What Do You Put On Your Business Card? (And win some free cards!)
(Read and comment to be entered to win one of 2 sets of 500 free business cards from UPrinting.com! Update: entries closed and winners selected. Thanks! Feel free to keep commenting.)
I have three different business cards for different hats I wear. They were all created over 2 years ago. Since then, my contact info has changed several times. IM names and e-mail addresses have remained the same but phone numbers have changed as I jumped from carrier to carrier and phone to phone.
What should go on a modern business card? We have many different pieces of info that all make sense to include
- Phone number (cell, business, home, fax)
- E-mail address (or 4)
- IM user names (for 8 different services)
- twitter profile
- 100 different social networking site profiles
- Emurse resume
- Personal Web site
- Business Web Site
I suggest you have a “personal professional” Web site (like mattheerema.com) to manage your online presence. Simply reference this single Web site, and link off to all the (ever changing) contact and profile information from there.
Your thoughts?
### Promotion from UPrinting.com ###
UPrinting.com has kindly sponsored this post and is offering to give away 2 sets 500 business cards prints to 2 lucky, randomly selected, commenters on this post. Comment away, I’ll select the winners next week!
June 12th, 2009 at 1:07 am
That's a tough one. I like your suggestion of having all that info on a website; however it negates some of the benefit of having a business card in the first place, just because it's handy to have that info on a slip of paper rather than having to go online to get it.
That said, I think some of that info is business-card-worthy and some isn't. Specifically, I'd draw the line at information needed by someone who is already online – twitter or other social networking, emurse, IM user names, etc. I'd want someone to have my phone number or email without having to go online to get it, but for that extra stuff, links from my site should do the trick.
I'm also given to wonder how much need there really is for a mailing address. The way I work, it's pretty much unnecessary. If I had a storefront, obviously, different.
And then there's the line between personal/freelance, the day job, etc…
June 12th, 2009 at 1:32 am
we just put our company name, phone number and services. that we give free estimates oh and dan has some slogan on it….
June 12th, 2009 at 2:33 am
My name, website, and email address. I will normally write my cell number on the back just as a bit extra as I hand them out.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
I think you can nowadays have just your name, a phone and you should create a site like http://www.timvandamme.com where you have all your information and social profiles for anyone to visit. That way you have taken care of simple personal stuff and of having shared all your sites and profiles.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Company name, My name and phone numbers and a website.
June 12th, 2009 at 4:17 am
Ask: Who is the audience for your card? Some audiences need more info, others less. I think one email, website and phone are enough for most situations your site should be designed well so any other info can be quickly found. If your business is physical, then you need to list the address on the card, but otherwise I would leave it off. Please everyone, abandon your fax machines so I'm no obligated to have one!
June 12th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Ask: Who is the audience for your card? Some audiences need more info, others less. I think one email, website and phone are enough for most situations. Your website should be designed well so that any other info can be quickly found. If your business is physical, then you need to list the address on the card, but otherwise I would leave it off. Please everyone, abandon your fax machines so I'm not obligated to have one!
June 12th, 2009 at 5:32 am
Man, if I had business cards I'd tell you, but I don't. I've designed business cards for so many others except myself. I'd lean more towards the calling card side though. My numbers, email, twitter user name, and a hawt motto. Oh yeah!
June 12th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I'd say: Company Name/Logo (if applicable), Your Name, Email, Phone.
We tossed having "named" positions since we all kinda do everything anyway.
And I've honestly had the same cell # for about 10 years, believe it or not.
June 19th, 2009 at 5:45 am
I hope this giveaway is still open! I really need some business cards. I want to keep them uncluttered and versatile, so I’d put my name, email address, phone number, and website (which I’m currently building). I have my own business, and will likely be upgrading to a larger space as we expand, so I wouldn’t want to put out any cards with an outdated address. Really, I could probably get away with putting nothing but my company name and website, as you mentioned, all other pertinent info can be linked to from that!
June 20th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I printed my first business cards and had put my name, phone number and email address. I also made the mistake of putting a physical address, which is now soon to be changing. After reading from your posts that an address is not necessary unless you have a storefront, I'm a bit upset because I spent quite a bit on those cards and now some of the information is not relevant anymore. The free business card giveaway would really help out at this time. Hope it's still current.
June 21st, 2009 at 3:22 am
All Modern Business Card?
FRONT SIDE(all business) 1. Name & profession,
2.contact info :- Work , Cell & Fax should be more than enough .( r u sure want to give out home phone #) 3. only 1 email adress as people will not remember even one.and make sure it is easy to remember . 4.Business website
( FLIP SIDE) 1.personal blog/website 2.twitter profile
July 4th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Don't really need the business cards (still got 200 odd left of my own) but tend to just be the basic info – logo – company name – your name – phone – website – e-mail. No real need for address – this will be on the website anyway.
February 17th, 2010 at 10:00 am
im doing a project at school for digital design and i need some help on what to put on the business card im making. have any answers?