Old People

Business Cards Are Alive And Well

Although technology has changed so many other things about our profession, business cards remain alive and well, as they should be.

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Here’s my business cardDoes anyone remember when you got your very first lawyer business card? I do; it was a big deal for me, reminding me that I had passed the California Bar on my first try (a little bragging here), I had been sworn in, and now had my very first job.

Whether your card said “Lawyer,” “Attorney at Law,” “Counsel,” or whatever other term applied, being able to hand out business cards to people you met was a big deal. Some, if not all of us, even bought business card cases in which to keep the cards. It was, and still is, I think, an unofficial rite of passage, whether you worked for a firm, government, in house or struck out on your own. It was exciting to see your name on the card, a symbol that you had jumped several very high hurdles and were now starting the next phase of your legal career, no longer a law student, no longer perched in the nether world between taking the bar and passing it. You had made it.

Although technology has changed so many other things about our profession, business cards remain alive and well, as they should be. They’ve been around, in various iterations, as far back as the sixteenth century. 

I googled the topic “business cards in the digital age;” I was surprised at the number of entries advocating for their continued usage.

My legal recruiter friend, who suggested this topic, says that business cards have a place in this digital world. I agree. Even in this world, you never know when handing someone a business card could lead to something more down the road.

How many times have you been at a meeting, a networking event, or a seminar and someone asks for your contact information? However, they don’t want your card; they want you to stand there while they input the information into their smart phone. Really? Depending on how adept they are at typing, you could be standing there awhile. (The same holds true for calendaring meetings, etc. I’m standing there with my paper calendar, pen at the ready, waiting for the smartphoners to get their digital act together. Irritating. I digress.)

Handing someone a business card is a simple physical act that doesn’t require batteries or a password to get the information. It takes no time, and requires nothing of either party but a handoff (unless you have a drink in one hand and food in the other, then it’s trickier.) The card is right there in front of your nose.

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Do you want to digitize the information? Be my guest, but do that on your time, not mine. I want to see your face, not see your head bent down over a smartphone while typing the information in. We can all agree that there’s nothing more annoying than trying to have a conversation with someone whose attention is elsewhere. Rude, insulting, choose your own adjective. It’s not polite.

Hopefully, you’ve typed my name and my contact information correctly. Otherwise, you’ve inputted useless information, instead of just taking my card and doing what you will with it later. My dinosaur brain doesn’t understand why collecting information via smartphone makes more sense than the simple exchange of cards.

Business cards are passed out at networking meetings (at least they are at mine). I receive a photocopy of everyone’s business card at the meeting, but it doesn’t have the same tactile sensibility that giving and receiving a business card does. It’s not just the physical exchange; it’s the eye contact, the handshake, the chatting about something that later sparks a recollection when looking at the card again. Photocopied pages don’t cut it.

The physical exchange of cards makes the connection real, and it allows you to make an introduction without seeming pushy or aggressive but professional. Isn’t that the goal? The back of the card can be used to jot a note (not in the other’s presence) to refresh your recollection, especially if you’ve had more than the one wine or beer and memory is a wee bit foggy. There’s plenty of time when you get back to the office to scan the card into your data base; even that act triggers a recollection.

For those of us who work with other cultures, especially Asian, the exchange of business cards is ceremonial. You are expected to receive a card with both hands and look at it. (You can’t do that with a smartphone.) Not looking at the card before putting it away is considered rude. That business card symbolizes the giving and receiving in a relationship. Again, not something you can do with a smartphone. Just the simple sentence “Here’s my card” or the simple question “May I please have your business card?” connects people.

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One “whoops” that I’ve had with business cards is handing out ones I’ve received, rather than my own. Separate pockets make sense or if no pockets, separate compartments or different business card cases. On more than one occasion, I’ve had to snatch back the card given to me and replace it with one of my own. My bad.

Business cards can also be a way to start a conversation or to end a conversation gracefully. Try doing that with your smartphone. In dinosaur days, aka the centuries before smartphones, exchanging business cards was social as well as professional. It was not a situation of “speed exchanging” of cards, akin to speed dating today. It was the opportunity to present yourself as reflected by your card. The classier, the simpler, the less cluttered the better. That still holds true.

A side benefit to business cards: we all go to events (seminars, meetings, and the like) where there is a gift drawing. Dropping a smartphone into the jar or the basket for eligibility doesn’t work and smartphones in a fishbowl filled with business cards would look ridiculous.

Business cards are one dinosaur tradition that still has a place in today’s digital world. 

More than four decades ago, American Express began an ad campaign about its credit card; the tag line was “Don’t leave home without it.” My dinosaur colleagues will remember that and one of the first pitchmen, actor Karl Malden. (Google him.) 

That same tagline applies to business cards: don’t leave your home (or office) without them.

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