The Well-Overdue Business Card Evolution!

The ritual of exchanging business cards usually goes like this: You and I exchange pleasantries; I give you mine, and you give me yours. At best, our respective cards will end up in a box somewhere because neither of us will ever find time to retype them into our respective Contacts apps. So what was the point?

With digital business cards, the same ritual would look like this: you and I exchange the same pleasantries. Next, you scan my digital card with your phone, and I’ll scan yours. This way, the next time you need to close a sale, schedule a meeting, get a referral, or request a quote, you’ll find my contact information in seconds and vice versa. Wasn't that the whole point of us getting to know each other in the first place?

That's why we’ve integrated exceptionally capable digital business cards and a business card scanner right into Skrol. This way, instead of buying, learning, and using three separate apps to enhance your basic Contacts app, you get all three in a single, easy-to-use package!

As you can imagine, I, too, have switched to using digital business cards and will be happy to share one of mine with you. To do so, I simply rotate the app, and here it is:

I said "one of mine" because I use three cards: the one above for Skrol Inc., another for friends and family with my home address and phone number, and the third one from my previous business. I simply swipe the display to the right or left to flip between them. 

In situations when I don't want to share my detailed information via the QR code, I tap it to reveal my photo instead:

In circumstances or places when you are concerned about your privacy or security, you can do the same or add one more card with information that can't be traced back to you.

When, occasionally, I may still need to show my original printed card with the company logo, I swipe down to its photo on the next page:

If you've ever tried to take a good-quality photo of a business card with a phone camera, you must know that it's nearly impossible to do well. I took the one above in seconds with the business card scanner built into Skrol on my iPhone 11 Pro. It looks so crisp because the scanner automatically adjusts the card for poor alignment and uneven lighting. (The quality of the scan using older iPhone or Android phones may vary, especially in poor lighting.)

While traveling abroad, I can instantly translate my business card into one of 57 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Hebrew. Greeting local hosts that way makes it easier for them to pronounce my name and is also more respectful. This is how my card looks in Japanese:

When attending sit-down meetings with unfamiliar people, I can swipe down to the Nameplate mode and place my phone facing the room. I use a basic pop grip like the one here to keep it upright. The app automatically turns off the display’s auto-lock and turns up the brightness so that everyone can see my name from a distance, even in a brightly lit room:

In addition to my primary business cards, I 'carry' a personal card for friends and family and a business card from my previous company. While traveling abroad, I create a card with my local address and phone number. This way, I can show my address in my native language while asking for directions or hailing a cab:

Here are several other practical reasons why I went digital for good, and I highly recommend you do the same:

• My phone is always with me everywhere I go, so I never miss an opportunity to share my contact information with the good people I meet.
• A digital business card can convey a lot more information, including my brief bio, links to my social sites and chats, multiple addresses, my high-res photo or company logo, and so on.
• I no longer need to print a new batch of business cards whenever my contact information changes. This is good for the environment and saves trees. There are 800+ million people on LinkedIn alone, and most of them use printed business cards. That's a lot of trees.
• Post-COVID, ‘touchless’ business cards are welcomed by many people who prefer not to take anything from strangers’ hands. I, too, am one of those people—not because I am a germaphobe but because it's common sense and common courtesy.
• With a digital business card, people are far more likely to add my contact information to their smartphones. Some giggle with delight after seeing an instant result and ask me how to get "this app."

Interestingly, when people hand me their regular business cards, I scan them with the app right before them and show the result. That, too, provokes happy giggles. And when I ask them to add a selfie to their contact folder and hand over my phone, some giggle even more. I don't push it, though, when sensing the slightest discomfort or hesitation with taking a selfie.

For all of the above reasons, I stand out from the crowd during networking events, trade shows, and conferences and get to engage with a lot more interesting people.

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Digital business cards are even more valuable online than "offline!"

Since I spend a lot more time online than in face-to-face events, I routinely add a link to my digital business card to all outgoing emails, text messages, documents, and presentations. Here is what people see in their browsers after clicking that link:

In addition to the usual contact info, they can access my social sites, chat apps, and appointment calendars right from the web. All these options neatly combined in one place create a more professional impression about me and increase my chances of getting a reply or a callback.

The next section explains the technology behind digital business cards and their other benefits.

Skrol’s digital business card technology is built on top of the vCard protocol. It is an internationally-established standard for sharing contact information between computers and smartphones. 

You may have seen this standard in action when adding contacts to your smartphone by tapping a file with the VCF extension or scanning the QR code with a camera app.

But that’s all good and well until you change a job, move to another place, switch emails, or change phone numbers, and all of your current vCard files, printed QR codes, and NFC tags become outdated, and you — out of reach.

Skrol fixes all that by letting you create and update virtual vCards right from the app and save them in the cloud. That way, whenever your contact information changes, everyone with the link to your virtual vCard will still be able to contact you because they don't expire and are always up-to-date.

For security and reliability, the virtual vCards are stored inside the high-performance database hosted by Google Cloud Platform servers. Google uses the same Trusted Cloud infrastructure technology to manage Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive, and Workspaces documents.