Do You Have an App for That?

“Here, let me give you my card,” I said to a new colleague at a recent association event.

“Oh, thanks, I’ll give that right back to you,” she replied, pulling her iPhone out of her purse and holding it over my card.

“Give it back to me?” I thought. “Well, that’s kind of rude. Wait. What is she doing with my card?”

Within a few seconds, she had scanned all my information into her phone from my business card, created a new contact for me in her phone and sent me an invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

Not so rude after all.

My new colleague was using the CardMunch – Business Card Reader by LinkedIn, a free app available for the iPhone and iPad. It saves contact information from business cards in your device and allows you to search your contacts by name, address or even notes.

This made me think: What other apps can associations use to make their jobs easier, faster and maybe even a little more fun?

The popular, free app Instagram is probably familiar to avid social media users in their personal lives. If promoted properly, though, it can be a great tool to draw images together from your association events. Simply spread the news among members and attendees about what hashtag to use and let them loose. Recently acquired by Facebook, Instagram allows iPhone and Android users to take a photo, choose a filter to change the look and feel, and share the images on Instagram. Users often also upload the photos to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Make sure you’re taking advantage of this popular app at your next conference or networking get-together.

And while you’re planning that next big convention, are you looking for a colleague in the city hosting the event? The Groups app can sort and organize your contacts by filtering and browsing contacts by city. Need to find a contact at a specific hotel property? Browse contacts by company. Only want to do business with a Libra? Sort by birthday. Okay, that might be taking things a little far, but it shows just how specific you can be with Groups.

The app also allows users to organize their address book into groups, either by manually dragging and dropping, or by setting up “smart groups” that filter contacts by selected fields. In addition, you can send an email to an entire group with just one tap.

Elsbeth W. Russell, editor at Naylor, LLC, works exclusively with association executive clients to produce content-targeted print and online publications. If you have tips or article topics that would benefit the association community, please contact Elsbeth at erussell@naylor.com or 352-333-3419.