Imagine you are at a job fair. You have 10 copies of your résumé, and 50 business cards. You are ready to network!
But, about halfway through the aisles, you begin to run low on materials. Now you’re more selective about who you give your information to. Then you begin to wonder what those companies are actually going to do with your card or résumé … will it be tossed away or lost in the pile of hundreds of others from the day? How are you going to get the company to check out your LinkedIn profile or professional portfolio?
Here comes Poken.
Poken Is the Social Business Card
A Poken is a small radio-frequency device that, when touched with another Poken, exchanges information. You can share your photo or logo, your social networking sites, your résumé or anything else you choose. After the exchange is made, you plug the device into your computer and it syncs up with a free website. Here you can manage your contacts — in a timeline.
The vision is that instead of handing out cards or résumés, you can just bump-fists with others else and get copies of their social profiles.
BMW is using this technology at trade shows. People are given Pokens, and then they bump-fists with the cars they like best.
Job fairs are giving these out to companies and job seekers.
Networking groups are encouraging members to get Pokens to help break the ice and make exchanging info easier. [rad_rapidology_inline optin_id=”optin_1″]
Using Poken to Stand Out from the Crowd
“Do you Poken?”
“Poken? What’s that?”
A great way to separate yourself and show that you are on the cutting edge is to have access to cutting-edge technology. It’s also a great ice breaker! Perhaps you even give a corporate recruiter an extra Poken — they’ll remember you, and get some use out of it.
I brought 12 Pokens to a professional conference last month and gave them out. I had a lot of fun with this. By the end of the conference, I was fist-bumping new Poken contacts and starting some interesting discussions about social media innovation.
The challenge is that for it to be totally useful, every single person needs to have one. So don’t write off biz cards just yet. But while this is still new, you can take advantage of its quirkiness.
Where Can You Get a Poken?
In the U.S. you can get your Poken from Poken Zoo. They are about $20, and if you buy a bunch, they’re cheaper.
You can learn more about Poken here:
Joshua Waldman
Joshua Waldman, author of Job Searching with Social Media For Dummies, is recognized as one of the nation's top authorities in Social Media Career Advancement. To learn Joshua’s secret strategies for shortening the job search and getting the right job right away, Get The Missing Manual for LinkedIn Success
@David Moyles I think you are right. The penetration/adoption for Pokens never really picked up. Even though they are gimicky and cute, with mobile apps, they aren’t relevant any more.
I don’t understand why you wouldn’t just use one of the many mobile apps that do something similar, and are getting a much higher penetration rate – hence it’s much more likely you’ll find other people who you can share details with.
I am not sure how I feel about such a device. I will have to do a bit of research…. I can see it’s usefulness, but I agree you won’t have a pocket full of business cards like I have. Interesting idea. Thanks Joshua
Sean, Thanks for your comments. What you say certainly makes a whole lot of sense.
It seems like a Poken could be appealing for a few minutes until you realize that this is just one more thing to carry around and try to get other people to use. I think services that already build upon items that people tend to have for multiple functions (i.e., smart phones) make more sense and could be more feasible. There is the Bump application (http://bu.mp/) for iPhone and Android and there is also BeamMe Live (http://rmbrme.com/), which integrates with multiple social networks. The appealing aspect of the Bump application is that if someone doesn't have it on their phone, it could be downloaded from an app store.
Another option, albeit less “green”, is mini-cards from Moo.com. In addition to any standard-sized business cards, a pack of mini-cards could be something you have in reserve in case your regular cards run out. The mini-cards offer smaller area on which to print details but you could minimize and simply include a Twitter handle, personal website address or an online business card option, such as card.ly.
Yes, it is very simple to Mingle however Pokens have much greater focus on social media and on creativity. The Poken dashboard really helps to bring in a single persons online persona. (Plus Pokens look pretty darn cool!)
This is very similar to a device we used for a conference called Mingle Sticks from Mingle360.com.
Great article! I've got DUB (dubmenow) loaded into my blackberry. DUB allows you to 'bump' (exchange) contact info with another DUB user by simultaneously pressing a button on both smart phones. It works great, but you are right, it will be more useful when more folks adopt it. Until then, we still need paper business cards. http://www.dubmenow.com