How Social is Your Storefront?

You already know the storefront is an excellent way to showcase your products but did you know they can also help you impact your social graph?  Companies already using social services like Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare could make some serious gains by utilizing unique and smart advertising specifically designed for mobile devices.

Sure, you could just splash your storefront with text of your domain name and call it day but that won’t directly drive street traffic to “like” you on facebook. And, it surely won’t activate a download of your companies’ app.

QR codes

A QR code post on TechCrunch got me thinking about innovative ways that a store could leverage traffic. As TechCrunch points out, QR codes are not only being used to link customers to specific product information, they can also be used for website links and for mobile ticketing applications.

How many times have you walked by something of interest in a hurry and thought “I’ll check it out later” but you never do. If all a potential customer needed to do was stop for 1-2 seconds to retrieve some data then they could take your store with them — maybe even shopping your store on the subway home.

As mentioned, the QR codes hold data like urls, phone numbers, text, SMS and if you have a mobile app, they can provide users with the direct download link.  The data is then picked up by the smartphone’s camera when it’s viewed in a mobile app like Scanlife.

Creating a code is simple. Here’s a lengthy and complicated tutorial on how it’s done.. Kidding.  A QR code can be created in seconds by using a free service like qrcode.kaywa.com , by inputting a url, phone number, SMS or text the site will quickly generate a code for you. It also includes some code to copy the image to a site.

After that, all you’d need to do is print some stickers. I personally think this design below with the facebook “like” symbol above the code is neat if you’re linking the QR code to your facebook page. That move might have more impact than simply linking the code to your site — especially if your site lacks an online store or there’s just not a lot going on at the site.

image courtesy of TechCrunch

Share Deals, Rewards & Flyers
Using check-in services like Foursquare could further assist you in driving traffic by using rewards, coupons and badges to lure customers through the doors — the QR code could be used to link to those services, a flyer or a newsletter.

Augmented Reality
Why not draw some attention to your business with augmented reality.   The term “AR” is wildly exciting to a lot of people — use it.

So, the business of creating objects that connect to the AR space isn’t as complicated as you may think but obviously if you want to get really crafty and create something like the Junaio Man it’s a bit more in-depth.

Companies like Metaio have put augmented reality development within reach for users without a lot of programming knowledge. Using their API and channels, users can create all sorts of overlays and cool stuff.  Products, signs and posters could all trigger an enriched multi-media experience for your customers.

As you can see in the video below, the Junaio Man magically animates by using the Junaio app and is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in the AR space this year, a gimmick that might blow your customers away. I’m sure if I saw some sort of sign or sticker with the words “augmented reality” on it,  I would quickly fire up my device — I am assuming you want crowds of people outside your establishment.

I think this would be the ultimate storefront sharebar, this a rough-looking working mock-up of QR codes.

(image of the window courtesy of Flickr )