Is Twitter the new Business Card?

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Submitted by Walt on Tuesday, 6 January 20098 Comments

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OK, I use Twitter all the time. I’ve met amazing people this year through it. Having attended numerous meetups and conventions for my Music Lesson Show, I noticed something interesting:

Instead of handing out business cards, more people are asking me “What’s your Twitter?”

So I’d answer follow me on Twitter @WaltRibeiro!

I used to email people to stay connected. Now I follow them on Twitter. I Twitter DM in leu of Email, and I @ them instead of text message or call them. The thing is, if we’re following each other on Twitter then we’re constantly in touch. So I don’t have to email them every 4 weeks to keep in touch – I’m already talking with them every day.

If I’m at a meetup I’ll simply twitter ‘Who’s going tonight’ or ‘If anyone is here then we’re in the back room.” In addition, when I Twitter “Yo @milewis and @meghanasha I had a great time!” The reason why I find this useful is because its public, and therefor people who may follow me, or Mike, or Meghan will follow each other – think of it like a “Linked-In meets IM.” – a kind of social networking site that you see who’s in your circle.

‘Is Twitter the new business card?’

I can’t remember the last time I asked someone “What’s your Skype” at a meetup. Granted, I’m involved in the Tech scene, so my crossings with Twitter are going to be higher than if I worked in the Auto industry. But I feel it won’t be long until everybody starts using Web 2.0 services.

There are also other services, like DropCard. This is a neat idea, but I feel like it will take a few years to pick up. Basically, you can text message your busiess card. This is great because it saves paper, and since everyone is starting to live in the cloud anyway, this is a useful tool. But I don’t see my grandfather using this service, so when Generation Y grows up then they’ll start using these ‘Hip’ business cards services.

Truth is, I don’t think I’ll ever stop using business cards – in the same way I don’t think I’ll ever stop using paper or sending greeting cards. But I can’t deny that I’ll certainly use these services more and more as time goes on.

Follow me on Twitter @WaltRibeiro

So what do you think? Will business cards be replaced by services like Twitter and Drop Card?

8 Comments »

Eric Matas said:

I’ ve got my new Twitter business card: http://punchy.typepad.com and I’m selling them for free on PowerPoint!

- 8 January 2009 at 11:42 am

Jennifer said:

Wow! that’s actually interesting. Hmmm… you could be right though. The more the age of technology advances, I’m sure things like Twitter will take over.

- 8 January 2009 at 11:49 am

Robert Rowe said:

When I made my most recent “business cards” (right before BarCamp Philly), I knew I wanted to include my email address, and cell #, but adding my twitter url was probably the smartest thing I’ve done.
I think for my next iteration, I’m going to make the Twitter url more prominent.

- 8 January 2009 at 2:35 pm

Paul Spence said:

The answer is – maybe. Because Twitter involves near real time interaction and short bursts of information, people find it handy and quite addictive. I believe Twitter will gain traction in 2009 and could attract a more mainstream following, if they can address their technical uptime and control spam as they scale upwards.

I found a link to this article through Twitter, by the way.

- 8 January 2009 at 8:44 pm

Chris (@ckieff) Kieff said:

Every day I’m contaced by someone on Twitter about my work. My paper businesscard includes both my Twitter and my LinkedIn addresses. And every day following and event I get a flurry of new connections.
It may not take as long as we think for it to take off.
Chris

- 9 January 2009 at 6:34 am

dave said:

You think like me. Great post.

- 9 January 2009 at 7:41 am

Dan abaldo said:

I think so, look what has and is happing in the music distribution biz, from vinal, to cassetts to CD’s and now everything is mp3’s, we post tunes mp3’s people listen with mp3 players it has changed the industry. Many CD MFG now rather than burning CD’s have deals where they make your CD on a little USB memory stick. the CD like the Vinal will be history soon, my last 3 CD’s have all been in mp3 posted in mp3 and sold on the net in mp3 so a regular biz card will naturaly follow the same tec progression.

- 16 January 2009 at 11:39 pm

Rob Gray said:

Yes – I now have a “twitter-only” business card which works pretty well at events where most people are on twitter (most events these days)… see http://robgray.org/?p=144

- 16 March 2009 at 1:32 am