Spring has officially turned to summer and for me that finally means a chance to catch up on all that networking. After a busy spring of attending conferences like SXSW Interactive, Big Omaha and Blogworld NY the stack of business cards begins to pile up (below). In the haze of a conference you exchange lots of cards but often let that stack simple pile up, or even worse, get tossed into the garbage. Thankfully, with the mobile app CardMunch – currently only available on iOS – you can turn those cards into connections and keep your desk clean.
CardMunch is a mobile business card transcription service that leverages human power to digitize contact information, according to CrunchBase. What makes it so unique is that an actual human being transcribes those business cards into accurate and organized contacts. The app uses your phone’s camera to take a picture of the business card and instead of using Optical Character Recognition, which at times can be unreliable, Cardmunch utilizes a human workforce to individually transcribe each business card.
CardMunch had been a helpful application since launch, but it became one of my frequently used apps after being acquired by LinkedIn in January 2011. The marriage created a perfect pair as CardMunch helped transcribe your new business connections and LinkedIn was already the home for your business connections. Even better, prior to the acquisition, CardMunch cost $2.99 for the app and .25 cents per card after the first 10 scanned cards. When LinkedIn stepped in the app became free, allowing users to scan an unlimited amount of cards. They even gave a refund people with pre-existing credits.
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Once the business card is photographed and saved, you can then add other identifying information, such as where you met, the contact’s favorite food or social media accounts. And then easily connect on LinkedIn. If desired, a person can use CardMunch as a simplified and personal CRM.
Overall, CardMunch is easy to use, simple to learn, and valuable for both personal and business connections. Go ahead and throw those business cards in the garbage.
Credits: Image from CardMunch on Facebook. Photo by John Meyer.
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