Business Cards are Useless
Posted by Karen Rubin on Thu, Apr 08, 2010 @ 02:54 PM
Ah spring! It's been a beautiful week here in Boston, in fact it's been the first week where I was able to bike to work every day. You might ask, "Karen, what does this have to do with business cards?" Being the first week where I biked to work, also meant I moved from my winter bag to my summer bag, and thus cleaned out all the junk I had accumulated throughout the winter.
In that junk, was a pretty significant pile of business cards. I get, and give business cards everywhere. HubSpot.tv on Fridays, customer interviews, as well as various Boston networking events - they are more popular than candy on Halloween.
As I took that pile of cards, and added them to the box in my desk with all my other cards, I realized I should just throw them away. I never, absolutely never, go back to my business cards to look up contacts. Business cards have become completely useless.
If I meet someone at an event that I want to keep in touch with, I reach out to them on LinkedIn or Twitter. If there is someone I want to reach out to that I am not connect with, I Google them. I never pull out that box of business cards and go through it trying to find their contact information.
My question to you is, why do people still hand out business cards? Do they still add value to you in your world?