Never find yourself without your business card
I recently came across a useful recommendation for anyone who has ever been caught without his business card and wished he had one. The suggestion comes from Matthew Buchanan, who decided to scan his card and put it online at a location that is easy to remember. In his case, he purchased the domain IMetMatt.com, and he posted the business card image there.
I did a similar thing today, and followed his lead:
Now I don’t have to worry about ever being in a situation without my business card and miss making a connection with a potential client.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted by Stowe on Oct 7, 2008 |
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20 comments posted
Posted by Tabitha (From Single to Married) - 10/07/2008
What a great idea! I’ve been in that situation numerous times and have never found a solution so thanks!
Posted by TheGreenCat - 10/07/2008
I don’t get it. If you have a website, why wouldn’t you just give the potential contact that information rather than directing him/her to *another* website that just shows your card?
Posted by Erin Doland - 10/07/2008
@TheGreenCat — For starters, I don’t think that most of us put all of our contact information on our websites. You’ll see that all we have on Unclutterer is a text box on our Contact page that generates an e-mail to our interns. If you can “hide” a business card, I think that is definitely different than having it out for all the world to see.
Secondly, I think it is best if the URL for your card is extremely easy to remember. Like IMetMatt. For you, you could do something like IMetCat. Just a lot easier than remembering http://reallylongURL.wordpress.com or something similar.
Posted by Micah Choquette - 10/07/2008
Another solution? Drop Card.
http://www.mydropcard.com/
Posted by Jason Lazzara - 10/07/2008
This is a good idea but could also be a bad idea. With the proliferation of spiders and bots that crawl sites looking for contact info it could mean tons and tons of spam will be coming your way.
Posted by ellis - 10/07/2008
with most cellphones having a camera and the use of bluetooth why not scan your card and keepit as a jpeg on your cell? I tend to take photos of interesting articles etc with my phone- coupled with the use of a programme like evernote it becomes a catch all, send all if information is needed urgently
Posted by infmom - 10/07/2008
Having all your information out in public like that is asking for all kinds of people you don’t know to, um, take advantage of it.
Posted by Kevin - 10/07/2008
Just a suggestion: establish an email “signature” w/ your contact information in your Blackberry or cell phone. When you find yourself w/o a card, simply ask for the person’s email address and send them a message on the spot. They’ll then have your info. No hosting, no extra website, no major hassle….
Posted by Dorothy - 10/07/2008
You young whippersnappers may remember a catchy URL like IMetMatt.com or StoweBoyd.com. But I wouldn’t.
So if you plan to meet me and expect me to take the initiative to contact you later, bring a card, OK? And then hope I don’t lose the card . . .
And I have used a variation of the “send a blank e-mail with contact info in the sig” idea once or twice.
Posted by Mrs. G - 10/08/2008
I like Kevin’s idea. I’m planning on making a jpeg calling card so I can send it through MMS anytime.
Posted by Michael Moncur - 10/08/2008
I’ve told people “Google my name” or whatever when I didn’t have a card handy, but I think that completely fails to do the job of a real business card.
When I come back from a conference I have a pile of business cards, and I go through them to stay in touch with people. When I’ll do this, I’ll have a vague thought: “Oh yea, there was that guy who said to look it up at IMetSomething.com.” Oh well.
Also, there’s nothing “hidden” about these business cards…
Posted by Silke - 10/08/2008
I think this is a great idea, but one of the reasons for the business card is to help people remember. After a meeting they’ll go through their cards and make notes, actions, etc. If you give someone a website, it’ll get lost among the hundreds or thousands of other things he or she picked up mentally that day.
Another problem, let’s say he says check out Imetjohnnyboy, but the contact thought he said imetjohnboy. Then this person will always think you’re someone else. You always need a picture on the web card, jic.
I like the cellphone scanning or dropcard (you can send the card image or data to their cellphone or email address on the spot) and the simple I’ll-email-you-my-info ideas mentioned above.
Posted by Mikey - 10/08/2008
@Erin
Even less cluttered solution: put contact info on your website. To prevent form spam, just add a hidden form field, call it something like “doNotFillThisOut”, and if it is filled out, well it’s form spam and it doesn’t get sent. Fini.
And I’m with Dorothy, I might perhaps not lose your card, but I sure would not remember a url for a business card. And I am pretty sure I would think, well, if you can’t be bothered to carry a card to hand out, I can’t be bothered to remember you. I guess that is a generational thing.
Posted by Ryan K from Going Carless - 10/08/2008
I use evernote. I also take pictures of business cards that people give me. This way I can file it online. With evernote you can even search your images. Good stuff!
http://www.goingCarless.com
Posted by timgray - 10/08/2008
I simply carry a smartphone and either beam it via a bluetooth contact to their phone (most phones actually work with this) or say, “what’s your email?” and send out my info in an email right there from my phone.
relying on them to go to a website rarely works. Stuffing it into their mailbox is better.
Posted by Luv2Host - 10/08/2008
This idea seems kind of lame. Expecting someone to remember to visit a website, even one with a catchy URL, is risky at best. Many people will not remember it correctly, if they remember it at all.
Besides, I don’t think this idea scales very well. There are thousands of Matts that are being met each day, but only one IMetMatt.com URL. Some smart Matt will say, “I know! I’ll use IMetMat-DOT_NET instead! w00t! I hope people remember it’s .net and not .com!” Then when .net, .org, .biz, .info, and whatever are taken, there will still be thousands of Matts. Oh, they’ll start adding their last names I imagine. There’s this one guy I know, Matt McCool…or was it MacCool? Uh-oh….
Posted by Ann - 10/08/2008
It’s not an either/or proposition: you could tell people about IMetSoandso.com AND hand out business cards AND send emails with a special signature.
It could also make a good marketing technique. I’m envisioning T-shirts that say, “IMetSo-and-so.com” on them, to wear to informal trainings or meetings or whatever. Instant fame! (or what passes for it these days)
You don’t have to list all your personal info on the site — maybe just your email address and links to your other website(s), social networking accounts, etc.
Posted by Tania - 10/08/2008
I thought this was a dope idea at first and then I started thinking about all the spam potential and I was like hmmmm….
I like Drop Card a lot and then also too, I’m a visual artist so it’s nice if cards have a sample of my work on them, so it took me about 5 mins to make a jpg business card that I can keep on my phone and send to people that way…
Posted by Dr Wright - 10/09/2008
I dont get it either
Why dont you add your contact info to your website?
This does not make any sense to me
How about making a check list to make sure you have your business cards with your or just take the other person’s if you run out.
I often give someone my book ( which also has all my contact info) – they never lose a book!
Dr. Wright
Posted by jaime - 11/01/2009
Another site where you can create a vcard that people can download is here: http://card.ly/. I made one for myself as an example: http://card.ly/jaimebott.
There are also several iPhone apps that allow you to easily exchange contact info with other folks such as Bump.
Jaime
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