Business Cards

Should you include your Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin addresses on your business card?

Maybe Linkedin. I'm not sure a business card is the right venue. Maybe email signature.

I agree that LinkedIn may be a good thing to include. The first step should be an email address, though. I have run into several Leasing Associates recently who have an email address on site, but their company does not think it important to include it on the business cards.

I met a client the other day who pulled out a two sided card case and handed me a black card from one side. Being curious, I asked what the white cards on the other side were for and he said that he has formal and informal cards. My obvious next question was; "Which one did I get"? His answer: "Informal".

Not knowing if that was a complement or an insult, I asked if I could have one of his formal cards as well and he obliged.

His informal card had LinkedIn, Twitter, and his blog URL and the formal card kept to the traditional info including his company website.

I found this quite agile.

Greg Purcell wrote:

I met a client the other day who pulled out a two sided card case and handed me a black card from one side. Being curious, I asked what the white cards on the other side were for and he said that he has formal and informal cards. My obvious next question was; "Which one did I get"? His answer: "Informal".

Not knowing if that was a complement or an insult, I asked if I could have one of his formal cards as well and he obliged.

His informal card had LinkedIn, Twitter, and his blog URL and the formal card kept to the traditional info including his company website.

I found this quite agile.

That is very interesting! Thanks for posting this.

I agree that this is the way to go. I think having different cards for different audiences is not only appropriate but will facilitate networking.

My father who is still an incredibly active, still working electrical engineer at 72 showed me a card that he received from a contractor. He asked me what the social networking lines were (I cannot remember which ones were on there) and I told him. I asked him if he was going to solicit a bid from the guy and my dad chuckled and said he wouldn't know how to get a hold of him. He was not being completely serious, but I could tell that he wasn't really interested in deciphering the best method for connection with this guy and I think my dad kind of thought it was odd, maybe even unprofessional. So with that in mind, I think it is wise to tailor your cards for the your interactions, especially when looking to grow business or network.

To be honest, I can't tell you the last time I even gave someone a business card. I've had the same box of 500 for about 3 years now.

I did see something very cool from my friends at www.firebellymarketing.com

They did a Text business card. Basically, you tell someone to text your special keyword (like "mjuleen") to 71318 (or whatever special number it was) and they get a text right back with your information.

At the time it seemed a bit costly, but I'll have to look into it again and share with the group.

I found the website everyone. www.mytextcard.com

Real simple to set up and not terribly expensive. $50/yr. or $4.95/mo. with unlimited usage.

We are actually testing the Real Estate tool with Connect Mobile (the main company for My Text Card) at our student communities.

Speaking of electronic business cars how about Plaxo? A great tool that is free. It keeps you in sync with all of your contacts.

On a related note. I once read an article about dealing with Japanese business people. It said that the culture finds it offensive if you take their card and just shove it in your pocket without reading it. That struck a bell with me. Ever sense, when someone hands me a card I take the time to look at it and read it. I get the feeling that people like that. Not just Japanese people!

Agreed. We often seem to forget that not everyone in this world has or wants a Facebook account, and would find it confusing to decipher.
When faced with too many choices, sometimes people will choose none at all.

I would say no. The reason being, your business card connects you to your company. Facebook and Twitter are personal, and LinkedIn is a great tool for connecting to new opportunities (although it has other uses, I believe the perception is that most people use it to find a new gig).

And, from an aesthetic perspective, between all the basic info we need to include on our cards nowadays - your name, email, phone, cell, fax, company address, logo, company website - there's really not room to include any additional information...it's too much!

I took a cue from the Victorian age and created a personal "calling" card that includes my personal information. You can hand it out to people who you want to connect with on FB or LI in a way that's not tied to your company and streamlines all your contact information.