New Features & Tools in BusinessCard2

New features are available for your BusinessCard2. You can now upload files for easy sharing with anyone, link to your social networks, create special offers, and share your work and education experience directly in your card.

New this week:

• File Share: BusinessCard2 now gives you the ability to share files within your card. Add informational brochures, photos, text documents, spreadsheets and much, much more.

• Social Network Links: Link to your Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter account directly from your card.

• Special Offers: Have a special offer you want to extend to your customers? Create a customized coupon especially for BusinessCard2 users.

• Experience: Show your customers you have what it takes to get the job done. List any experience or relevant credentials that give you and your company an edge over competitors.

We are continually updating BusinessCard2 to make it an even more powerful tool. Watch the News section on your homepage for the latest on BusinessCard2. Sign in now: http://businesscard2.com

Think Before You Tweet

Being cautious and controlled in your online dialogue is important. My friend Dan Schawbel, founder of Personal Branding Magazine and Personal Branding Blog has done a great job of writing on this subject matter. In short, assume what happens on the internet stays on the internet. One little slip up can haunt you for years to come, so always think before submitting comments on websites. It may just go down on your personal record.

I've been personally guilty of getting argumentative in a forum before, thinking it an act of inconsequential self-defense. It came as a surprise in one instance when several hours after commenting one of my investors showed up at the office in a very poor ('er angry) mood. Turns out that after I had written the comments, the forum comments showed up in a search engine. The investor stumbled across the forum and was worried about the permanency of the comments and how it could impact the business at a future date. Needless to say I patched things over. But, I did come away from that experience with a lesson: there is no such thing as "informal language" on the web. Although the reason or intent may be pure and justified, you have no idea of how it may negatively impact you in the future.

I read an interesting article about some legal issues with tweets. Now comments no longer just impact the way you are perceived, but could also create legal liability for you (or your business). Again, think before you tweet.

BusinessCard2 On NBC Twin Cities

On Tuesday, August 18th we had the opportunity to present BusinessCard2™ to the audience of local NBC station Kare11 for their TechTuesday's segment. This show is simulcast on television and the web, and we were sure appreciative of the opportunity to talk a little bit about our offering.

Here is a direct link to the video: http://tinyurl.com/l43mb6

You can also view the video on the Kare 11 site here (video player on right side of page): http://tinyurl.com/la3hsk

New Features Added Today

We are continually updating BusinessCard2 to make it an even more powerful tool. Today we have several new features that we would like to share with you.

New at BusinessCard2:

• Search: The entire BusinessCard2 directory is now searchable by name, company, job title, location and keyword.
• Share: Sharing your identity with others is what BusinessCard2 is all about. Login and check out the Share tab to gain access to all the tools for sharing your card.
• Card Badges: Have a blog or website? Place a card badge on your blog to direct traffic to your BusinessCard2. Choose from several different styles.

Need help using BusinessCard2?

Check out our all new FAQ section under the information tab for answers to the most common questions about BusinessCard2. Have a question that is not answered there? Submit it to our feedback section and we’ll get you an answer right away.

Sign In now: http://www.businesscard2.com

Also, to the 3.79% of you that are currently accessing BusinessCard2 via Safari for Mac, we've heard you loud and clear! We have implemented the UI changes today. We should be rolling pretty nicely on IE 7.x, IE 8.x, Firefox 2.x, Firefox 3.x, Chrome 2.x, and SAFARI!

The Social Media Sphere is Actually Three Circles, Who Knew?

Steve Curtis from Omniture just sent me the link to this image. He said, "one of the challenges they’ve had with communicating the importance of social media is explaining what the different outlets are and what they do." I too can agree it is hard to explain what social is, and combating sometimes people's (incorrect?) perceptions and assumption about what social is and what it has to offer.

Wes Funk, from Omniture’s Demand Generation team, put together the graphic and a short blog post that illustrates the differences between the more popular social media sites and tools. I think it's useful you're showing colleagues (or your grandma) the differences and purposes of each. So, thanks Steve and Wes.

Note: BusinessCard2 is not listed in the graphic. We'll probably be included in the next update to the graphic.

BusinessCard2 Made the Cover of Finance & Commerce

We just released the new BusinessCard2™ technology yesterday, so it was with special pride that we made the cover of Finance & Commerce. It's a nice article, and we are sure appreciative of the coverage. Arundhati Parmar did a good job of maintaining journalistic objectivity. You can read the write-up here.

New Card Technology Launched

We have launched the new BusinessCard2™ technology. It is a personal branding vehicle for mass positioning. What we're trying to accomplish with this technology is a user controlled tool (in the form of the internet business card) that can extend beyond an single website.

This current launch only incorporates basic features. We wanted to ensure it is light enough to be practical and scale. Nevertheless, in the days and weeks to come we will be systematically adding in a ton of more features and benefits that we believe people will find very compelling.

At first blush we may appear to be a web gadget/widget. I think that dismisses the fact that most widgets are shallow. What we've built is a web container that is deep in integrated, and includes a delivery mechanism. Although social network websites are great (we too use them), we aspired to create a mechanism that can also operate outside of the social graph. We felt a calling card for the internet was the perfect way to frame what we've been working on since 2005.

I remember as a young boy, and programmer, the excitement I felt for IRC. Then again in 1999 with the concept of WebPlaces. Today I'm excited to see the beginning of my dreams come to fruition in BusinessCard2. Although we have much work to be done, we plan to release some very cool stuff over the next several months that will extend the capabilities of the cards.

On behalf of our team, thank you for all the supporters and contributors who have made this project possible.