About a year ago Bret Koontz shared an idea with me he had devised for connecting pastors and church planters with people in the community in more of a 2.0 sort of way. Immediately I was intrigued, especially considering my introverted nature when it comes to stepping up to strike up conversation with a stranger.
Our culture has quickly shifted to what I’d call the “facebook-friending” culture (perhaps soon to be replaced by the “twitter-following” culture) where people perform Google searches and Facebook friend requests in an attempt to check you out before really wanting to pursue some sort of deeper friendship/relationship. The utilization of technology into “interviewing” potential friends/relationships is a good way to speed up getting to know someone and dive deeper into a relationship. (I’m continually amazed at how much more connected I feel to people and how much more I know about a person because of their Facebook status updates and Twitter updates.) So, enter a church-planter or pastor who is new to an area and looking to strike up conversations and develop relationships in our highly networked 2.0 society.
Bret’s idea was to create a physical connect that blends both 1.0 in-person conversation with 2.0 web networking, therefore the advent of the ‘personal network card.’ A business card that has nothing to do with business, but rather everything to do with who you are as a person and ways to connect with you online. You can hand them out to people you meet, or simply leave them in places you frequent, hand them to a barista or waiter in restaurants and coffee shops you frequent, the possibilities are endless… and the potential for new relationships is great!
Now don’t get the idea that this is a business card, because it isn’t… it looks different and functions differently. I recently designed my first one, had them printed up at VistaPrint and they arrived today:
On the front of the card is a design of sorts and different adjectives to describe who I am by my interests (mac enthusiast, coffee junkie, teacher, photography, runner, baseball fanatic, etc.) Then at the bottom is my name and 3 online ways that people can check me out and connect with me: aaronmonts.com | twitter.com/aaronmonts | and my gmail address. The back is simply my name along with the same design from the front.
As connecting with people becomes more and more of an online sport, I hope this will give me an edge and the ability to meet and network with people that once before couldn’t have been possible.
