Come Recommended: Forging connections in the digital age isn’t always as easy as it once was. When we’re so used to being able to hit the “connect” button on social networking sites, the majority of us have come to focus on building our network online and completely miss out on important face-to-face opportunities.
It’s time to use social networking and in-person networking in tandem. Never fear, your trusty business card will be certain to fuel your real-life connectivity. These little pieces of information have been used for centuries, and they aren’t going out of style any time soon. In fact, they’re becoming an increasingly more important way to connect others with your online accounts.
11 comments:
One of the things i find interesting on this article is it talks about getting creative with the shape of the card, using unique shapes or even circles for your card. My question for that though is what is considered obnoxious for someone to have to carry or hold onto when breaking the 3 by 5 mold ( i think thats what the dimensions are).
There was article last semester from Moo.com promoting their business cards that contained NFC microchips, which I thought was a really strong step forward in our digital world, allowing us to easily collect and store another's information by simply tapping the card to an NFC enable device for an instant transfer. But the card was an extra cost on top of the order for your standard plain-jane cards. But I think that UPrint is really onto something here too because firstly there's no added fee for printing the QR code on the cards and it provides similar access to your information, especially when connected to your linked in or online portfolio or the like. But will that added image be too tacky and intrusive or do you just put in on the backside of your card and not worry about it?
The NFC microchip cards from Moo are very cool, until you consider the fact that a device that can read it is necessary (hint: iPhones are not able to do so). QR codes can be read by nearly any smartphone, but they also limit your choices in color palette and contrast if you want them to be readable. I don't see how some of these other suggestions (making it a circle, like Sean points out, or adding thread or dental floss as a flourish) makes your card more social-meda friendly per se. These cards are certainly more memorable, and if you can make your card practical to some purpose beyond communication of information, you hit the jackpot. The social media question is one that is developing, and that you really need to consider what you want to display and link to. And is there a major difference between typing yourname.com on a card and putting out the graphical space for the QR code?
I don't see this article promoting what it was titled. Yes, they mentioned a few apps that you can use to interact with the business card, and they mentioned the benefits of social networking, however how is the card social media friendly?
Brian and Joe point out an interesting way to combine technology and a business card, but even then I wonder how far that investment would take you.
It seems to me that the effective way to make your business card social media friendly, is putting a twitter or facebook or linked in address on your card.
The advice on personalizing your business card isn't unhelpful - make yourself personal, but having a floss business business card isn't exactly "social media friendly"
I'm starting to work on my business card now and I've found it difficult to find creative ways of expressing who I am and what I do and how to contact me for it on a single small piece of paper. I agree with Ariel that the title's a bit misleading- the way you make your business card social media friendly is to simply put the link to your social media profile on your card, simple as that. I also think that the ideas for embellishments is a tad excessive. Yes, you want your card to stand out, but you don't want it to look like a party favor from a kid party.
I fully support the interesting business card movement especially because any of the sites on which you can make and print your own business cards use boring simple templates and generic bland background images. The site that Brian mentioned, moo.com, is one of the companies trying to break out of the normal boring model by offering different textures, various sizes, interesting background images, full customizability, and implementing technologies such as NFC and QR codes. (This comment has been paid for in part by Moo.com)
The thing about putting links on your business card is that it adds another level of work for the receiver of the card. Sure, it sounds silly, and I don't necessarily agree with it, but they have to type in the address on the card, which people may find too much of a hassle. As ugly as a QR code is, it is much easier for the employer to pull out their smart phone and scan it immediately when they receive it than it is for them to wait until they are home or at work with a computer and then remember that they wanted to look you up.
I agree that the title of the article is a little misleading, but personalizing your card actually is somewhat related to being "social media friendly". You want your business card to match the tone and style of your social media presence, since having them all be memorable and tied together might make you more memorable as well.
This article has very little information in it. It says that we should use business cards in a modern age with online social networking, but it only gave one or two tips on how to do that. It says to use QR codes, a good idea, and to use smart phone apps to keep track of other peoples cards. Other than that all the advice was about making your card pretty. That's important but doesn't have to do with modernizing your business card. I do think that the ideas they bring up are important and good ideas, but there was still very little there. Another thing that comes to mind is that no one likes to get a business card that is a crazy shape, size, or has things hanging off it. It's a fun thing to hang on your wall but no one wants that in their wallet.
I think there is one moment in which the business card truly exists, and that is in the moment you hand it over. Eventually it's just going to end up at the bottom of a drawer, but that moment when you hand it over is the one moment in our stupid world of emails and facebooks that we get to engage with other professionals in a physical way. Not to be creepy. For that reason I want my card to be shocking in a physical sense, to be memorable in a tactile way. If it could deliver a mild electrical shock to the recipient that would be perfect. Well maybe not perfect because it would probably piss them off, assuming they are older than 9, but something like that. The idea of embossing follows that idea a little less painfully, because it has a certain feel to it. In my line where craft and attention to detail are qualities I think we should be looking for, a business card that incorporated a aspect of craft might not be a bad idea. One could mill a die that would stamp embossed business cards out of 20 gauge sheet metal. The point being the skill it took to make the die is impressed on the card itself. I think the whole trick is to be memorable and unique without being gimmicky, which is a tall order.
I doubt I would really want to link to my Facebook account on a business card... Anyway, I agree with Sean about the creative sizes and shapes of a card. There comes a point where creativity actually becomes a hinderance. If I were to be given a business card in a very unusual size or shape that made it difficult for me to hold on to, I would probably not end up holding on to it. I might remember the cool idea, but if it is a nuisance to carry, I'm not going to be remembering your information
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