social trading cards | It's All Virtual

Conference Networking with @MeetMeme Social Trading Cards at #jw11

October 5, 2011

Pictured: My social trading card at JiveWorld11.

Introduction

I think I’ve seen the future of networking sessions. And the future is now, enabled by social trading cards from Meet-Meme. At JiveWorld11, personalized Meet-Meme cards were provided to all attendees. You receive your deck of cards when you pick up your badge and are encouraged to use the cards at the networking events.

They Work!

At a networking event and the welcome reception, a lot of trading cards were exchanged. In fact, after the sessions, I noticed that my deck of cards was running low and tweeted the following:

@JiveSoftware @MeetMeme Networking at #jw11 has been so productive that I may need another deck of social trading cards

Let’s dive into why these trading cards are so effective.

Integrated into the Event’s Registration Form

Make it easy and seamless for attendees. For my JiveWorld11 trading cards, all the information printed on them was collected during registration. I wondered why the registration form asked me to list “Special Powers.” Now I know why.

Having the cards printed in advance (and handed out during badge pick-up) makes it easy for attendees to participate. If attendees needed to voluntarily create their cards on-site, adoption would have been much lower.

Encourages Card Exchanges

Because the concept of social trading cards is new and novel, attendees found it natural to “trade cards” immediately after saying “hello.”

An exchange of conventional business cards tends to happen only after a meaningful exchange of business information occurs. The trading cards created the opposite effect – you exchanged cards first, then “traded” information with each other.

Spurs Conversation

And that leads to the next benefit. Whereas conventional business cards are staid and “stuffy,” the social trading cards allowed you to list “Special Powers,” which spurs conversation.

One of my listed powers is “Master Dancer,” which had many attendees asking me to demonstrate those skills. I loved how the cards shifted conversations from “what company are you with?” and “what do you do there?” to, “tell me about this unique aspect of your personality?”

Social Sharing Made Easy

The cards had a QR code printed on one side. Once scanned, the QR code brought you to the user’s Meet-Meme profile page. Here’s mine:

http://mtme.me/823867

From the profile page, you have the option of sharing on Twitter and Facebook. Here are examples of #jw11 tweets that were generated from this feature:

Added: Trading Card as Badge

Forgot to mention: the Meet-Meme trading card also serves as your badge. The front of the card lists your “role” (e.g. Attendee, Partner, Exhibitor, Speaker, etc.). Neat.

Additional Ideas

How could Meet-Meme evolve their service? I bet they’ve already got several things in the works, including some of the items I’m about to mention:

LinkedIn integration. With credit to a JiveWorld11 attendee, who tweeted this idea: once you trade cards, make it easy to connect with one another on LinkedIn.
Integrate with digital event platforms. For hybrid events, integrate to digital event platforms, so that digital (virtual) attendees can also participate (i.e. digital trading cards?).
Provide an API for app integration. Allow event apps (e.g. the JiveWorld11 app) to integrate with the service via an API.
Build follower/following system. Allow Meet-Meme users to follow one another (within the system) once they trade cards.
Build social games around the cards. Sounds like this one’s already in the works. Allow event planners to assign attendees to teams and use the trading cards to facilitate team-oriented games (e.g. trade cards with the most people outside of your own team).

Conclusion

Kudos to Jive and Meet-Meme for combining to create great networking experiences at JiveWorld11. It all started with a very basic concept (trading cards) and then layered on available technology (social sharing, QR codes, etc.) to enhance the effectiveness. I’m looking forward to seeing how services like this evolve – and, how they benefit networking events.