In the world of small business marketing, social media is quickly becoming a leading way to connect with customers and increase brand awareness and sales.
All kinds of businesses from plumbers, to florists, to real estate agents and insurance sales professionals are using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to build their business networks and stay top-of-mind with clients and customers.
If you want to start using social media marketing for your business, then get started by including your social media profile information on your business cards. To get an idea of how you can incorporate Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn information on your cards, check out the seven examples below.
This card designed by Tom Sinclair, uses a funky social media inspired theme to show the designer's email, phone number and Twitter handle. This is an example of incorporating social media icons, but without letting the social media design overtake the business card design. Image via helloimtom.com.
This business card uses plenty of digital design elements. There's a QR code to send smart phone users directly online as well as a cool, geeky illustration of the card holder. Such illustrations are popular as profile pics on sites like Twitter. The card also has a word cloud, representing all the card holder's specialties and little icons for the email, website and Twitter handle. Image via planet10tech.com.
It looks like this card is used by someone in the social media marketing industry. He's got links to all of his active profiles on several social networks, bookmarking sites and sharing sites. The design looks clean and it effectively communicates the cardholder's entire web presence. In this case, when so many different sites and networks are in play, I think using the actual icon from each site is a great way to keep the information organized and easy to read. Image via digitaldept.com.
So simple and yet so interesting and unlike any other business cards I've seen. This is a great use of black and white on a plastic business card format with rounded edges. Again, this card holder uses the actual logos from the main social networks mentioned. Image via ourdoings.com.
This is a brave card design that imitates the look and feel of MySpace, right on the card design. I like how this looks here, but I could imagine this becoming a trend and seeming a bit unoriginal if it is done too often. There are more sophisticated ways to integrate social media elements into a card design, rather than letting the social media design take over. Image via openforum.com.
This Huffington Post contributor has an extremely social media-savvy business card. I like how this card blends old school graphic design tactics, like the cool zebra logo and serif font, with social media mentions. Image via huffingtonpost.com.
This is a great integration of social media marketing into a business card design. The design looks fresh and exciting. On the front there's a big bright logo and yet on the back there's more than enough space for all the primary contact information. It looks as if there's a "status update" right on the card! I also really like the head shot, or should I say profile pic, and the icons for the big three of social media, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Image via brightsocialmedia.com.