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How to send an electronic business card
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Updated on November 18, 2021
Reviewed by
Jerrick Leger
Reviewed byJerrick Leger
Jerrick Leger is a CompTIA-certified IT Specialist with more than 10 years' experience in technical support and IT fields. He is also a systems administrator for an IT firm in Texas serving small businesses.
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What to Know
- Sharing digital business cards is dependent on how you create them—each app or service shares from inside that app or service.
- You can send simple vCards via email or any messaging app or service.
Sharing digital business cards is often dependent on the app or service you used to create the card. Alternately, you may have a copy of your contact information in a standard format such as a vCard .VCF file. We’ll show you how to get each of these to your colleagues in the sections below.
How Do I Share Service-Based Digital Business Cards?
Many services allow you to create attractive, interactive digital business cards, such as the following:
- Switchit lets you create digital business cards with custom layouts with optional video.
- The HiHello apps for iOS and Android make collecting and organizing the members of your network easy.
- Hardware-based cards like Mobilo Card or Tap Tag let you load your info onto a card that transfers it to other users’ devices.
When using these services to create your digital business card, check their tools for built-in methods to share them. For example, you can share a HiHello card by doing the following:
In the HiHello app’s Cards screen, tap on the business card you want to share.
Tap the Send button.
You'll see a screen with your built-in sending options, which you can select from among the buttons at the bottom: QR Code, Email, or Text.
How Do I Share Online Business Cards I Created?
If you didn’t use an existing platform or app to create your digital business card, you’d simply be sending the URL to your contacts. For example, when viewed on a smartphone, contributors’ bios on Lifewire are a pretty good representation of a digital business card. To send this to a colleague, you could use the existing Share function of your mobile OS (instructions below reflect Google Chrome on Android):
Bring up your bio/profile/portfolio in your browser of choice.
Tap the Share option from the main menu (the three dots in the upper right of the screen). (If you're using another browser or an iPhone, tap your sharing option.)
Select the app you’d like to use to send your card, such as via SMS or other messaging app.
Alternately, select QR Code to have Android generate a QR Code you can either show others directly on your phone, or save to an image file you can place elsewhere.
How Do I Share a Digital Business Card Formatted as a vCard?
Finally, you might have your contact info saved in the venerable vCard format. Like sharing an online business card, sharing a vCard involves sending the file to someone. When the recipient gets it, they can use the applications on their device to open and import it into their address book. Apps include Outlook on Windows, Contacts on macOS, and the built-in Contacts apps in iOS or Android.
To share your contact info in vCard format, you can attach it to any form of communication that accepts file attachments. For example, to attach it to an email in Microsoft Outlook, take the following steps:
Create an email with any other content you need.
Click the Attach File button from the Include section of the Ribbon.
Select your vCard from the Recent Items list, or browse to its location on your PC.
From the Insert File dialog, select the vCard file, then click Insert.
Send the email containing your vCard attachment to your recipient(s).
FAQ
How do I make a digital business card?
One way to make a digital business card is with Google using Gmail. Open Gmail, click the grid menu, and select Contacts. Select Create Contact > Create a Contact, enter the information you want to display, add a picture if you like, and click Save. To send it, click Menu (three dots) > Export > vCard > Export, and attach the vCard to an outgoing Gmail message.
How do I scan my business card to make a digital copy?
If you have a physical business card, you can use a scanner or a third-party smartphone scanning app, such as Microsoft Office Lens for iOS or Android, to create a digital copy. You can also use Image Capture to scan documents on a Mac.
Why have a digital business card?
A digital business card is easy and convenient to share via text, email, social media, and more. It's easy to customize your digital business card and tailor it to a client's needs, and since there are no size restraints, you can include as much detailed information as you like.
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