Ok, this isn’t a trip back to the 1980s, but some things that were per­tin­ent then (if you’ve watched Amer­ican Psy­cho) and still import­ant is the per­cep­tion you por­tray from your busi­ness card.

A busi­ness card remains a staple of any busi­ness, since the printer was inven­ted. After any net­work­ing event, it’s always inter­est­ing to see the pleth­ora of styles and mes­sages on dis­play. Rather than going into detail for what it should look like, the key is to cre­ate a pos­it­ive first impres­sion that pos­i­tions and pro­jects your brand in a favour­able way (a huge opportunity).

A way to think about your card is to cre­ate a mini-​brochure that explains who you are and what bene­fits you provide. For instance, there’s noth­ing worse than a ‘blank’ side, what about an offer or inform­a­tion that you’re provid­ing to your audi­ences that invites inter­activ­ity (and to also build your database).

To build your social media pres­ence, invite people to ‘fol­low’ you on Twit­ter and ‘like’ you on Face­book. By includ­ing these fur­ther options to inter­act with you goes bey­ond the email and web address, it can help build your com­munity and main­tain ongo­ing interaction.

Keep away from adding the QR codes, that’s so 2010!! and even try­ing to be too clever. We have to hold our hands up here, we went for an uncon­ven­tional size a couple of years ago and the end res­ult was that they couldn’t fit into everyone’s wallets.

Always ask your­self, ‘what mes­sage am I por­tray­ing?’ It’s import­ant to stand out from the crowd, but never think that a 85mm x 55mm size is limiting.

Any­way, back to open­ing para­graph of the 1980s, when status and ego was king. This video is 2 minutes of being uncom­fort­able but awe­some. Please don’t think we’d endorse this chap as a busi­ness mentor! Enjoy …

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