Putting your email, phone number, description, picture, and social networks is not enough. In fact, it may be too much to put on a business card. Make sure you know how many words are on your business card. My business card has less than 20 words which doesn’t make it a pain to read. Most people are handing out their business cards at business expos…where people are handing out and getting business cards left and right.
People want to be able to look at a business card, see everything they want to see, and move on to the next business card in a quick process. At a business expo, the process of reading and receiving business cards is a very fast process. When you’re done reading a few words, someone starts a conversation with you, the conversation continues, and you get another business card.
If you have a description on your business card, limit that description to 3 lines. On Twitter, if you can’t use more than 140 characters, you shouldn’t be using more than 140 characters for your business’ description on your business card either.
In addition to the description of you or your business, you have to include some other things as well. In order to have a good business card, you need to include your social networks, email address, phone number, your blog, and other things you want to add.
One recommendation I have is to avoid using the back of the business card. Giving and receiving business cards (not to mention reading the ones you get) is a rapid process at a business expo. If you end up finding someone who’s interested in your business at another place such as a grocery store or somewhere else, you won’t be rapidly exchanging business cards with a bunch of people like you would be at a business expo.
On my business card, my description is simple. My description is only 4 words, “Author, Teenager Entrepreneur, Blogger.” If you do something similar, capitalize all of the letters. I could have done, “Author, teenager entrepreneur, blogger,” but by capitalizing those letters, people are more likely to notice them.
Below that, I tell people to subscribe to my blog for free business and social media tips. I did not mention the word “blog” (I did include the URL though), but they know where to subscribe to in order to get the free tips. Another thing to highlight is that I use the word “Free.” Tell people that it’s free, and they’re more likely to subscribe.
After that, I included an email address and phone number. If people have questions, those are two ways to contact me. Those are at the very bottom of my business card.
That’s all of the text. Now, it’s time for the pictures. Right above my name (which is bigger than all of the other text) is my picture. On the left and right corners are the social networks I use. Instead of writing down which social networks I use, pictures of their icons is better. The method of adding social networks like the way I showed on my business card should only be used if you are displaying an even number of social networks. I am displaying 4 of my social networks (2 on the left and 2 on the right) which makes that part of the business card symmetrical (it does matter).
Another thing to note about your social networks is to put your primarily used ones on the left and the ones you don’t use as much to the right. I use Pinterest and Twitter the most. I come out with a new YouTube video every week, but I am pinning and tweeting every day. In addition to that, I have over a thousand followers on both of those social networks. On YouTube, I don’t have 1,000 subscribers yet which is why YouTube was placed on the right hand corner. Google+ is another social network that I use, but I don’t have thousands of followers on that either.
That’s why the Pinterest and Twitter icons are on the left while the YouTube and Google+ icons are on the right. If you have an odd number of social networks, put them all next to each other on the bottom left hand corner of your business card or do a drop down of your social networks on the left side of the business card.
That’s what makes a good business card. Few words and a few pictures. There’s nothing more than that, or is there?
I have one more tip when it comes to making your business card. Not everyone who gets your business card is going to have really good eye vision. If one person has to squint to see what you wrote on your business card, you have to make the font larger. On my first business card, few people had to squint their eyes to see what I wrote on the card. Few people squinting is enough people to change the font. One person squinting is enough to change the font. In order to get the subscribers, followers, and information that you want the recipient to notice, the recipient also has to be able to see the words.
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