“No honey, we can’t get business cards for the cats!”
Mantra: I will capitalize on my personal brand, I will...ohhhh, squeaky mice!
These words cheerfully greeted me from my computer screen when I staggered out of bed to check up on what happened on Twitter last night. The first thing I did was laugh (really, really hard) at the mental picture of what my three furry feline monsters would do if I handed them a stack of business cards. Tooth marks would definitely mark them as theirs!
The second thing I did was scroll down the screen. Apparently, cats aren’t the only ones dipping their feet in the business card pool. There were dozens of posts featuring creative card ideas and clever new swings.
Then there was the woman who suggested exchanging mommy business cards should be standard etiquette for play dates. This one stopped me in my tracks. Business cards? When my kids were little, contact information for other moms was scrawled on napkins or paper doilies and slapped up on the fridge. I found the concept of entire business cards with the name of the mother and child and their contact information laid neatly out both intriguing and oddly frightening.
Once upon a time, business cards were reserved for salesmen and high level executives. Now we’re seeing them everywhere, from mommy bloggers to job seeking college kids. Cats might be a new one, but somehow I don’t doubt that there are a number of show pooches out there with their own calling cards, carefully cultivating their personal brand.
So let me ask you this. How far is too far when it comes to promoting your personal brand? Is the easy availability of business cards leading us to overdo it, or are we just seeing the newest trend? Will business cards soon become as commonplace as cell phones? What do you think?