Why you should consider using digital business cards
The hidden “aha” moment behind it
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past three years digital business cards haven’t missed you. Although nothing revolutionary they became prevalent, ranging from utilizing NFC badges, QR codes, links, etc. The application isn’t any less vast: sharing your social profiles, using it predominantly for business purposes, and everything in between. One thing is for sure, they are here to stay.
Let me guess, your first thought was “but I can just share my LinkedIn profile” and that’s about it. That is absolutely not far from the truth however, digital business cards have several hidden advantages you might haven’t considered.
The obvious one is first contact/impressions: You wouldn’t introduce yourself at a meeting and then say something along the line of “you can look me up on LinkedIn under the name XY.” Business cards are still widely used, either as an outdated business practice or memento from the past whether we like it or not. Another example is meeting people in semi-business settings (read casual network events, business lunch, etc.)–connecting with them and exchanging information is crucial but explaining how to find you on LinkedIn or writing down your contact information can be rather awkward.
Now imagine being the suave person that you are and just show them a QR code on your phone which includes literally all your business information in one place. Now that’s a conversation starter right there.
The next advantage is one of cost: Some businesses pride themselves on never printing business cards, but the fact remains that on average 1.8 million trees are cut down each year just to print business cards. Despite never using them, your 100-piece stack is covered in dust somewhere in a drawer. Digital variants enable you to edit information at will which saves you the trouble of printing and paying for a new stack.
Let’s take an easy example here: I work at a company with 100 employees. After a year I get promoted and have to change my phone number and title. In the past, that would mean paying and printing new cards. Now editing it all is two-three clicks away and everybody whom I exchanged cards with has all my new information available. Let’s go a step further and say I leave the company after a year and John Doe is hired in my place. The company goes into the same loop again. But with digital cards, if one employee leaves and another one joins they just change all contact information on the same card and voilà. Best thing about it? The company only pays once instead of 3 times.
Thirdly there is the added functionality. Let’s face it, besides handing them out you can’t do much with printed business cards. Digital variants on the other hand offer customization options with no end. Integrating features, connecting more than one card, OCR, and much more.
To be fair, the usage of digital business cards isn’t a use case for everybody. You might simply not need them in your day-to-day life at all. However, their advantage is clear in comparison to basically any other means of information exchange available on the market. It represents the ambition of individuals and companies to digitalize, innovate, and adopt new practices.
