Poken Pulse Business Networking Gadget

Business networking is something we all do, so much so that it becomes second nature. It’s the way we do business networking that’s about to change in a big way.

The business card is the medium that’s been used for generations to share contact information. Ironically, the more we equip ourselves with smartphones and netbooks, the more we order boxes of little paper cards to hand out. They may come from a print shop, your computer printer or you can design them online. But in the end, you still wind up with a pack of paper slips in your pocket to hand out when you meet people in person. Wouldn’t it be a good idea if your offline business network contacts were as easy to store and search as your online relationships?

That’s the idea behind Poken. It turns the business card into a virtual object that is sharable using a standardized gadget you carry in lieu of cards. A companion online portal stores your uploaded contacts and displays them in easy to use lists or a timeline with photos.

All of the Poken gadgets are basically the same. They consist of a coil antenna hidden beneath a four-fingered white hand icon. That icon is the Poken logo. Also inside the gadget is a small microprocessor, USB connector, pushbutton, LED indicators and a replaceable battery. The main difference between Poken are the plastic shells. Many are decorated as humorous characters called pokenSPARK. The model designed specifically for business is embedded in a flash memory drive and called the pokenPULSE.

Here’s how the networking process works in the Poken age. When you meet someone you’d like to exchange contact information with, you notice that they have a Poken gadget handy or you ask them, “do you Poken?” If the answer is yes, as it increasingly will be, you simply touch the hand logo on your Poken with the hand on theirs. Hold them together for a second or two to make the connection and then pull them apart. Both hands should be pulsating with a green glow. That means the data transfer has taken place.

What data is transfered? It’s a unique code that identifies you as a Poken user. There’s no personal data actually stored in the gadget, so if you happen to lose your device nobody will be able to invade your privacy. Your Poken device is matched to your account. You need the ID and password to gain entry, just like any other secure website.

Please note that the Pulse is both a Poken gadget and a standard 2 GB USB flash memory. You do need to take the same care to protect any data you store on the flash portion of the Pulse as you would with any other solid state memory device.

When you get back to your computer, you plug the Poken into a USB port and upload the contacts you’ve made since the last upload. Your new contacts will be added to your online contact database. Look at the timeline and you’ll see the Poken cards for each of the contacts you’ve made. You’ll recognize them immediately, because you’ll see a photo as well as their name and other contact data. You’ll also be able to click on the website links they’ve provided, including their FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages. Perhaps they’ve also included a company website and blog.

You control what’s on your Poken card, so you can share as much or little information as you wish. It’s just like a business card, but more attuned to the online nature of business these days.

Would you like to start using Poken yourself, or perhaps equip you entire team with Poken gadgets? They’re easy to use, easy to carry along and so inexpensive you may want several for your own use. Don’t forget that the Poken Pulse replaces the USB flash memory device you probably carry now.

Do You Have A Poken Card?

You know how much business has changed since the rise of the Internet. You wouldn’t think about looking for a new job and ignoring all the online employment sites. You wouldn’t consider cutting out ads in the newspaper and completely ignoring the employer’s web sites. In fact, you almost certainly have a website for your own business. You also have email, instant messaging, and accounts for social networking sites like Twitter, FaceBook and LinkedIn. In fact, you’re proud to say you’ve been proactive in keeping up with the latest developments in technology and the online world. So, where’s your Poken card?

Don’t tell me that you’re missing out on the move to electronic business cards. OK, it’s true that this development is taking off far faster in Europe than in the US. But electronic contact management is here now. It’s just a matter of time before you become a pokenite or are left behind with the crowd that still uses typewriters and those mechanical pop-up address books.

Poken S.A., the Swiss company, has created a new technology with a complete support system that changes the process of exchanging business and personal contact information. It’s often described as an electronic business card because it is a direct replacement for the 3.5 x 2 inch cardboard slips that we’re accustomed to offer at any business encounter. You set up a Poken card to mirror what you put on a business card. But being electronic, the links you publish are active. You also have real, working buttons for your social networks. Here’s a screenshot of my poken card. Online, all the links are active.

The electronic card replacement is only one aspect of the Poken innovation. The real magic is in how you exchange cards. You exchange paper business cards by handing over a physical product. You poken, or exchange electronic business cards, by wirelessly transferring a number code. That code uniquely identifies you and your card, which is stored in an online database. The code you receive is stored, with up to 64 others, in the memory of your Poken device. When you plug the poken into your computer, those contacts are uploaded to your account where you can see them in a list and a timeline display with pictures. That timeline is an excellent memory jogger to help you associate names and faces by when you met them.

Have you been missing out on an important productivity enhancing development? It’s not too late. You still have a chance to get in on the leading edge of electronic business cards for your company, interest group, convention, political organization, or other opportunity to connect people with a common interest.

Poken Enhances Face to Face Social Networking

When you meet new people and want to get contact information, what do you do? Grab a napkin and scribble down their name and phone number? Write something on your hand and hope you don’t sweat it off before you get home? Present your little cardboard business card?

Lame!

Just as FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter have enabled online social networking, Poken is bringing face to face contacts into the 2.0 era. They do it with a little device called a Poken. A Poken is something like a token. Actually, it’s more like an amulet. It’s magic power comes from the electronics inside.

For most people under the age of geezer, one of the many standard Pokens with the big hand will work just fine. But if you are concerned that less progressive CEOs at the Country Club will point and laugh at that panda hanging around your neck, there are business grade Pokens available. The PokenPulse looks like any other USB flash drive. If anyone observes you touching flash drives, they’ll just think you’re in a secret society and become insanely jealous. You can decide if you want to let them in on the secret or just watch ‘em suffer.

Could Poken be the next craze in business and social networking? I can see this taking off at trade shows, business networking events, job fairs, speed dating and anywhere else lots of people want to share info with lots of other people. Has it piqued your curiosity? If so, learn more and get your own Poken right now.