Poken: Do you POKEN?
Do you poken? With this catch phrase the Poken was introduced last year.
The Poken is a small usb-stick like device that is said to be the next-gen business card.
When installing your new buddy you can enter your contact information, social media profiles and other notes onto the Poken. Once installed, you can carry the Poken with you on your keychain; it is not bigger than 2.4 inches and contains a cord. If you meet somebody interesting and they happen to have a Poken with them, you can high five the hands and the information will be exchanged. The very effective part of this all is that once at home you can plug your Poken into your computer and you can immediately transfer all that information into your social profiles and your outlook. No more typing out business cards and look for people in social media.
The Poken is marketed very broadly and is mostly sold in gadget stores and on-line. I think that the company has the intentions to make the Poken not only a business thing but also a very new way for teens and students to interact. These groups, being the web 2.0 generation, are likely to use more of these devices that will make the social media part of their lives more accessible.
I have been carrying around a Poken for the last few months now and I notice that it starts to become more and more known. Even at my graduation they gave out Pokens that had the university logo printed on them. It is much like the introduction of the fax machine; the first person that owned a fax couldn’t do anything with it. The fax machine became popular and even regular to use when more people owned one. In the end all businesses where expected to have one. The same went for e-mail and the mobile texts. Will the same go for the Poken?
I mentioned earlier that Pokens are seen as the next-gen business cards. Although I see the efficiency value of this device in not having to search and type out contact information, I don’t believe that it will ever ban the business card. In my experience in networking I noticed that giving and receiving a business card is something special. It is the act of giving and receiving that makes it feel important and personal. This gesture is really significant if it comes to building rapport and creates a new step in starting off a relationship. With a business card you really have something tangible that you can touch, something that is missing with the Poken interaction. More about this in the article on business cards.
Another thing that I’m curious about is how to know that somebody carries a Poken. In the beginning I always asked people if they had one. Now a days I don’t ask anymore, the only thing I ask for is a business card. How can we make it more visible that somebody has a Poken. Once I visited a trade fair where I saw a man walking around with the Poken around his neck; very good visiblity but it also had something geeky to it. So how to solve this problem, post suggestions in the comments and I will post the top 10 in a new article.
So there are some pros and cons to this device and I let the future decide if the Poken is going to be a trend or an ongoing thing.
The Poken comes in all kinds of appearances; pandas, aliens, bees, squirrels and other creatures. Different companies can also support you with Pokens that carry your logo.
The Poken only cost around 10 to 15 dollars each and can be bought on-line.
Look forward hearing your comments.
Greets,
RJ