The Secret of a Social Media Enabled Business Card
by Alex Vermeule posted May 27th, 2009 at 11:20
The average business card you see today is boring and does not trigger any action. Except to put it in your desk drawer perhaps. It does depend on the person that gave you the card, but often you just store the card’s information somewhere and then forget about it.
You want to achieve something more when you share your contact details, right?
Perhaps you want to be better remembered or you want people to welcome your business more. Now why not embrace social media to achieve these goals? Let’s look at the benefits of sharing social media profiles on your business card.
Supports Your Personal Brand
A social media enabled business card provides a personal experience to those who receive your card. You make it easy for them to find extra information about you, your professionals skills and company. This helps you to differentiate yourself professionally and support your personal brand.
Take for example the business card you would receive when we would meet for my work as independent contractor. It provide links to the subscription pages of this website, my Twitter account and Linkedin profile. All are direct invitations for you to connect with me online. The back of the card is a larger version of my avatar, making it easier for you to recognize my online identity and personal brand.
Make a Better Connection
Now picture the moment you normally give your business card to someone.
You usually just met that person face to face for the first time, right? By giving your card, you support your efforts to make a connection with him/her during that first meeting.
What if your card triggered the person you just met to also connect with you on social media networks after your meeting?
You get an awesome opportunity to fast track your business relationship.
Give So Much More Than a Card
If you take a closer look at social interaction in business, you see you can only ‘cook’ (do business) successfully with the right ingredients. Whether it is a prospect, your new boss or co-worker, you build successful business relations using the following ingredients:
- Trust
- Value
Social Media allows you to give a transparent view of your business activities (helps build trust) and articulate the value you provide. It also allows you to show your sincere interest in the person you just met and give so much more than just a card. It directly enhances your chance of success in business.
Easily Continue Your Conversation Online
Once connected you have a fantastic opportunity to follow up on your first conversation. In the ‘old days’, you just had e-mail or a telephone. Now you have Tweets, Facebook Status Updates, FriendFeed, just to name a few. If your business card enhances the initial connection you make with someone, social media allows you to continue your conversations and build on possible opportunities.
Your Next Business Card?
It makes sense to enable your traditional business card for social media. However, you also have some great alternatives for that small piece of paper. Take Pokens (I like to give them away to potential customers) or Dutch solution My name is E for example. These technologies allow you to create an online business card and share it in real live, all with a single touch via a small device or even your mobile phone.
What you might find however, is that not everyone is ready to adopt to this type of technology just yet. Perhaps if all mobile phone manufactures conform to a single standard for contact exchange. Until that day, we will probably use a combination of traditional cards and this type of technology. Just make sure your card is social media enabled (and you use FSC certified paper), more people will remember you. Guaranteed!
Something to think about when getting new business cards
- What is your business’ social media strategy
- What is the most important information for the person that receives your card
- What do you want people to do when they get home with your card
Do you use social media in your business?
The astounding growth of social media sites such Twitter and Facebook is amazing. It’s also fun and allows you to stay connected with more people than you ever imagined. Does your business card invite people to connect with you? Why not? Love to read your thoughts or ideas on the whole subject! Please share them in the comments area below.
Tags: Enterprise 2.0, Personal Branding, Personal Innovation, Social Media
Categories: Personal Innovation, Social Media
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Thank you for the blog posting. Especially the suggestion to use ‘mynameise.com’. The Pokens are not available yet in stores in USA, so the ‘e’ cloud app is another way to create a virtual biz card.
Thanks for you comment Doug and great to read you liked the posting!
MynameisE won The Next Web Conference 09 startup competition, so interesting to see where they go. About the Pokens, I ordered my kit straight from their web store, won’t be surprised if they mail those kits straight to the US too? See http://tinyurl.com/qbytb6
liked this post – I’ve finally gotten to the point where I think listing my blog on my business card is a good idea. Wonder how much of this you can include in your vcf/signature?
Hi Venkat, glad you liked the post! RE: your question, the vCard standard supports private extensions and allows you to put your blog url in your vCard. For more info, checkout Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard). If you just use text in your e-mail signature, it’s a matter of personal preference what you put in it. However, always think about what is useful information for the person that receives your e-mail. Good luck!
Thanks for the blog. It's answered my question on what should appear on a business card when you want to include your SM info, which side of the card, etc. For my business I'd put our additional contact info (address, etc.) on the reverse side along with our company logo (again) and free space for those who still want to be able to write something down.