gm frens!
As some of you may know, I very much love doing networking for business and for fun. This is part of the reason I feel so at home in the HIVE ecosystem and the reason I want to attend Hive Fest so badly! Can we please start the bull run? I would really like to meet (actually meet; in person) some of the people I interact with regularly on here.
Every Wednesday, early in the morning, I get dressed up in nice fitting blue jeans, dress shoes, button shirt and sports jacket. I want to look professional, but not boring. I run a creative agency, not a law firm.
(this is my giving an elevator pitch about my business)
Anyway, 6:30am and I'm there. Shaking hands with people and making sure I've got my elevator pitch down to a T in case someone asks what I do for a living, or maybe even...
Do you have a business card?
Now, rewind just a few years and I wouldn't be caught without at least a handfull of paper business cards in my wallet. I had them designed and printed on ultra-thick 450gsm stock and added an embossed logo with a layer of glossy lamination to create beautiful "3D" look and very tactile experience. I haven't had these for a few years now, because... well, in an age where everything is digital, are business cards still relevant?
I think they are, but they need a bit of updating. People aren't accustomed to shoving a paper card into their wallet anymore, they do everything with their phones. But giving my phone number is so lame, what if they forget my name and save me as "Guy with stupid jacket"?
I decided I'd be ready.
I give you...
My new business card 1.0
This version of my digital business card has the initial surprise factor. It's on my phone, so it's always handy and because It's my home screen, all I have to do is pull it out of my pocket as I simultaneously say the words "let me give you my business card". This dual action takes exactly 1.42069 seconds to perform, just enough time to register what is about to go down, when BOOM! You're hit with a company logo in your face!
The one on the left is the very first version I made. I later decided to go with something a little more high contrast. You get the picture.
While your mind is processing the logo, and thinking "wow, this is cool", your eyes continue to scan the device because yeah, there's a giant QR code right underneath the logo. This is where I say "scan this QR with your camera" and double BOOM!
You're hit with a minimalistic landing page of sorts with a button to book a call, my website, my LinkedIn profile, plus WhatsApp, X, FB and Instagram profiles. Well, they're my company's profiles.
Right then and there you can send me a WhatsApp message and I'll immediately reply with "It was a pleasure meeting you at XYZ networking event, let's have coffee" or something like that.
It's made by linktr.ee and it looks something like this:
Is it perfect? no.
about 80% of the time, it works every time.
(That's a reference to the Sex Panther cologne scene in Anchorman)
And I might one day upgrade to the 2.0 model, but for now, it's what I got.
My digital business card 2.0
There are smart business cards that are quite spiffy, but also a bit pricey. To get a metal version of this Connex card, for example, is like $150 bucks. and I don't really want to dish out that kind of money for a business card. So I think I'm just going to make my own with some NFC tags.
Something like this:
It would allow me to tap it on the back of someone's phone and it would prompt them to add me to their contacts with information about my business, website, links, etc. Of course, they would have to have the NFC option active on their phone and be at least somewhat able to navigate their mobile device, but we'll see.
Part of an entrepreneur's journey is doing sales, and part of doing sales is getting leads and making a good first impression. I'm in the process of incorporating technology into my first impression and while my experience has been mostly good, I sill run into some minor speed bumps. We'll see where this goes, heck, we may very well end up going full circle back to the paper cards.
