The Death of the Business Card
Over the weekend, the Globe and Mail has a story about business card was disappearing as “Generation Blackberry’ relies more on electronic data than paper. While the business card may not as much of a corporate staple as it was 25 years ago, the suggestion it is fading into the sunset is overblown - particularly the notion seven million Blackberry users are sounding the death toll.
Truth be told, it’s not the Blackberry or other portable devices in which you can input data that will reduce business card usage but the growth of blogs. If want someone to know more about who you are, what you do and how you think, a blog is doing to a lot better job than a little piece of paper with your name, e-mail address and telephone number on it. In a sense, blogs could take the place of the business card and the resume.
We may get to a point soon where business cards will simply consist of your name and the blog URL, or you could tell someone you met to just Google “Mark Evans and technology” to find you (assuming you’ve been writing for awhile about a particular topic). Then again, there is something formal about business cards that Blackberrys or blogs don’t have. A business card is a sign of a relationship just beginning, which is why in Asia you treat a business card with great respect, and study its information before talking to the person who gave it to you.
So, long live the business card! (For the history of the business card, click here.)
January 16th, 2007 at 12:17 pm
I woul agree that a place for print cards still exists in society.
However, there are many changes beyond just blogs that are affecting the use of print cards.
Many electronic devices, besides just Blackberrys, allow the exchange of e-cards through a wireless or infrared connection. Businesspersons are increasingly attaching .vcf files to their emails that closely resemble the data that would ordinarily be printed on a card. Social media netorking platforms such as LinkedIn are frequently used to locate individuals with specific credentials.
A crisp, clean print card is still necessary for the aspiring professional, but increasingly it seems there is no way to escape the emergence of these new trends.
January 16th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
[…] Black and blue business card beating By: Ian Barr Having just returned from the Consumer Electronics Show (read CES posts 1 and 2) where I watched colleagues and clients go through boxes of business cards, I was shocked to read this Globe and Mail article suggesting the demise of the business card at the expense of the ‘Blackberry club’. While I don’t dispute the fact that Blackberry* users (7-million worldwide, according to the article) are comfortable exchanging their information electronically, suggesting that this business tool is on the way out the door is a bit of a stretch. Here’s why: It’s easier to hand out a card than manually insert or Bluetooth the information between two devices that run on different operating systems. (Only Blackberry’s can ‘PIN’ information between one another and not everyone wants to be part of the ‘BB club’). How many meetings have you attended where you’ve been introduced to a half dozen new faces around the table? The practicality of business cards enables you to place them in front of you so can keep track of everyone’s name. Try doing that electronically. In an ideal world beautiful name tags would be laid out in front of everyone, but we all know that never happens. Your card is your brand. It communicates a lot about you and your company. This is lost in an electronic transaction. There’s a personal connection, a ritual and respect associated with exchanging business cards. I would compare it to getting a written thank-you letter over an e-mail ‘thanks’. Mark Evans has a post about the Globe article as well. He suggests that blogs could replace both the business card and resumes because they showcase who you are and how you think – a valid point, but not everyone blogs. I think it’s more feasible for corporations to incorporate blog URLs on business cards (as Mark also suggests). Our group will be adding our TechKnow blog URL to our cards this year. Here’s another trade show observation: journalists at CES were carrying media cards that stored their contact information. When they went to vendor booths, they would swipe their card through a reader that would store their information in the vendor’s database. Similar to the fault of the Blackberry argument, not all booths offered this option, prompting the media to give up a business card. In doing so, it also allowed those working the booth to write on the back of the cards and specify what information was requested by the journalist. Simple, yet effective. *Disclosure: While I work on Motorola Canada’s Mobile Devices business, a RIM competitor, my views are independent of my client’s. Ian Barr is a Senior Consultant with Hill & Knowlton Toronto’s Technology Communications Practice. He’s been with H&K for over 5 years. Published 16 January 2007 19:25 by Ian Barr Attachment(s): biz card.jpg TrackBack URL for this post:http://blogs.hillandknowlton.com/blogs/trackback.aspx?PostID=6857 […]
January 16th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
[…] Ainda não mas o cenário que o Mark Evans apresenta é uma mudança nos tempos . Se para alguns trocar um vcard ou receber o contacto via ir é coisa banal para outros e posso vos dizer que neste momento os clientes com que lido ainda preferem o velho cartão de visita. Por isso os Moo têm tudo quanto eles procuram nos clássicos cartões, mais umas coisas como e-mail e um endereço sem www para espanto de alguns. Mas as maiores reacções espero te-las para Fevereiro. Sem comentarios + View blog reactions […]
January 31st, 2007 at 10:28 pm
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