Here are some quick tips from co-writer on business card etiquette.

It occurred to me the other day as I was dishing out my business card to a new contact, that there might just be a right and wrong way to present these little gems. Low and behold there is a host of information all about business card etiquette on the web. There are even videos on YouTube.

So without further ado, here are some quick tips on business card etiquette:

• Keep your business cards clean and up-to-date – let the kids play with the scrappy ones
• Choose a good quality card
• Do not force your card on those who have not asked for it
• Hand them over gently, with contact details facing your recipient
• Treat cards with respect when receiving them – look at them with interest and carefully put them somewhere safe i.e. don’t just shove it in your pocket, covet it for a while
• In Japan, business cards are always received with two hands but can be given with only one
• Whereas in India you always exchange cards with your right hands
• And in China it is bad form to write on someone’s card unless they tell you to

So my recent business card exchange which, totally accidentally, ended up being rather similar to the card dealing actions of a 5 star croupier in Las Vegas, appears to have not been by the book. But I’ve taken the incident and turned it into a learning opportunity…now I feel happy in my new-found understanding of business card etiquette.

A couple of weeks ago I read that the enormous global PR agency that is Golin Harris had changed the job titles of employees. They will now be called either Creators, Connectors, Strategists or Catalysts. This change is part of Golin’s desire to position themselves at the heart of the social media and digital era. The names replace common agency titles of Account Executive, Account Manager, Account Director etc. Now I understand why they might want to reposition themselves. I’m just not sure the new job titles offer much clarity for clients who at the end of the day just want some great output from Golin staff. It rather reminds me of bees in a hive – I wonder, do drones always want to be workers? Will the catalysts always secretly yearn to be creators….?

Ouch, but that’s my job title…

I was talking to a journalist once about a project I had won. She was interested in all the pizazz I was going to create around an event – it was when I was running the regional office of a major PR firm in the UK. We had a lovely chat, I delivered my key messages, and then she checked my details with me. Upon hearing my job title, she exclaimed that it was really odd and asked if she could use something else. I was stunned. I’d become quite attached to it. And better than that, it actually said what I did. The job title in question was simply Office Head.

What would the customer think?

Last week I was getting my business cards re-vamped and I spent ages thinking about a job title. Should I be a consultant, an MD, a proprietor, the owner, an overlord even? Well after several rummages through the Thesaurus, lots of scribbling and pretty spider diagrams, I gave up and left it blank. I came to the conclusion that having a title just isn’t that important to me. And is it important to customers? I’m not sure it is unless they want to be assured of my experience. But let’s face it, a couple of grey hairs and the gentle laughter lines starting to appear demonstrate that I am not fresh out of college.

Ah, the dynamic job title

Now of course I don’t work in a huge agency any more. I don’t have an organisational structure to make sense of.  What matters now is that people remember me for being me. So for now, out with the job title. I just want to be known as Josie Fitzhugh, that really great copywriter who makes good cakes and is fun to work with.

Read more about the Golin Harris model here: http://www.golinharris.com/#!/about/the-g4-model/