Last Friday night I attended a function where I was introduced to a few interesting people. For professional reasons we decided to stay in contact. No one reached for a business card or called for a pen and paper, instead we enquired: Facebook? Twitter? LinkedIn? After agreeing quickly on our mutual social platform we happily went about our evening and by Saturday morning I had new connection requests awaiting confirmation in my account.
So apart from having something to throw in a bowl for the chance of a random door prize, what purpose does the business card serve in this digital age? I have accumulated a few business cards over my time and they all end up in a neat pile in the bottom draw. For years the business card has been the essential business networking marketing device and one could argue that they still serve an important purpose of giving a potential contact a good first impression not to mention a choice of contact information including your phone number, email and web addresses.
Nielson Wire reports that two thirds of the worlds Internet population visits social networking sites, however if your new found connection falls into the other third you could be left reaching for that business card - so maybe the timeless pocket sized marketing card is not totally redundant after all. Do you think the business card is redundant?
3 comments:
I hope not - I still have half of box of mine.... :( !
nope, I love them. At creche last week was trying to pull together a play date with a mum I don't know, she was trying to find her business card in her bag for details, I don't currently have one. In the end we had to scramble for scrap paper and crayons. If I had a card, we would have been set!
Not yet, but it's sure heading that way, which is a good thing. The concept of a business card is ridiculously clumsy and inefficient. With social networking sites, smart phones and apps, there really is no need for a business card in today's society. We still need them for the minority of people who refuse to accept change but we should be actively promoting the demise of the business card in my opinion.
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