Business Opportunities Weblog

Business Cards Are Lame

By on March 19, 2012 in News

Business Cards Lame

In my continuing coverage of the decline of business card usage come this article from the LA Times:

Chalk up another looming casualty of the Internet age: business cards.

Ubiquitous as pinstripes, the 2-by-3.5-inch pieces of card stock have long been a staple in executive briefcases. Exchanging cards helps to break the ice and provides a quick reference for forgotten names.

But to many young and Web-savvy people who are accustomed to connecting digitally, the cards are irrelevant, wasteful — and just plain lame.

Photo by martellostudio/ShutterStock.

business cards

Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

Another Idea: How to Start a Greeting Cards Business

  • http://www.howtoseducelife.blogspot.com Guru Eduardo

    I can’t say that this is my experience. Everyone I know still buys and uses business cards.

    But I’ll tell you what is lame? Most business cards!

    Business cards should be remarkable and cause for discussion. You can do this by putting an inspirational message and photo on the back. Or better yet go for something funny if you want it to be a conversation starter.

    The ordinary professionals card is lame but it doesn’t have to be!

  • http://www.rollersizeR.com Elizabeth Trindade

    I like this and I have not used business cards in 15 years! But was thinking of doing it again. I like your idea to make them interesting!

  • http://wahm.business-opportunities.biz Angela Shupe

    I will admit that they are wasteful, but I don’t think they are dead just yet. Many people still like to use business cards. I imagine web-savvy people have their own version of business cards too, but they are just digital.

  • http://gordgerrie.com Gord Gerrie

    Business cards aren’t lame….for the most part, how people use them is lame. Most are uninteresting, some are GREAT. If you put the care into the design as opposed to picking a template and you use them in creative ways, they work. Recruiters, have you ever left one in the ticket wallet in a restaurant? Invite people to call YOU by asking the question, “have you ever considered a career in??????” You will be amazed!

  • Dave Tuck

    Wow, talk about someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about. True, we tend to connect more digitally than ever before, but how do we communicate those huge addresses to each other? “Here is my email address. Do you need a pen and peice of paper to write it down, or do you think you can remember “JaimeRankankowski.operationsmanager@Stormfilgerenterprises.com”? My address isn’t that long, but I think I’ll stick with the business cards.

  • http://nails-by-sam.com Michael Hall

    my wife still uses them, and usually gives out 3-5 at a time to a single person,
    they are beautifully decorated with a pic of a lady’s hand with freshly done nails, and include her telephone, email and site, and i’ve had good success at marketing several of her nail designs on facebook, the ad is identical and looks almost like a business card but the image is different on each one and she gets clients and clients pass them on to others as people often ask who did their nails, an easy to remember website goes a long way too, so i wouldn’t say they are dead at all, but as others have said they need to grab attention and/or display something funny or memorable

  • Marc

    I belong to that group of younger, Web-savvy people but I can say that business
    cards can still be out of certain use.
    More precisely, if you are having business with person who prefers business cards
    (because of his/her habit, age, environment he/she is coming from) than they
    can useful.
    In other words it all depends on the person you are having business with

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