Recently I threw away my whole collection of business cards. I was checking the whole directory and couldn’t remind me a lot of names. So, good bye! But not before digitizing everything. You will read how and why I managed this here.
I never used business cards myself since I have my own company. Not for my website services nor for my startups like Pasfoto.nu and CaPPr.
I always add everyone I speak with on LinkedIn afterwards, explaining how we met in a personal message.
In this case I told them I was digitizing my business directory. When I didn’t knew how we met, I just told them honestly.
The message was like:
Hi X,
At the moment I’m digitizing my business cards. I also found yours and I therefor would like to add you to my business network on LinkedIn.
We met at X.
Regards,
Gijs Heerkens
Overview
LinkedIn gives a clearer overview to manage, search and consult your contacts.
This works best when you really know the contacts and they know you. Strangers on LinkedIn are useless.
Of course, I still accept business cards, but I add them on LinkedIn afterwards and throw away the card. I prefer everything to be digital.