<p>Over the last couple of days I've been busily going through my stack of collected business cards, trying to get caught up. In the process I noticed a few things. First, I hate keying in business card info. Second, I hate doing anything repetitive. This means I really hate keying in lots of business cards. I'm pretty sure most of you feel the same way. That's why we folders, and boxes, and drawers full of business cards. There's a lot to be said about making your business cards attractive, but that's not the whole story. The whole story requires that we remember why we hand out business cards in the first place.<br /><br />We hand out business cards to make it easy for people to take our contact info with them. Sure, you want them to remember you and your business, but that's not why you give them a business card. If you have a strong message and deliver it well, they'll remember you and your brand when they see your contact info. So what good does that contact info do you if it's sitting in a drawer or a shoe box or a file? None. Absolutely no good can come of your business card collecting dust. In fact, it can only do harm. Ideally, your business card will be at the recycling plant by week's end. I know that sounds terrible, but remember, once your contact info has been delivered, your card has done it's job and it's ready to move on and become a newspaper, or book, or poster, or who knows what else. In order for this to happen, though, your card needs to make it easy to get that info into the contact system of whoever is holding the card.<br /><br />Let's face it, we make contact and stay in touch via cell phone and computer. Sure there are still land lines, but they're going away. There are more households with cell phones than not. In fact, just recently we reached a major benchmark in mobile communications. There are more households with cell phones and no land lines than land lines and no cell phones. What does all this have to do with business cards? Everything! If your information isn't in your prospect's cell phone and your competition's is, who do you think they're going to call in a pinch. They're certainly not going to go rummaging through that box of business cards. Worse, if they don't rely on networking for their income, their business card file is probably in the kitchen and has a liner made by Hefty. I know it sounds harsh, but that's the reality. So the question then becomes: how do I get my information off the card and into their cell phone and computer?<br /><br />There are 2 things you need to do to get your contact info to jump from the business card and into the cell phone or computer of whoever has the card. Make your card boring and make it easy for computers to read. I know there's lots of "wisdom" saying your business card should reflect your business. Hooey. It should get people to call (or e-mail) you. That's it. You logo should reflect your business, and your logo should be on your business card, but your business card needs to be simple. When I got bored with transcribing business card after business card into my Google contacts (http://www.google.com/contacts) I decided there had to be a better way. So I looked for business card readers. There are several, but none will work with Linux (what I and many other geeks use) or Mac (what many media professionals/enthusiasts and their friends use). That's okay though, I have a scanner connected, so I figured I'd fire up the OCR (Optical Character Recognition) software and copy the data over with the mouse, no more typing, and much faster. It works great, on the boring business cards. It doesn't work at all on the flashy ones. The problem is that computers have a very hard time reading printed text. Any distractions and they get confused. Background images, fancy text, anything that gives your business card personality will make a computer spit out gibberish. Even worse, if you have contact info on the back of the card, the computer wont see it unless you flip the card over and scan it again (some of the business card scanners now read both sides of the card in one pass, but their more expensive). That's information you want people to have and you're making them do extra work to get to it.<br /><br />So how do you make it easy for the computer to read your business card? You make it plain. The cards that I had the least trouble with were from financial planners, with insurance agents coming in second. Why? Because they have a white background with black text designed for print. That is, there are serif's (Times New Roman has serif's, Ariel doesn't). They have a logo, but's fairly small (between the size of a dime and a penny), an the information is clearly seperated, usually a seperate piece of info on each line.The cards are boring, but I don't care how exciting a card is, I care about the info on it. That's all well and good. The simpler a card is, the easier it is for a computer (and a human, by the way) to read it. But we're getting more mobile, and who wants to sit at the computer scanning in business cards? There's a way around this challenge, too. 2D barcodes.<br /><br />2D barcodes allow us to put a lot of contact info in a space the size of a mailing label, and make it EASY for computers to read. And cell phones are computers, with built in cameras usually. There are 2 standards for 2D barcodes. QR codes are popular in Asia, while datamatrix codes are more common in Europe. Luckily, it doesn't really matter which one you use, just use one. The added benefit of using these 2D barcodes is that you now have something to put on the back of your business card to keep it from turning into a notepad when your client has to remember that movie he wants to see. You can cram all you contact info and more into a square that will easily fit on the back of any business card. Best of all, most smart phones (iPhone, anything with Windows Mobile, anything with Android) have software either built in or freely available to read and automatically file this information. 2D barcodes are growing in popularity as link between physical world and the computer world. Right now most of your customers will simply wonder what that funny looking picture on the back of your business card is. But some of them will be greatful that you made it so easy to simply scan your info into their phone (and from there, into their e-mail and calendar, and the rest of their online life). And over the next year, as smart phones begin replacing traditional cell phones, more people will be prepared to take advantage.<br /><br />The power of 2D barcodes goes beyond contact info. You can also encode links to videos, events, or software. You can include nutrition data a la McDonalds in Japan, pricing, or even have the barcode automatically add an event to your prospect's calendar. But the key is that they make it easy to move the information from your business card and into someone elses digital world. As I write this I have a stack of business cards I've still not entered. I know I should, but these are the ones my computer couldn't read, and I don't feel like searching all over every card to find the information and type it into my contact list. It'll get done, probably, but not right now. The ones my computer could do for me, are done. So guess who I'll call if I'm out and about and need a question asked, or meet someone who's in the market for your service. If your business card is boring, I'll probably be recommending you. If your card is fancy and exciting, it was probably too much work for me to enter it, so I don't have your info with me to pass on.</p>
<p>To see a sample 2D barcode look at the bottom of the page at http://sites.google.com/site/kddicknet/business-cards-for-the-early-21st-century</p>
<p>To generate your own QR vode 2D barcodes visit http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/</p>
2009-06-05T03:35:43Z
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business-cards-for-the-early-21st-century
36
2009-06-08T08:38:44Z
2009-06-08T15:40:01Z
Ever wonder what happens to most of the business cards you give away? Most of them are collecting dust and not helping anyone contact you.
Business Cards for the (early) 21st Century
1
2009-06-08T20:08:28Z