Creating a Partnership With Print Marketing And Social Media
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One of the major printed items that most professionals have on hand is business cards. They are an easy way to relay your information to potential new contacts and people you meet in any situation. But with Twitter, blogs, fan pages and more online, is it worth the room in your budget to print business cards anymore? Making your business cards worth the expense is a matter of having the information printed on them evolve with the times. If you want to make the most of your social media strategy, you have to incorporate it into all of your printed materials, including your business card.
Print Marketing And Social Media
Does print media still have a place in a world where social media is the new way to connect with one another?
It used to be that your name, company, title, phone number and address were the standard details to have on a business card. Now your address is more than just your physical location; there is an entire online world where you can be found. You may want to include your website address, email address, Twitter handle, Facebook fan page and any other social media destinations on your card. This way, people can find out all they want to know about you online. Saving them the hassle of looking for that info on search engines is one of the major advantages of having business cards printed up. In this manner, they become an important tool for continuing to build your social network.
If it sounds like a lot…It is.
The key is to keep your business card clean and simple. Try to resist the urge to overcrowd it with too much information. If you have six different profiles online, then it is time to rank your locations. Which sites will hold the greatest benefit for your customers and professional contacts? If they go to your website, will they be able to find links to your LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter pages? If so, then instead of using valuable text space on your business card and creating a jumbled appearance in the process, you can instead use the familiar icons corresponding to each site on your card. Then the person who receives your card will know where else they can find you online.
When you can actually quantify how many followers or fans you have online, how can you gauge the effectiveness of a business card ?
The reality is, you will build your online network through online connections more quickly than you could by handing out a business card. But you can further encourage interest through the use of your business card, and it is a way to build a more personal connection. If you hand out your card and then notice that one of your new followers online is someone that you met in person, you can start a dialogue with them in a way that has a more solid foundation. Your social network will grow in quantity and – even more importantly – in quality.
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