I am not a big fan of exchanging business cards since most of them end up in a trash can or in someone’s desk collecting dust. One of the things that was very difficult for me while attending SXSW was making sure I kept track of all the people I was meeting.
There are a few apps that can help with keeping track of who you meet but it sometimes can break up the flow of a conversation. While you are grabbing your phone, getting your phone ready, logging into the application, searching for the area to add the person, requesting their contact info, and finally entering them into the application. When you have precious seconds to invest in knowing a bit more about what the person you just met is all about this can be very detrimental to keeping the conversation going.
Being able to meet @houseofbrew at SXSW was a great opportunity to finally find a solution to this challenge. What a more perfect place than SXSW where you meet so many people in such a short period of time for him to be handing out a very practical and fun contact card by the name of Meet-Meme (affiliate),
Meet-Meme as stated in their website “helps you bring online persona to the offline world, allowing you to further your networking efforts with an engaging extension of your personal brand.”
I was handed my first Meet-Meme card by @houseofbrew and he ran me through how useful this card was in connecting offline with online. If you see below it includes his Name, email, blog url, company website, and the most interesting part of the trading card the QR code that connects you from offline card to online profiles.
Mobile Version
Browser Version
I really think that what I have seen these cards do really helps in the process of connecting and cutting all the hassle of hunting down people on multiple networks. I see many business uses for these cards and will probably be sharing a few with you on future posts.
Can you see how to implement this to an event or to extend your personal branding? In the mean time I will be working on updating my avatar and getting a good pic to order my first batch.