There’s no doubt that the notion of “normal life” has been flipped upside down (and maybe spun around a few times) in 2020. Our office commute is now merely a short walk from the bedroom to the living room (pants: optional). The days of grabbing an impromptu beer at a nearby dive bar with your coworkers are long gone—those have been replaced with scheduled Zoom Happy Hours (“Hey, can you hear me?” “Yeah, can you hear me?”). And don’t even think about booking a hotel and flight to go to that conference you’ve been looking forward to all year long—it’s gone completely virtual.
While “normal life” has taken on a completely new meaning, there are still some things that haven’t changed—we're still looking to grow our network so that new opportunities may arise.
For a company that initially relied on people getting out and networking, the pandemic was definitely an—excuse my French—“Oh sh*t” moment for all of us at HiHello. However, we quickly realized that the concept of digital business cards absolutely had a place both during the pandemic and in a post-pandemic world (if we ever get there). No matter the situation we're in, the need for people to connect, engage, and work together is universal and indomitable.
After the initial shock from pandemic-related lockdowns passed, we started hearing from people and companies who needed a way to exchange contact information in a completely touch-free way. (Bonus points if we could make this happen over Zoom!) We realized that we have the unique opportunity to help people connect and grow their networks.
Over the past eight months, we’ve made some exciting updates and changes to HiHello with the understanding that people need to be able to:
1) Create a business card that is 100% unique and personalized to them and their situation, and;
2) Easily share their card with anyone—on any device—regardless of where they are.
Here are the new features that were introduced to HiHello during the coronavirus pandemic that will help you continue to make and foster new relationships during a time where many of us are—well—totally and utterly stuck at home:
1. We made your HiHello digital business cards even more customizable.
HiHello’s digital business cards are more personalized and customizable than ever. Our virtual cards go beyond the typical contact information you see on other business cards and provide a richer and more well-rounded contact experience (even more so than before!).
Here are a few of the different fields that we’ve added in recent months that will take your digital business cards to the next level:
- Preferred name
- Maiden name
- Accreditations (PhD, M.B.A, etc.)
- Pronouns
- Live photos and videos
- TikTok
- Yelp
- Calendly
- Payment apps (Venmo, PayPal, CashApp, Zelle)
- Streaming apps (Discord, Twitch)
- Chat apps (Skype, Telegram, WeChat, Signal)
- Gaming consoles (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox Live)
That’s not all—in addition to adding all of these new fields to your cards, you can also customize the name of each field. For example, if you use an online scheduler to book meetings, add the link to your calendar (or use the Calendly field) and name it “Schedule a meeting.” When someone taps that link, they’ll go straight to your virtual scheduler. These updates give you complete creative control over what you add to your card, and what it ultimately looks like.
2. Sending a digital business card is even faster.
People use business cards for one reason: they’re quick and easy to hand out. We made it even easier to send (and receive) a HiHello card by giving you swift access to your cards, and by adding new ways to share your card:
Swipe up to send your card
When you open up the HiHello mobile app, swipe up on the card you want to give out to quickly pull up the send screen.
Text your card
You can now send your card to someone via text message from within the HiHello app. Go to the share screen and tap the text icon, enter in a phone number, and send away!
Send the link to your card
You can now copy the link to your card from within the app, and use it anywhere you’d like.
iOS 14 widget
If you’re an iPhone user, you can share your card even faster using the new iOS14 widget. Learn how to add the HiHello widget in our blog post.
Remember, you can share your card with anyone, even if they don’t have the app.
3. You can access your virtual business cards anytime, anywhere.
HiHello is no longer limited to iOS and Android devices—earlier this year we introduced the HiHello web app for desktop!
To use the web app, go to the HiHello website and click “Log in” and sign in with your mobile app credentials. The web app has nearly identical functionality to the mobile apps—you can create, edit, preview, and delete your cards, view your contacts, and sync with Google contacts.
One additional capability that the web app has is the ability to create and download a virtual background for Zoom. Yes—those are new too. Read on to learn more!
4. We created virtual backgrounds for Zoom that link to your digital business card.
When COVID-19 initially hit, our team wanted to build something that would be immediately useful and beneficial to our users, who were now at home taking meetings over video calls rather than in-person.
As Zoom usage soared, we realized that we needed to make it easy for people to maintain professionalism while working from home (to avoid situations like this one), and to share their digital business cards over video calls. And what better way to do that than with a virtual background?
When you create a HiHello virtual background on the web app, your logo, name, title, and company will be on the left of your virtual background, and the QR code for your digital business card will be on the right. When you’re on a video call with someone, they can point their phone’s camera at your QR code to see your digital business card. HiHello virtual backgrounds work both on Zoom and Microsoft Teams and are perfect for online networking and remote meetings.
5. You can enhance your electronic business card experience with new premium offerings.
Don’t worry—the basic version of HiHello will remain free. But if you’re looking to get your entire team or company set up with digital cards, we’ve launched HiHello for Business! In addition to all the features you see on the basic version, with HiHello for Business you also get additional customizations, like corporate branding of your cards and QR code, administrative control, and a corporate address book.
If you’re interested in getting your team set up with digital business cards, reach out to us to learn more about pricing.
