So what is on tap for this weekend?

 

Business cards.

 

Why You Need Them

 

You’re going to meet a lot of people at the conference. Some of them you’ll run into over and over again. Others you’ll meet once and then reconnect with online after you get home. In both cases, you’re going to want to quickly give other people a way to contact you. The best way to do this is with a business card.

 

Business card? But I have a blog, not a business! That’s what I said when I had someone tell me to get business cards. So don’t think of them as business cards. They’re information cards. They’re blogging cards. They just happen to be the size and shape of a business card.

 

Oh! And you’ll also need them in the Expo hall. Sometimes when brands are doing a giveaway, you enter by dropping your business card in a bin. So business cards … get them.

 

Where You Should Get Them

 

If you do them this weekend, you have tons of options. You can use an online service such as Moo orZazzle and have them in your mailbox within two weeks, tops.

 

Or, if you want them in your hands by Sunday, you can design your cards at home and have them printed at Staples or FedEx.

 

The point is that if you take care of business cards this weekend, you have a lot of doors open to you. The closer you get to the conference, the more you’re at the mercy of what can be printed in town. So save yourself stress and money and go to your favorite printing place now.

 

What You Should Have on Them

 

Traditional business cards contain the company address and telephone number, which isn’t applicable here. But think about information you’ll want the people you meet to be able to use later when you connect online.

 

• Your Name
• Blog Name
• Blog URL
• Email Address
• Twitter Handle
• Facebook Page URL
• Instagram Handle
• Pinterest Page
• Google+ Information

Think about the places you hang out online and give people a way to find you there. Check out Elaine Griffin’s visual example of business cards here.

 

Last Things to Consider

 

Weird shapes may get you a lot of attention, but they tend to be the ones that people also toss because they don’t fit into a neat stack. Focus on having a cool design on a standard-size card.

 

Also consider only printing on one side, and using cardstock instead of a glossy surface. Some people prefer to be able to write notes on the back of your card, such as a reminder for how they met you. Glossy surfaces means that their writing will get smudged, and printing on both sides leaves them nowhere to write.

 

Consider using an icon from your blog header or a color people associate with your online accounts. It will help people know that they’re in the right place when they bring up your site.

 

Keep it simple: You don’t need to give people every single account. A cluttered card can be difficult to navigate. So include the most important information, and then make sure you link to other accounts from a central space, such as your blog.

 

Read the original article here.