Presbytery QR codes

    At the presbytery meeting on April 16, 2013 the presbytery Worship and Witness Committee in a report on a Cohesive strategy for advertising suggested that presbytery "adopt a QR Code" and "consider adding a QR code to all printed materials, leading readers to the (presbytery) website."

    FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

    "So what's a QR Code?" you might be asking yourself. The term QR an abbreviation for "Quick Response Code". It is something similar to a UPC barcode, and was originally developed for the automotive industry in Japan. They are images, small black squares with square "dots" in three corners and "squiggles" in the middle.

    "Why would presbytery want to adopt a QR Code?" might be your next question. QR Codes are neat little things useful for folks with smartphones. People with a smartphone can download an app that works with any QR Code. The smartphone owner uses the app to take a picture of a QR Code. The app then takes the information in the image of the QR Code and translates it into a web address (called a URL, but we'll just call it a web address), and then takes the smartphone's web browser to that web address. So if I use my smartphone app "Qr Barcode Scanner" to take a picture of the square in the corner of this webpage, I hear a beep and am prompted to open my smartphone's web browser, and it takes me to the main page of the presbytery's website - without having to type in the whole web address "http://www.presbyterian.ca/qeosynod/presbyott/". Pretty cool, eh!

    "So what do we do with it, now that we've got one?" might be a valid next question. It's basically useful in advertising material, posters and the like. The theory is that when a person sees a poster for some presbytery event with a QR Code on it and they want to know more about our presbytery, they get out their smartphone, boot up their QR Code scanning app, take a picture of our QR Code and they're taken (on their smartphone) to our website.

    "Is that all?" Now you might be thinking that our website is designed to be accessed using a computer, not a smartphone, so this may be of limited use. But in the QR Code app, after the QR Code is scanned, there are two buttons at the bottom - one to take the smartphone's browser to our website, and another called "Share". When I click on "Share" I can choose to e-mail someone (like myself) the QR Code and the web address related to it. Then when I get home and check my e-mail I can go to the presbytery website and check it out. I can also share the presbytery's web address with my Facebook friends and in several other ways.

    food for thought...

    • what advertising material does presbytery produce that we could put a QR Code on? There are many concerts and events sponsored by individual churches, but not many at the presbytery level.

    • QR Codes are meant to go along with other advertising - the "target audience" is attracted by your advertisement in, for instance, a newspaper ad, and wants to know more. The QR Code gives them an easy way to get to your website. They aren't meant as a replacement for other advertising, more an enhancement.

    • how about a poster about the Presbytery of Ottawa and have our individual churches place it on their bulletin boards, so their own people could find out more about their presbytery.
      To the right is a small card that your church could use for that purpose. Click on the card to see a larger image.

    • maybe we need to think about ways of using a presbytery QR Code effectively, such as newspaper or bus advertising.

    • QR Codes could be produced and used for any group or event within the presbytery. The code to the right directs folks to the youth website "http://pccweb.ca/ottawayouth/". It's a pretty good assumption that youth have smartphones, so the Presbytery Youth Ministry is likely to benefit from using QR Codes in their advertising.

    • There are probably a few questions you ought to ask that will help you decide whether or not to use a QR Code in your advertising:
      • who is my target audience?
      • are they likely to have smartphones?
      • are they likely to have a QR Code app on their smartphone?
      If your answers to the last two questions are "no" you probably don't need to consider adopting an advertising strategy that uses QR Codes. On the other hand, if your target audience includes "tech savvy" folk, QR Codes could boost the effectiveness of your advertising.

    • Your congregation could use a QR Code on its printed material, such as bulletins, posters, etc. Maybe you could add the presbytery's QR Code as well...

    source(s)

    The QR Codes on this page were generated using www.the-qrcode-generator.com, one of a number of free programs found by doing a web search using the terms "QR Code generator".

    note: either QR Code on the right - presbytery in upper right corner, presbytery youth in lower right corner, can be downloaded by right-clicking on the image and choosing "Save Image As..."

    need more info? Contact the presbtery webservant at gord.walford@sympatico.ca

 

 

 

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