QR Code on a Facebook post

This is not going to work! - the QR code that is - also a link on Facebook could be flagged as "malicious".

Below is an image of VERSION 1 of the poster - the QR code is NOT the one for the fair.

If the poster is posted to Facebook it needs a URL (web link) so that it can be clicked from Facebook.

The page on Facebook is almost certainly going to be accessed using a mobile phone.

I created a page for "Light-up Belchamp Walter" and submitted it for indexing. I was not asked to do this as it is an experiment. So far I have seen no accesses for the Craft Fair, and that has a poster with a QR code. To be fair this has yet to be distributed/or posted to Facebook.

As I am not a Facebook user I don't know if a URL link can be posted without confusing the issue with tempusfugit.me.uk. A QR code can be made clickable on this website:

Note: The link above goes to the Village Hall website.

Vendor Pages

The same goes for the Vendor pages.

Visits from Facebook

It looks to me from observation of my tracking mechanisms that visitors from this source used a link that another Facebook user (possibly the vendor checking their page and photographs) had placed on their own pages.

Sadly I cannot confirm this as I am not a Facebook user and I am certainly not a "friend" of the people placing links on their pages. I have made my point in this regard and it is up to those that are "in charge" of the craft fair promotion to either realise that they need a URL as well as the QR code on a poster.

In an ideal world this URL will be one other than one to a page on this website. I don't want to get into the discussion relating to what the village needs as a domain name.

Observations

When a Facebook user visits this website using the QR code there is no FBCLID, if a URL is posted (and this has to be generated by the Facebook user and re-posted) there WILL be a FBCLID.

In adddition, the visits where they exist are to pages relating to vendors that are already very active on Facebook. As there are not that many in the list of vendors this is not really a scientific test. At the moment it looks more like the vendors that have sent in photographs are those that are reposting and checking their pages that I had created from the photos.

When the QR code is scanned:

When a URL is copy and pasted into a Facebook post:

Facebook Referrals

Looking at my Google Analytics reports for Facebook Referrals I came across the concept of Link Shims.

holini.com say:

Whether this is "favourable" or not, it is still going to deter Facebook users clicking to your website. A better strategy is to explain that more information can be found on a local website and tell the Facebook user what to search for. The website does not need to be anything that "reads" like the village name and "tempusfugit" is perfectly okay as long as it is explained what it is.