Welcome to the new world of smart business contacts-sharing, with the smart electronic business card!

In the general intro (you may click here to see that) the traditional and ethical way to hand out or receive traditional business cards was described. We also agreed that, as more and more people are switching to the amazing smart business card, it is likely that at your next important meeting the prospective customers or potential business partners you meet will offer to give you their professional profiles and contact details via their smart business cards, and the question was… will you know what to do to receive their contact details? Cool! I treat that further below, and sufficiently demonstrate what to do in such a scenario. I then go on to demonstrate what to do in other scenarios. You will get to appreciate how easy and super-effective it is to send and receive contact details with the use of smart business cards. Even if you do not intend to acquire a smart business card for yourself immediately, getting to know how it works and what to do when presented with a situation such as described above, is so important and urgent. Enjoy the journey to the max!

Practical Scenarios

In the various scenarios further below, I assume the role of the person sending, sharing, or transmitting my contact details for you to receive.

Now let us look at typical practical application situations; starting with the assumption that the phone in the photograph below is your phone and that when unlocked it has the screen state depicted…

Scenario 1

So imagine that we have just met somewhere and I need to give you my contact details; since I personally keep my smart business card in my wallet, I will just take my smart business card out of my wallet, and politely extend it out towards you, all that you will need to do is as follows…

Option A : If your phone has NFC technology built into it

NFC stands for “Near-Field Communication;” a system common with most smartphones these days, and allows for close range transfer of information across smart devices. To know whether your phone has NFC technology built into it, and how to turn it on where necessary, you may click here.

Step 1:

Activate (or wake up) your smartphone, and turn on the NFC in case it is not already turned on.

Step 2:

Bring your phone close to my smart business card (within at least an inch or 25mm proximity; more about this later) in a similar fashion as shown below…

A notification will pop up on your phone; one bearing a link similar to as shown below…

The phone detects the smart business card because (i) the NFC chip inside the card sends out signals, and (ii) the NFC sensor inside your phone detects that.

For Android phones the NFC sensor is at the middle-back of the phone so that is the portion you need to bring close to where the smart business card is (or vice versa), and for iOS phones the NFC sensor is at the top-front of the phone so that is the portion you need to bring close to where the smart business card is (or vice versa).

It is important to note that the NFC chip is closer to the back surface of the card, so for best results the back of the card should be the hot spot, as in the point that you should be bringing close to the NFC location of the phone.

It is worth noting that the gestures could be the other way round; i.e. you could be the first to bring out your phone and I would be the one to bring my smart business card close to it. And rather than taking my card out of the wallet, I could keep it in there and rather bring my wallet (with the card in it) close to your phone. Indeed, some people may choose to keep their smart business cards in their pocket, purse, etc. (aside the wallet) and beckon you to bring your phone close to their pocket or purse; etc. You get the idea! Also, it does not matter where on your phone the pop up appears; it may be at the upper portion of your phone screen or in the middle of it.

Step 3:

Open the link notification popup (usually by clicking on it); it will open my profile on your phone using the active browser that is on your phone; per the settings.

Note that the profile opens on your phone only because that is what I instructed my smart card to be sending out, by activating it (More about this later). So if for instance I activate phone call action instead, only the phone call link will show up on your phone; similarly for the other actions.

Step 4:

To save my contact details on your phone, you will simply have to click the save contact button; it will open the related contact details as shown below…

Step 5:

Click the ‘Save’ button; your device will prompt you to select the final save option. This final step has noting to do with the smart business card; it depends solely on the type of phone you are using the operating system it is running at the time.

For iOS you may need to scroll down to see the prompts, depending on the extent of information in the profile.

For Android, you will need to select whether to save to your downloads or files folder (as a virtual card file; *.vcf) or directly to your phone’s phonebook.

That is it! No big deal; just big benefits!

Indeed, all the above steps can be executed in just a few seconds; about 5 seconds. It is really cool!

Option B : If your phone does not have NFC technology built into it

If your phone does not have NFC technology built into it, then the main method available to you is to scan the QR code that is printed at the back of the smart business card. This is explained in detail further below.

Scenario 2+

In almost all the scenarios you may encounter, the steps will be similar to those in Scenario 1 above; the main differences will be within Step 2, and what to click in Step 3 or 4 based on the particular information that is shared or transmitted, and the objectives thereof. So for instance, in Step 3 above, the profile opens on your phone only because that is what I have activated or instructed my smart card to be sending out. If I should activate Seers eCard action instead, only my Seers particulars (as shown in Step 4) would appear on your phone in Step 2 instead of the profile, and you would just have to click the ‘Save’ button thereon.

In terms of Step 2, the likely variation will be about the method to use to get the initial link to pop up on your phone. So in the next section, the focus will be to show you the QR code option for getting the link notification popup to be sent to your phone.

QR Code Option

These days QR codes are everywhere, and so at seminars, symposiums, etc speakers typically display their QR codes as part of their presentations so that participants can simply scan with the camera apps (or any QR code reader apps) on their phones and get the necessary details or particulars they intend to share. Indeed, in a recent presentation to a live audience, my sign-off slide was as shown below…

Also my social media display picture (DP) has my QR code integrated; as shown below…

You can see for yourself on my Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn page(s).

I earlier showed the back face of my smart business card, having a QR code; it is the same QR code I put on my sign-off slide and my social media DP as shown above.

In an event or situation like described above, the following would be the steps to follow…

Step 1:

Open the QR code reader app on your phone (for iPhone you can use the camera app) and simply point the camera towards the QR code without clicking to snap a picture. Once the camera detects the QR code, the link notification will pop up on your phone as earlier illustrated in Step 2 of Scenario 1.

This can be done from a good distance; depending on the size of the QR code and how sensitive your phone camera happens to be. So for instance, it may be possible for a phone to scan a QR code on a screen from the back of the auditorium. Recently from the front seat of my car I was able to scan a QR code that was on a bill board about 20m (60ft) away on the other side of the road.

If you are reading from a device other than your phone, try using the camera app (or any QR code reader app) on your phone (or another phone, if you are reading this on a phone) to scan the QR code shown above and see.

Note:

For emphasis it’s important to note that on some phones the camera app may not double as a QR code scanner or reader, in which case you may have to use the specific QR code scanner or reader app installed on your phone; examples include the following…

1. Smart Scanner App.
2. Samsung Internet App.

If you do not have any QR code scanner or reader app already installed on your phone, please install one; there are so many of them in the applicable apps repository such as PlayStore and AppStore.

Steps 2 to 4:

Similar to the steps described in Scenario 1

Obviously you have the option of scanning the QR code on my card directly with the camera on your phone; so in the earlier scenario (Scenario 1 further above) I could have simply brought out my smart business card, and from a distance you could scan the code with your camera app (or any QR code reader app) and get the link notification popup on your phone. This is a good way to “break” or circumvent the within 1 inch (25mm) proximity required for NFC transfer. Indeed, some phones (especially old generation phones) do not have NFC capabilities, so this QR code scan option is the viable option in that situation.

Now, how do you get a smart business card for your business and / or social needs? That is next in our discussion; before then, I like you to know about the Live sessions…

On first Saturday of the month (every month) at 19:00 GMT, I do a live session online. Click the button further below to register and participate for Free; you will certainly be amazed! Got questions? I will answer them. This workshop is FREE for limited period only; go ahead now!

What’s on the card?

Technically, the various categories of top level information you can create, store and share with the smart business card are called Actions. Actions are what you can transmit via your smart business card to your intended recipients; they include… Contact Card, Profile, Link or URL, Event, Email, WhatsApp, SMS, Call, Etc. Currently I have set each of them on my smart business card. Below is the data within my personal contact card…

This is different from (and in addition to) data within my Seers contact card as follows…

Particularly, I have on* the card, a linktree that combines most of the actions as follows…

More interestingly, I have on the card, a personal profile that presents the information in a readily consumable and more visually pleasing format as follows…

Currently on mine, I have activated (instructed the card to share or transmit) the profile above so all the particulars in there will appear on a recipient’s phone, and the recipient will simply have to click the save contact button in order to save my phone number, email, and other contact details to his or her phone, for example. (More about this later; in the scenarios further below).

I have other profiles for other purposes, including one for Seers as an organisation as follows…

Imagine the profiles above and all those items in the linktree further above, ALL shareable via a single business card; one as simple as my eco-friendly black bamboo smart business card earlier shown with the ability to select which one(s) to share or transmit at any point in time; how cool is that! Simply amazing! Don’t attempt to imagine even a tenth of that on your traditional or paper business card; oops!