Nothing makes me more agitated than when I see a company spending a boatload of cash on a campaign only to screw it up with something simple like a QR code. Doesn’t matter the size of your business, QR is an equal opportunity technology that somehow keeps getting misused. Why does it bug me? Because some fool out there is pillaging your wallet while people like me with a conscious can’t rip you off. This is why daddy needs a new car and doesn’t have one.

QR isn’t for everyone and that’s the main problem we’re running into. It’s the buzzword going around and people think they need one but don’t know why. I have an extensive IT background to go with my Social Marketing/PR skill set so working in the world I do now I’m exposed to a lot of head shaking moments (thankfully not by us).

Instead of dwelling on everyone doing it wrong here are some tips to make it useful and examples of it in the real world.

1) GO TO A MOBILE SITE – If you’re going to have a QR code there is a 99.99999999999998% chance your visitor is coming from a mobile device so make sure YOUR WEBSITE IS MOBILE!  Drives me nuts when your graphics intensive site pukes on my phone.

2) HAVE A PURPOSE – I started using QR on our Should I Drink That business cards because we had a problem that

3) KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE – My listeners are really plugged into social media and all of the toys that come with it so using QR was a no-brainer. One decision maker was going into our Google Analytics and looking at the web traffic our site had plus how many were coming in from facebook/twitter mobile. Nice feature is that I can also see which mobile devices are being used also.needed fixed. It’s a craft beer podcast and odds have people are drinking while listening to the show or while you’re talking to them at a beer festival.  Scan a code and go to a launch page to “like us” on Facebook or go to our mobile site. The other code on the back is to call our hotline. When you’re drinking, you get sloppy dialing; this takes care of it for you. The results? Likes and activity on our FB page has increased significantly and the calls keep coming in!

4) MAKE IT UNIQUE – One fun thing I like to do with the codes is have them link to exclusive video or bonus material. Run contests, have coupon codes, whatever you do make it unique.

DOING IT RIGHT

1. Bocktown Beer & Grill has a QR code on the side of their growlers that links you to a page with what’s currently on tap so you can decide if you want to go get it filled. QR code was free to make, cost a few more cents to have it printed but already wins on geek factor and convenience.
2. Home Depot uses QR codes in the garden section to play video on your mobile device  for how-to’s and tips for using their products. When you’re a lawn & garden noob you take whatever free tips you can get.
3. Gift Giving – I’ve used QR codes at work to increase the membership of our texting programs and also for donations. By scanning a QR code you can donate on the fly to the advertised endowment fund. Online giving has soared in the last year so the easier I can make the process the better

OK I can’t help myself, here’s a bad one. If you’re driving 376/Parkway West towards the airport look for the Sir Speedy billboard just past the 79 split. They have a QR code up high on a billboard and you see while driving.  Unless you’re already texting/tweeting/foursquare/checking email while driving (and you shouldn’t) you would have to stop your car on a major interstate to scan the code and that’s IF your phone can see it that far away.

Before you invest a campaign around QR codes make sure you know what you want from it and that its measurable.

But not in July. I took a well deserved break from the interwebs and focused on work and my family.

August 2011
I sat down with Pitt Girl… err Jane Pitt… err Ginny and gave her a quick education on craft beer while we mocked each other for 2 hours at Bocktown. It appeared in her August column in Pittsburgh Magazine.

September 2011
I drank a box of Franzia. I provided, served the beer and attended Podcamp Pittsburgh 6 briefly and made the most out of the after party in true SIDT fashion which included tailgating the party. The Teaspoon Project took shape and also forced me to buy a new digital camera. Craft Pittsburgh had a nice spot of us in their latest issue. I had Dave’s Hot n Juicy in my mouth. Yes, I’m still giggling over it.

October 2011
I planned and executed the perfect homecoming concert with the help of 76F weather and Scott Blasey playing a standing room only show. Hockey season started which lead me to eating a $12.50 burger. The infamous (That means more than famous, Dusty) Jim Lokay said farewell and left Pittsburgh for Bawwwstun. Yinzer traffic hasnt been the same since and Beantown got classy. Kadhafi was finally held accountable for Doc Brown’s death while his people shoved many things up his ass. I really don’t understand my kids some days.

November 2011
I finally learned how to home brew. I’m proud to say that as I’m typing this that my stash is just about gone. Google Plus proved it’s absolutely insane.  My ongoing battle with a root canal started and still isn’t  finished.

December 2011
Chris Cornell played one of the best solo shows of any artist in the history of music. I fell in love with LuLu’s Noodles. Dealt with a very emotional day as I celebrated the 5th anniversary of my dad’s passing by cracking open my very first bottle of homebrew with him. I visited the Golden Corral for the first time and was left speechless. The kids took down Santa and O-man turned 1.

So there is 2011 in a nutshell. 2012 the world is supposed to end of the world so I’m debating if I should plan to do things or kick back and take it easy. Who am I kidding, I’ll be running between work and kids activities while bitching my basement still isn’t clean.

Stay thirsty my friends…

This week we go to a place that I frequent for great craft beer and kickass burgers but never have I tried the fish. Well, until today at least!  Bocktown is located in the Pool City Plaza (across from Target) in what a lot of people assume is Robinson but is really North Fayette. Visit them online at http://www.bocktown.com/

Cost: $8.99 ($9.99 pictured above with onion crisps and cheddar cheese)

Bread (B) Solid hoagie bun that was soft and yet toasted really well.

Tartar sauce (B+) Packed with flavor but a little on the thick side for me. Incredibly tasty!

Extras (A) I was really surprised how well the onion crisps tasted. Typically I would expect greasy bastardized onion rings that weren’t ready for the big leagues but, just like the fish, these were fried to perfection. Under the bun was a pickle slice that is staple with most meals and a tomato that served as a perfect compliment to the sandwich

Fish (A-) I don’t think I’ve ever had a piece of fish fried more perfect. Succulent meat and a perfect crust that burst with flavor. This would have been a complete home run except the left end was overcooked and chewy. There wasn’t that much of it though so it got bumped up from a B+.

July
Began the month with recording at the BeerDependence Day celebration at Bocktown. Attended the Penguins Stanley Cup DVD Release Party. Started a contracting job at EDMC that would become the longest month of my life and that’s all I’m going to say. Enjoyed my first ever bowl of Pho. Rocked the Beer on the Bay festival in Erie which the videos are epic and may never be released. End the month being interviewed by KDKA for the Craft Beer Summit.

August
Won a 2009 Mustang! Bees invade our bathroom (landlord still has yet to remove the dead bodies). I got a full-time job in social media/web dev that has turned out to be freaking cool plus I’m on a rockstar team. Threatened Lushie with divorce after she gets rid of the Back to the Future marathon channels.

September
Attended “Best of the Burgh” at the Warhol with sickpuppy, PittGirl, Woy and Rachel. Go big time and hosted Beer School at the Cabaret downtown to a sold out crowd. Teaspoon hits 17lbs.

October
Hosted 2 sessions at Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Should I Drink That passed 500,000 download mark. Pens start defending the Stanley Cup. Revised Google Maps errors. Celebrate 4 years of marriage with Lushie. Lay the smackdown on poor fact checking by the Post gazette about Erie. Teaspoon goes pumpkin farming.

November
I blogged the whole month. Seriously. Bought a X-box. Teaspoon’s first Thanksgiving. Wonders of fatherhood and a kid who grows like a weed. Craft Beer Dinner with Lew Bryson, Education on the Pittsburgh Potty. Making your own Bacon. BEER AT GIANT EAGLE! Yinz Bowl 2.o

December
Still living it for 5 more hours. Remembering dad on his anniversary. Hosted a Christmas beer sampling at Bocktown. Saw KISS in concert. Teaspoon’s first Christmas. Finished the school year with a 3.65GPA. SNOW!

So what do I have to look forward to in 2010?  Come back tomorrow and find out!

Last night I was fortunate enough to get into the sold out private dinner at Bocktown. Wrapping up the Lew Bryson tour of Pittsburgh was a dinner featuring 6 courses paired with barrel aged beers. If you ever get the chance to listen to Lew speak I can’t urge you enough to jump on that. His knowledge of not only craft beers but also whiskey, bourbon and the barreling process. Yes, he mentioned the bunghole too.

Here were the courses for the evening:

1. Cherry & Beet Arugula Salad tossed in Lemon Oil Mint Dressing – Beer Pairing: New Holland Oaked Aged Mad Hatter (Brewed for the GABF, this oaked version of New Holand’s IPA is aged in Woodford Reserve barrels. ABV – 6%)
2. Grilled Brown Turkey Figs, Stilton Cheese & Smoked Almonds finished w/Balsamic Fig Reduction – Beer Pairing: Great Lakes Oaked Blackout Stout (Russian imperial Stout aged in oak bourbon barrels. ABV – 9%)
3. Untouchable Pulled Pork Sandwich – Beer Pairing: Brewer’s Infusion Stoudt’s Scarlet Lady ESB (Stoudt’s English style ale run through Elijah Craig bourbon soaked French oak chips and U.K. Kent Hops. ABV – 5%)
4. Salmon Cake with Smoked Pepper Aioli – Beer pairing: Erie Oaked Railbender Firkin (Erie’s oaked version of their Scottish style ale, Railbender aged in American white oak barrels. ABV – 6.8%)
5. Strawberry Pierogi with fresh whipped cream – Beer Pairing: Arcadia Big Dick’s Oaked Ale (Aged in Pappy Van Winkle bourbon barrels. ABV – 8.2%)
6. Apple Barrel Bread Pudding with Bouron Sauce – Beer Pairing: Arcadia Cereal Killer (Actual batch of Arcadia’s GABF Gold Medal winning barleywine! ABV – 9.1%)

Click here to see the whole gallery

Favorite part of the meal for me was the Stilton Cheese & Smoked Almonds. I’ve never had either before and those… sweet Jesus almighty! Now the beer paired with it is one of my favorites from Great Lakes but overall favorite beer was the Arcadia Cereal Killer. I think a full bottle would take you to Shangri-La. I’m not a big barleywine fan but this was soothing and packed full of deliciousness.

Thank you Lew for an incredible education over the last 3 days. it was a pleasure to get to know you over that time and listen to you talk. What a great experience and I can’t wait till your new book comes out.

For a collection of Lew’s writings check out this list on amazon.com

from seriouseats.com
“It’s National Sandwich Day! So designated because November 3 marks the birthday of John Montagu, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, who popularized everyone’s favorite lunch so long ago.”

I have an unnatural obsession with a good sammich and thanks to the internet I know I’m not alone. tehjim, justrightjim, Woy and myself are usually swapping pictures of sandwiches worthy of a hall of fame. Then there is greatest sandwich artist of all time, BuBBy (that’s his sammich pictured above).

I don’t know why I crave sandwiches. I would much rather eat one for breakfast (my Mother In Law actually makes me BLT’s for breakfast when we visit) and think that a quality sandwich is more pleasurable than a steak dinner. Here in Pittsburgh there debate will last for generations on where the best sandwich is.

When I moved here in 98 I was addicted to Primantis Cap n Cheese.

Then as my palate developed I was head over heels for Fat Heads Headwich line.

And right now my favorite dish can be found at Bocktown in the Bocktown Burger

Go out today and have a good sandwich. Give thanks to John Montagu and what the heck, have a craft beer. None of that Bud/Coors/Miller crap.

That’s Creation Rex. He sits outside the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and attended Podcamp Pittsburgh 4. Where were you?

Once again this gathering of social media minds was a huge success and for the first time ever the event was sold out! How do you sell out a free event? Easy, you can only fit so many people into one area

You’re probably going to ready many many many recaps of the weekend so here’s my short short version.

Meet n Greet

Erie Brewing was the beer sponsor with myself, sickpuppy and Paradox as your lovely bartenders. Beers for the evening were:

• Railbender
  (2008 Bronze/2009 Gold at GABF)
• Presque Isle Pils
• Mad Anthony APA
• Misery Bay IPA
• Derailed Black Cherry Ale

10.5 cases of beer and a case of wine was kicked in 2.5 hours. Attendance was packed but enough room to breathe. After Party was Jekyl and Hyde where Dox fell into a DFH120 coma and did shots of  Crystal Head Vodka with sickpuppy. Sometime around 12am we made it back to the hotel.

Day 1 – Podcamp sold out at 500 people. (VIP’s and free guests)
11am – Grassroots Podcasting
This is the session that has become a staple of Podcamp Pittsburgh. Hosted by Should I Drink That and the Wrestling Mayhem Show, the premise of the talk is to discuss inexpensive ways to start and then promote your podcast. Oh yeah, and people get chopped, chopped, chopped and chopped. The tradition continued of another packed room of people with fantastic audience interaction. A few questions came up about how to make money doing what we do. And while some left as soon as we said this is a hobby (that’s right biatches, I saw you get up and bolt. you were there to find out how to get rich quick and leave. We heard you were floating through groups. Next time we chase you with a chair.), we saw the glow in the eyes of our people when new ideas were presented. I have to give Sorg a lot of credit he really knows how to promote and market a show. When he speaks you need to listen.

The plus side for myself and sickpuppy was the new business opportunities which arose from the talk for us. I decided to let it out that SIDT is expanding and well… you’ll have to wait. We’re gonna redefine media whores

Papuga Porch
This is the smokers lounge aka, porch outside AIP cafeteria. We have renamed this in honor of the great Dawn Papuga who was unable to attend this year because her pussy was hurt. Serious, her cat was in the ER.

1pm – Yinz Cam
Priya Narasimhan was on hand to present quite possibly the greatest sports app developed and it was created here in Pittsburgh. Yinz Cam will allow your cell phone the ability to watch replays, different camera angles and see things that not even the TV’s will show you all for FREE on your phone. Currently this technology is available in the Mellon Arena for Pens. I have seen it used and its hella cool. Also talked about was the iBurgh app (also free) which allows you to complain to the city electronically.  Have a pothole that needs fixed? Take a pic with your phone and send it to the city. The built in GPS of your phone will help tag the exact location. Yinz Cam/iBurgh are prime examples as to why Pittsburgh is a leader in technology and “e-democracy”.

2pm -  “We do a radio show… but not really.”
Mikey and Big Bob from the 96.1fm Freakshow hosted what turned out to be the funniest session of the day. I’ve hated Pittsburgh morning radio, that’s why I got XM, but from talking to these guys online and seeing how they’ve taken to social media I’m now a faithful listener. They showed 3 of their videos and what seemed like 45 minutes of self promo turned into a kickass education on how local media needs to accept and embrace the future. Through social media they’ve been able to create and host events that would never have been possible with the traditional phone calls and announcing on air. Its about instant media, feedback and reaching as many as possible in the shortest amount of time and cost.

3pm -Shutting down your blog “A case study of the Burgh Blog”
I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this session going in. Most Pittsburgh bloggers and social media folk have been friends for awhile so we knew parts of the story and I had talked to Ginny a few times but never knew exactly what was involved with closing down the most popular blog in Pittsburgh history. Jaw dropping is cliche but true. Hearing how well executed Woy and Ginny did this was not just amazing but genius. This is a session you need to watch for yourself and watch you can do, soon.

Podcamp Pittsburgh broadcasted every session live thanks to the team at Vivo and will shortly be available online for you to watch. That’s right, you can watch Podcamp if you weren’t able to make it!

Day 1 After Party
Went to Red Star. Food was decent, beer was OK (best on tap was Sam Adams Oktoberfest) but Chris from Bocktown saved that and brought some growlers for us to drink (Weyerbacher Blithering Idiot infused with dates and other glorious flavors) and did the now traditional 649 shot which that night it was Tequila, Vodka and Razzmatazz.

(thanks to DahCheet)

Left there for Jekyl and Hyde where we stayed the rest of the night and closed the place. Drank many DFH120, Victory Wild Devil and, per sickpuppy’s request, all did multiple flaming Dr Peppers. Couldn’t find a taxi so the 3 of us had to walk from south side, across a river, through a tunnel and go downtown to our hotel. Stopped at Holiday Inn Express on South Side to use the bathroom, crashed a bachelorette party, told the desk clerk that we were staying there (we weren’t) so we got a shuttle back to the Marriott downtown. Dox went to sleep so sickpuppy and I took a 6 pack down to the front lobby and hung out outside. I think it was around 4am by the time we got back to the room.

Day 2

Got to Podcamp around 11:30am, just in time for free lunch. Stayed for 2 sessions and went home. We might have been a LITTLE tired.

So where can you catch all of the excitement online in pics and video? Easy, search your favorite sites for the tag #pcpgh4 or:

• Official Podcamp Pittsburgh Flickr group
• pcpgh4 on Flickr
• pcpgh4 on You Tube

Thanks for a great weekend everyone now take a couple weeks off then we can start planning Podcamp Pittsburgh 5!