Some thoughts on business cards and LinkedIn

I was going through some stacks of business cards received by people I’ve met over the years and thought it would be a great idea to add some of these people to my LinkedIn connections in case I ever needed their expertise in future.

From this I gathered that it is quite important that our business cards these days must really match up with our online presence if we want to stay connected.

So I seem to have learned something from this process which revolves around the information given on business cards. Here they are:

1. Name Consistency.
Having your Chinese/Tamil/Long Form/Etc name on your business card, but your Christian name on your LinkedIn profile doesn’t help me much. (This probably only applies to Singapore and China?)

2. EMail address matching your name.
Similar to point #1. This makes it easier for someone to find you on LinkedIn.

3. Font/Typeface used on the card.
It would be great if it was readable by those automated business card readers. (Although I didn’t use this process).

4. Amount of EMail addresses used.
On some business cards I saw that people can be contacted at six different EMail addresses. I am not sure of the reasoning for that, but it sure doesn’t give me confidence that you’re going to receive my EMail invite.

5. Your proper and full name.
Using your initials on your business card (i.e. M. Ashworth) makes it difficult to tell you apart from all the other Mike, Mark, Martha, Montgomery, Moriarty, Etc. Ashworths out there.

6. Using a free EMail account is not cool for business owners.
If I can’t find you by name, then I’m unlikely to find you by your name + company name if you’re using a free EMail account.

7. Differentiate yourself.
If your parent’s called you Adam Smith, or Mark Ashworth then there’s bound to be lots of other people sharing your name. Filling in more information about yourself, such as your company, location and job title will make it much easier for me to find you.

8. I can’t think of something to put for number 8.
I wanted to make a list of 10 items though. So I will leave this in. I guess this coincides with my learning point #7, which is filling out as much information as possible on your LinkedIn profile so I know who you are and what other skills you may have. Oh yes, and keeping your information up to date is good too.

9. Pictures
It would be great to have a picture on your business card so I can match you up to your profile on LinkedIn. Some faces I might have forgotten from conferences held years ago.

10. Lastly: Have a LinkedIn account!
Seriously, which business owner or marketing professional doesn’t have LinkedIn these days? (Call me a social networking Nazi all you like).

Unless of course, you do not want me to contact you in future. Which in that case, why did you pass me your business card to begin with? (Just tell me you left it at home, or haven’t got them printed yet)

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