We all know that networking is an important aspect of building a business, your brand and relationships. Networking can enhance professional growth for a lawyer in many ways, including opening doors to clients, creating opportunities for collaboration and leading to other professional advancements. Business cards often play a crucial role in networking by serving as a tangible and professional representation of yourself and your business.
Business cards facilitate the exchange of contact information and can leave a lasting impression on the people you meet. They ultimately provide a quick and convenient way to share your contact details, including your name, job title, phone number, email address and website. When you exchange business cards with someone, you ensure they have all the necessary information to get in touch with you later to further build upon that initial contact. Research, however, suggests that approximately 88 percent of business cards get thrown away within one week of receiving them.
Taking this statistic into account, I was curious about the carbon footprint of traditionally printed business cards. Based upon my quick research, I found roughly 10 billion business cards are printed each year and that equates to over seven million trees cut down just to create those 3 ½ x 2-inch cards. That is a lot of printing and potentially a lot of waste if nearly 90 percent are being thrown away.
Most of us have likely also thrown away―or at least tried to remember to recycle―our own business cards. Every change of title I have had, new cards have had to be printed. Every change of title for an employee in my office, new cards have had to be printed. Every time I switched jobs, new cards had to be printed. Every time an employee has left my office and another one hired, new cards have had to be printed.
Armed with this information and thinking about ways in which law firms and legal departments can be more environmentally conscious, recently I decided to investigate digital business card options. Over the course of the last several months and the many conferences attended, I have noticed that a few have adopted this trend with plenty of creative options out there from bracelets to buttons for the back of your phone and even key chains, just to name a few.
For those that still like the look and feel of a traditional card, there are also digital cards you can carry. These cards are often the same size as a credit or gift card and even have the same feel, making it easy to keep in your wallet. Settling on this option, I ordered myself a dot.card.
Dot.cards have an near-field communication (NFC) tag embedded in them. When you tap your card against a phone, the phone will launch and display your business card information. In addition to tapping your dot.card, you can share your contact information with others by them scanning the QR code printed on the back of the card.
With the single tap or scan of the QR code, the link to your dot.Profile will pop up as a notification on the other person’s phone. That link will directly open in their browser, and from there they can save the contact directly to their phone. The recipient does not have to download any additional software to save your information and the dot.card works with both iPhone and Android devices.
Your dot.Profile has a profile picture and contains all the traditional information you would see on a paper business card. In addition, you can also add your education and skill sets to your profile. There is also the option to include links to your social media accounts and a limited number of payment and productivity links such as Cash App, Venmo, Calendly, Notion and Google Drive. You can also customize your profile by choosing the color, theme and icon style.
Other than the price of the card itself, there are no additional or subscription fees to utilize the card and profile.
A single dot.card will cost you $20. However, you can order them in a double pack or five pack if you need to buy for more than just yourself. The biggest savings are found with the 5 pack, making each card $15. Their basic cards come in 8 different colors.
There is also a customization option available for a minimum order of 5 cards at $55 apiece. This allows you to: 1. pick your color using Hex color codes; and 2. add your logo to the front of the cards. There is also a larger pack―the enterprise pack―that comes with 20 customizable cards, making the price of each card $30.
The most obvious pro to using a digital business card, such as dot.card, is that you can cut down on your waste by eliminating the number of printed business cards. You can also impact your bottom line if you are spending less money overall on business cards over time. Also, if you are like me and you tend to forget to grab business cards at the most inconvenient times, then this is a great option to always have with you for any event.
The other pro to the dot.card is how easy it is to update information. I don’t have to wait for the order from the printer to come in the mail before I can share my information. I simply log on and update my information. Additionally, the dot.card allows me to display more information than I have the ability to share on a small 3 ½ x 2-inch card.
On the other hand, there is a disadvantage to having a digital business card if not everyone you meet is equipped to use it. Some may not be used to receiving cards digitally or have the technical skill to save it and know how to use the information later. Employees may also be averse to using digital cards if making the investment for a firm, depending on their comfort level with technology. Additionally, the receiver of the information needs to have access to the internet, whether that be through their cellphone provider or Wi-Fi, and the need to have the NFC function enabled on their phone to access the profile by tapping the card. The QR code, however, would still be accessible if they don’t have that function enabled. Patience may be needed during the sharing process, depending on the receiver. There may even be some teaching involved, but this can be an opportunity to display your technology skills.
The other thing you don’t get with the digital card is the ability to make those physical notes on the card when you receive one. I often jot a quick note on the card to remind myself who the person is or what I want to talk with them about in the future. Once someone has saved your information to their contacts, hopefully based upon the information provided in your profile, they remember the connection. This is where having unique information about you on your profile may be helpful.
Overall, digital business cards can offer many benefits, particularly if digital business cards can support your organization’s environmental, social and corporate governance goals and cost-saving initiatives. There are also many different options available, making it easy to get creative with the way you choose to share your information. With all the paper business cards still out there, you might just leave a lasting impression by sticking out from the normal paper crowd.
