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Why are Fax numbers on business cards?

It doesn't matter if you're an IT services company, a creative agency, anyone and everyone still seems to be putting their fax numbers on business cards.

I haven't used a fax machine for years. So many years, that I can't remember how many years.

Why are we refusing to let go of fax numbers?

How about replacing them with Twitter usernames (too geeky - really?), blog addresses (too much personal promotion - really??), Facebook address (definitely too personal for me)?

OK, let's just leave it out then. And leave white space there instead. At least they'll be more room to write memorable stuff about the person instead.


 
3 comments
Nov 18, 2010
David said...
Funny article! Why do we have businss cards at all?

Why doesn't Outlook (even 2010) include a field for Twitter, LinkedIn, etc?

Nov 19, 2010
Bradley Howard said...
I still think there is a case for business cards. LinkedIn and the iPhone are getting there, but for the moment we still need them to record each others' details.

Good point about Twitter field in Outlook. I put people's Twitter usernames (if I record them at all) in the Notes section. There are 3 fields for Fax, and even Telex gets it's own field!

Nov 19, 2010
John Watson said...
Backward compatability; you can always add new fields but you can never remove old ones or you will break something for someone. What is a telex anyway?

The reason they don't add things line twitter IMHO is that they would be promoting someone elses service, and have you ever tried to use another companies name or reference their service in a large company -- it's really hard to get through legal.

So --
Can't remove fields because you need to maintain backward compatability
Can't add useful new fields because it's too hard/political

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Bradley Howard

Head of Digital Media at Endava, although all the views in this blog are purely mine and not necessarily those of Endava.

 

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