Recently in SXSW Category

As a native Washingtonian, I know the value of a good business card exchange. It's almost a ritual here, as well as at most conferences and networking events I attend.

I don't know if I'm behind the times, but after my "conference hell month" I've got about 400 business cards I still need to scan and some to reply to. I should buy a scanner.

However, some of them I'm putting at the bottom of the pile:

1. If you handed me a "moocard," one of those tiny little calling cards sold using your flickr photos, you've immediately gone to to the bottom of the pile. Why? They're not real cards. They're not useful to me. They don't tell me enough about you for me to remember you, and they all look pretty much alike.

2. If you hand me a double-sided, glossy business card with no white space, you lose points. Why? Part of the beauty of business cards, is that with a pen, I can write things on them, like how, when, or where I met you, if we have a mutual friend, or anything else that would make me pick your card out of the stack and possibly do something important. When you have shiny, dark colored cards, I can't write on them. You remove a valuable avenue for making your cards a tool, not just something to gawk at. It may look cool, but it's useless to me as a networking facilitator.

3. Cutesy cards with company-related graphics and logos are ok. Double-sided cards are ok. However, if you must go that far, please, please, please, please have at least one side with some space that I could write on. I cannot stress this enough. When I get home at the end of the day, or even when I make a card exchange (an art in and of itself) I write things down, like the date or event, so I can better mentally sort through who you are, especially at somewhere like SXSW where I came away with 250 cards in 4 days. If you want to be remembered, make it easy. Plus, someone might want to write a note to themselve that they really, really want to do business with you. Make sure there is a place for them to write.

4. It's ok to be creative, but remember that your card is a tool for helping people remember you, and leaves a lasting impression of how "serious" you are. A quick look at my stack reveals that the vast majority of people who would be considered "important" or that I made a point of getting back to first had uncluttered, easy to read cards with ample writing space, communicated the basic information (name, title contact info) and were generally devoid of clutter, gloss, or garish color schemes. If you had these things, they had better be enough to make me remember you.

5. If you're going to be creative, be really, really creative. Check out the SXSW Card Collective for examples of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the creative (in a good way).

FYI, Here's mine:

Robert Scoble's is awesome, and has enough white space to still be useful. Best of both worlds.

Back to tech/politics later. I hear there's an Energy bill around.

1. Social Media Consultant
2. Social Media Manager
3. Online Talent Manager

I first met Shashi Bellamkonda on the second floor of Six last Friday. I'm pretty outgoing when surrounded by like-minded people, but I was absolutely blown away by the sheer friendliness and warmth of this person, who turned out to work for what is to some people a great boogeyman of the 'net: Network Solutions.

I wasn't quite sure how to handle this, nor did I understand how his title, "Social Networking Swami" fit into the culture there, which is sometimes derided as cutthroat and anti-consumer.

On the other hand, Shel Israel, best known for his collaboration with Robert Scoble wrote a fantastic blog post/interview that sheds a ton of light onto why this guy is so cool and how one employee can change a company at the right place and time. Money quote:

The day when a company could communicate hiding behind walls and lobbing stuff over the wall to customers is over. My new position at Network Solutions will work toward empowering our customers to carry on conversations using social media. Companies always want to listen to their customers and are accountable to their customers.