As an alternative to traditional paper business cards, some are now using digital substitutes.  Having a digital business card allows the professional engineer to make their contact information easier to exchange and available to others on company websites, blogs, email, social networking sites, and instant messages.  One web site providing a platform independent service is BusinessCard2.com.  For iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android users, DubMeNow is available.

With a digital business card, a link can be inserted in emails and IM’s (or maybe even on your resume), like this one:  http://mrdpe.businesscard2.com

The digital business card can be embedded (like we have done our our ABOUT page).   Or, a button can be installed on your web page like this:

CNN.com featured a number of digital business card providers in its report of digital alternatives to paper business cards, and its impact on networking.  They grouped the applications by the potential audience.  For example, they indicate what might work for the recent grad, the budding entrepreneur, the frequent conference attendee, the technophobe, the tweet-minded, the iPhone addict, and for those who miss Tamagotchis.   

MarketWatch.com also took a look at the evolution of social networking and its impact on paper business cards. That article is  here.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 1:56 pm and is filed under Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.