ContactMonkey – Encourage People to Get In Touch

Business cards are so last season. Professionals who want a more secure way to share their contact information with friends and potential clients are increasingly turning to the web for help. ContactMonkey is a tool that individuals and businesses can use to make sure the right people have access to their email addresses, phone numbers, Twitter handles, and more.

If you’re looking for a better way to share contact information with colleagues and associates, then sign up for a free personal ContactMonkey account and start adding all your pertinent information. ContactMonkey will store all the same details you would typically include on a business card or in an email signature, along with additional information like a photo or links to your social networking accounts. If manually entering all that information seems like a bore, then you can use ContactMonkey’s Active Directory plugin to instantly populate your contact page with all the right information. What you’ll end up with is a URL and QR code that you can share with people the same way you’d traditionally trade business cards. Potential clients who want to save your contact information can scan a special QR code to download all your details into whichever address books they currently use. Even better, they’ll receive instant notifications if you ever update your contact details in the future.

Businesses that use ContactMonkey can benefit from a host of additional features. Using the web-app’s white label solution, companies can create their own ContactMonkey websites and widgets that online visitors can use to download staffer contact information. Larger companies can also use ContactMonkey to set up an internal directory with information about each employee on staff.

Practical Uses:

• Find out who has been looking up your contact information online
• Quickly share your phone number, email address, and Twitter handle with potential clients
• Decide for yourself who can see the contact information you’ve included on your ContactMonkey card
• Never worry about running out of business cards at an important event

Insider Tips:

• Individual cards can be made public, private, or discreet
• ContactMonkey supports 19 types of digital address books
• Businesses can use ContactMonkey’s API for custom integration
• ContactMonkey profiles are formatted for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry devices

What we liked:

• People who use ContactMonkey don’t have to carry around bulky business cards
• ContactMonkey lets people include information that wouldn’t fit on a traditional business card
• ContactMonkey notifies contacts when you update your information
• People can see which clients have been visiting their ContactMonkey cards online

What we didn’t like:

• A number of applications already exist for professionals looking to share and save this type of information

Alternatives:

• Bump – http://bu.mp
• CardMunch – http://cardmunch.com
• Jumpscan – http://jumpscan.com

Company Info:

• Launched: 2011
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: Toronto, Canada
• Founded by: Scott Pielsticker
• Web site: http://www.contactmonkey.com

Costs:

• Free for individuals
• Businesses pay $3 per user, per month