An unexpected social trick I learned running out of business cards

https://medium.com/@matteoc/an-unexpected-social-trick-i-learned-running-out-of-business-cards-at-the-worst-time-ca57272286db#.9b80cpmuj

by matteoc • 11 years ago

41 22 11 years ago

medium.com

geophile• 11 years ago

American Psycho jokes start in 3, 2, 1, ...

matteoc3• 11 years ago

In fact I did not mention my business card holder ;-)

martiuk• 11 years ago

Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh, my God. It even has a watermark.

aggieben2• 11 years ago

Interesting and creative, but this guy is reading waaaaay too much into what cards people pick. My guess is that in reality, most people don't give a crap because they're going to put the contact info into their phones and then throw the card away.

matteoc3• 11 years ago

The second part is certainly true: cards get thrown away in no time.

pascalmemories• 11 years ago

Coming from Europe, I found it weird in North America that I get asked for business cards all the time but it's been 15 years since I got asked for one in Europe.

The US Border is bizarre, I get asked for a card when I cross almost all the time - like it's some sort of equivalent of a passport that proves I'm really on business. They had a sense of humor failure when I offer to email them one, so I stopped doing that and just got some cards so I can give them, and whoever else asks, one.

striking2• 11 years ago

Business cards are a big part of culture in some places. In Japan, it's "an essential part of Japanese business ettiquette."[1] This is true to the degree that a show about a Japanese man who crushes business cards to get a reaction was invented. [2]

1: http://www.linguist.com/services-japanese-card.htm

2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuT2EjdnFU4

xiaoma• 11 years ago

Coming from North America, I found it interesting how often I got asked for business cards in China. I usually just exchanged FB or email addresses back in the US.

RightWingRabble• 11 years ago

What do you do instead?

BrandoElFollito• 11 years ago

In France I give and get business cards all the time (in a high tech company, so even more in me traditional ones). This is both when meeting people from similar firms and from consulting ones. This reminds me that I have to other a new deck.

ddebernardy• 11 years ago

Nah, they fill rolodexes or end up in a drawer somewhere. They rarely get thrown away. There is something to be said about cards (and arguably their holders) that leave you a not good enough impression to remember them though.

oldmanjay• 11 years ago

this feels about as charming as a stranger approaching with heavy insistence to show a magic trick no one wants to see

mxuribe• 11 years ago

While i think this social trick is clever, there are circles or perhaps industries where - as some other comments denote - recipients will not keep the cards; opting to simply enter the info into their phones, etc. However, i can definitely see in some other industries that are skewed more towards the social - such as but not limited to real estate, etc. - where this would work as a great ice breaker, or at least a method to keep some conversation continuing. Either way, I think this idea is pretty cool especially for how easy it is to do. Kudos to @matteoc!

egypturnash• 11 years ago

I use the multi-image Moo cards, and have a bunch of them out on my table at conventions. They're great. Usually taking a business card is a throwaway thing. But when there's a bunch of different images to choose from, some people will get involved in it, and pick an image that they really like.

Some people just grab the first one that comes to hand, sure. But some people will spend a couple minutes looking at every single design and picking the one they like. Do you know how precious that is in the environment of a comic book convention? Someone is engaged with my promotional materials, in an environment where every square inch is filled with someone's promotional materials.

aggieben2• 11 years ago

I can see the value of that when someone engages in the designs, but I think the engaging thing there is the choice, not the designs themselves. I'd be curious to know if you could create the same effect with cards that are exactly the same, but simply with different background colors.

rooodini• 11 years ago

@giacecco does something similar, but as a freelance data scientist, each of his business cards shows some graphic of a project he has worked on. He asks people to pick a card, then he tells them about the project they chose. Works really well

caseysoftware• 11 years ago

Now that makes sense and serves to anchor himself in their mind. So now when I find his card days or weeks later, I'm more likely to remember him and what he does. And that's the point. :)

gjm11• 11 years ago

I assume the author is greatly exaggerating how predictable people are. Otherwise, I'd like to know what happens when he offers his cards to, say, an LGBT programmer working in finance.

matteoc3• 11 years ago

That would expose his "dominant" passion and maybe also the mood of the moment ;-)

tudorw• 11 years ago

I have cards... but rarely with me... if asked I just say, 'No, do you?' Then take their card, if they don't have one we trade email addresses, I have a way to contact them to follow up. I used to hand out a lot, but no one called, then maybe that's just me...

An unexpected social trick I learned running out of business cards

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