My single biggest learning from exploring Foursquare, QR Codes and Google Goggles is that they are being underutilized by brands and companies. Companies aren't taking advantage of the promotional, sales and customer loyalty opportunities these tools can offer. Furthermore, these social tools cannot be used solely by themselves to bring awareness to a campaign, company or brand. Their functions are not valuable as a stand alone tactic. They have the most value when used in addition to existing campaigns on Facebook or Twitter. They need to be used to spread word of mouth so they must co-exist with other social media platforms in order to maximize how many people will read what people are saying about a particular company or brand.
When thinking of three examples of uses for these tools for public relations many of my ideas were marketing driven, used best for promotional purposes or in advertising. However, the following are three examples that I think would compliment any PR campaign:
Teasers
They can be used to act as a teaser to an event or a significant day. People can check-in to different venues to unlock an invite or scan a code or image of something inconspicuous to retrieve important information to an upcoming event. They can also be used on an invitation to an exclusive event to make it more intriguing and mysterious.
Competitions
There can be a contest to leave tips in different venues around the city or scan different QR Codes or images of a particular company, brand or product to win a giveaway.
Corporate Reputation
A company can be seen as an influencer in their community and culturally involved if they share tips when checked-in at different venues in their area or share images and interesting factoids of events and venues nearby. They can also encourage customers to leave tips when checked-in at their venue, create their own badge or provide a forum for customers to source information and ask questions of a company through the visual service tools.
