Do You Poken?

With all the social networking sites available these days (Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin - oh my!) it can be hard to keep track of all your user information -- and tricky to exchange information with new contacts.

What happens when you attend a conference and meet new people face-to-face? Gone are the days of giving out phone numbers or email addresses via tiny business cards that can only hold so much information. Time to start poken!

Poken ($19.95 from pokenzoo.com) is a small USB device that stores your personal profile containing links to your listings on all your social networking sites. When two pokens touch palm-to-palm the data is exchanged so that you can instantly share contact information with another poken user. Then, when you plug the poken USB into your computer, the data you have collected is downloaded to your machine. One poken can store up to 64 different contacts, so if you're a real social butterfly you might want to invest in a few.

If you're not quite ready to take the poken plunge, Moo Cards are a slightly less expensive option. Design your own business cards and Moo Cards will print them and send them to you.

Some companies, such as VistaPrint, offer free business cards (you pay for shipping) but they will include their logo on the back of the card. Remember, when designing your business cards, the info side of your business card does not have to be the "standard" name, position, company, etc. You can share any information you want, including your social networking sites and usernames.