Nowadays, the tools of communication between professionals and friends have become increasingly practical because they are digital. The internet and the virtual environment bring ease, agility, and efficiency in solving tasks, all of which are done through a global network of connections. Thus, in networking, the internet has become essential for connections not only to keep in touch, but also to get to know each other through it.
The importance of digital experience has become the primary means by which professionals continue to be seen, remembered, and requested by their contacts. Therefore, to be successful in their networking, workers need to make their presence felt in digital media and, in many cases, completely digitalize their communication practices.
Such a transformation is crucial not only to please the connections you wish to make, but also to facilitate the professional's own networking practices.
One such transformation involves exchanging the printed business card for the digital business card.
Most people already know that the main networking tool is the business card, and that it is useful both for connecting with other professionals and for strengthening the brand, increasing sales, getting clients, and other purposes.
For a long time the business card was used in its printed form, this way it solved and facilitated communication between professionals by sharing contact information between them. Nowadays, with the advance of technology, printed cards have become outdated with the arrival of digital business cards, whose main function is to make networking global, regardless of where the person is.
The benefit of communicating without borders is a strong feature of the digital business card. With networking tools derived from the digital environment, such as QR codes and personalized links, professionals can share their cards unlimitedly, making their contact information accessible to professionals anywhere in the world.
The fact that we know they are most accessed is another feature of the digital business card, which informs the amount of accesses to the owner through metrics. Because it is digital, the action of sharing your business card generates efficiency insights. In other words, the professional is aware that his card was in effect or not, whether it was actually accessed or shared.
Printed Card X Digital Card
There are professionals who have doubts about which card model to adopt. The printed or the digital one, which one suits my business better?
Nowadays, to add value to your brand and more credibility, it is necessary to engage your target audience, whether they are professionals from any company, area, or place in the world. Therefore, business cards were created for this purpose: to spread, in an economical way, both professional and personal contact information.
Regardless of the model of your card (digital or printed), it is a quick and easy way to provide the professional's contact information, but for this it is necessary that it provides a good first impression. In other words, it must impress.
For this it is necessary that your layout involves the professional to generate impact, resulting in a first impression that is engraved in the receiver's mind even after the networking, as well as creating a new perception of the brand.
Which business card is the most appropriate
Efficiency and practicality are benefits of the digital business card. With them the professional can rely on data to generate more return when networking. But there are those who still prefer the printed business card because they prioritize the quality of the material, a detail that the digital business card does not provide.
But both have strong points and qualities: while in the printed form the business card wins because of the quality of the material, the design of the card is better used in the digital business card. In other words, in the appearance requirement both are strong. However, we know that the networking experience does not stop there.
If networking is based only on appearance, ignoring the other steps, there will be a decline in the result. The appearance and the investment in printed material can generate expectations to the professional, which will not be achieved for several reasons, such as: loss of the card, difficulty and little time for the professional to save and organize the contact in his agenda.
Unlike the printed business card, the digital business card prevents these and other possible occasions.
With the digital business card, access to it can be done via QR Code or other digital tool, being saved and automatically organized in the user's contact agenda ClickCard. In this way it is avoided to spend time or any complication in the action of the professional to record the contact.
Other relevant facts need to be analyzed when ordering a business card. It is common knowledge that the world is becoming more and more digitalized, not to mention that people are becoming more and more conscious and ecological, thus avoiding the use of paper in their daily lives.
Showing your potential connections that your brand cares about nature, not only has beauty but efficiency as well, there are significant points when networking.
Another benefit of the digital business card is that it is not necessary to make copies to distribute them. In other words, besides having unlimited sharing, it is ecological, economical, impactful, and has a greater reach than a printed card.
Digital networking tools
With the digitization of business cards, ClickCard created an application in which the user has access to card engagement, sharing via QR Code, and other connection features such as proximity search and personalized link.
Making networking virtual has brought advantages for everyone, for cardholders as well as for the nature and companies themselves. For example, the professional does not need to print business cards in order to share his contact, since the link sharing of a digital business card is unlimited.
In other words, you do not pay to share your business card.
Besides being more cost-effective, the digital business card is environmentally friendly because you do not have to constantly use and print out copies of business cards. The professional pays less for a better quality and more efficient product.
The printed format of business cards is very limited, and its only possible action is to deliver cards in person. The digital one, on the other hand, is more comprehensive, being able to reach people on the other side of the world, besides providing more features to analyze such data. Get to know some of them:
Metrics
The metrics tool can be found in some applications focused on networking and business cards, one of them is the ClickCard app.
In it the user has access to the sharing and access data of his card in the period of his choice.
In particular, ClickCard also allows the user to know from which external link they found your card and which internal link they clicked on when accessing it. For example: when you put your social networks on the business card and someone accesses one of them, ClickCard's application is updated providing information on how many clicks that social network has received through the card.
Unlike the printed business card that has no way of knowing its real impact on networking, the digital business card allows the professional's awareness of its efficiency, thus allowing the user's decisions and networking strategies to be more secure because they are based on data.
Personalized search
In particular, in ClickCard's app we can find the tool called personalized search. This functionality allows the professional to search for other users by name, position, company, or location using keywords.
In addition, there is also the proximity search as a complement, which allows the user to meet other professionals who are close to him or her. Making face-to-face meetings possible.
In other words, ClickCard allows networking to be done the way the professional wants, by allowing him to search objectively and according to his preferences. In this way, networking is done efficiently and in less time.
If the company/professional's objective is to find a specific person, or a person with a specific profession and position, they only need to search for their contact on the app. If you want to search for a person nearby, just do your keyword search in the search-by-approach feature.
The tool becomes useful and viable for people who want to do both virtual and face-to-face networking.
Personalized link and QR Code
But we cannot expect people to come to us like a magic step, right? We cannot base networking on a one-way attitude. In this case, it is necessary to share your business card so that people can discover your profile.
Based on this need, ClickCard generated for each of its users two card sharing formats, which are: the personalized link and the QR Code. With both tools, professionals who are users or not, can access their ClickCard.
The Personalized Link can be shared on any social network, and then takes the recipient to a web window where they can see your digital business card.
This link can be shared in the media, but can also be added to other platforms that only allow text in their descriptions, such as Instagram's biography.
The QR Code, on the other hand, can be shared online and offline anywhere that supports image sharing. The recipient can access it by scanning the code which will instantly lead to the owner's digital business card. The QR Code can be printed or entered into digital postings, making the card even more accessible to whoever the user wants.
Digital Business Card Creator
As one of the networking applications, ClickCard allows anyone interested to create a digital business card on its platform. It is possible to create a free or a paid card, both of which are customizable.
In both card formats, it is possible to add basic contact information such as email, cell phone, address, and others. In addition, the user can also add his or her social networks and maintain a customized layout as desired.
ClickCard allows the user to edit the background of the card, add a photo or logo, and their contact information. All its customization is done in a standard way based on one of the templates present in the app.
If the user wishes to have a more complex template, just request one from the ClickCard team. The customer can order based on his or her preferred designs, as well as jointly forward branded templates.
To download the ClickCard app on your smartphone click here, and if using an iPhone, click here.
Digital Media
ClickCard believes that with the digital business card the professional can bring to his career positive points. But for this it is necessary to make a good first impression, that is, make a good presentation of yourself.
For this in its app, all available templates are fully customizable and personalized to generate a good appearance to potential new professional connections. With this, besides being efficient, networking becomes pleasant, by decreasing more and more noise with the improvement of the appearance of digital business cards.
Thus, ClickCard realized that the inclusion of digital media in digital business cards has become nothing less than essential. Like everywhere else, social media speaks volumes about you and determines the "first impression" so necessary in networking.
For this the professional needs to answer through his business card the following questions: "Who are you?" "What do you do?" "What do you have to offer of knowledge?" "Where are you from?".
It is these questions that should be answered not verbally, but from a first impression of your business card.
And that's where social media comes in.
Social networks serve as a practical and efficient presentation of what you do, how you act, to what extent you master such a subject, how you relate. This is one of the reasons why social networks are so closely linked to networking today.
Thus, ClickCard allows all its users to add their digital media to their business cards, thus working so that through it, professionals/companies increasingly expand the boundaries of networking and generate more results.
The business card can even be a tradition in networking, but it doesn't need to be traditional. Modern brings new ideas and opportunities, so don't waste time and create your digital business card to expand your network! Grow not only in quantity but also in quality.
