People who use business cards
31 Mar
[Ed. Note: Yesterday, I wrote a piece on people who don't use business cards. True to form Mr. Rumbelow has decided to give his counterpoint. Direct all correspondence to him. :)]
I’ve got a drawer – where, incidentally, I used to keep my underwear – that I have lovingly named my “conference crap” drawer. It is full to the brim of lanyards, conference passes, free pencils, flyers, bags, annoying keyrings, glossy programmes and yes, you guessed it, business cards.
When you meet somebody new at a conference, your conversation could go one of two ways:
- The Right Way “Hello, I’m Jamie”, “Hi, I’m Steve Jobs”, “Good to meet you Steve. Are you on Twitter?”, “Yes, I’m @stevejobsrules”, *Jamie gets out iPhone* “Great! I’m following you”, *Steve gets out iPhone* “Are you @jamierumbelow?”, “I am indeed!”, “I’m following you back”, “Fantastic”
- The Wrong Way “Hello, I’m Jamie”, “Hi, I’m Steve Jobs”, “Good to meet you Steve. Do you have an annoying sized and shaped piece of paper with your name, telephone number and some unfunny quip about your business or home life?”, “I do indeed. Here it is”, *Jamie fumbles for wallet, tries to find space for Mr. Jobs’ card. Eventually:* “Ahh, here we go.” *Receives card and fumbles more for his own card, by which point he has forgotten this mystery Moo.com-touting man’s name or purpose*
Business cards are easily lost, forgotten, left or burnt. Business cards take up space in my wallet, which, frankly, is filled to the brim with the money I’ve saved on not buying business cards.
Besides, by the time I get your business card, I’m likely to have forgotten you, your job, or what you look like. If it’s a decent conference (in a decent country, but I’ll save that for another time), I’ll be drinking anyway so my memory will be even more fuzzy. They all end up in my conference crap drawer, so they lose context and meaning.
If I am following you on Twitter, a week later when I get back home I’ll be able to see a plethora of new people I’ve met. They’ll usually be tweeting about things specific to the conference I met them at, so they’re in context. They’ll have a picture so I can remember them. They’ll have a link to their website, so I’ll be able to find out their email or other social network details.
And for the love of Jehova, I can contact them. Anything at all I need to know I can contact them with. We have a rapport, having met face to face and having bought each other a pint.
So damnit Myer, stop using business cards and deal with the fact that we are in the 21st fucking century. Hell yeah.
As with many things, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Sure, business cards can be a pain, and if we can exchange contact info without them, great. But I’d also like to avoid this scenario: “Are you on Twitter?” “Yes, I’m @CantBeArsedToCarryCards”, “Wait, how do you spell that, is there an underscore in there?”, “No, one word”, “Whoops, my connection just dropped”, “What’s you handle again?”, “Damn autocorrect!”, “Okay, spell it again”, “Is this you?”, “No, there’s an S on the end”, etc. By now, everyone standing near you hates you with a deep, fiery passion.
Bumping would be nice if everyone could do it and it always worked, but have you ever stood by two people trying to bump their stupid phones over and over while it doesn’t work repeatedly until they finally give up? By the end you want to strangle both of them.
I’m all for avoiding the pileup of cards, but I’m still keeping mine as a backup. I’ve worked in tech long enough to know how damned unreliable it occasionally is. ;)
“I’ve worked in tech long enough to know how damned unreliable it occasionally is. ;)”
That’s the giveaway, Jamie.
And if I’m not on Twitter? Or don’t want you to friend me on Facebook? Laugh all you want, little pimple, but I ran into scads of people who take their privacy seriously or who don’t participate in social network reindeer games.
But even if you do follow me on twitter, I’m going to be thrilled that your first contact with me will be along the lines of “what’s your email address? I need to send you something….” because you couldn’t be arsed to take my business card.