Online & Offline By Liza Sperling

posted on 03.11.09 Business Cards: Do Titles Matter?

Today was my first day at Scout Labs. When I started my first full-time job out of college at Morgan Stanley in 1998, my first day was devoted to paperwork followed by an entire month of training. Today I started with a brief, yet comprehensive overview of Scout Labs and the online brand monitoring landscape from Jennifer Zeszut, ran over to hear Margaret Francis speak on a panel at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference, and got up to speed on the systems and technology. The most painful part of the day? Choosing a title for my business card. Everything sounds either too narrow to encompass what I actually do or too broad to convey any meaning. My role involves a variety of responsibilities - this is becoming more common today in a world where nearly every industry is questioning and reshaping its business models.

My solution, to leave the title field blank. Does a business card require that I define my role? Isn’t that my job? A business card provides contact information, and if I can’t leave a meeting or conversation without an individual knowing what I do and/or knowing why we should stay in touch, then my business card is likely to end up in the trash anyway.
What do you think?

Liza Sperling