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Ditch the business cards, not quite yet

At SXSW Interactive I set about conducting a personal experiment to see if in fact I could network throughout the conference without exchanging a business card. I signed up with the SXSW official conference website and provided my contact information. I also downloaded a couple of mobile apps, developed for networking, Bump and Hashable.

After early registration on Thursday, I met up with a couple of local marketing friends and made a new acquaintance who also downloaded Hashable in advance of the conference. We connected and happily acknowledged one another on Twitter at a panel the next day. Early on I thought this Hashable thing is the answer to my paper clutter conundrum.

I signed in with Gowalla and Foursquare to nearly every panel and special event that I visited. People were connecting with me via Twitter as I added my voice to loudest online cocktail party of the year. So far the experiment was leaning towards digital dominance. I laughed when I discovered ketchup from my free hotdog had dripped into my badge holder which also included the few paper business cards I had brought along as backup. Who needs business cards?

My cavalier attitude wore off quickly after meeting a kindred marketing manager from Kansas City. We had just exchanged a great conversation about social media tools and when it came time to trade contact info I shared my quest to go digital and I also had to fess up that I spilled ketchup on my paper cards.

She didn’t know about Hashable. She had Bump still on her phone from last year, but didn’t know how to use it. We both made three attempts to make it work. We exchanged Twitter handles instead and I took her card only to loose it later in the jumble of tradeshow paraphernalia.

My next couple of exchanges were with people who immediately went for the old stand by paper card and by this time I had restored my small supply. I was disappointed as I really wanted to up my Hashcred.

The last day I did exchange info with another Hashable enthusiast. One of my coworkers connected with Gary Vaynerchuk. You can guess who has more Hashcred.

Results from this focus group of one:

Twitter

Exchanging Twitter handles was the easiest, fastest and most widely accepted way to digitally exchange contact info.

Hashable

There are some early adopters. The user experience could be improved. The app has features that I haven’t used yet, but I  do plan to continue my trial. It needs to gain wider awareness to really be effective.

Bump

It is ackward and hard to use and seemed to be last year’s news.

Final summary

A golden rule of marketing is, “know thy audience”.  The paper business card will still be around for awhile, especially among the non tech savvy.  I will continue to look for the best digital solution.

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