About.me is releasing a new app today in the iOS app store that brings a much-needed update to the paper business card.
The Intro App aims to replace the business card, that slim piece of paper you receive at conferences, bars, and meetings, that inevitably gets lost before the pertinent information makes its way into your phone. With the app’s simple interface, you can quickly input contact details and shoot off an email or text with a link to your About.me page along with a phone number, email, both, or none. Anyone can download the app, but About.me wants users to create a profile that it can send along with contact info.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":1591976,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,","session":"B"}']Plenty of apps will capture the face of a business card, so the app isn’t particularly novel. Bump, for example, tried to pioneer contact-information exchange by tapping phones together. But few of these apps have caught on in a meaningful way. The potential added bonus with Intro is the ability to send new contacts to a profile page with all your self-curated personal information. The idea is certainly more of this era.
About.me also recently added resumes as a function of its profile page, which indicates the company could be looking to compete with LinkedIn as a social networking tool.
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“LinkedIn’s product is actually quite good, but it doesn’t really show you who they are. It doesn’t leverage who you are or what you’re interested in,” said About.me founder Tony Conrad. He sees About.me and the Intro app as personal brand management tools rather than a recruitment network. Still, it’s hard to ignore the overlap between these two businesses.
About.me’s new app is rolling out now. Before doing away with the business card altogether, Intro is using it to lure users in. Everyone who downloads the app will get 50 free (physical) business cards.
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