In the past year, I've been reading more and more about how companies are testing and using barcodes in offline marketing campaigns.  You can add these QR codes or barcodes to anything where you can place an image, so you have an endless amount of ways to add them to your marketing material. I created this image to the right by using qrstuff.com. After scanning, it will take you directly to our Facebook page (give it a try!).  This last week I've noticed mentions in two local publications that allow the reader to scan a barcode, or QR code, with their smartphone to receive some "bonus" information.

Today in Milwaukee AirTran Airways celebrated the debut of 'Brewers One', a new  Boeing 717 painted with the throwback Milwaukee Brewers logo and colors. The event debuted the new plane, celebrated the team's 40th anniversary in Milwaukee as well as presented a $50,000 check to the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee for their summer camp program.  Twenty kids from the YMCA were in attendance and had to pull the plane twenty feet (along with some Brewer assistance) to receive the check. Rollie Fingers and Brewers executives discussed the team's importance in Milwaukee the past 40 years along with appearances from the Racing Sausages and Bernie Brewer.

Have you heard of inbound marketing? If not, we wanted to take this opportunity to give you a basic overview of how inbound marketing can be used to drive more traffic to your website, increase sales leads and convert more of your leads to customers using social media tools and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Blogs, etc.

This past weekend Milwaukee hosted the quarterly event Gallery Night and Day which featured 66 venues throughout the downtown Milwaukee area. It always draws a great crowd and this year Journal Sentinel asked people to help "check in" to art galleries on Foursquare to help draw attention to the local art scene in Milwaukee. What a great way to promote the event, galleries and artists as well as celebrate the first Foursquare Day. By checking in to 10 different galleries a person could also unlock the Warhol badge. People also used the hashtag #galnite on twitter to promote the event in the days before the weekend as well as for touching base with other people during the event. For more information on what you missed this past weekend check out the Art City blog.

In the coming months there are a few interesting social media events/meet ups in the area that we thought you should be aware of. Take a look and let me know if we missed any in the comment section.

Here are a couple good examples of both business and non profits using social media here in Milwaukee.