Many people have started to consider business cards a bit ‘old hat’ in this new era of social networking and direct online portfolios. However don’t be fooled, when used right business cards can help streamline your recruitment operations and help generate more positive leads.

Firstly I would suggest that any member of staff that is actively involved in recruitment carries a number of business cards around with them. You never know when you will meet a potential client and one medium of communication lots of modern recruiters fail to grasp is the face to face chance meetings that happen every day. The thing to remember is that many professionals will have to commute to work or travel to business meetings and this can be the ideal time to network. Late trains, bed weather and a lack of seating are just a few common ice breakers that can be used to start up a conversation.

If you find yourself talking to a professional in an industry that you actively recruit for, why not exchange cards. The key to success is not giving the hard sell but instead making it flow into a natural conversation, this will make them much more inclined to follow up in future.

When you pick up business cards through a chance exchange or when dealing with various existing clients and contacts, it is important to keep them safe and organised. Many professionals lose or throw away cards that they don’t feel are important   What this is doing is wasting a future networking opportunity and a possible gateway to their personal information. The key point to consider when receiving a business card is that today's marketing assistant could be tomorrows marketing manager.

The best way to organize business cards is by having a filing system that sorts them into categories and make sure to attach sticky notes to them with dates and other useful information  This means when suddenly you are recruiting for a highly prestigious PR job, that you've already got a list of PR candidates that would be interested in the job and you know they are qualified. The other advantage of keeping notes on business cards is that when you actually come to contact them, you can be much more familiar and remind them when you met them. 

Even if they've forgotten the meeting,  the fact that you know them can build an instant rapport and trust as they feel valued as a professional  individual.

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Just because a business card seems an outdated method of communication doesn't mean that you can’t add modern twists.  QR Codes or Quick Response Codes to give them their full name are a new type of bar-code that can be scanned via a smart phone to: take your straight to a destination webpage, make a phone call or preform some other useful function. 

This effectively means that you can link your recruitment website or profile straight to a physical business card in a potential leads hand.  The main advantage of this is that they will often scan this to pass some time while traveling reducing the risk of them just throwing it away or losing it on the way home.

To fully utilize QR codes it is important to have a mobile compatible version of your website. QR codes can also be linked to your social media or networking profiles if you feel that would be the best landing page for attracting new clients. QR codes create a curiosity effect and the direct interaction can be a great way to get customer to interact with your business.

To conclude, although the boom of internet use and rise of social communication has revolutionized recruitment, there is still room for more traditional face to face methods as a way to build real relationships that are much more effective when done right in converting leads.