Electronic Business Cards: The Future of Networking
Let’s be frank. When was the last time you followed up on a business card that someone handed to you? How often do you find yourself calling the phone number, reaching out via email, or looking into the company? Do you find yourself cleaning through the clutter every few months and tossing tons of tiny papers in the trash?
If you’ve grown tired of old-fashioned methods when it comes to networking, consider digital business cards. They probably aren’t what you’re thinking; PDFs or PNGs, right? No. Electronic business cards have evolved, so let us show you what we’re talking about.
What Is a Digital Business Card?
TLDR: it’s an online means of sharing your information with others. What information? Any information you want. You can include the standard info, such as your phone number or email, but you can also add portfolios, social media links, and anything else that you’d want to share when networking, without visually cluttering up a tiny slip of paper.
Most of us would rather scroll through a page of visually stimulating content on our own time rather than sort through our throwaway paper stacks and find the business card in question, right?
That’s where electronic business cards and software come into play. Think of it like a piece of multi-use media that not only works for in-person networking but also indirect networking (think links in bio, email signatures, etc.). Plus, you can have more creativity and flexibility with something like this – pops of color, your unique logo, photos, video, etc. The digital world is your oyster. We promise your personality can – and will – shine through far more on a digital business card than on a 3.5”x2” piece of paper.
How Do Digital Business Cards Work?
How Linq Digital Business Cards Work with Linq SmartProducts
Should you choose to purchase a Linq SmartProduct – whether you go with a Linq card, a Linq bracelet, a Linq Tap, or our Linq Band for Apple Watches – sharing your info will become far simpler. Once you have your Linq SmartProduct, people will simply scan your QR code or tap your Linq product with their device, and voila, your information instantly saves to their device, regardless of whether or not they also have Linq.
Benefits of Virtual Business Cards
They’re Environmentally Sustainable
We touched on waste in the intro. Virtual business cards have a leg up on traditional paper cards, and it boils down to waste. (This applies to whether you purchase a Linq product or not.) With an electronic business card, you aren’t printing 500+ slips of paper at a time that will likely sit unused in the box or get tossed out eventually by whomever you’ve handed it out to. That’s a lot of paper waste right there, and that’s assuming you only buy one box for one job throughout your career.
Think of it this way. Adobe published an article that looked into the effectiveness of traditional business cards and found some interesting metrics.
First, sales only increase by 2.5% for every 2000 cards that get passed out.
Second, 88% of business cards get thrown away in less than a week. That’s essentially nine out of ten business cards getting canned well before a company or employer even has a need for you.
Third, 63% of people throw the business card away because they don’t need the service. Like we just said, your card will probably end up in the trash well before your prospective client or partner finds a need for you, anyway. They aren’t going to keep every business card around “just in case” because that would amount to hundreds – or even thousands – of paper scraps sitting in a file.
So, for the good of the planet, help save around 7.2 million trees annually by switching to a digital business card that you can customize and edit at will (rather than redesigning and reprinting every five years or so). It’s a small step that can have a massive impact.
They’re Convenient and Contactless
In 2020 and beyond, going virtual and contactless has become the norm. We’re all a little more germ-conscious thanks to COVID-19, and electronic business cards can play a big part if you let them. Anything can act as a carrier for germs but especially something fibrous like a paper business card. Plus, who knows exactly how many hands touch a single business card, from production to distribution?
It’s better to be safe than sorry, and with Linq, no physical contact is necessary. Even if you have a Linq SmartProduct, you’re the only one touching it.
Along with being contactless, QR codes are extremely easy to share nowadays – you don’t even need a separate app to read QR codes since it’s typically built into the camera’s functionality. You can also hold up your phone in a virtual meeting for people to scan the electronic business card QR through the screen. Crazy how modern tech works sometimes, isn’t it?
When it comes to convenience, we have one word for you: typos. A typo on a printed document of any size, especially one that will have multiple hundreds of copies, is a costly mistake – an embarrassing one at that. It’s even worse if you aren’t the first one to notice it. Come on, what if you put the wrong phone number or miss a digit in your email address? Countless opportunities would pass you by, and you may not be aware. Alternatively, with digital business cards, you can remedy any typos, information updates, or job changes with a few taps. Edits are seamless, instant, and best of all, free. You’ll never have to worry about running out or not having a business card on hand again.
Electronic Business Cards Are Affordable
Consider Linq, for example. Our app is free to start, and you get great basic features if you’re simply looking for an electronic business card. If you’re looking for more in-depth analytics and features, our optional Pro upgrade is only $5 a month for things like video embeds, buttons for booking meetings, music players, forms, and advanced analytics so you know how your page is performing.
If you’re thinking about purchasing a Linq SmartProduct, prices vary from $10 to $50 depending on the product, and keep in mind, those are one-time purchases for the most part. Our basic card and V2 bracelet are $10, with custom cards and watch bands hitting the higher prices in that margin. If you think about repurchasing and redesigning paper business cards time and time again, those associated costs can skyrocket. Needless to say, a one-time payment of $50 (or less) checks out.
Get Started on Your Virtual Business Card with Linq
We’ve made the transition from traditional to virtual business cards quick and easy from the beginning. Whether you’re a seasoned veteran in your field or just getting started, Linq is meant to help modernize networking in a worthwhile and long-term way.
