There must be dozens of virtual business card generators online and I tried out plenty of them. Somehow I just don’t see that ever taking off.
The sole purpose of an analog business card is to save people the trouble of having to write down your name and address details when you meet. An online business card does not help with that. It requires the other party to remember, or write down, the url to your virtual business card.
Yeah, unless you print it on a card which would defeat the whole purpose wouldn’t it?
A serious alternative to paper business cards these virtual business cards services are not. So maybe they should merely be seen as an alternative to online profiles? Instead of a blog, LinkedIn profile or Facebook page you set-up a digital business card? Well, that might work for a tiny percentage of people but the benefit of setting up a Facebook page compared to a digital business card are so great that I would never recommend it to anyone.
Jakarta (Indonesia) based cardxc.com clearly disagrees. They have launched (in beta) an impressive system where you can edit, design, print and share online business cards. If you manage to look beyond the weird language (“See how everybody have creatively create their online business card”) you will find a well put together site with some impressive design tools.
Check out the video for a quick demo:
As you will see the developers at cardxc.com spent a LOT of time on this. The editing tools are very intuitive and easy to use. The site looks slick enough and I actually enjoyed playing with their business card generator.
But playing around with their excellent tools for a while and browsing some of the published cards did not cure my pessimism. If you need a business card, get a business card. If you want an online presence, get a LinkedIn profile or a blog.
Don’t agree? Generate your digital business card and let me know how you are planning on using it.
Just had my new business cards printed. On the backside there is a QR-Code with my full contact details in vCard format.
http://www.sw4.de/qr-code
A QR-Code looks cool but isn’t very convenient either. I’d say that less than 1% of all people who get it know what to do with it.
What would be really convenient is if you offer to send the person receiving your business card a vCard. You could say ‘Don’t bother entering all my data in your address book. I will send you my vCard as soon as I get home”.
In fact, print THAT on the back of your business card!
I have a German explanation of the QR-Code on my website (and a clear text URL next to the QR-Code on the business card) to explain it. While I know that only a few people will (be able to) use it, I still like the idea.
However, the process you described is pretty much what I’m doing most of the time, anyways.
The QR thing is good for one thing only: to tell a story with the business card which will make them remember you. For that, it is perfect. :-)
Well, for now, probably. Still, I think, QR-Codes do have a future:
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2009/09/01/kidrobot-qr-scavenger-hunt/
@Stefan: I think QR codes are basically fancy barcodes. I don’t see anyone getting excited over those anymore. Sure, they are useful in some cases but I’m more interested in RFID.
I agree that the virtual cards are no substitute for the real thing. Maybe later on as technology keeps advancing, but not yet :]
I think paper business cards are so much more critical and more effective than the virtual thing. But I have no doubt that the internet will find its way to over come that.
this web for business card have some limitation, we cannot use any other alphabet then Roman, if I try to use Japanese like as katakana or hiragana the sistem doesn’t work, I need to work in Japan so I need somethig which can be reed for the Japanese.
Do you have any solution for this problem?
Sincerely
Andrea