When you’re networking, you want to make it easy for the person you’re meeting to remember you and to find you later. Having a business card is integral to this process, and not having a card could lead to a missed opportunity. The card should be a reflection of your ideas, style and the way you want to be perceived by any new contact that you hand it to.
Social media sites are the places to make contacts and keep in touch with them. If your business cards have multiple social site URL’s on them, you need to make sure that these accounts are syncing with each other and with the printed word.
Usernames and Vanity URL’s
Having your Twitter URL, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. on your business card is important. You want people to connect with you and interact with you after you meet, and this is done with social media. Including your Twitter URL is especially important. If someone forgets who you are when looking at your card, the easiest way to get an idea about you is to check out your Twitter profile. They most likely won’t call you or IM you and say, “Hey, I met you but forgot who you are. Who are you again?”
Having vanity URL’s on all of your social sites is a great idea. Especially if these names are the same, they help contacts find you much easier. For example, you can find me at Twitter.com/patrickwinfield or at Linkedin.com/in/patrickwinfield.
With LinkedIn you must enable your LinkedIn page to have a public profile. Then you simply enter either your username or the URL of your public profile. This way, the URL to your profile page is something other than random numbers and associates with you, making it easier for contacts to find you.
Facebook also allows you to register a vanity URL with your profile name or a similar name. To learn more about this and how to prepare/secure them, read Greg’s post on Facebook usernames.
Look at one of Zappos’ new Twitter-styled business cards with the Twitter id and “Powered by Twittering” verbiage. Since Twitter is such a big part of the Zappos culture and brand, they know that featuring the URL is enough (in addition to the normal information) and added a little tagline on the back that reinforced this idea.
By blending your business card with your social media accounts, you are creating more opportunities for potential customers and contacts to find and converse with you. Just be sure to sync these accounts and various usernames so that the connection is in place!
9 Comments
I'd like to see your card, PTW
I really liked this Pat. I really need to update my business cards to have some of my most relevant social sigs on it. The problem is that I got like 2000 cards before I really thought about it and I feel bad just throwing them out and getting new ones….. I might just have to start clean though
I hear you Chris! Let me know when your ready for the new ones
Your businesscard – How to maximize the lifespan of your contact information? — http://tinyurl.com/y8e4xlx
Forgive me Patrick, just entering social business media…"Just be sure to sync these accounts and various usernames so that the connection is in place!" is there a way to sync these accounts automatically or do you mean make sure you manually update all to match?
I especially liked the example with zappos! I appreciate this site very much because there is plenty of fashionable clothes by temperate prices there!
Blending Social Media into Your Business Cards which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide.
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