October 3
How to maximize the lifespan of your contact information
But what about a digital business card? You can email it or link to it from your printed card, which will maximize the lifespan of your contact information.
Digital business card
If you need a good “Digital Business Card” or “Digital Curriculum Vitae” or “Personal Branding Landing Page” than sign up for your personal domain and create a professional digital business card: rick.dk
A good alternative that don’t require a deep knowledge about web design is a .tel domain: torbenrick.tel
If you don’t want to maintain your own domain there are some good services where you can create a professional digital business card that aggregates all your online identities.
Social media on your business card
A great example of how to use social media on the business card is 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 tag-line on the back that reinforced this idea.
Having vanity URL’s on some of your important 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/torbenrick or at Linkedin.com/in/torbenrick.
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.
Short URL & Title:
How to maximize the lifespan of your contact information — http://www.torbenrick.eu/t/r/jot
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Although this seems like a good idea in principle, the problem is that such things are a feeding ground for viruses. Also, many people chose not to receive attachments in any form.
Digital business cards may be a nice addition, but they won’t replace printed ones, at least not until everyone is carrying a Blackberry.
Better yet, just use QR codes which most smartphones can read… Avoids file downloads (key for the trend of cloud computing and netbooks) which avoids viruses and has all the same functionality as .tel etc
Also worth noting that the use of LinkedIn profile with a vanity URL is analogous to a .tel domain without the hassle and arguably better as it’s more likely your LinkedIn will be up to date with latest and greatest experience + has your recommendations….
I hope that soon a practice of exchanging vcards over bluetooth on mobile phones will become as standard as a handshake. Having said that, I will upload a vcard to my personal website for a download. Thanks for the idea.
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