My Twitter blogger friend Stephanie Wonderlin (@swonderlin on Twitter), tweeted that she had new business cards to help promote her blog. So I told her to bring some of her fancy-schmancy new cards when we tweeted up recently. When I got home, I realized that I forgot to ask for her cards… and didn’t give her any of mine. But then I had to think, did I really need to do this?
Stephanie and I are in frequent, sometimes daily, contact on Twitter. I realize that my ability to connect with her is one tweet, one direct message, one blog or Facebook comment away. No business card? No problem. I can access her information, as well as her, without ever having to refer to her business card. This is the “No Business Card” future with social media.
As an active offline “real world” networker, business cards are typically an absolute necessity for me when attending chamber of commerce luncheons, tradeshows, seminars, and networking events. However, I estimate there is a 50 percent chance that mine will be discarded by later that day, sometimes even before the recipient leaves the facility. So are we really connecting?
There are e-business card services such as Contxts which will text message your contact info to someone’s cell phone. I haven’t had too much experience with this personally and have only seen it used a few times in the real world. Plus, app-enriched mobile phones (unlike the one I currently own) have more ways for us to connect and transfer info while in person. Because you need to actively do something to get someone’s contact information this way, chances are this exchange will only be done between those who are really interested in connecting.
Will you still need business cards in the future? Yes, you should have a professionally printed one (not from your ink-jet printer!) for those occasions when connecting electronically in person may not be an option. But the day is coming when little pieces of paper will not be the way we gather, organize and categorize people’s contact information.
And so that you don’t need my business card, you can connect with me on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Post Update from 2011 Event Camp National Conference February 15, 2011
Last week I attended the 2011 Event Camp National Conference in Chicago. I was thrilled to meet up, in real life, many of my online Twitter and Facebook friends from the #eventprofs community. How many business cards do you think I collected… and there were 60+ attendees? One, just one, from a gal who had not yet set up her social media presence for work. Again, I didn’t need little slips of paper to know where to find these folks. They’re as close as my PC or iPhone, 24/7/365. Plus, with the great EventMobi app for the conference, I could see the list of attendees and how to connect with them. Since many of us we’re already chatting regularly, sometimes daily, I didn’t need to send them the “great to meet you at…” emails either. What a great networking world we now live in!
Related Posts
- Networking – Mass Emails are Not Follow-Up
- Social Networking Throughout Your Career Book Review
- Twitter Tweetup is Social Media in 3D
Tags: business cards, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Strategies, Socialite Marketing, Twitter, Twitter strategies
Leave A Reply (8 comments So Far)
Stephanie Wonderlin
756 days ago
I realized I didn’t give you guys the cards after I left too – hated that, but I do agree with your post. Business cards are still a necessity, but not as much now due to the ability to keep up with people through social media. Love the idea of Contxts – how awesome is that?!?!
Heidi Thorne
756 days ago
Hey, next time we tweetup I’ll get one of those cool new cards! Thanks for being inspiring!
Asif Mirza
739 days ago
Great article Heidi!
I would have agreed with this time last week, however I attended a speed networking event a few days ago and found a renewed importance to business cards.
With 2 mins per interaction all we had to take away was a a business card and a lingering impression that the person made on you (or didn’t in some cases)
So I attended with some experimental business minicards, and got a very good response outright.The key was to be memorable, and it seemed to work. I would have been lost being all electronic!
I think there will be a time when it becomes predominantly electronic, but in the current situation of forming relationships there still is a requirement to have something tangible.Although many people frequent Twitter and have Facebook pages and Linkedin profiles etc, not everyone is a adept at social media as we assume, so we still have to play by the “old” rules…. but aren’t the old ones the best ones??
Asif
Heidi Thorne
736 days ago
Asif, thank you so much for taking time to thoughtfully comment!
I agree that we do need both, depending on the situation. For accelerating networking, yes, regular cards are probably more convenient and effective. But I think there will be a day when our smart devices will be able to communicate so effectively with one another that we won’t need to exchange business cards to exchange contact information. Maybe business cards will be supplanted by some other way to remain memorable in our networking colleagues’ minds. I’m thinking maybe super cool promotional products… okay, I’m biased.
I enjoyed connecting with you in the Twitterverse and #ephh videochat. Appreciate your insight, wit, and perspective!
Cameron Toth
451 days ago
Hello Heidi,
The future is coming. Heidi you made a huge point about Social Media. Through making connections before the meeting and with meetings more and more buying into online pre-communities like Pathable.com we will be able to see faces, remember conversations, continue them and resource contact info.
I love business cards and I hate business cards. I am staring at a pile of them on my desk right now. Some are from people I have known online for a while. Some are from complete strangers who handed their cards out like porn flyers in Vegas. And some are from people that I really want to continue a conversation with (No those cards do not contain erotic images).
The challenge is, after a meeting, getting all of that info into your computer to send out emails and basically hold on to a persons info until you need it. That presents a challenge! Free programs like CamCard Lite (for Android phones) can help you translate cards into contacts but it does not offer the service of remembering the face with the name.
However if there is an online community where everyone who was at the meeting is registered and/or a pre-existing social media connection you are in like Flynn!
Heidi Thorne
450 days ago
Thanks, Cameron, for weighing in on the future and present challenges of business cards!
Gotta admit that while I don’t relish the idea of handing out business cards, I did have to get some new ones recently for those situations where either: a) Someone has not met me online and is meeting me in person for the first time; or, b) For those who are absolutely not going to be networking online. Otherwise, I’d ditch and pitch ‘em.
Agreed, we now have some great tools to capture info. But as you note, they often don’t put the face with the name. That’s one of the beauties of social media in my opinion.
As we both experienced at recent Event Camps, the EventMobi type app is a fabulous way to gather contact info–and faces with names–for the attendees that were there.
Appreciate you taking the time to comment!
Heidi Thorne
434 days ago
Another entry in the No Business Card future is offered by the Hashable app. It’s in beta mode as of this writing and making an impact at the SXSW social media conference. More info at http://hashable.com/beta
Thanks to @KatieFelten and @globeandmail (see The Globe and Mail article at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/digital-culture/trending-tech/so-long-business-cards-hello-hashable/article1934181/ ) in my Twitter tribe for pointing it out.