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| The Local Builders Prepare To Swap Details on Their Work Devices |
The gadget and gizmo brethren are predicting the demise of the business card, and it’s all down to the latest craze for bumping.
I’m going to sit on the fence and with my usual sense of balance and fair mindedness… no you’re right, I can’t be that placid. They’re talking a load of old tosh. Business card printing is here to stay for a long time yet, and here’s why.
The Bump
Bumping is touching together smartphones to pass an electronic business card with contact details. It’s an app, and it is quite nifty. But in terms of replacing the business card it’s a fundamentally flawed concept as the devices are not all compatible. A Blackberry user can’t bump with everyone else who doesn’t have a similar device. So it you have an iPhone or an Android, sorry – we won’t be doing any business with you. At some point this will be overcome, but the industry squabbling about who should be top dog and have everyone else fall in line with their particular technology is a pretty good indicator that it won’t be happening for a while yet.
The Grind
In the real world, we’re not all geeks who live our lives around our smartphones, so we”ll restrict our bumping to the disco dance floor thank you very much (showing my age there). Then there is the social interaction that goes with passing a business card, it’s an ice breaker that forms the foundations of relationships, and what about the plumber with his customer, the mortgage adviser talking to his retired clients, the solicitor meeting with someone at the police station who has just been arrested, I could go on (and some people say I do just that) but my point is that the people who predict the demise of the actual business card tend to be the ones who are already gadget orientated and are comfortable doing this. The rest of us don’t agree, and that must really make them grind their teeth!
Jim Cunliffe
Jim is a prolific networker, small business mentor and a supporter of anything 'community'. He is an ambassador for Young Enterprise on the South Coast and loves to spend his time encouraging entrepreneurial spirit in everyone he meets.