Your business card sucks
I don't want to buy business cards.
Not one primarily for contact information anyway. I think it's a waste of paper and a waste of time. The business card concept might be a dead one, but like email, what else is there? It's the currency of business contact information when meeting someone face to face. Electronic exchanges is the future, once there is a way to make the exchange easily or everyone gets hip enough for an iPhone so they can do that bump thing.
There seems to me that this transaction is superficial at best. My name is unique enough that a quick google search would yield not only contact information but so much more so much faster. Much more than having to dig out a business card. The business cards I receive go right into my contact database, along with any information that I remember about them that actually makes person on the business card not just a name, a number and a title. To me that is much more robust than a business card in a roledex.
So for me the business provides a slightly different roll. I want it to convey a bit of my personality. It’ll definitely the minimum contact information. Although I have thought about just putting ‘Google Me’ on the the card in lieu of my number, email and address, but unless I’m a SEO expert, it seems kind obnoxious, plus, why advertise for google?
As an aside, this brings up an important point. What information needs to go on a business card? I only put my name and url (which is the same, so I combine them), my number and what I do (not my title). Everything else is maybe not need-to-know basis, but it is if-you-need-to-know-then-its-pretty-darn-easy-to-find-it-on-the-web-site-or-any-other-random-social-network-for-that-matter-but-if-all-else-fails-give-me-a-call-I’d-love-to-hear-from-you basis.
Anyway, I view the business card as a little slice of my personality. A 2x3.5 canvas that hopefully extends my personal brand, stands out from the crowd, and entices the person with my card to dig deeper, because whether I put it on there or not, they are going to do a search on me. There are certainly some very very very nice business cards out there, but these, in my opinion, serve as a complete thought or a self-contained piece.
I don’t want my card to be the statement. I want my business card to serve as a simple introduction with enough information so the can learn more. I want them to take responsibility for the information, because it just wasn’t handed to them, they might just remember it. Don’t you value things you work for?
Posted on Friday, September 04, 2009 in Business • Creativity • Design
