Business Cards the Latest Internet Casualty 243
Hugh Pickens writes "Chalk up another looming casualty of the Internet age: business cards. Ubiquitous as pinstripes, the 2-by-3.5-inch pieces of card stock have long been a staple in executive briefcases. But now, writes Matt Stevens, young and Web-savvy people who are accustomed to connecting digitally, see business cards as irrelevant, wasteful — and just plain lame. 'When I go into a meeting and there are five bankers across the table, they all hand me business cards and they all end up in a pile, in a shoe box somewhere,' says Diego Berdakin, the founder of BeachMint, a fast-growing e-commerce site that has raised $75 million from investors without ever bothering to print a card. 'If someone comes in to meet me, we've already been connected through email, so it really doesn't feel like a necessity in my life.' Some 77 million smartphone users have downloaded the Bump app, which allows them to bump their phones together and instantly exchange contact information. Others carry a personalized quick-response code that smartphones can scan like a hyperlink. At 36, Ralph Barbagallo is near the cutoff for Generation Y but despises business cards all the same. Barbagallo says he goes to three major conferences a year and has to distribute paper cards, but lugging and exchanging fistfuls of them is a pain and it's hard to remember who is who. 'When they run out this time, I'm not printing any more,' says Barbagallo. 'They need to die somehow.'"
The Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
I want cards with those scanner codes embedded (Score:5, Insightful)
I want to set up a business card with one of those digicodes on the back that can be scanned by a smartphone, such as appear on YouTube VEVO broadcasts.
Realistically, business cards are for giving people your contact info, and nothing more. I never give business cards to people who already have my contact info, but they're invaluable for shows and conferences where they don't have your contact info.
Plus they're handy for dropping in to those "win a meal" restaurant promotion draws. :)
Disagree completely (Score:5, Insightful)
Although I love the idea of getting rid of paper as much as possible and attempt to employ that in my life where possible... there's nothing more annoying than if you're focusing on meeting someone for the first time, establishing a relationship and you have to say "Oh let me get my phone out, here, can you spell your email address for me? How do you spell your last name? Was that a B or a D you just said?"
I hand you my business card, you can clearly see how my name is spelled and can match it up to what I just told you. Visual cue along with audio cue. Then you have their email address and phone number and can take that back to your office and put that into a contact book on your computer, then toss the card. Not to mention you can make notes on their business cards without having to "boot up" any device.
Now, there might be something to be said for having some kind of "automatic business card exchange" application on phones, where you could pull out your phones and "bump" them with someone else's to get their info or whatnot, but honestly I'd still rather just hand the card over and maintain eye contact.
In a typical interpersonal business exchange, what people take away from the meeting is roughly a 70/20/10 split between body language/tone of voice/actual words spoken.
Re:The Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
QR Code containing VCard on the back. Tada, became relevant and useful again.
I couldn't agree more. Anyway I don't think it's the card itself that is obsolete, but the practice of throwing useless cards around like confetti. I have no idea how many useless cards I have already thrown away, but sometimes they come in useful. But usually only if I wanted the info in the first place.
Somebody's bitter about business cards today :) (Score:5, Insightful)
not knowing who is who is not specific to business cards... if you are not careful about who you add on your social network, you end up with a collection of contacts you have no idea why you have them.
business cards are relevant if you handle them properly.. if you can not remember who is who, put more info about the person on the business card or when you enter them into whatever software you use for contacts. Software exists to automate scanning business cards too.
if you are not printing business cards, imho, it is a mistake. not only some people are not computer savvy but it looks good when you have one.
Saying business cards need to die reminds me of how 20 years ago I read articles about how paper would die by year 2000 because of computer exchanges... a lot of bla bla... but business as usual
Internet also lowered cost of business cards (Score:5, Insightful)
Business cards aren't going anywhere (Score:5, Insightful)
When you are in a situation where you are meeting lots of folks quickly, nothing beats handing over a business card. It is a minimal conversation disruption. Ever tried to use the bump app in a crowded convention center? Spotty cell service, finding the damn icon, or your battery is dead... It just doesn't work well enough to replace tried and true paper for casual information exchange. The interruption completely derails a casual conversation. In an environment where you only have a few minutes to chat, it's not worth it.
Now it would be nice if QR embedded codes were standard on business cards to trivialize data entry.
Nope, business cards are here to stay. Folks that don't do serious business level interactions might be able to lose them, but the pros will use them for a while to come until the exchange becomes easier.
Re:Somebody's bitter about business cards today :) (Score:5, Insightful)
Saying business cards need to die reminds me of how 20 years ago I read articles about how paper would die by year 2000 because of computer exchange
If anything, computers made the creation of paper easy, and the amount of dead tree flung across an office has only exploded since then.
--
BMO
One thing about business cards... (Score:5, Insightful)
It is extremely difficult to infect a computer with malicious code via a paper business card.
This is Stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course Business Cards are still useful.
young and Web-savvy people who are accustomed to connecting digitally, see business cards as irrelevant, wasteful — and just plain lame.
So business cards are obsolete now because...Anonymous doesn't like them? What? Just because this guy thinks he is too cool for business cards doesn't mean they are 'dead' or 'a casualty'.
1. They provide a simple, physical way for people to be reminded of you or find your contact information. Without waiting for your phone or tablet to load, without waiting for a PC to boot. It's a tiny square of paper with all of the information you need. It doesn't take much space, and you can fit hundreds of them in the corner of a desk drawer. No need for a shoebox.
2. They are simple to handle and easier to glean information from than a phone app or barcode. I don't know about you, but I can't read QR codes by sight. It's a lot easier to say "What was that guy's name from the conference?" and pull a card from the stack of lit you got than it is to pull up a vCard app on your phone and hope it has a 'most recent additions' feature so it's easier to find the guy you just entered last night.
3. They provide an artistic first-impression and give someone looking at your information an idea of your style and something to remember you by - something to get stuck in their head and make them remember you even without the card. A really good business card is not even close to a little rectangle of paper. Sometimes they will be lithographed and transparent, die-cut, foil-printed, some even fold into a pop-up scene.
4. They are of HUGE cultural significance in far-Eastern countries, such as Japan. There they have a whole 'ritual' when people present business cards to each other. There is a specific way they stand, greet the other, bow, speak, and trade cards. It is a very formal and respectful way of exchanging contact information, which is still prevalent in one of the most technologically-advanced societies in the world.
In summary, even if the submitter is some lolcat who has no use for business cards, it's not safe to count them out just yet. Saying they're 'dead' or 'obsolete' is just ignorant of the way the rest of the world outside your internet bubble works.
Re:Disagree completely (Score:5, Insightful)
Absolutely. Also it's like a neck tie. Many people in many situations and many industries may not need them. But if you're in an industry or situation where it's expected, people won't take you seriously if you don't have one. If you are self employed or work in anything connected with sales, you'd be mad not to have them. If you lose a single job or sale because someone didn't take you seriously, you've lost more than the cost of printing a batch. And it's not as if carrying a few in your wallet is any hardship.
Personally I don't have them and don't need them, but they are essential for some people.
Re:Only people who are full of shit use them. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not the original AC, but i also agree with you whole heartedly about suits and ties... I detest wearing a suit and/or tie, and find it utterly ridiculous that people have some kind of perception that someone wearing a suit is somehow going to do their job better than someone who isn't.
In many cases, the opposite is true... Personally i find such clothing extremely uncomfortable, and will be spending more time thinking about how uncomfortable i am and watching the clock so i can get into some more sensible clothes, whereas if i was dressed comfortably i could concentrate more thoroughly on the work at hand. I've also found that people who aren't very good tend to wear a suit to try and hide their deficiencies, while those who are confidant in their abilities don't feel the need to dress in any particular way.
Business cards i think are just obsolete, they served a purpose once but have been superseded by modern technology. Suits and ties never served any useful purpose whatsoever.
Re:Disagree completely (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that anyone is still small minded enough to not take someone seriously simply because they aren't wearing what they perceive to be the correct uniform. These preconceptions need to die a horrible death, someone's clothing has no impact on their ability to do a particular job and people should be free to wear whatever clothing is most comfortable for them.
(wearing a suit is horrendously uncomfortable, and wastefully expensive... in the summer when the subways are blisteringly hot you arrive at work all sweaty, and have to spend a fortune in dry cleaning to keep cleaning your suits).
Re:The Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what I do. I have a fairly traditional (if not stylish) double-sided card. One side has the logo and slogan, the other has basic contact information and a QR code. The thing is, business cards are just another form of advertising. They're not necessarily about "making a connect", they're about canvasing. Furthermore, the get passed around to new people. I redesign my cards just a bit about every year when I need more printed. Because of this I can tell how long any particular card has been around. Parents pass cards onto their kids, friends to each other, etc. Some of my cards have been in circulation for years, and I get new business because of it. Anyone who is writing off business cards as a bygone antiquity just doesn't understand marketing... then again, most of these "web-savy" kids don't. Not everyone has a smart phone, after all.
Re:I want cards with those scanner codes embedded (Score:2, Insightful)
This....
Also you are not always dealing with .com companies. Many 'old guard' guys have stacks of these things. It is the way they run their business.
They are still good for 'oh yeah met that guy at that conference where is his card'... 'oh yeah thats his name and let me pop him off an email quick...'
To think they are dead? laughable. They are still doing what they did before. That extra piece of paper hanging around to remind you 'hey we met and contact me'...
Re:Only people who are full of shit use them. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was going to moderate discussion, but I had to respond to your trollish comment.
All cultures have social cues and dress codes, whether explicit or implicit. In other cultures (e.g. Europe), class is established through other means. However, in creating a "classless" society, people in US goes out of their way to understand the hierarchy of their fellows.
Whether or not you are willing to admit it, dress codes are a large part of such perception. They provide a number of cues, both social and economic. You may disagree with them or even think they are meaningless, but you cannot wish them away. So, they do serve a purpose -- one of establishing social status and conveying one's position, even if you think it's unnecessary.
Now, your statement on the comfort of suits and the like is particularly silly. It sounds like your suits are ill fitting, and not very well made. As someone who wears suits on a regular basis, I cannot tell you just how comfortable good clothes are. Good materials (wool, cotton with high thread count) and good fit (get the right size clothes, and take it to a tailor) can make a difference.
Back on topic re: business cards, I use both personal and professional business cards. It serves a very useful purpose, especially when traveling (which I do, a lot). It's a quick and easy networking tool, and no matter what the denizens of Slashdot think, the vast majority of the world still uses it pretty regularly.
Re:The Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
I like to use the backside of business cards for writing notes about that person (for example, why I should contact them at all). Don't take that valuable space from me!
Re:Only people who are full of shit use them. (Score:4, Insightful)
Why should i waste considerable sums of money on a tailored suit
A few reasons, Bert:
Wearing a suit shows that you appreciate the gravity of a situation. If you show up to a meeting in jeans and t-shirt where everyone else is in suits and ties, you're flipping them the bird - "This meeting isn't as important as you think it is, and you're not as important as you think you are."
Conversely, donning a suit and tie yourself signals to everyone else that they were worth dressing up for, and that their concerns are worth at least a minimum amount of pomp.
It's all about controlling your interactions with other people and managing their perceptions. Going to the Men's Wearhouse and saying, "I want to cosplay someone respectable" can do wonders for your professional success, especially when interviewing.
That said, I'm happy my employer's dress code is essentially "nothing that would upset HR." If everyone else is in jeans and t-shirt, you should be in jeans and t-shirt.
not everyone is in IT (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd much rather get a piece of paper from my plumber, luddite aunt, or DMV worker than trust them that their info on their smartphone is accurate and *safe*.
I know that the Bump app is ubiquitous, but what if the plumber is using some E-Card Widget made in China and just tell me to install that app on my phone just so i can have his "business card"?
No thanks.