How do you handle business cards and networking?
Jason Baer's biz card is always the easiest to find because it's metal
Blogger Chris Brogan talks about three levels of business card collecting and networking. The first level is personal, where you forge a bond with the person. The second level is business, where you hope to conduct business with the person down the road. The third and final level is where you are just collecting names. Chris says that at social events, we are conditioned to collect business cards as the next step after meeting someone. Instead of doing this all the time, he advises that if you think it’s just a casual meeting, just hug the person and move on.
I always collect business cards. I love seeing how people lay out their information, and it helps me remember names. Just because I’m in public relations doesn’t mean I’m always the greatest at remembering names and faces, unfortunately. Hopefully if I’ve ever breezed past you in a social gathering, and we’ve met before, you’ll understand that I’m not snubbing you — I just am not the best at remembering faces. I seem to be much better conditioned to remembering word patterns rather than face patterns.
My own system is to collect and organize business cards by event. I used to file them alphabetically, but they are coming in so fast and furious now that I can no longer fit in the time to do that. And I seem to remember people better by event – so all the people I met at Social Media AZ, for example, are together in one rubber band stack. I like to go through them physically, not online. Business cards to me are a work of art.
Anyone found a better system?
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Comments
March 12th, 2010 at 8:37 am
I get overwhelmed by business cards. I’ve gone to a lot of networking meetings over the years and I have piles and piles of business cards. I’ve tried to weed them out based on relationship status, but that too has not been the best method. I like your idea of grouping them by event. I’ll have to give that a try.
March 12th, 2010 at 8:39 am
I’m going to start using Evernote to take pics of people holding up their cards or conf badges.
March 12th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I wonder what ya’ll think about this situation. My boss is an entrepreneur building a tech startup. He has stacks of hundreds of business cards from people he’s met at tradeshows, conferences and the like over the last couple years. By handing over a business card, have these people opted in to receive quarterly email updates from my boss about the business he’s building? Open to your thoughts …
March 12th, 2010 at 9:23 am
I think Chris needs to blog about lighting.
Seriously though, I very much agree with Chris Brogan. That’s why I stopped carrying cards. I’m easy to find and generally so are others. If the interaction in meaningful, we’ll exchange phone numbers or email addresses. It says more to the other person when you pull out a pen and write their info down in front of them.
March 12th, 2010 at 9:27 am
I think your boss can send a newsletter to the people whose biz cards he has collected, but definitely with an opt in/opt out clause to receive future newsletters so he doesn’t irritate them.
Tyler, I like the idea of photos – that would help a face memory-challenged PR person like me.
March 12th, 2010 at 9:29 am
ScribeDevil – they have not opted in, but they are warm leads. He should follow up with them and in a natural way, ask if it would be okay. “You know, we have a lot of interesting tips [or whatever] we put out each month in a short e-newsletter. Would it be okay if I added you to our list?” Something like that. This respects the prospect and offers less chance you’ll upset them with a spam email from seemingly out of nowhere. It cheapens the original interaction if you simply sign ‘em up without asking.
March 12th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Dan, are you saying I’m cheap?
March 12th, 2010 at 9:52 am
I have contemplated this problem on more than one occasion. I started doing LOTS of networking over a year ago and have since collected hundreds of business cards that I wasn’t sure what to do with. Since there are so many events, you might have hundreds of stacks if you group them by event so what I’ve done is group them by importance, so to speak. For example, I have a group of people that I would like to stay in touch with. Then, a group of those I met but don’t think we are a good fit to work together or need to stay in touch, those I need to follow up with, those that are potential clients, etc. It’s worked for me for the most part, I can usually find the card I am looking for without going through all of them.
March 12th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Pros turn to pros for advice. First, pickup Larry James’ book, “10 Commitments of Networking” for the answers to all the questions asked here, then visit his blog, http://networkinghq.wordpress.com/
For authors and speakers, everything is answered here, http://www.authorsandspeakersnetwork.com/
Also, currently finishing Harvey Mackay’s book on Rolodex. Visit HarveyMackay.com for The Mackay 33™ for Managers, Mackay’s 35 To Stay Alive, Mackay 12Ps Competitive Profile, Mackay 66™ for Customers, Harvey Mackay’s Negotiating Strategies, plus Publish or Bust!
March 12th, 2010 at 12:49 pm
Never Linda. Never!
March 13th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I enter business card information into my computer’s address book. Under the notes section of the contact’s entry, I add keywords on when and why I met the person. It’s similar to adding tags to pictures. When I’m looking for certain contacts later, I can search a keyword in my address book database.
March 18th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
Generally I don’t ask people for a business card unless I feel there could be value to establishing a relationship. This helps eliminate all those business cards that will just pile up and go into the trash anyway.
When I get home, I separate the cards. All of them get scanned into my CardScan (When it’s working!! Been having serious issues with this machine lately). Once they get scanned in, I toss them. This way, I can always pull up the person’s name and see the card because I’m very visual.
I also have a ‘VIP’ folder where I keep all my ‘VIP’ contacts. After the cards get scanned, the ones I want to keep, go into my folder.
However, it’s all easier said than done. Currently, there are business cards all over my desk and I’m trying to find the time to organize them.
Also…if I give you my card…that does not mean I automatically want to receive your newsletter. ScribeDevil, I think you should ask their permission first before adding them to the email list.
That’s my little system