When all anyone had was an address and phone number as a point of contact and a fax number was the only fancy extra anyone put on their business card, it was much simpler to design that business card. Two or three lines of text, a log and BAM, you’re in business.
Today, communication channels include Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more, but how do you get all that junk effectively on to your business card without having to skip putting your logo because there’s too much text? Follr.com offers a “social business card” which is a single URL for you to organize all of your social networks and websites in one place.
What’s different about Follr?
Barring a ridiculous internet-y name, Follr stands out because one of their options is real estate centric. They are partnered with AgencyLogic which allows real estate professionals to not only feature their latest Tweet or Facebook update in one place, but they can feature their listings.
Follr is well designed and has a slick (God that’s an overused word, isn’t it?) user interface and doesn’t require technical knowledge to get set up. Although I believe you have to have an AgencyLogic account to activate featured listings, Follr is worth at least organizing and conglomerating your social networks so people can see all of your activity in one location that appears more professional than many of their competitors.
If you set up a Follr, tell us in comments about your experience getting set up and show off your final result!
Jim Gatos
July 8, 2010 at 6:26 am
I just “half set” an account and am trying to figure out what’s the point?
Lani Rosales
July 8, 2010 at 9:49 am
To aggregate everything in one place so you don’t have to put 8 bazillion links on a business card. I also like https://card.ly and https://flavors.me.
Bryan Thompson
July 8, 2010 at 12:20 pm
Just went to sign up and the site is down for maintenance. Looks cool, though. I especially like the link-branding (ex. follr.me/yourname/twitter, follr.me/yourname/facebook, etc.) it promotes.
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:20 am
Hi Bryan,
The site was down due to a new release with major enhancements. You can now connect to other social card members by clicking the “connect” icon in the header of their social cards or by inviting friends, family and colleagues by email. By connecting to others’ social cards you’ll always have access to their latest information and be notified of changes they make.
Important updates made to your social cards are automatically sent to your connected card network. Add a new social profile, change your phone number etc. and all your connections will be proactively notified.
Currently no other site provides this capability especially as the service is 100% free to use.
As the co-founder and follr.com designer I am more than happy to answer anyone’s questions about issues or why to use the service.
I appreciate the review Lani.
Cheers,
Mark
follr.me/mark
Stacie Durnford
July 8, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I too just checked it out for the first time and don’t really understand the benefit. Yes, its everything in one place, but it requires people to click to open a new website window. We all know that people prefer to have fewer clicks. It also requires people to understand what follr is and why they’re clicking on the link. I fear that instead of clicking on the follr link, they’ll just move on and not obtain my social media info.
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:27 am
Hi Stacie,
Currently there’s no easy and free way to convey all your social profiles, your content (RSS and Twitter), who you are via one memorable address. There are many occasions where we can only give or use a single address e.g. on our Twitter profile so which one do we chose to represent “the whole you”? By entering your follr address you have one link that connects to copious information about you.
Additionally, I’ve been at a number of networking functions and noticed people trying to communicate their Facebook link or their LinkedIn link and can’t quite remember the exact link structure. With follr you just need to remember the one address.
I’ve also spoken to people that are frustrated because they feel they want to add more and more links to their physical business card or their email signature. The card has no room and email signatures with even a few social links start to look crowded. By adding the social card link to your printed card or to your email signature you again have just one link to do it all.
Now that we have added the connections feature you’ll have the added benefit of being informed when your contacts add a new social identity or change their email address or phone number. No other service does this for you, proactively and for free.
If yo have ANY questions please contact me: mark at socialgears.com and thanks for trying the social card.
Cheers,
Mark
follr.me/mark
Dave
July 8, 2010 at 12:26 pm
I will give it a try. I was going to set something up like this with a .info page but this looks more robust. Like you I’m not to excited by the name and you almost need a catchy phrase to draw people to click on it in your e-mail IMHO.
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:31 am
Hi Dave,
In your email signature you could put anything as the description e.g. for more information: follr.me/name. We also offer rlty.me and rlty.us for those in the real estate industry. In an upcoming release we’ll add the ability to add your own custom domain name so you could make it whatever you wanted.
If you have ANY questions please contact me: mark at socialgears.com.
Cheers,
Mark
follr.me/mark
Fred Romano
July 8, 2010 at 4:56 pm
Why not just use a free WordPress theme like templatic.com/demos/?theme=visitingcard or any number of other free templates. It’s easy to setup a domain name and have it hosted. I am going to do this with my domain fredromano.com soon. Keep the control – don’t be lazy – manage it yourself!
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:35 am
Hi Fred,
I agree you could of course use WordPress for full control. There are many features on the social card however over and above just listing your social profiles especially with the new connection capabilities. All the new features over coming months also come with no effort on your side.
The social card is also completely free of charge and requires no technical knowledge.
Cheers,
Mark
follr.me/mark
Lesley Lambert
July 8, 2010 at 5:15 pm
I have been using card.ly for some time and like to embed the card into my personal blog posts to make it even easier for people to contact me. It is also great as an email signature addition!
Jason Improta
July 8, 2010 at 6:19 pm
I’ll check it out but so far I am inclined to agree with Fred
Dougscott
July 8, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Tried to sign up and kept getting an error message, “invalid email address”. Even the address I use with this site was not accepted. Not too impressed so far!
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:36 am
Hi Dougscott,
This is the first time we’ve heard of a problem with the email address so please let me know which email address you were using and I’ll personally resolve the issue for you.
Cheers,
Mark
follr.me/mark
Mark Wayman
July 9, 2010 at 12:40 am
Thanks to Lani for the impromptu review and please do check out follr.com social business cards with business networking.
For reference, here’s my card: follr.me/mark
Also and example Realtor card with a Listings tab: rlty.me/jane_smith
We’ve worked extremely hard on this product and hope it helps you all organize all the myriad of social profiles, content and contact methods we have these days.
– Mark.