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Business cards. Are they even necessary nowadays? In an era of smartphone users and social media, when you meet someone face-to-face, is a paper exchange even needed?
Let’s think about this for a second. Say I meet someone at a business function and we want to swap information. I’m guessing we both have smartphones, social media accounts and five to 10 other ways of quickly staying in touch. Again I’m asking myself, “Do I need to bring paper into this equation?” My initial thoughts are that yes, business cards do serve a nice function, since all the info you need is in one spot. However, we live in an ever-changing world, and maybe business cards need to get with the times.
And by that I mean business cards need to get digital.
We have smartphones; we have the technology. If I was a smarter nerd, I would have created an app by now that takes all of your business card information and transfers it from phone-to-phone with ease. Whether that’s scanning something à la QR codes or inputting a unique username, I don’t really have all the answers here. But there might already be one out there: LinkedIn.
LinkedIn has the equivalent of a digital business card on everyone’s profile, and maybe that’s the future. Instead of handing you my card and taking yours, maybe we just connect on LinkedIn. Maybe the app that I envision just scrapes the info off of LinkedIn and puts it into clickable fields so your smartphone can dial or compose emails with a single tap or a swipe.
Of course, maybe I’m horribly wrong and we need business cards, but I think, to quote musician Sam Cooke, “A change gonna come.”
Oh, yes it will. Or maybe it won’t. Maybe we will be exchanging information on paper well into the 30th century. What do you think? Tweet at me @theRealTomZobel and give me your take.
Until next time,
Tom Zobel
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