None-of-your-business cards

What happened to business cards?

At Tech Day last week, some companies didn’t have them.

Others gave out cards with no personal information or e-mail address or phone number on them. I don’t like those. If I want to follow-up, I have to visit their website, find the “About Us” section, and then figure out if the person I just met is on the management team or if I was talking to a random booth temp.

When I attempt to hand one of my purple sparkly business cards (printed on paper aptly called Stardream) with perfectly rounded corners to millennials, they sometimes look at me as if I have a booger on my hand. (I’m sorry…I couldn’t think of a more apt analogy at the moment.)

Some people simply take a picture of my card. I don’t really mind that. It’s good for the environment.

I just produced round business cards (actually they are cocktail coasters) for my role as Publisher of sheBOOM. You can think of me when you drink your coffee in the morning or booze at night.

And I have moo cards for the publishing arm of my business. I like them because they come in a groovy little dispenser and I feel like I’m handing out sticks of Fruit Stripe gum. We’ve also produced cards for one client with 25 different images on them.

See all my current business cards, below. I need an extra carry-on when I travel these days.

The trend away from cards is understandable. People keep all their contacts in their phones and on their tablets. So a little piece of paper seems a tad wasteful and useless.

But when I get a particularly creative card from someone I just met, I have an immediate impression of him or her. Like a Tarot card, a good card can be a sign of interesting things to come. A plain white card mean simplicity, frugality, or lack of imagination.

But I’m not quite ready to abandon my cards. I like to play with a full deck, as it were.

Will business cards go the way of floppy disks? 

Would love to hear perspectives from my readers of all generations!

My “identity crisis.” Pick a card…any card!