Photo from Nancyscola
It’s amusing to see how many brands are getting on the “Social Network” bandwagon, this time with Staples selling “Social Networking Cards“. I first learned about this from fellow analyst Julie Katz who is equally perplexed as I was.
Essentially (if you read the fine print) it’s a regular business card that can link to your Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Friendfeed, Plurk or whatever else you’re doing online. I expect to see some of these from my kid sisters friends, who are just leaving the college scene.
I can imagine some college bound kids going to the bar with these cards and exchanging these “social network” cards with links to their Facebook and Myspace accounts.
Whatever happened to the Palm Pilot? I thought we were going to do away completely with printed business cards and ‘beam’ our contact info to each other, I used to do it, but not with current cell phones.
Thinking ‘mid term’ I’ve had my blog URL on my current and previous business card (and prominently featured on my resume), it’s something I expect to be part of my career.
I guess if I wanted to take this all the way, I should update my white pages listing in the physical phonebook with my twitter address.
Check out InkMojo.com … same concept.
On the other hand, it might not be a bad idea for inital contacts at settings like Social Media Club meetings, or for explaining to the SM non-adoptors/uninitiated who are used to the business-card-networking model. 🙂 Just a thought.
Whoa. Old skool is the new school.
The nice thing about business cards is that you can still read them when the Internet and electricity are unavailable! I’m surprised these folks aren’t using that as a sales message! 😉
Dennis
Let’s print out top 10 Tweet cards so you can hand them to friends: “eating lunch”, “agreed with @scobliezer” etc
My business card lists my Skype, AIM, Yahoo and Twitter handles, along with my email and phone. Given that’s the realm I work and play in, made sense to do so :-).
Jeremiah,
This is hilarious because I was just griping to my friend about how amazing my Handspring Visor was (early Palm competitor for those that don’t remember) when it came to swapping information back in 2000!
I think these business cards are absolutely brilliant though. Besides the margins (50 cards for 5 bucks when VistaPrint will send me 5x as many for 1/2 the price), it allows younger kids to communicate in the world they feel comfortable in.
If you’re 18, there’s a certain level of risk (on multiple levels) involved in exchanging phone numbers when you meet someone. But swap profile names, and you can find out just about everything about the other person before wasting your time on a boring phone call. And if they don’t leave you alone, you can just defriend them.
Also, I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s given out my business card to a new contact, instead of my personal cell phone #, because I wanted that extra level of screening….I was fine with them communicating with “work Tom”, but not “real Tom”. Maybe there’s something to the idea of kid’s still having a little bit of seperation between online and IRL.
In the end, they’re taking a nice profit from facilitating what people are doing away.
Hm, interesting move for Staples – obviously targeting a young audience.
I’ve long since stopped carrying business cards. Between Facebook, Twitter and Google, I just don’t need a biz card these days. 🙂 Or, when networking at live events I’ll collect the other person’s card and so the onus is on me to follow up.
Cheers,
Mari
@marismith
I’m going to second the comments of @Richie Escovedo and add that if one’s going to bill oneself as a Social Media Guru/Strategist/Two-oh Consultant/Whathaveyou, then you’re still going to have to appeal to the bricks ‘n mortar crowd who still plays by the Old Rules — in this case, paper, baby.
Paper cards are also still valid for *this* reason — what if you’re at a conference or seminar, and there’s a fishbowl to deposit cards in?
The holder/sponsor doesn’t have time to meet you in person for a card swap or flesh-press (or in your case, J.O., an infra-rad beam over), but you still want to be in the draw or inside…
That’s where the card comes into play…
I’ve actually had these for awhile now. I made mine up through Moo. Very interesting that staples is taking it mainstream though.
As a college student, I would laugh at anyone that gave me one of these or suggested I get one. And in my current role at a Fortune 500 company, one of my roles is to help bring Social Networking to the Enterprise.
I’m sorry, but why? I enjoy calling people a lot more than “posting to their wall”…
For anyone seriously on these social networking sites I think it’s unrealistic these would ever be used. I almost gave a business card to a temp working for me that recently graduated college and caught myself. I logged on to Facebook and added him as a contact. Done. No need for a card. The same could be done through my iPhone. Why waste time with paper unless you’re in a bar and too drunk to type on a phone LOL