According to a new Ipsos poll conducted for MOO.com (custom card printer), small business owners (SMBs) are more likely to consider business cards ‘very impactful’ compared to general American business persons (GenBusPers). 34% of SMBs say that using business cards to network is ‘very impactful’, compared to 24% of Americans who use business cards and don’t own a small business.
The average American SMB distributes approximately 40 business cards in a given month, compared to an average of 24 business cards given out monthly by a GenBusPers. Within both groups, those who see business cards ‘very impactful’ for networking are more likely to distribute approximately 13 more business cards per month compared to those who see business cards as ‘less impactful’.
Six in ten GenBusPers and SMBs typically distribute business cards at conferences, although small business owners tend to distribute them at a wider variety of locations and situations.
Events/Situations Where GenBusPers And SMBs Tend To Distribute Business Cards | ||
Event/Situation | GenBusPers | SMBs |
Conference (overall) | 59% | 55% |
Local conference | 48 | 47 |
National conference | 36 | 29 |
International conference | 14 | 15 |
Parties/other social events | 45 | 58 |
Industry functions | 45 | 50 |
Community functions | 41 | 56 |
Volunteer functions | 33 | 36 |
Bars or restaurants | 28 | 39 |
Daily commute | 16 | 29 |
Airplane | 13 | 19 |
Gym | 11 | 18 |
Other | 10 | 11 |
Source: Ipsos/Moo.com, October 2012 |
31% of SMBs ‘always give out their card when they meet someone new in either a business or personal setting’, while less than two in ten GenBusPers do the same.
When Meeting In A Business or Personal Setting | ||
Frequency of Giving Card | SMBs | GenBusPers |
Always | 31% | 18% |
Most of the time | 37 | 38 |
Sometimes | 29 | 41 |
Digital or verbal | 2 | 4 |
Source: Ipsos/Moo.com, October 2012 |
Business card distribution appears to have increased over the past five years, especially among SMBs. Six in ten (60%) SMBs ‘currently give out more business cards than they did five years ago’, while more than four in ten (43%) GenBusPers say they do the same.
Among both groups, seeing business cards as ‘very impactful’ for networking attributes to about a twenty percentage point difference (+20 pts) in saying they give out more business cards now compared to five years ago, compared to those who see them as ‘less impactful’ for networking.
More SMBs (40%) strongly agree that their business card ‘is critically important for successfully networking’, compared to only 30% of GenBusPers. Small business owners are also more likely to say:
75% of GenBusPers and SMBs keep contacts’ business cards at their desk to reference at a later time:
Among all who use business cards, just under half (46%) are able to design or personalize their own business cards, while more than half (54%) use a standard template for business cards provided by their employer:
More than half of GenBusPers (55%) and SMBs (52%) mention using the Internet for networking, primarily via social media (38% GenBusPers /35% SMBs).
GenBusPers And SMBs Typical Networking | ||
Network | GenBusPers | SMBs |
Internet | 55 | 52 |
Social Media | 38 (19% LinkedIn | 35 (21% Facebook |
Meetings | 33 | 27 |
Face-to-face | 27 (3% cards) | 26 (5% cards) |
Devices | 10 (9% phone) | 10 (8% phone) |
Miscellaneous | 14 | 16 |
Source: Ipsos/Moo.com, October 2012 |
31% of SMBs are more likely to believe that the effect of their networking has brought a lot of new business to their company, compared to only 15% of GenBusPers who respond similarly. Six in ten of both groups believe the effect of their networking has ‘brought some new business to my company.’ 30% are likely to say that their networking ‘has not brought any new business to my company’ compared to those who own a small business (10%).
For additional information about the study, please visit here.