Redesigning Business Cards to Include Social Media Info
Anyway, Kelly suggested that a) we redesign our business cards to include our social media info, and b) that the three of us in marketing be the first to get the new business cards before rolling them out to the rest of the company. Wheeee!
So Kelly, Mel (who's our fantastic designer) and I put our heads together (virtually, of course) and had a nice long, argumentative discussion on how we want our new business cards to look. Mel had to make a few studies so Kelly and I could agree on the one we all preferred (no easy feat, because Kelly and I seem to have very different views about design. She mentioned yesterday that she can predict which design of a set I'll pick as it's always the one she likes least--probably because we are each other's devil's advocate so often!)
Now if you want to add (like we did) your blog URL, Facebook page, Twitter profile and LinkedIn company page (and maybe some other social media profile you have) on top of your website URL, phone and fax numbers, physical address, and logo (not to speak of your name and job title), that card isn't going to look pretty unless you get creative.
Here are some ideas we threw around, and that you could consider for your business cards.
Get rid of the physical location.
That's the easiest and most obvious solution. When was the last time someone just dropped into your office because they had your business card and were in the neighborhood? Keep the non-essential business info (e.g., the physical address, the fax number) off the card to make space for the channels through which people are more likely to keep in touch with you; increasingly nowadays, that's Facebook or LinkedIn or Twitter (or FourSquare or some new cooler tool).
Keep only one or two bits of social media information.
If you're a more physical business than virtual (the neighborhood bakery, for example), you might want to keep your physical location. In that case, you can include just one or two URLs to your best, most-frequently updated profiles. If you've got 500 fans on Facebook and barely a presence on LinkedIn, keep Facebook. If you have a blog you don't have the time to update but you're on Twitter all day sharing your witty one-liners or special offers, you know where to direct people.
Use the back of the card.
Depending on whether online or physical addresses are more important to your business, you could put one set of information on the back of the card. The downside of course, is it will increase your printing costs.
Keep only online information.
If it were purely up to me, this is what I'd do. I want people to find me online, not to call me or turn up at the office looking for me. So I'd just remove all the physical means of contact. In fact, I'd like to add more links, to my personal LinkedIn profile, for example.
Make a bigger card.
Simple, right? Make your card bigger and you can fit in all the info you want. But I wouldn't advocate this, because I want my card to be small enough to fit into your wallet comfortably. If you are a quirkier business and want a card that makes a statement, go for it. I think it'd be pretty cool for a bookstore to have cards shaped like bookmarks, for example.
Use QR code.
If your audience is likely to use smartphone apps (and really, who isn't?), put in QR codes so they can get all your business information and easily connect with you. What did we do? We went with option #3. Check it out.
Do your business cards include social media information? Which of these options does it look like? Or do you have other creative ways to present all of this info and make it attractive?