Is CardCloud the End of the Traditional Business Card - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Is CardCloud the End of the Traditional Business Card - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Have you ever been caught without an extra business card to share with a new contact? It happens to the best of us â€" you might be at a family party or running errands, and happen to run into someone who you’d like to speak with again. But this can be difficult if you don’t have a way to easily share your contact information with him or her. This is where digital business cards come in. Instead of carrying around a stack of business cards, you can create a digital version to share instantly from your phone. CardCloud, available as an app, is a service that backs up all your cards and information about people you’ve met. Features Create a digital business card and share it with anyone. Ability to share from phone to phone or phone to email. Gather contextual information about each new person you give your card to. Easily remember who, where, when and how you met someone. Pros It’s free to download on iPhone, Android, or other phones. All you need is an email address to download someone’s card â€" the folks you send it to don’t need to download the app to see your digital business card. Add notes or tags to cards to remember important information. Save money on printed business cards (eco-friendly). Never run out of physical cards again. Add your social networking profiles to your cards (supporting 15+ services). Integrate CardCloud at your event to provide a better networking experience. Create multiple cards for a variety of situations. Cons The time and energy it takes to exchange digital cards, compared to simply handing someone a traditional business card. In a review by Christopher Mims, he explains this disadvantage in more detail: “The downside of an app like CardCloud is that it remains more cumbersome than simply handing out physical cards. While its possible to simply bump CardCloud apps with someone else, thats still a multi-step operation: unlock iPhone, open app, hit send. And thats the best case scenario: 99 times out of 100, youre going to be asking your new friend to spell out their email address a cumbersome operation even under the best circumstances.” Final word A digital business card is almost an essential networking tool in today’s tech-savvy world. Using Cardcloud can help you keep track of your new relationships and information in an organized way, ensuring you have the opportunity to leverage these relationships accordingly. Have you used CardCloud? What do you think of the service? If you haven’t used it yet, would you? Author: Heather R. Huhman is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder president of Come Recommended, a  content marketing and digital PR consultancy for organizations with products that target job seekers and/or employers. She is also the author of Lies, Damned Lies Internships: The Truth About Getting from Classroom to Cubicle (2011), #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle (2010), and writes  career and recruiting advice for numerous outlets.