would it – to have a QR Code graphic or two on a spare Android screen?
Yes, that would be possible. A person can either make the QR code their background image, or use a widget which displays an image on a home screen as the means to do this.
We use it at Church currently for a link to the weekly bulletin and announcements (both are articles on our web-site). We also use them for sign ups by putting a link to a Google Form in different codes.
The codes have been received rather well, and this past week having the bulletin online in an article had the added benefit of allowing a visually impaired couple hear our bulletin online before they decided to visit us for worship. In a few months we’ll be able to tell, on average, how many people are foregoing the print bulletins.
This is our Church web-site.
http://www.centralbaptistpalmyra.org/
Hey Tony, you and I are thinking along the same lines these days. Last week I posted 2 blog posts on the topic of QR codes:
What is a QR Code? (and 4 other things you should know about them)
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2011/03/03/what-is-a-qr-code-and-4-other-things-you-should-know-about-them/
QR Codes: 10 Ways Churches Can Use Them
http://blog.ourchurch.com/2011/03/04/qr-codes-10-ways-churches-can-use-them/
We just launched new QR Code Generator and Tracking at http://qrcode.good-survey.com which allows:
* Creating all types of QR Codes
* We support also various vector formats (EPS, SVG, XAML, …) not only bitmaps (PNG, GIF, JPG, BMP,…)
* Decoding message from existing QR Codes
* Allow tracking of created codes (they can be associated to specific geolocation)
* We are providing strong API so you can create QR codes from your applications
* Mobile version (in Beta testing)
[...] Make sure your church site URL is highly visible from the road. Maybe with a QR Code too. [...]
We just started using QR codes so people can download our bulletin and sermon notes onto their phones as they enter the sanctuary. It took me about 15 minutes and NO money to setup a system for doing it in our church. I made a quick “how to” video on how to do it yourself. Here’s the link… http://youtu.be/iFtRkgyxObY