Now Use Business Cards and LinkedIn to Create Awesome Contacts in Evernote

scanning business cards evernote screenshot

Giving someone your business card is an invitation to connect on a professional level – so why not make the exchange of business cards synonymous with connecting on the world’s largest professional network, LinkedIn? With LinkedIn’s new deeper integration with Evernote, passing your business card to a new contact becomes the real-life equivalent of connecting online.

The two companies announced a new partnership today that allows users to scan business cards into Evernote and automatically connect that card to a contact’s LinkedIn account. Previously available through CardMunch (which LinkedIn acquired), the feature will now be available to any Evernote user who connects their LinkedIn account free for one year.

Here’s what happens when you scan a business card into Evernote.

How to Save a Business Card to Evernote

When someone hands you their business card, you’ll most likely want to save it somewhere it’ll be easy to find later. Now you can scan the card into Evernote and easily find it later no matter where you are or where the actual card ends up.

scanning a business card with evernote

To start, first link your LinkedIn information to your Evernote account. This way Evernote knows to pull in LinkedIn data when you start adding business cards. Next, open your Evernote app and click the camera button. Place the business card you’d like to scan on a high-contrasting service, such as a dark desk for a light-colored business card. Toggle the Evernote camera to the business card setting and let the app detect the business card for you. Once Evernote detects the edges of the card, it’ll snap a shot without you having to press a camera trigger, as seen in the image above.

Managing Your New Contact

reviewing a scanned business card in evernote

Once Evernote saves an image of the business card, the app will automatically adjust the card’s angle and contrast so that it becomes a strikingly clear and readable digital business card. As you can see above, Evernote will pair the business card with your contact’s profile image, name, company, title and contact information from LinkedIn – even if you’re not yet connected. Evernote will then provide you options to connect with your new contact on LinkedIn, save their contact info to your device and geo-tag the location where the card was scanned.

In the future you’ll be able to link meeting notes, meaningful documents and key emails to this business card in your Evernote notebooks so you can keep track of all of your interactions over time.

The Transition for CardMunch Users

LinkedIn acquired CardMunch in January 2011, but it will discontinue the service shortly after integrating with Evernote. CardMunch users have until July 11 to either import their cards into Evernote or download their CardMunch data. Users who import their data into Evernote will receive two free years of Evernote’s business card scanning service.

 
The Evernote Business Card Camera is available starting today for the iPhone and iPad and is coming soon to Evernote for Android. The feature is also available to Mac and Windows desktop users through the ScanSnap Evernote Edition Scanner.

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Lauren Mobertz

By Lauren Mobertz

Lauren is the former managing editor for DashBurst. One part geek, one part urban nomad, she is constantly scouting for the latest tech and world news. In the evenings you'll find Lauren running in strange places or attempting to dance salsa.