One of the project that we’ve been working on at Tag is to try to find out how consumer feel when they interact with different mobile tagging solutions. Here’s the data that we received from a third party that I think you’ll find interesting.

• March 2011 had the most scans of any month so far, with over 50 percent more scans than any other month.
• Three billion Tags were printed in the past six months alone (5 billion have been printed since launch in January 2009).
• In the past three months, scans per month have doubled, and users per month have more than doubled.
• Publishing continues to be the top industry using Tag. Retail and entertainment are second and third.

As we move along into 2011 you’re going to see one specific type of technology gaining momentum, Mobile Tagging. Mobile Tagging is comes from a Japanese open source technology called QR codes. However the tech is about ten years old new 2dcodes are coming in to the market and one of them Microsoft Tag I work on the social media efforts for.

PSFK has done an amazing job looking at different types of mobile tagging solutions and has put together a report that is worth reading. There’s tons of great case studies demonstrating how this technology can be leveraged in a variety of different types of businesses and personal uses. Most importantly the last section of this report has a great “How to Mobile Tag” piece that will get you going quick if you haven’t used this type of technology before.

If you’ve used mobile tagging before I’d love to hear what was your implementation, how did you decide to go with 2dbarcodes, and what 2dbarcode technology you utilized.

For many years businesses have looked to print for their advertising brochures, pamphlets, fliers, newspapers etc. as a way to spread the news about their products or services. With the boom of the internet and moreover, the boom of the social web, print advertising has faced a downward spiral due to the easy access of the web through mobile devices and exponential growth of highly engage social networks such as Facebook. The increased cost of print advertising and the growing green movement hasn’t helped print slow their decline. To demonstrate this downward spiral about a year ago the Times Co. Reported a loss of $74 Million, one of their steepest advertising declines in generations and just in this year’s second quarter newspaper advertising slump moderated but print revenue was the worst since 1983.

Print advertising companies have tried to offset these losses by building online presences but their online growth is slow, failing to capture the ever growing online consumers. As consumers continue to move online and look for new ways to interact with one another print advertising might not be at a complete loss if they learn to leverage bridge building technologies such as Microsoft Tag to connect the real world to the digital world.

The best example to date is the Allure Magazine Campaign utilizing Microsoft Tag.

In August we shared details about Microsoft Tag in Allure’s August Free Stuff Giveaway issue. Now we’re excited to share the results of that campaign. In past years, Allure used their website as the entry point for their annual giveaway, but this year Allure used Microsoft Tag. The August issue included 39 Microsoft Tags that allowed readers to enter any one of the 159 giveaways of beauty products worth $725,000. Were you one of the nearly 450,000 readers to scan a Tag and enter to win Allure’s Free Stuff Giveaway?

Microsoft Tag holds unique way for people to disseminate information through the real world connecting people to the digital world. Video, pictures, chat, mobile games and much more can be put behind these tags to personalize content and allow people to have real life experiences that can be enhanced by digital sharing and interaction. Since tags can be put on stickers, t-shirts, billboards, magazines, flyers, digital screens the opportunity is endless in how they can be used. Imagine if writers for a magazine or newspaper added Tags like the one below to engage with their users. “Download the mobile application and snap the Tag to see what’s behind it”

Additionally you could put you’re twitter handle for people to talk directly to you. Or dive them to your Facebook Page for real-time conversations. Print doesn’t has to be static anymore and I think Tag put’s a whole new meaning to the old saying “A picture is worth a 1000 words”.

For the 4th week of Tag Talk, Nadia and I went through five more creative ways to use Microsoft Tag. If you have an idea of your own on how to use Microsoft Tag send us a note or even a video clip and we might put it up on our show.

The 5 Tips Of The Week -

Use it on flyers but change the content behind the tag
Microsoft Tag on wine bottles
Apparel companies Place Tags so people can order directly
Leave notes for your roommates and friends
Place Tag in a elevator

Besides the five suggested tips on how to use Microsoft Tag we mention a social experiment that is in the works

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i2T_xNtRQI&hl=en&fs=1&]

If you have any feedback let me know.

English LeBook Tutorial from LE BOOK on Vimeo.

This is a great example on how print material will be linking to the digital world more and more. This is also a great example on how mobile technologies will become more and more prominate in out lives.

My tag bellow is for “A Sea Change” a new movie comming out that asks people to imagine a world without fish.

If you haven’t used Microsoft Tag before check it out it’s very simple to use but at the same time a powerful tool.@ me if you get a Tag up on your profile linking to your favorite green cause.

I’m also writing to call on friends, colleagues and other social enthusiast to provide some well-needed feedback on my new adventures. Right now I’m really looking for feedback on a new product “Microsoft Tag”. If you haven’t had the chance to check it please do. I’m really looking for feedback on the blog (i.e. constructive criticism and aspects that you do like about the blog). In addition if you have some innovative ideas on how this product can be used, Go for it! All I ask if you would either take pics, or video tape your experiment so I can feature it on the Tag blog, if you’re willing to.

Well I have a million other things to work on right now. I did pick up a couple of books today that I’ll write about later. Oh, and a quick side note, I’m working on getting plugged into the social tech scene up here so if you have any suggestions on who I should meet up with let me know.

Thanks for reading,