Electronic Leave-Behinds

[John Dobbs]

For decades those interested in outreach have left behind business cards. I try to get a little creative with my cards, but still... it's a card. I wonder what kind of electronic 'business cards' (leave-behinds) we might consider? I know churches sometimes give CDs and DVDs to their visitors ... would something like that be practical to carry around, leave on a table, give to a new friend? What about a jump drive with a video message on it? I dunno if I'd go plug in a jump drive given to me by a stranger. This might be a dead end ... but... thought it was worth tossing into the storm of brains!

[James Nored]

Thanks for the brainstorm, John. I had something come to mind. There are those min-CD/DVDs that are about 1/3 the size of regular CD/DVDs. They are not that common, but they work. Would these be a good "leave-behind?"

I like the idea of an electronic leave behind. Another possibility is a regular card with Facebook username, website, some provocative question linked to a site.

[Ed Dodds]

I saw an article recently about the Redbox business -- those Red DVD movie dispensers you are beginning to see everywhere. A fellow posited that with in a few years that business will be downloads to SD cards, fwiw. I try to keep in mind a couple of things from a global perspective: 1) most people on the planet are illiterate, even in their mother tongue (if you can use a technology like the one literary bridge http://literacybridge.org/talkingbook.html is trying to develop that would seem helpful -- but unwieldy at this point), 2) most people who access the web do so with a hand held device (cell phone, smartphone, iPhone/iTouch, etc.), and 3) more countries are investing in complete broadband roll outs than most US citizens are aware. All this to say, while my personal preference is texty stuff, conditions dictate that biggest bang4buck is audio and/or video, imho. I have also thought about the "engines" in those Hallmark talking cards. Could investigate how to get those en mass...

[John Dobbs]

The miniCDs ... will they play in a car audio system? I am not sure about that. I like the idea of a card linking to a website... mine has my blog website on it and email addy. Haven't thought about putting my facebook on it.

James Nored said:

Thanks for the brainstorm, John. I had something come to mind. There are those min-CD/DVDs that are about 1/3 the size of regular CD/DVDs. They are not that common, but they work. Would these be a good "leave-behind?"

I like the idea of an electronic leave behind. Another possibility is a regular card with Facebook username, website, some provocative question linked to a site.

[John Dobbs]

Ed ... that RedBox trend is interesting to think about. I'll ponder that for a while. I may speak out of ignorance but do most people access the web via smartphone? Maybe it's my location but I know lots of people who cannot access the web that way. That would be quite a revelation to me if that were true ... might speak to how we design our websites or if there is a smartphone - friendly page of our websites.

On Video.... I love the quality of James Nored's videos ... and no one can deny the explosive popularity of YouTube.

Thanks for sharing your observations.

Ed Dodds said:

I saw an article recently about the Redbox business -- those Red DVD movie dispensers you are beginning to see everywhere. A fellow posited that with in a few years that business will be downloads to SD cards, fwiw. I try to keep in mind a couple of things from a global perspective: 1) most people on the planet are illiterate, even in their mother tongue (if you can use a technology like the one literary bridge http://literacybridge.org/talkingbook.html is trying to develop that would seem helpful -- but unwieldy at this point), 2) most people who access the web do so with a hand held device (cell phone, smartphone, iPhone/iTouch, etc.), and 3) more countries are investing in complete broadband roll outs than most US citizens are aware. All this to say, while my personal preference is texty stuff, conditions dictate that biggest bang4buck is audio and/or video, imho. I have also thought about the "engines" in those Hallmark talking cards. Could investigate how to get those en mass...

[John Dobbs]

I also use VistaPrint so I can have new cards to leave (because I tend to frequent the same places I'm not leaving the same cards all the time)...and also pens. Wait staff and others always need a pen. They are both kind of old fashioned but really ... will we ever NOT need a pen ... and a card is a natural way - and an expected way - to communicate who we are. Any other ideas of what we can leave behind?

[John Dobbs]

How one church is using CDs to reach out ... link from a tweet on James Nored's twitter stream. By the way, the link is to Kingdom Tapes...so they do have a product to sell...but I think it's pretty neat how this church is using these CDs.

http://www.kingdom.com/kb_results.asp?ID=31