Creating a Digital Business Card

In 2020, online conferences started to become common place. There were some conferences that were forced to move online, so they could keep operating, but others were designed as online conferences from inception. For some conference, the online environment was a distraction from the networking concept. However, one online conference I attended during 2020 built into their program the Happy Hour Zoom events, doing the best they could to create the end-of-the-day bar socializing experience. And it was during these events that I noticed something in particular.

When it came time to exchange contact information with others, I would find myself typing in (copy-and-paste, really) the various URLs for my social media, my website, and my email. Sure, I could have given them just my website, but the first time I did that, someone complained—they couldn't be bothered looking on the sidebars or the footer for my social media links. So, while the website contains all the information a person needs to contact me in easy-to-find locations, it was clearly too complicated for some users.

I needed a digital business card.

Business cards for the Digital Era

Whenever I'm at an in-person event, I always have a stack of business cards with me, ready to hand out at a moment's notice when I'm wanting to exchange contact information. The biggest draw for me to any writing event is the networking opportunities. However, with events moving to online venues, the ability to just pass over your business card has become tricky.

Enter the digital business card concept. You have a simple URL that you can remember and you share that. But the page the URL points to is simple in design, containing only your contact information and none of the other stuff that is traditionally found on a website.

So, where does one even begin?

What goes on a business card

Whether you are talking about a printed business card or a digital one, the purpose is the same: to provide your contact details in a simple, clear format. It should show some of your personality, because this is the only reminder that a person might have about who they met.

So, any business card, regardless of the format, should include:

• your name (or chosen pseudonym),
• your business name (if you are running a business),
• a job title of some ilk (e.g., writer, editor, crazy dude),
• core social media,
• website URL,
• and other contact information.

In today's world, you can get fancy and include a QR code too. (I have done this for one of my printed business cards and it works well.)

For the printed business cards, it's a matter of getting something that is spaced out and legible, looking elegant on those tiny cards when printed. For digital, the options are numerous, and it's exhausting just trying to decide what to do.

External Apps for Digital Business Cards

When I first started looking at this, I encountered an insane number of external programs and apps for this purpose. These are just some of the programs I found:

• Flowcode
• Blinq
• about.me
• Mobilo Card
• HiHello
• Haystack
• V1CE
• DIBIZ
• SwitchIt

And the list goes on. If you have a WordPress account, then you would also have a Gravatar profile, but you likely didn't know it existed.

While some of the options listed above might have free options, the free accounts are often limited on the functionality and the customization. So, for professionals, the paid options are often the best, but is this really the right way to go?

There are other editors who have elected to go with one of these paid options, electing to go with a service where recipients could look at your digital business are on their smart phone and instantly add you to their contacts list. And with the option to add the QR code for scanning in-person, forgoing with the printed business cards altogether.

But my brain quickly jumped to another option, which is desirable for other reasons.

Digital Business Card on Your Own Website

There is another aspect to this equation that many won't necessarily think about. SEO.

Every time someone clicks on a URL, the SEO ranking for that page will go up. Enough clicks, and eventually that page will show up in a search of your name. And if that URL is leading to a website that is not your own, then your hard earned site traffic is going to someone else.

In addition, those external apps tend to have complicated URLs to remember or employ sub-domains. Again, someone else is benefiting from your hard earned SEO traffic.

By building a digital business card on your own website, you keep the click-through traffic going to your website.

I will be the first to admit that the feasibility of this option will depend on the theme employed on your website. But even with the most restrictive of designs, you can still develop something that would work nicely.

My Digital Business Card

I have two digital business cards: one for the writer in me and the other is for the editor.