We live in the age of the Internet, where most of our personal and business activities depend on computers and electronic devices. This digital life is what led to the creation of the electronic calling card. The eBusiness card started as a novelty to become a necessary business networking tool.
What is a digital business card?
These modern contact cards can now be sent and received electronically wirelessly using tools, email, the Internet, SMS or Bluetooth instead of using paper as the medium.
What are the types of digital business cards?
There are four main types of business cards; Telephone contact cards, email-based business cards, social networking sites such as business cards, and tools and applications such as Pokens or the iPhone that are used to exchange business card data.
The phone calling card and the email-based digital contact card are quite interchangeable as you can now send email over the phone and you can also send email using your phone. The main difference is that phone-based digital calling cards work from your phone and use SMS or Bluetooth features, while email-based digital calling cards work from your email account.
Examples of phone-based digital contact cards are Contxts, TxtID, and DUB. Contxts allows you to send and receive phone cards via SMS, while TxtID is a service that works by having the other party send a text message with your username to a six-digit number and where they will receive your contact information by SMS. To use DUB contact cards, an account must first be created on your website, then you can send it to other users by email or SMS, simply by sending a text message to the DUB site. These services start with freeware options, but generally offer paid services that allow you to access more features or send and receive more digital calling cards.
For email-based business cards, companies like Drop Card and Weavemet offer such services. Both companies offer services that work in a similar way to Contxts and TxtID where you create a profile on your site, send a text message with the email address to a dropcard number and your contact will receive your contact card in their email. .
The third type is to use your social media profiles like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google profiles as contact cards. There is also a service that aggregates all of your social media profiles like MyNameIsE, which is a site that collects all of your social profiles into one virtual calling card that can be accessed via the mobile web.
The last category of digital business card are devices like iPhone or Pokens apps that you use with other people with the same devices where the device exchanges contact information. Some of these applications specialize in contact data entry. Examples of these iPhone applications are vCard and BeamME.
What is the advantage of a digital business card?
Digital business cards offer many advantages, here are some of them:
It is easier to create. Since digital business cards don’t really require any aesthetic flair, you don’t have to worry about designing one. The person you give it to will not lose it as digital calling cards cannot be lost or left behind because your contact will always have them on their email, phone or other web-based contact sharing account .
It is environmentally friendly. Digital contact cards do not require paper, so you are helping the environment by using electronic business cards.
Is efficient. When a paper calling card is handed to you, most people scan it or enter the data on their phones or computers, but if your calling card is already in digital format, the recipient will no longer have to go through the hassle to encode it.
As mentioned above, digital calling cards are often requested, especially since most people use internet phones and iPhones, where providing digital contact cards is more helpful for these tech-savvy folks. It is really helpful to get a digital calling card to stay connected, be it for personal use or for business purposes.