Do you think this is Abraham Lincoln’s business card? Would be sweet if it was.

Businessmen and professionals have used business cards for over 200 hundred years so it is quite possible that Abe Lincoln used one to disseminate his contact information as he traveled Illinois as a circuit lawyer.

I think the give away is that Lincoln did not refer to himself as a rail splitter. That was a fabrication of his presidential campaign staff.

So this is clearly a hoax. There is more information at the link below.

Thanks to http://kottke.org/13/02/is-this-really-abraham-lincolns-business-card for sharing .

For a job fair at his school, electrical engineering student Jay Lickliter created this interesting business card with a ring of LED’s that light up when the card is touched.

I am not exactly sure of the benefit of this invention but it made me think about the interesting marriage of technology and creativity. Often we tend to think of the the application side as driving the creative side of the process. In other words someone thinks of a creative way to solve a problem or make an improvement then they bring in an engineer or technology expert to “make it work”.

This has been the model for most of the industrial era. After all it makes sense. If you are in a particular industry and serving a particular market segment you are looking for ways to better serve your market and expand your potential business.  So you think of creative solutions then set out to make them. But the flip side includes innovators like Jay Lickliter who simply say, “Gee what if I could complete a circuit when you touch this business card causing these lights to turn on. Would that be interesting?”  Now it is up to the application creatives to think of how to use this technology.

Though is is interesting that the “work” Jay decided to have his card do is make lights flash, it seems that it may be a short hop to having a chip that provides a spoken message or maybe this is a step towards a thumb ID that assures that you are the registered user of an electronic pass key or credit card. What are your creative ideas? Share them here or call Jay about a possible joint venture.

Steve Gobeli – Guest Blogger

When it comes to business cards I guess I can best be described as strictly “old school”. It seems with ever increasing regularity I am getting what I would describe as “new age” business cards. I think the only thing missing from some of them are pyramids or crystals, in the attempt to grab my attention and differentiate one business card from another. I understand the idea but I find it more humorous than professional, and hence more forgettable, which I think is the opposite of the business cards intent.

When was the last time you actually read a business card? In the US we have a tendency to swap cards at a meeting, casually glance at the card we have received and then tuck it in our pocket so that we can be sure to add it to the rubber band bound deck of business cards we keep in our desk drawer at the office. In some parts of the world a business card is presented with both hands, face up and oriented so that the person receiving the card can immediately read it. If you are presented a business card in such a manner and don’t take the time to read the card with the intensity associated with reading the latest Pulitzer prize winning novel, then don’t expect a fully successful meeting. You may have insulted the person who presented you the card.

This process may delay the actual start of a meeting by as much as ten seconds, but I like it and would like to see it more in the US. It demonstrates respect for the information that the person has provided you to start the meeting and by extension the information that they will provide you during the meeting.

Like I said old school.

Increasingly it seems I am getting business cards that remind me of miniature birthday cards. They now come in all sorts of colors. I think this is done in the hopes that by presenting a colorful business, it will make the presenter more memorable. I don’t remember who gives me a colorful business card. I just remember the color. He gave me a red card, or she gave me a blue one. I don’t think that was the objective, but it is the result. They now also appear to come in oversized or even folded formats. This is especially disruptive to my business card filing system as the rubber bands have a tendency to cut in and dog-ear the edges of these cards.

It is the content of the business card that is important.

The company name and logo should clearly prominent across the top of the card. If I forget your name, chances are I will remember the company and search for the card in that manner. If I can’t easily locate the company name on the card it will probably not see the light of day again.

Utilize a landscape as opposed to a portrait orientation to the business card. I have a tendency to hurt my neck as I try to turn my head sideways when I try to read improperly oriented cards. I guess I could just rotate the card ninety degrees, but that would be a little too weird for me.

Put your name in a little larger and bold font. I want to be able to locate it quickly. Put your title and area of responsibility directly below your name so that they can easily be associated. Remember to keep your title short. It would appear that people want to believe that the longer and more detailed their title, the more important they sound. This is the opposite of what is the case. The really important people seem to have titles that are one to three words long. If your title has to be reread multiple times to decipher what it is that you actually do, the chances are that your business card will be dismissed, not remembered.

The back of the business card presents an interesting situation. Simple, clean and blank is always good. I am finding myself coming around to the idea of the corporate web site or URL on the back is good as well, and even perhaps an email address. If you deal in multilingual markets, having all the business card information in the language of the market on the reverse side of a business card is very good as well. Superfluous information, catch phrases or other personal customizations detract from the card far more than they help.

I once received a card from a lady with a picture of her head on the back. Nothing else, just her smiling face. I asked her why she did that. She said she wanted people to remember her card. I don’t remember her name, what she did, why we met, or who she worked for, but I do remember her card. I guess it worked, sort of.

In returning to my earlier foreign business card example, businessmen in some parts of the world treat their own and each other’s business cards with respect. They are used as an integral part of conducting business meetings. Here in the US we now seem content to utilize our business cards for not much else other than to drop them in a bowl at the cash register where we eat lunch in the hopes that it may be drawn and we receive a free lunch next week. Maybe the reason for the proliferation of all the new business card colors, sizes and formats is not for business purposes, but really for no other reason than to increase the chances of those cards being drawn for the free lunch.

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Stephen Gobeli;   Entrepreneur – President at EarZin LLC “Better,  More Affordable Hearing”, Instructor  International Business at the University of Phoenix, General Manager – Managed Network Services at Alcatel-Lucent Inc.  Blog:  www.stephengobeli.com  Linkedin Page:  LinkedIn.com/in/srgobeli

If you are an active (or even occasional ) networker you probably come back from an event with a handful of business cards. I just attended an event last night which was a multi-chamber mixer in Chicago and met about 12 new people. BTW a multi-chamber mixer is a kind of party attended by members from several different chambers of commerce from around the city. This particular event was held at the Copernicus Center near Lawrence and Milwaukee Avenues which allowed easy access for people from many northside areas.

Okay here’s the idea which I found today from How-to-Phil. He suggests that after you interact with a new person and have received a business card from him or her. You fold down one of the corners to remind you how you felt about this interaction. Phil suggests that if you feel the person is a great contact you fold back the upper right hand corner of the card. If you found the person “unimpressive” you fold back the lower left hand corner of the card. This will give you a clue later in case you can’t remember how you felt and it will clue you towards how to deal with that contact when you get back to your office. This can be really handy at a trade show where you might meet a hundred people over three or four days.

Watch Phil’s short video to get the whole story. Click now.

By Toi Thomas, Guest Blogger

I currently don’t have a business card. Not that I don’t want one, but the last time anyone actually wanted my business card was three years ago. When I tell people that I’m a writer, they ask me what I do to make a living. Then I explain that my day job is teaching. After that, no one is interested in my business card. Most people ask me for my facebook page or blog address and then type it into their phones right away. Sometime I hear from these people again and sometimes I don’t.
Many years ago when I worked in corporate America, my boss thought I should have a business card with the company logo on it, but I saw no point. I wasn’t in sales and rarely interacted clients. I’m still not sure why an accounts payable representative would need a business card.
There is one thing, at the moment, compelling me to order a brand new stack of business cards. I got the idea from somewhere, though I can’t seem to remember where exactly, but I plan to use my new business cards as book marks. I’m a writer, and fans of books and authors love to collect bookmarks. I’ve actually made quite a few “book tags” as I call them, that I’ve given away as prizes explaining that they are ideal for collecting and using as bookmarks. It just so happens that they are the same size a business card. I wish I’d thought of it sooner.

Toi Thomas, author of Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel available at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236158
My blog http://ecsuniverse.blogspot.com/
My facebook page http://www.facebook.com/EternalCurseSeries
Toi Thomas, author of Eternal Curse: Giovanni’s Angel available at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/236158

My friend Mira Temkin has a great way to help people remember her name. She tells them to remember “Mira Mira on the wall” similar to the famous chant of the wicked stepmother in Snow White. That is not to say that Mira is to be associated with the wicked stepmother, she is far too pleasant a person for anyone to make that mistake.

But associating your name with something familiar that people can remember is a good idea. This is particularly good for Mira and myself who have uncommon names. Mira uses this mnemonic  “hook” on her business card which reinforces her distinctive moniker. She also uses a small photo of herself on the card in a border that may be construed as a mirror frame. So when you need an advertising copywriter reflect on this blog post and remember “Mira Mira on the wall” then give lovely Mira a call.

Let Me Give You My Card

My husband (also named Mike), webmaster extraordinaire, designed the cards and we went down to the Repeat Press studio to select the perfect color and paper earlier this summer. We selected a nice, heavy paper and a brand new color from Pantone (PMS 2225 for the designers out there). Read the whole story.

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Letterpress is an awesome somewhat retro and high quality business card option.

This is Ollie. Her formal name is Olive but she seems to prefer Ollie.

She currently lives on the northside of Chicago a little northwest of Wrigley Field.

She is a shelter rescue dog currently looking for a permanent home.

This is a picture of her sorting through some business cards in the hopes of finding a good prospect.

No luck so far.

She knows her sit, stay, heal commands and is very smart and catches on quickly.

If you are in a position to help Ollie with a good home or good prospect give her human friend a call.

The contact info is right here.

Cindy Weigel 
Farmers Insurance  
3843 N. Broadway, Chgo IL 60613  
Ofc: 773-271-3276 Fax:773-496-7768  
Web: www.FarmersNorth.com

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Brian Shirley – Guest Blogger

I was excited about my first business card. I had been doing stand-up comedy for a few years and the business card that said BRIAN T SHIRLEY COMEDIAN made the whole thing seem official.

I still get a kick out of my new stack of business cards. Because of business cards and wanting to make mine stand out, I put Comedian/Philosopher on the third or fourth batch of cards. I almost always got a laugh from people when they read that and now that’s the title of my website. If I had never gotten business cards, I don’t think that would have happened. My card’s now a little more fancy than they used to be, but not too fancy.

My Dad complained about the effects of his networking with business cards. One day he lamented that he would hand his cards out, then sometime later see the same people who he had given his card to at the ballpark, or the Elks Lodge or somewhere else. These people had not called on him for business, yet they possessed his card with all his contact information on the front very easily read and understood. This perplexed and aggravated my Dad terribly. I told him the next time he came into contact with one of these non-contactors, give them another business card. My father questioned the wisdom of such a move and asked me what he should say in the event that one of these folks brought up the fact that they already had one of his cards. I informed my father that he should reply that he knows they have one of his business cards, but it must not be working properly because he has not heard from them. Then say, this replacement card is from a new batch and he’s positive it will work as he’s tested some of them himself.

Comedian/Philosopher Brian T Shirley has been in the Business for nearly 20 years. His act is derived from growing up poor, coming from a broken home, his military experience, partying, women, pets, infomercial’s, sports, and much,much,more. Oh he also the author of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Club”.

To find out more about Brian Shirley his act, his books and his radio show visit http://www.briantshirley.webs.com

Read about this fun Philadelphia business man.

“We like to laugh,” says Marty. A South Jersey CPA who often testifies in court disputes, he is serious about his work. But he can’t resist having a fake overturned coffee mug, with puddled spillage, as the receptacle for his business cards.

You get the message: The Abos not only have quirky senses of humor, they also adore drawing others into their zany domestic world
Read more: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20120826_The_fun_and_the_fabulous.html#ixzz24hRg4eTF
Watch sports videos you won’t find anywhere else