Mashable and American Express OPEN Forum have been debating the merits of traditional business cards. After all, in today’s day and age, after receiving such a card, it is still a necessity to transfer the names, phone numbers and email addresses into one’s phone or contact database.
Business networking site LinkedIn has created a solution called CardMunch iPhone app which allows you to take a picture of a business card and then converts the contact information as text. It then stores the information into contacts. LinkedIn also integrates the person’s information from his or her profile onto the network.
Business cards will not become obsolete anytime soon. There are some who love collect business cards, but there are options out there for those who tend to lose cards easily, do not want to carry extra paper or those who find it easier just to have the contact information on their phones.
While the CardMunch app takes away some of the hassle in transferring information from a card to your contacts, it does not take away the need for business cards since one party will still require a standard business card for the image capture.
If you do not ever want to give out another business card, there is another option called Cardcloud, which is a free app which allows you to create a digital card that you can just email. Once again, there is integration with LinkedIn, and in this case, Facebook too.
Surely in the future, there will be an app which makes it possible for two phone users to quickly and easily swap electronic business cards through email by just clicking a button.
What do you think about these new developments? Do you think that social media will replace the traditional business cards? Or is there something special about traditional business cards?