Why Haven't Digital Business Cards Caught Fire Yet?
This question originally appeared on Quora: Why haven't digital business cards caught fire yet?
Answer by Auren Hoffman, LiveRamp CEO. started and sold 5 companies (and many more that failed), on Quora
They actually have -- but in a different way. The information on business cards is much less relevant today than it once was.
Business card usage has dramatically declined in the last 15 years. When you meet someone in the physical world in the U.S., it is rare that both parties have printed business cards. In fact, in the U.S. it is now becoming rare that either party has business cards on them -- even in a business meeting. Many companies don't even offer business cards to their new employees anymore.
(Note that this is not true in Japan where the ceremony of giving and receiving business cards is still very much a part of the culture).
But people are still sharing their contact information -- that has not declined (in fact, it has increased significantly). They are manually entering it on their phones, connecting to people on LinkedIn or engaging in many other ways to share business information.
But people are sharing DIFFERENT information. Physical address and phone number is much less relevant today than it once was. Those two pieces of information were the key to business cards because they are so hard to just know or guess. It would be really hard to guess someone's mobile number.
But phone calls in business have significantly declined over the last 15 years. And when people do talk live, they often use conference bridges or services like Webex, Skype, Google Hangouts, JoinMe, and others.
The core contact information you need in business is really easy to guess (or search for). An email address at a company usually follows a very simple-to-understand convention (like firstname.lastname@company.com). Finding someone on LinkedIn is even easier. And many other ways we communicate with each other (like Twitter or Quora) are very public and searchable.
In fact, the most valuable piece of information on a business card is the person's name -- so you can remember just who you met.
Today so many people are going digital and asking for information that they can store or find on their phone. This is why Circle - a digital business card platform is right for you. Quickly make your business card within a few minutes for FREE and start sharing your information with other professionals you meet.
