When we needed business cards for one of our start-ups a few years ago we decided to put only our names on the front and our email address on the back.
By reading the email address you would know the name of the company and the domain name.
We still use the same format for all the other start-ups we used since because it works so well and people seem to love it. The most common remark we get is “yeah, that is really all you need right? A name and an email address”
In 1997 there was an advertisement for Honda on the back page of Wired Magazine. It showed nothing more than a car key with a domain name on it. There wouldn’t be anything unusual about such an image today. But in 1997 it was extraordinary. I showed it to some of my friends and told them that this is what was going to happen.
One day, I argued, all companies would have websites!
I know, it only seems obvious now.
Now take a look at Twitter. What if I told you that one day, every company and person in the world would have an Twitter account?
Sounds weird? Unrealistic? About as unrealistic as companies with websites were in 1997?
Right now I’m wondering whether to print new business cards and what information to put on it. Maybe I’m going to print just my Twitter name. A white card with nothing more than “@Boris” on the front and nothing on the back.
Sounds minimalist right? Maybe a bit too much so. But think about it for a minute. My email inbox is overflowing with email. A lot of it comes from people I know but the largest part is from people and companies that I have never met. Every email goes straight into my inbox where it becomes my responsibility.
Now imagine if I would only give out my Twitter name. Someone would get my card and would like to tell me something. He or she would send our a public tweet starting with “@Boris”. If I would choose to talk to that person I could start following him or her and we could exchange a few direct messages. Once we are done I would unfollow that person again.
Communication would be a bit more like meeting people in real life. At a conference people approach me, in public, and ask me a question. Then, if we want to continue talking, we make an appointment to talk in private.
That is how Twitter works. With email, everyone just barges into my office and waits there until I show up.
This is also why companies love Twitter. It gives them an opportunity to communicate with a mass audience without the problems that email brings.
Email simply isn’t scalable. Twitter is the new email.
you just thought of this? i agree with you btw.
Whilst i agree with the idea that we will definitely replace email with a Twitter like tool one day, i just hope its not Twitter.com.
I still reckon it will be our own web pages and really our own hosted twitter-like service – that’s what i’d like to see anyway.
It wont happen now, not maybe for another 10 years or so…but definitely soon everyone will have their own site, their own hosted twitter-esque streams, with interoperability between my hosted twitter & yours so we can link between each.
the idea that we have to stay with Twitter.com makes me feel a little nauseous…
I don’t agree on this one. Domain names are universal, stable, transferrable and you can switch to other services easily. Twitter is really just a single service with limited control over your online identity. That’s why I would still stick with just a domain on a business card.
Nope, Sorry Boris but I must disagree.
Firstly the 140 character limit is just too restrictive – the thing about email is that it’s the old fashioned post system speeded up and made (marginally) more reliable whereas twitter is just the new (public) SMS.
Don’t get me wrong, I love my twitter account – I evangelise about it at work and to my friends. People who “just don’t get it”. The other problem with twitter (apart from the character limit and the fact that people “don’t get it”) is that it’s just this season’s must have tool.
Google Wave’s coming and it’ll probably oust twitter from its current place at the top, only to be replaced again by something even more shiny. Email and websites however have become ingrained into the international psyche because they’re just similar enough to what we already have while being different.
There’s got to be something better, faster and generally more productive than email but I just don’t think it’s twitter, sorry!
Them business cards are mint! Such a great idea and fantastic blog keep the work up, you guys are killing it.
how do you give an unique twitter name to 7 billions? :-) Not so sure it scale so well.
You are lucky/early and got Boris from every namespace or almost. You “stole” Boris from every other Boris
(just as Patricia Gallot-Lavallé tried to stole the Patricia keyword on google, as told on my “Is your name web-ready” post last week: http://bit.ly/info/JvWoR )
For example, Boris, your full name is maybe hard to spell right for native english speakers — or french like me.
But as it’s not common, it allows you to print card with just your name, and be found without be mistaken for someone (or am I mistaken here and it’s in fact a common name?)
What if you are called John Smith? You are in a really bad situation. Personal branding is worth nothing when your name is non-unique — and the namespace become too small to allow you to be identified.
In my opinion, unique names are a pre-requisite for everybody to own his/her Twitter or Facebook ID or URL. (again, a point I made last week here http://bit.ly/info/JvWoR )
At least with email, we had a 2 part namespace…
Having a kids soon? Give them an unique name, cause they are going to need it in the next 20 years.
I received such a business card a couple of weeks ago.. Completely white with only a twitter account on the back. Or front of course, which is hard to tell.. Thought it was kinda neat!
http://www.mobypicture.com/user/timanrebel/view/255327
If you are fed up with your office overflowing with ppl u don’t know, Would you prefer it more if that all those ppl follow and approaching you in public!!
yet i see a great point to your post, and -if you’ll let me- i’ll rephrase it…
“Realtime comuunication with one-to-one-or-many interaction is the new email”
think of it as a Google Wave+ Twitter(ish) kind of Open Source ubiquitous service
Twitter (as we know it today) is still limited, proprietary, may be revolutionary, yet its not yet mature enough to be the de-facto communication mean worldwide.
I recently created a new business card and while it isn’t as minimal as yours it does include my twitter address on it.
isnt that where facebook is headed w/ usernames?
My last business card simply had my email and Twitter username.
I found that it went over really well with people acquainted with Twitter, but for the 15% or so people I was doing business with that didn’t get it, they were confused and bothered by the lack of my full name and other typical biz card items.
It was unthinkable to them that my full name and phone were not on there.
I am ordering new cards now and the phone is still gone (when people call my phone, I tell them to email me).
But I’m bringing back the name on my cards.
I don’t think it makes sense to be cryptic with a portion of the people with whom I’m doing business.
I think that email accounts would keep things more private. If anyone would like to contact you about something he prefers to be private Twitter won’t help him! He can’t send direct message if you’re not following him. Unless you want to do that auto-following thing..
And to save on paper one can go with a digital business card with just name and Twitter name from http://www.mynameise.com
I like the idea of putting your name on the front of the business card, with the e-mail address on the back. Very clever. I understand your point about the full inbox, like a room full of people waiting for your response, which makes giving out your Twitter handle a more sensible idea. I never thought about how Twitter interactions are a bit more similar to real life interactions (especially at conferences) – the hello, the request for more personal conversation, the departure. Technology sure is changing interpersonal interactions. However, when it comes to business cards, I personally think a little bit more is needed. I have a horrible memory when it comes to names (especially when meeting lots of people at a conference or happy hour), so I like to have the person’s full name on the business card I receive – so I can address them properly during our next conversation. For many students, start-up companies, or small businesses – gmail, yahoo, even hotmail seem to be the e-mail providers of choice – which means their e-mail address would not give me any indication about where they work (something else I am likely to forget in conversation) – so I also like to see in writing the company they work for, or at least the field of work. While it is true that more and more people are getting Twitter accounts, there are still thousands and thousands of people without Twitter accounts, and thousands of people without internet access. It is for this reason, I do not think a business card should ONLY contain a Twitter handle – it may mean missing out on potential customers and clients. Name, e-mail, company (or field) and Twitter handle are the things I like to see. People are getting pretty creative these days with lines on their cards for “I met Joe Smith at ____________” where you can fill in with your pen the place you met the person, some even have notes sections – where you can jot down some of the things you discussed with the person.. so when you go home to e-mail them, Tweet them, whatever – you remember what you had previously talked with them about. Many of my fellow peers actually put mini versions of their resume on the back of their business card – something I think only students looking for internships and jobs would do :)
I saw a car that had an email address sticker on it. Someone had removed the first part so it looked a bit like a Twitter Account. Then I wondered how long it would take before companies would start advertising their Twitter account instead of their domain name. That is how I got to this post…
i agree with timo…
it makes me nervous that one company can command so much power, and as much as i like twitter, i wouldn’t give them that much credit.
the internet isn’t owned by anybody and that’s what makes it so beautiful.