Nonprofit QR Code Article Roundup

Have you seen these square bar codes popping up everywhere - billboards, magazine ads, conference programs, even tombstones?  Since half the US population will be using smart phones by the end of this year, expect to see a lot more! 

The NTEN Discuss mailing list (which is awesome) recently had a great discussion about QR Codes.  There are lots of nonprofit organizations using these codes in interesting ways to connect viewers with various outreach channels and activities.  Since I've been working on some QR Code-related projects, I've collected some of the links below for any interested NPOs:

• The bit.ly URL shortening service generates a QRcode for all of its short links, so you can use their built-in analytics to see who is clicking through your QR code links.
• Maddie Grant at Socialfish has an introductory article and an example of QR Code usage in a conference program.
• Idealware has an explanatory article and an introductory video explaining QR Codes.
• Katie Coffman's list of useful QR Code links, many nonprofit-related.
• Google's Image Chart API can generate QR Codes - use their Chart Wizard if you don't have programming skills.

My quick $0.02: QR Codes can be useful but most users are mobile so make sure your landing page is mobile-friendly.  And unless your focus is *exclusively* mobile users, provide a human-readable URL, phone number, email address or call to action as well.

And to wrap things up, Gavin Clabaugh created this (first ever?) HaiQR image :-)