century as an advertising tool complete with maps and directions encouraging members of the public to visit a place of business.
Several hundred years later their sole purpose remains unchanged…to drive business.
However, with recent technological advances are business cards still a necessity?
I believe so, but perhaps they are in need of a digital makeover to bring them into the 21st century making them adaptable and relevant to our lives.
A digital alternative to business cards may be free mobile applications such as Bump which is available on iPhone and Android. Bump allows users to select information on their mobile that they wish to share with a Bump friend. The 2 handsets are then ‘bumped’ together and just like magic the data has been shared!
This is a quick, easy way to exchange your contact details with a colleague.
However, will these details just get stored in cyber space and be instantly forgotten about? At least when we physically hand someone a business card we know they will eventually have to take it out of their pocket or wallet and at that moment they will be reminded of our business and the services offered.
So how can we bring business cards into the 21st century whilst maintaining the ‘card’ element?
QR codes.
Users can take a photo of this Quick Response barcode on their phone and the code is then read by special software mobile applications. ‘Reading’ the code will direct you to a webpage assigned to the code. What users see when they reach this destination is completely up to you and can be amended and updated whenever necessary. Details on this page can be downloaded and saved to mobile devices.
So that’s the 21st century bit sorted but where does the card element feature I hear you ask…
Well, information that is unlikely to change in the near future such as your name, the company name and your email address can be printed on the business card as normal. Information that may be likely to change such as the address of the business or your mobile number can be stored on the webpage assigned to your QR code which is then printed on your business card.
Should any of these details change, instead of paying for business cards to be reprinted you simply have to update the details on the webpage hosted by the QR code on the card.
Eric Carson is Director of Rainbow Telecom and can be contacted at ecarson@rainbowtele.com