Today in History: Making the most of your business cards

This post will give you some ideas about how to get more out of that most underused of marketing materials: your business card.

First of all, does it contain both your LinkedIn profile URL and your Twitter handle? You need to give your contact details through as many channels as possible. Some people are Twitter addicts and will follow you immediately if the relevant details are on your card. Others conduct most of their social networking through LinkedIn – don't alienate them either.

Of course, if you would rather watch paint dry all afternoon than spend a single minute on Twitter, don't bother signing up for an account just to have a Twitter ID on your business card.

Wondering how on earth you are going to fit this information onto your card?

If your fax number is the same as your office number, why not amalgamate them on the same line like this: tel/fax? You may want to even question how relevant a fax number even is to your business today.

Next, does your business card have a call to action? If you have room for this, you should definitely include one.

However good your free offer sounds at the Business for a Breakfast meeting, the person who took your card will have been inundated with jobs to do, calls to make and people to see throughout the rest of the day.

If the call to action is on your card, it could jog their memory when they are organizing their list of contacts.

Finally, compare it to other business cards you collect – does it stand out visually from the crowd? Can you get it redesigned to have more impact? Any departure from the normal rectangle shape is always a good idea – but don't make it too big.