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Turn Your Business Card Into Business  Author Reno Lovison 148 Pages 8.5 x 5.5 Trade Paperback
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I recently found a nice article at OPENforum written by Erica Swallow ( Twitter @ericaswallow ) pertaining to the inclusion of social media links on your business card. This is a comprehensive article with a number of really good examples, so after you read my summary go ahead and check out the whole thing for yourself at http://bit.ly/aGRACQ .
Erica notes that more and more people are including social media links such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yotube and others on their business cards. After all in web 3 point oh we want to meet people where they are not force them to meet us at the place of our choosing. In other words simply directing people to your website might not be enough. Ask them to meet you where they like to hang out. As I have said time and again your business card is simply a convenient way to communicate your contact information so include as many points of contacts as it makes sense to do. Do you have images to share? Maybe it makes sense to direct folks to your Flickr account. Showing videos? Maybe your YouTube channel is the place you want them to go. Curious whether your business cards are driving traffic to your website? I have heard of some people using bit.ly tiny.url or unique domain names that identify the link as coming only from their business card – - interesting approach. So don’t be anti-social invite your face-to-face contacts to meet you on the web wherever they are most comfortable. After all it is called “social networking”.  Guest Blogger Alan Chumley Guest Blogger – - Alan Chumley Folks chatting or tweeting about social media measurement love to apply cute acronyms or use alliteration to articulate their thinking or their model on how to measure social media. Generally, I find that approach lacking. Great for marketing hyperbole, but light on oomph and methodology. Prime example: All were ambitiously and interestingly expressed as a return on… Insight — Interaction — Investment — or Impact. Okay. I am feeling the need to break my own rule and reciprocate with the Seven C’s of social media measurement: C1. Counting (site and search metrics–all the appropriate stuff we can and should count) So how do you measure all this? Combine several approaches (such as content analysis, search and site metrics, network analysis, primary research), and have those approaches be flexible enough to account for – - prioritize – - weight, different objectives and campaign types. Your thoughts? - - - - - - - Alan Chumley has twelve years experience in corporate communication / measurement industry including senior-level, in-house corporate communications roles for leading blue chip organizations such as Bell Canada, as the Director of Measurement for Hill & Knowlton, and Vice President at Cormex Media Content Analysis. Alan holds an M.A. in communication and culture with research focusing on media effects and uses, audience analysis, reception studies and best practices in PR management and measurement. In addition to being an adjunct instructor (of research and measurement) at two universities in Canada, Alan is a frequent industry speaker, blogger and tweeter. Follow Alam on Twitter @alanchumley  Kevin Daum, Author
Kevin Daum – Guest Blogger During these tough times, being good or great is no longer good enough; you have to be awesome. When clients don’t sign with your company, there must be a reason they didn’t choose you. Sure, we’ll cover it by saying things like…“It’s the economy.” Or “Their situation changed,” but they did move forward with somebody right?! More likely you just didn’t connect in a meaningful, compelling manner and your competition did. Perhaps you didn’t know how to say the right things to the right people in the right way. Or worse, you didn’t recognize that they weren’t all that interested before investing your resources. Most of us in these situations show up and throw up all the reasons why people should take what we have to offer without ever considering whether or not our product, service or idea actually benefits the particular, immediate pain suffered by the prospect. Partly of course because we believe that everyone needs what we have to offer. So how can you more effectively make a memorable connection with potential clients? Establishing Compelling Messaging is the first step to successful promotional efforts. You have to establish empathy by identifying their pain. It lets the buyer know you get them. Then you can provide an objective solution (too early to sell them just yet). Then once they trust your understanding of their problem, you have to clearly differentiate yourself.
 ROAR Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle You have gone to a lot of trouble to create an awesome solution and bring it to your customer. Don’t waste your efforts! Approach the opportunity by making it about them and you’ll likely find a client ready to let you solve their problem. Kevin Daum is the Author of the Amazon #1 Best Seller ROAR! Get Heard in the Sales and Marketing Jungle and the national columnist for Smart Business Magazine. He can be found at www.KevinDaum.com
As a graphic and web designer, I think a lot about presentation. I believe that first impressions are important, and that little things can provide clues to potential contacts about your personality and how you do business. Little things like business cards can say a lot about your attention to detail, your ability to recognize the value of good design, and even how “plugged in” you are to current trends. I’m not saying that your precious 2″ x 3.5″s are the end all be all of your networking skills, but I absolutely believe that a well designed card can make you stand out from the pack.
Important as the design itself is, textural paper and print quality are perhaps even more interesting. Human fingertips are the second most sensitive parts of the body (after the tongue, but I don’t think you want people licking your cards), so why not give people a little something extra to lodge in their sense memories? I specialize in letterpress printing, so I must admit I’m somewhat biased when it comes to texture. The first time I felt my letterpress printed wedding invitations several years ago, the words deliciously sunken into the paper, I was sold. I have actually watched people stand at a networking event for a half an hour as we chatted, running their hands over and over my cards in sort of a trance. My cards immediately present a discussion topic, even to people who wouldn’t normally take any notice of print material. Things get even more interesting when I tell them that some of the paper is recycled from my junk mail or made from post-consumer cotton fabric, the inks are vegetable based, and my printing process is eco-friendly. I’ve had people tell me they like to keep my cards around because they’re like miniature works of art.
———————————————————– Letterpress + Paper Shop: www.tweedlepress.com I just visited a blog that was touting the virtues of virtual business cards and predicting the ultimate demise of the printed business card. This is an old story and I have not seen it happen yet. Virtual cards are a great idea and I look forward to them being a mainstream solution, but I continue to caution that new technology does not neccessarily have to replace old technology. Virtual and printed cards can co-exist.  Business Cards are Dead One complaint I have heard refers to those who have stacks of cards or hundreds of cards in a box collected over a period of months or years. HELLO!! There is no need to keep someone’s card forever. The primary purpose of a business card is simply to transfer contact information that may be pertinent now or in the short term. If you look at a card and don’t remember the person – - where you met – - or sadly what product or service he or she offers – - throw it out. It has outlived it’s usefulness. If you are a giver of a card. Consider that this is an opportunity to be sure that the recipient has your important contact information and that he or she might be reminded of you or your service over a period of a few days or maybe a few months if they keep your card. If you are a recipient of a card, this is a handy device to help you keep and refer to contact information from someone you have met. Keep it as long as there is a chance that you might want to contact that person sometime. As long as it has value as a potential resource for you. Just as unused business cards sit on your desk so will unused virtual cards sit in your PDA, phone or computer. Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not the business card virtual or physical that is at fault, it is likely the lack of a clear message or the very real reality that you have no need for that particular product or service. Business cards are a courtesy. Offer them graciously and accept them graciously. There are no strings attached. There is no obligation inferred in the presentation nor any commitment in their acceptance. However if you do decide you want to contact someone they’re darn handy to have.
By D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger Continuing on with our theme of in-person networking, today I am going to share with you three more tips for building relationships by attending in-person networking events.
Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others Take someone from your BNI Chapter to your Chamber of Commerce meeting and introduce them to someone in their contact sphere or introduce them to people whom you feel would be a good connection for them. This will again increase your value and your likeability factor as well as make you an invaluable member of the business community. You will also be helping people at the Chamber of Commerce event to broaden their contact sphere as you help to connect them to people in your BNI Chapter, for example. Bring your Networking Buddies with you to events but don’t hang out with them the whole time. Visit with them, introduce them to people and then go and mingle and encourage them to do the same. Previously I gave the example of making a simple introduction between a Realtor and mortgage loan office. Following is an example of how to make a much warmer personal introduction. Let’s use the same example of a Realtor but this time, provide a warm introduction. If you are speaking with a Professional Organizer and you know that her best referral source is Realtors. You may want to introduce her to one or more of the Realtors in the room. A possible introduction could go like this, “Lisa, hi, I know that you are a Realtor specializing in selling homes in this area. I’d like to introduce you to my good friend Donna. Donna is a Professional Organizer and she specializes in helping to increase the value of homes with her Home Staging Services. I thought that the two of you might enjoy meeting one another for a possible mutually beneficial relationship.” This can increase the services that the Realtor offers to her clients and this can create a great alliance between these two professionals. Again, you increase your value and what you offer to the community and you are deepening your relationships. As an additional benefit to you, you will become more easily referrable as you will be on their radar and thus you’ll be able to grow your business. Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More” Rather than saying, “Hi, my name is so and so and this is the name of of my business and I do this, that and the other thing and we have great stuff and you should go to our website and buy our stuff.” First of all, people will tune you out. This is a situation where the “less is more” factor comes into play. Rather than telling them everything that you do, share with them something that causes them to say, “Tell me more”. I’d like to share a story with you told to me by my very good friend Sasha. She was at a luncheon for Financial Planners and being the conversationalist that she is, she turned to the person to the right of her and asked them, “what do you do?” That person went on to tell her all about their financial planner services in great detail. Next, Sasha turned to her left and asked, “what do you do?” This person said, “I show people how to get their children to buy them an island”. Which person would you be more inclined to ask to tell you more? So, what can you say to get people to ask you to tell them more? You may want to practice on a few friends and let them know that you are working on your 30 second commercial and that your goal is to get people to ask you to tell them more. Ask them if they would listen to what you’ve come up with and then give you their honest feedback. Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month Select two or three people that you’d like to get to know better and schedule a time to meet with them over the next few weeks. It’s a best practice to meet with at least one person a week, outside of networking events. Some people make it a practice to meet with several people a week for coffee or over lunch. People may not have their calendar with them, so set a tentative date and find out the best way to reach them to confirm that you both have the appointment in your calendars. You don’t want to leave it up to chance with a note on the back of a business card as it might not make it into their calendar. Ask them what the best way to reach them is. You can say, “If I send you an emai confirming our appointment, will you be able to get back to me or would it be better if I call you? These days many people prefer email as they can get to it when they have a moment, it’s right there next to their calendar and it’s easy to reply back to you. When you do go out with them, don’t use that time to give a sales pitch, use this as a time to get to know them and find out about their hobbies. This will strengthen that relationship. This is also a great way for you to get ideas for who you can introduce them to in your network. This increases your likeability factor and the value you are adding to the relationship. I hope that the seven tips I shared over the course of this week, were helpful to you. Please feel free to leave a comment, share an idea or ask any questions. Consider taking one thing that you learned and putting into action within one week. I’d love to hear about your results. Here’s to your success! Happy Networing! D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger M.Ed and Relationship Marketing Wizard
Earlier this week I shared with you a few tips regarding the power of utilizing your business card as a networking tool. Today I would like to share three more in-person networking strategies with you.
To develop a well-rounded networking strategy, you will want to participate in in-person networking. In-person networking allows you the opportunity to be able to quickly connect with people. I’d venture to say that you’ve heard it said, people want to do business with people whom they know, like and trust. Let’s explore a few effective strategies for developing your “know, like and trust” factor through in person networking 1. Arrive Early and Stay Late Arriving early allows you to connect with the organizers, the movers and shakers and greet people as they come through the door. You become familiar to them, because if you do this over time, you will become a known entity and a familiar face to people. You will also be able to build relationships by helping others build relationships. As people arrive, since you know who is already there, you can help make introductions. Let’s say that a Realtor walks through the door and you know that there is already a mortgage loan officer in the room and you think that there might be some good synergy there. That could turn into a good alliance and both of these people will be grateful to you for making this connection. The reason to stay late is that you’ll get to network with the people who stay late. You’ll also become known to the chamber of commerce officers or the hosting organization as a person who gives and a person who can be counted on. In time, they may want to feature you in their newsletter, ask you to serve on a committee, or even have you as a guest speaker, which will put you in front of even more people. You become known as a go-to person, a person who networks and a person who is serious about their business. 2. Mingle, Reach Out, and Circulate When you attend networking events, focus on networking, mingling, and getting to know people. What you don’t want to do is spend the bulk of the time sitting and chatting with people whom you work with. If you arrive at the event with colleagues, make a plan with them to get to know new people and compare notes afterwards. You are there to network and meet other people. If you find yourself squirreled up in the corner with people whom you know, find a way to extract yourself so that you can mingle and meet new people. When you are networking with new people there are a few things to consider. It is best to connect with fewer people and go deeper than it is to connect with more people on a surface level. If you find yourself speaking with someone and there seems to be a good connection and you get a sense that continuing the conversation would be a good use of time, spend more time with that person. However, you don’t want to keep him or her from connecting with other people. You may want to check in with this new contact to see if he or she would like to continue the conversation or would prefer to circulate and perhaps get together for lunch or coffee later in the week. At that time you can take the relationship to the next level. If you are in a group of two or three people and they are gossiping or speaking negatively or for whatever reason you don’t feel that there is good synergy, find a reason to extract yourself. You can simply say, “I’ve enjoyed our conversation. I’m going to go mingle; let’s connect up later.” Then just politely remove yourself and find another group to connect with. 3. Listen More Than You Speak When you connect with someone, you don’t want to start the conversation telling them all about you and your products and then give them your card and tell them to visit your Web site. That person will throw your card away. Instead, when you connect with someone, ask them to tell you about themselves. You can say, “So, tell me about your business? Have you been in town a long time? Aside from business, what do you enjoy doing? If you could do anything with your time, what would you do?” Find out about them because you might be able to make a connection for them. If, for example, they tell you that they love boating or sky-diving and you know someone on the other side of the room that shares the same passion, you can make a wonderful introduction. Then you’ll become known as a connector and this will be another way for you to add value. This will also deepen your relationships with these people because they will realize that you are not all about business but that you are also very committed to building relationships. Increase your likeability factor and become known as a person of value before you try to “get” business from your network. It’s more important to sell your network on you than on your product. Stay tuned as later this week I share three more in-person networking tips. Thank you Reno for having me as a guest blogger on your site and for participating in the Blog World Tour. D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed.
Networking can be one of the most powerful marketing strategies for growing your business. I’d like to talk about utilizing your business card as one of your primary networking tools. Reno has an emphasis on face-to-face networking and in his book, Turn Your Business Card Into Business, suggests that you be sure everyone you meet gets a business card. I’d like to share with you some tips for utilizing your business card as a networking tool. The following is an excerpt from D’vorah’s Newest book, Connect, Communicate & Profit There are a number of fabulous printing services where you can design your business cards online and they are very affordable even free. But be careful of the free business card offer, even though that might be tempting. Some of the free services will imprint their company name on the reverse, blank side of your card. What kind of image will you portray if someone flips over your business card and sees the Free Business Cards by VistaPrint or whoever, on your card? This might make it seem that you are not a viable business, that you are not successful, or worse yet that you are too cheap to make the small investment of buying business cards for your company. Be sure this is not the price you are paying to have free cards or even better, spend the $29 or so and get yourself a nice set of professional looking business cards. You may want to put some text on the back of the card such as a quote or a call to action; however I do recommend leaving at least some white space on the back of the card so that people can take notes and thus remember more about you. This is why I further suggest that you do not laminate the back of your cards. Two sided laminated cards are very difficult to write on. Just opt for the glossy finish on the printed front side. Let’s talk about what you would write on the back of the business cards of the people you are meeting. One thing that I always do is ask them when their birthday is as I like to send out birthday cards. Another thing that you can do is, when you are done speaking with them is to jot down notes based on your conversation. You can make note of any comments they made about their business, their contacts, their hobbies or their family. The more time you spend with fewer people, the more you are going to remember about each person. Let’s say that you collect 20 business cards at an event, you are not going to remember all of those people. This is also a reason for why to collect the cards of only the people who you personally met with versus going over to the materials table and picking up the business card of everyone who attended the event. The exception would be if you pick up a few cards of people whom you’d like to be introduced to or who have a business that you’d like to find out more about. What you don’t want to do is add people to your email list or start to market to them without their permission. The other thing about business cards is, you don’t want to be known as the person who sows business card as you walk around the room, interrupting groups of people, randomly handing people your business card without stopping to speak with them. Those cards will go into the garbage can. You are better off collecting cards of people who you speak with and have spent time connecting with. This is where the “less is more” theory comes into play as you don’t want to just collect pieces of paper and try to follow up with people you haven’t built a relationship with. It’s a good practice to have your website, contact number and email address clearly listed on your card. For networking events, it is an excellent idea to have your photo on your card. When people get home and go through the business cards that they’ve collected, you want to be memorable to them. Having your photo on your card facilitates this and will make it easier for people to remember who you are. The next step, once you have all of these business cards, is to follow up with the people you just spent time getting to know. You can pop them an email, give them a phone call or follow up with a greeting card. The service that I use and recommend is called SendOutCards. This is an online service that allows you to automate your card sending. These are real cards that go in the mail with a stamp. They allow you to send out a few cards for free, you can check them out at KeepInTouchKeepInMind.com How would you feel about the person you met at a networking event who took the time to send you a heartfelt card, through the mail? You want to be that person, the one who goes the extra mile to build relationships. D’vorah Lansky, Relationship Marketing Wizard, Author, Speaker, Educator.
One of the challenges of meeting a hundred new people and blogging about them is the time it takes to do the blogging, which I am bit behind on. Today I would like to introduce you to Joe Baldwin who I met at a recent alternative transportation event at Uncommon Ground Restaurant on Devon in Chicago. Uncommon Ground has monthly ecofriendly events and great food. In 2009 I had the opportunity to present a networking presentation here to the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce. A side bonus of attending this event was that I encountered and old friend (and his son), who I have not seen in about ten years. This is the other nice aspect of getting out and networking in person. You get a chance to meet new people and open yourself to the random possibility of reacquainting with lost contacts.
Joe Baldwin person number 65 was fun, interesting and thought provoking. What do you think of this idea? |
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By Nina Interlandi Bell – Guest Blogger
Letterpress printing has been around since about 1400, and was the primary method for the print industry until it was replaced by offset in the early 20th century. The presses themselves, giant behemoths made of cast iron and gears, aren’t even made anymore. It’s a matter of will and determination to find them, restore them, learn to print with them, and maintain them. The results, however, are definitely worth the effort. For each print I do, a plate is inked with rollers, the paper is placed by hand into the press, cranked to imprint against the image, and then trimmed to size. If a print requires more than one color, the press is cleaned, re-inked, and another pass is done using the same piece of paper. The result is a much more tactile experience. When you hold a letterpress business card in your hand, you can feel the impression the artwork has made into the paper. It feels like something special. Not just any paper receives a deep impression well, so letterpress pieces are frequently printed on exceptionally thick, soft stocks.
The bottom line is, if you’ve found a way to get people looking at your business card and remembering you more than the other guy, you should take advantage of it. I’m not talking about a funny shaped card that can be awkward, a cheeseburger scented card, or giant neon popout print. A subtle texture, impressive use of negative space, and a sensuous cotton paper are sometimes all it takes to get someone’s attention. Letterpress printing isn’t the only option, but a good design and proper print choices are essential. I find that the people I enjoy doing business with the most are the ones who are really good at what they do, and can also recognize when it’s time to pay someone else for their expertise in another area. I’d never try to give myself brain surgery just to save a couple bucks, so don’t try and kludge together a clip art design on perforated cards from your office laser printer instead of consulting a professional. Good design is worth every penny, and you shouldn’t leave home without it.
Joe Baldwin is an ecoartist working on his Master of Fine Art (MFA). His project is an artistic installation he has dubbed 
I would be remiss if I did not comment on Joe’s marketing postcard and business card. Joe has one of those 7mm by 3mm business cards that I am not very fond of. These are popular with those who want to make the statement “This is a new card for a new generation” or “I’m a unique trail blazer with a hip different kind of card” or “I’m a non conformist”. Any of which is fine with me but I maintain that a business card by definition is 2 inches by 3.5 inches. This is the space we must “conform” to. This is the challenge of business card design – - to be creative within a prescribed space. Why? Because it is practical. If people could start printing any size and call it a business card what would stop someone from printing an 8 by 10 inch business card? At this point they would become an impractical random lot of paper that would be hard to manage and they would loose their unique advantage of being uniform and convenient. IMO this is not the place to declare your individuality as you simply conform to a new proposed standard. Finally, sorry Joe but I must point out you are lacking a URL on your postcard. I think it is much more likely today that someone would go to your website and send a donation via paypal than send a check. I suggest you buy a nice ecofriendly rubberstamp and bottle of soy ink and rectify that situation ASAP!