How many of you have heard about the Poken? Well, it's all the rage down here in "chilly" North Carolina. For those who are just beginning to get a taste of the idea, I thought I'd quickly post about the beauty of this tiny tool. [disclaimer - the link over on the right side is my affiliate link, but I really think these are a sweet little tool, so I'm sharing anyhow!]
In essence, the Poken is a cutely decorated USB device. What makes it fantastic is that this little device can transfer contact information from one person to the next simply by touching "hands" together. It's a virtual handshake - and a super simple way to manage contact information as you are out networking.
To begin, purchase your Poken, connect it to your computer, and login to the Poken website. Once you do that, your device is enabled and ready for use.
While on the Poken website, you can create your business cards, which may contain all of the contact information that you want to share as you're out networking, including all of your social media information. What I really enjoy is that I can create multiple "business cards" within my profile: I have one card for myself, one for my business, and one for a side project. This means that I can organize my contact information as I wish. In addition, I am able to specify which of my contact cards is linked to my Poken, so if I don't want to include my side project card as I'm out networking, I simply unlink it and that information will not be transferred to my new contacts.
Now, head off to your networking event with your Poken in hand. (Sidenote: these are tiny little things and easy to loose. I see many people attaching them to a lanyard that they wear around their necks. One smart woman had hers attached to her phone, figuring that her phone is always with her. I, personally, have a wristlet that I take when networking and mine is attached to that.) When you arrive at your event and are talking with another person who has a Poken, you simply touch the two Poken together. Contact information is exchanged within seconds.
Back home, insert the USB portion of the Poken into your computer and all of the contact information that you've obtained is uploaded to your Poken account. Now, you can add people to lists, download their information as a vCard, or view all of your contacts on a timeline, which is great when you can't quite remember a name, but you know when you met the person.
What's also nice is that you no longer need to manage all of the contact information for these people. Should they move or change an email account, they simply edit the cards within their own profiles and the contact information that you've gathered from them is automatically updated!
Hopefully, this has been a useful introduction to the Poken for you. Should you have any questions, please let me know and I'll do my best to help you find the answer! In the meantime, happy Pokening!
Hi Rachel, nice post! Very useful. High four!
Posted by: PokenGirl | December 11, 2009 at 05:40 PM