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Students were shown a picture of a QR code and then asked questions like: Can you identify what this is? Do you know how to use it? How likely are you to engage with these in the future?

Here are just a few of our findings:

·         81% of students owned a smartphone

·         80% of students had previously seen a QR code

·         21% of students successfully scanned our QR code example.

·         75% of students said they are “Not Likely” to scan a QR code in the future.

Read this in full.

MarketingVOX (@marketingvox) reports that a study by Ypulse (@ypulse) finds that fewer than 1 in 5 students have ever used QR codes, nearly 2/3 of students have no idea what that are, and 6% have seen them but can't figure out how to use them.

According to comScore (@comScore), "the people more likely to scan a QR code are male (61% of code scanning audience), skew toward ages 18-34 (53%), and have a household income of $100,000 or above (36%). They also are more likely to scan codes found in newspapers/magazines and on product packaging - and do so while at home or in a store."

Do you have Writer’s Block? Consult this Infographic to break through. ☺

Click for a larger version.

By the way, today is the National Day of Listening (@StoryCorps).

More than 130 bloggers will begin Sunday to contribute to a 3-month blog and Twitter tour for the new Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com) translation. The “Common English Bible Thank You-Come Again-I Promise” tour extends from November through January, honoring National Bible Week (11/20-27), Thanksgiving (11/24), Advent (11/27-12/24), Christmas (12/25), and New Year’s celebration (1/1-30). The complete tour schedule, participation details, and list of bloggers with links to their blogs are available at CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour (http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour). New bloggers may continue to join throughout the tour.

Background information on the Common English Bible is available at http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/newsroom. Badges that can be placed on blogs are available at http://j.mp/uvrxBL. 

The CEB Twitter stream is @CommonEngBible (http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible). The tour Twitter hashtag is #CEBtour (http://twitter.com/#!/search/%23cebtour). Bloggers will be writing posts around the above seasonal events, including commenting on verses from the Common English Bible, reviewing the Bible translation itself, interviewing the translators or associate publisher behind the translation, or discussing the translation with their readers.

Known for being “built on common ground,” the Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 academic scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world who joined together to clearly translate the Bible’s original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages into 21st century English. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are currently in print. It’s also available online and in 20 digital formats.

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com or Diane Morrow, dmorrow@tbbmedia.com, at 1.800.927.1517.

On SocialTimes (@SocialTimes), Megan O'Neill (@maoneill) says, “Word-of-mouth marketing is one of the most effective kinds of marketing when it comes to influencing purchase decisions.” The following Infographic from WOMMA (@WOMMA) and Column Five Media (@columnfive) takes a look at just how important and effective word of mouth marketing is, online and off.

Enlarge the Infographic.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you engage your consumers so they mention your brand often in their social networks – online and offline.

On The Proactive Report, Sally Falkow (@sallyfalkow) encourages you to map your brand’s social graph. She says “your stakeholders are on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn and they’re connecting to each other.”

It’s quite likely that your content is filtering into the social graph across many platforms and nodes. One customer likes a video you post and adds it to their Facebook page. One of her friends tweets the link. A colleague of his sees it and adds your video to StumbleUpon and a follower there posts it to Digg. As it travels across the graph people add comments. Later it gets seen by a journalist researching a story or someone searching for a solution to a problem.

Invest the time to map your social graph. Locate and build relationships with your brand advocates and online influencers.  Respond to your detractors and convert them to fans.

There is real ROI in mapping your social graph and making it possible for your stakeholders to share your content .

Read this in full.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you graph your brand’s social map.

Infographic by Pulpmedia Online Marketing

An international network of bloggers will soon contribute to a three-month blog tour for the new Common English Bible (http://CommonEnglishBible.com) translation. The “Common English Bible Thank You-Come Again-I Promise” tour extends from November through January, honoring National Bible Week, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas, and New Year’s celebration. The complete tour schedule, and information about joining the tour, is available at CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour (http://CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/blogtour). Background information about the Common English Bible is available at CommonEnglishBible.com/CEB/newsroom.

The Twitter hashtag for the tour is #CEBtour.

Beginning Nov. 20 and running through January, the tour is an opportunity for bloggers to join together in writing posts around upcoming seasonal events using the Common English Bible (Twitter @CommonEngBible – http://twitter.com/CommonEngBible), including commenting on verses from it, reviewing the Bible translation itself, interviewing the translators or associate publisher behind the translation, or discussing the translation with their readers.

“This tour is designed to help bloggers coordinate for their readers the thoughtful consideration of the biblical expressions of gratitude, waiting for the coming of Christ, and personal renewal,” says Paul Franklyn, PhD, associate publisher for the Common English Bible. “What better time to consider these themes than during Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year? And in what better manner than with a scholarly Bible translation that’s easily comprehendible to the majority of English readers?”

Participating bloggers in the tour will receive a copy of the leather-like Thinline Bible DecoTone Tan/Brick Red edition, suggested themes, topics, and verses on which to write, an invitation to interview Bible scholars, and badges to place on their blogs indicating their involvement. Bloggers will have the opportunity to offer to their readers a free copy of the softcover edition: one copy per week for every week the bloggers write a blogpost that includes mention of the Common English Bible during the tour.

Known for being “built on common ground,” the Common English Bible is a collaboration of 120 academic scholars and editors, 77 reading group leaders, and more than 500 average readers from around the world who joined together to clearly translate the Bible’s original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages into 21st century English. More than half-a-million copies of the Bible are currently in print. It’s also available online and in 20 digital formats.

Among the more than 120 bloggers scheduled so far for the tour are:

·         Bruce Reyes-Chow (http://reyes-chow.com/) – Bruce Reyes-Chow

·         Corybanter II (http://caspianrex.posterous.com/) – Cory Howell

·         Deep Breathing for the Soul (http://keriwyattkent.com/soul/) – Keri Wyatt Kent

·         Flowing Faith (http://www.flowingfaith.com/) - Mari-Anna Stålnacke

·         GodHungry (http://godhungry.org/) – Jim Martin

·         Inspiring Followers of Jesus to Live Love (http://margotstarbuck.blogspot.com/) – Margot Starbuck

·         (Ir)Regular Christian (http://www.irregularchristian.com/) – Casey Taylor

·         Jennifer Grant (http://www.jennifergrant.com/) – Jennifer Grant

·         A Journeyman’s Catalog (http://mattlipan.blogspot.com/) – Matt Lipan

·         LeadFollower (http://leadfollower.wordpress.com/) – Tony Johnson

·         Mike Slaughter (http://mikeslaughter.com/blog) – Mike Slaughter

·         Nicole Unice (http://www.nicoleunice.com/blog/) – Nicole Unice

·         Only Wonder Understands (http://onlywonder.com/) – Jay Voorhees

·         The Parson’s Patch (http://theparsonspatch.com/) – Mark Stevens

·         A Peculiar Prophet (http://willimon.blogspot.com/) – Will Willimon

·         Ponderings on a Faith Journey (http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com/) – Robert Cornwall

·         Posts from the Blog of an (un)Tamed Cynic (http://johnvest.com/) – John Vest

·         Preacher Smith (http://preachersmith.com/) – David Smith

·         Rev. Brent L. White (http://brentwhite.wordpress.com) – Brent White

·         Salvaged Faith (http://salvagedfaith.blogspot.com/) – Katie Dawson

·         Shekinah Glory (http://pastorofdisaster.wordpress.com/)  – Brian Merritt

·         Spirit Stirrer (http://spiritstirrer.org/) – Juan Huertas

·         Storied Theology (http://www.jrdkirk.com/) – J. R. Daniel Kirk

·         Whitby Forum (http://www.whitbyforum.com/) – Carolyn Custis James

·         Willis Wired (http://www.williswired.com/) – Randy & Joleen Willis,

“When we say ‘built on common ground,’ we mean that the Common English Bible is the result of collaboration between opposites: scholars working with average readers; conservatives working with liberals; teens working with retirees; men working with women; many denominations and many ethnicities coming together around the common goal of creating a vibrant and clear translation for 21st century readers, with the ultimate objective of mutually accomplishing God’s overall work in the world; in essence, helping Bible readers live on common ground,” says Paul Franklyn, PhD, associate publisher for the Common English Bible.

The Common English Bible is written in contemporary idiom at the same reading level as the newspaper USA TODAY—using language that’s comfortable and accessible for today’s English readers. It’s available—with and without the Apocrypha—in multiple editions and bindings. Information about the Common English Bible is available on its website, Twitter stream, Facebook page, and video.

Combining scholarly accuracy with vivid language, the Common English Bible is the work of 120 biblical scholars from 24 denominations in American, African, Asian, European, and Latino communities, representing such academic institutions as Asbury Theological Seminary, Azusa Pacific University, Bethel Seminary, Denver Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Seattle Pacific University, Wheaton College, Yale University, and many others.

Additionally, more than 500 readers in 77 groups field-tested the translation. Every verse was read aloud in the reading groups, where potentially confusing passages were identified. The translators considered the groups' responses and, where necessary, reworked those passages to clarify in modern English their meaning from the original languages. In total, more than 700 people worked jointly to bring the Common English Bible to fruition; and because of the Internet and today’s technology it was completed in less than four years.

Visit CommonEnglishBible.com to see comparison translations, learn about the translators, get free downloads, and more.

The Common English Bible is sponsored by the Common English Bible Committee, an alliance of five publishers that serve the general market, as well as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) (Chalice Press), Presbyterian Church (USA) (Westminster John Knox Press), Episcopal Church (Church Publishing, Inc.), United Church of Christ (The Pilgrim Press), and The United Methodist Church (Abingdon Press).

For a media review copy of the Common English Bible and to schedule an interview with Paul Franklyn, please contact Audra Jennings, ajennings@tbbmedia.com or Diane Morrow, dmorrow@tbbmedia.com, at 1.800.927.1517.

According to a new survey of social consumers, marketers who create highly sharable online content – video, audio, and photos consumers want to share with friends and colleagues – significantly boost their brand’s online presence and are more likely to increase sales.

The Science of Sharing study, conducted by M Booth (@MBoothPR) and Beyond (@beyond), two communications agencies in the Next Fifteen (@Next_Fifteen) global network, examined US consumer engagement with products online across a dozen brand categories. According to the data:

·         more than half of consumers (53%) say they interact with brands on Facebook

·         4 in 10 (42%) have written a product review online

·         a third (33%) have written an online post about a product.

·         1 in 5 consumers are “high sharers” and are 3 times more likely to make a product recommendation online. They tend to be younger, brand loyal, own multiple Internet devices and are conducting online research that requires minimal emotional or monetary investment.

·         “Low sharers” tend to be older, put a premium on quality, are less brand loyal, and are researching products online that cost more and involve more consideration.

When it comes to influencing consumer decision making, search is the most powerful online gateway (seo is a vital marketing element) followed by digital word of mouth and recommendations made by friends and family. The most common products that people recommend online are from the beauty, electronics, fashion, and music categories.

Read the news release in full.

Read the whitepaper (pdf).

See the Infographic (pdf).

See the Infographic (gif).

See the SlideShare presentation.

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you reach your brand’s digital consumer.

In an article in AdAge (@adage), B.L. Ochman, of What’s Next? (@whatsnext), explains why QR code campaigns fail:

·         Unreadable codes on billboards, too high up for people to get a clear scan; on ads in subways, where there is no cellphone reception for scans.

·         QR codes in TV ads. By time you run and get your phone, find the scanner, and try to take a shot, the ad's over.

·         No instructions. Not everyone knows what a QR code is and how to scan it.

·         Using a proprietary code so you need a specific type of QR reader to scan it.

Read this in full.

Although Adweek (@Adweek) derides this “World’s Largest QR Code” (able to be seen 2 miles in the sky), it may have the last laugh because of its PR value.

And AXA Bank in Belgium arranged thousands of different colors of cans of paint to form a gigantic QR code.

In an article for Media Post (@MediaPost), brand marketer Maryanne Conlin (@mcmilker) extols the convenience of QR codes as the overriding benefit when marketing to busy moms.

Read this in full.

And this article in Target Marketing (@TargetMktg) asks “QR Codes Vs. Short Codes, and Does Your Campaign Need Them?”

Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you think through your QR code marketing strategy. Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.