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Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

July 30th, 2008 @ 9:00 am

10 Comments

Categories: Business, Time-Savers, Travel Tips, Web Tools

Tags: Card, Business Card, Dropcard, E-mail, Online Communications, Rick Broida

dropcard.jpgBusiness cards: How 20th-century. Dropcard lets you exchange your contact information — and then some — with others using only your cell phone. It’s a free service, and it’s pretty cool.

Let’s say you meet someone at a trade show. Instead of handing over a business card that’s likely to get tossed or forgotten, just ask for the person’s e-mail address. Type “drop,” then the address, into a text message addressed to 41411. Presto: The person receives an e-mail containing all your contact info, plus any IM addresses, Web sites, and social-network links (LinkedIn, Flickr, etc.) you care to include.

You have complete control over your Dropcard profile, meaning you can include as much or as little contact info as you like. I particularly like the inclusion of a VCF file in the recipient’s e-mail, as it allows him/her to quickly create a new Outlook (or other PIM) record without having to manually copy and paste your info. Dropcard is really a handy-dandy service, one I intend to start using immediately.

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  •  
    1

    CvanV

    07/30/08 | Report as spam

    Drop Card

    Looks quite useful, but I messaged my business email address to 41411 on my cell and it couldn't handle my address--apparently because of the 14 characters before the @. It did fine with my personal address.

  •  
    2

    summeag

    07/31/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    I agree with Cvan, I tried myself and my assistant and it did not work.

  •  
    3

    antonbernstein

    07/31/08 | Report as spam

    Dropcard

    Hey guys,

    Anton from dropcard here. The issue is that you need to type "drop" and then the email address (i.e., "drop their@email.com"), not just the recipient's email. If you have any further questions, please feel free to shoot us an email at feedback@mydropcard.com.

    Thanks,
    Anton
    mydropcard.com

  •  
    4

    summeag

    07/31/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    Thanks Anton, there was some info missing in the article. I like it and will us it and hope others will as well.

  •  
    5

    jstarb62

    07/31/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    So far, so good. Worked as advertised. I expect that this will replace the uncomfortable situation where I look in my card holder only to find that I have a bunch of other peoples' cards and none of my own.
    Cool.

  •  
    6

    asargeant

    07/31/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    Does this work outside of the US?

  •  
    7

    antonbernstein

    08/02/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    Hi Asargeant,

    The text messaging aspect of the service isn't available outside of the US yet. We plan on releasing an internationally enabled service at some point in the future, and will be allowing international sign ups (without phone) soon. You'll then be able to use the iPhone, web and emails apps.

    Best,
    Anton

  •  
    8

    SF_dave

    08/07/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    @ Anton: Thanks - cool app! Already using it without a problem. Took me <5min to setup...

    FYI: the links on mydropcard.com to edit my card were dead when using FF3.01 It worked fine in IE7

    -dave

  •  
    9

    spettis

    12/15/08 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    I just signed up - will give this a try and see how great it is!!

  •  
    10

    saleboeu

    01/23/09 | Report as spam

    RE: Replace Business Cards with Dropcard

    I tried to use this... still not working after 3 days sad

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