QR Tech Alert: SnapTags Become Fashionable

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

You may have seen QR Codes and Microsoft Tags here and there in print magazine ads. But fashion magazine Glamour is looking to ratchet up mobile tagging in print media with their fall fashion issue. The magazine has partnered with Facebook to add “SnapTags” to the cover and inside ad pages of their September edition. Readers with smartphones will scan the SnapTags and be encouraged to “Like” either Glamour’s or a relevant advertiser’s Facebook page.

Bringing Social Media Into the Office

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Social media sites can be a great way for businesses to reach customers, but it’s hard to keep an open forum like Facebook anything but informal. So how do you utilize social media in your business and still keep an aura of professionalism?

Facebook and Skype: Together At Last?

by Harris Cohen, the PromoGuru

This week saw the integration of two major players in online communications. At an event at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, California, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a deal between his company and Skype, the voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) provider. Zuckerberg heralded the partnership as “the start of a new era of social networking.”

LinkedIn to Better Business

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Small business can now make the most out of their LinkedIn pages!

“Company Skills” has been around for a bit, but is one of the more straight-forward marketing approaches on LinkedIn. Businesses can showcase company info, announcements, and products photos, as well as post endorsements, similar to the personal recommendations made between connections. It’s like a graphics-rich resume for your business.

Included in the new features is “TextIn”, which gives users the ability to search and receive profile results through text messaging. You provide your mobile number to LinkedIn, authorize the app, and then via text you can search for a connection on LinkedIn. The results come back as another text message.

Checking In to Save When Checking Out

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

Foursquare, which debuted in 2009, quickly popularized the idea of “checking in” by way of an app that would tell your friends and followers if you were at a certain store, restaurant, or theater.

 The idea has since been adapted by both Facebook (with their “Places” feature) and Google (with “Latitude”). But now Foursquare is bringing in a partner to introduce a whole new level of “checking in.”

Life Beyond the Known Domains

by Harris Cohen, The PromoGuru

The global agency that assigns Internet addresses, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (or ICANN), loosened its guidelines earlier this week and will now allow domain suffixes to be named after just about anything.

Maybe this news is not quite as science fiction-y as our article title would suggest, but it certainly opens website owners to new possibilities. It’s possibly the biggest change to the Internet system since its start in 1984.