Think business cards are dead? Think again.
By Philip Walzer, The Virginian-Pilot | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
I text with my right index finger. I note meetings and lunch appointments on a pocket-size calendar, not my phone. I write daily to-do lists on scraps of paper. I carry a bunch of business cards wherever I go.
But wait. One of those practices really isn't old-fashioned or impractical. Can you guess which one?
It's the use of business cards.
Resor, who works with his wife, interior designer
It's not just old-timers like the Resors and me who believe in them.
"I can't recall very many new business meetings, industry events or chance encounters with a potential client wherein the exchange of business cards didn't happen," he said.
As a reporter, I give my 2-by-3 1/2-inch cards to almost everyone I meet at meetings and all of the people I interview, even if I don't expect to quote them in an article. For me, the practice serves at least two purposes: It confirms to the person that I'm legit. I really do work for the paper. And it initiates the two-step business dance, in which I collect the person's card for future reference.
On her end, Greenspan neatly arrays the cards she gathers at workshops and social events in plastic pages kept in a three-ring binder. She never knows when she'll need them. "I set up a one-on-one with someone who I met four years ago," Greenspan said.
Her specialty involves the sense of taste, but another sense comes into play, Greenspan said, with the transfer of cards: "a sense of tactile interaction."
For a different take, let me introduce
"The average person who just goes to work and comes home and goes to networking meetings and blah blah blah -- yes, they need a business card," Antion said last week. "But if you want to be special, that ain't it."
It's not that Antion has sworn off business cards. They've just got to stand out. He used to have one with a mini-hologram. When you tilted it, Antion said, dollar signs spilled out of a computer.
But I spoke with a self-confessed "big fan of new technology gadgets" who still believes in biz cards.
But, Ye said, "you need to get the physical business card first."
The cards themselves, which date at least to the 17th century by some accounts, have evolved with technology. Many feature QR codes, which can be translated by a mobile app, as well as email addresses, websites and Twitter and
These days, "everyone wants two-sided" cards, said
But
If you print a colored card, keep it light for the same reason, advised Worrell, who also writes a column for
At
"It gives them a sense of ownership," said Cox, owner of 3 Waves Media, a graphic design firm in
Still think business cards are dead? You should have been at the TED. No, not the arena at ODU. One of last year's TED conferences in
"At the tech-savvy confab of big ideas, I expected attendees to connect in more advanced ways,"
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