A video business card is one short hi you can send to anyone

A paper business card did one job well. It let a person you had just met remember you and reach you later. A video business card does the same job with your face and your voice, and it fits in a link instead of a wallet.

I like the idea, with one caution: the best version of a video business card is often not a card at all, but a fresh hi recorded for the person in front of you.

What a video business card is

It is a short recorded introduction, under a minute, that lives at a link. The link opens a page with the video, a short note and a way to respond. You send the link to people the way you would hand them a card, after a meeting, in an email signature, or in a reply to "tell me a bit about yourself".

The video says who you are, what kind of work you do and what you would like to happen next. It does not say much else. A card is not a biography.

On hi.video, each hi is recorded in the browser and addressed to a named recipient, with a note and a reply or booking button under the video. The page shows a "Recorded in hi.video" label, which means the video was captured in our recorder rather than uploaded. The trust page explains the label and what it does not cover.

How it differs from a profile video

A profile video is posted. It sits on your website or a social profile and waits for people to arrive, which means it has to speak to everyone at once. Nobody is addressed, so it tends to sound like a brochure.

A video business card is sent. It goes to one person at a time, usually after you have met or exchanged an email, so it can sound like a person talking to a person.

The length can be the same, but the direction is opposite. A card is handed to someone, so it has a reason to be watched.

A profile video also tends to stay up for a long time. A card can be re-recorded whenever your work changes, because you decide who gets each new link.

What to put on the page

The page has four parts.

The recipient line comes first. On hi.video every hi is addressed to someone by name.

For a general card, put the context there, something like "new contact" or "fellow attendee", and accept that the page will feel less personal than one with a real name on it.

The note is one or two sentences of text that sit with the video. Say what you do and why you are sending this, so that someone who cannot press play on the train still gets the point.

The video is under a minute, with captions on, because some people watch with the sound off. Captions are available in hi.video.

The page has one button, and it goes to your email address or an https link such as a calendar page. Pick the destination you want a stranger to use. Two choices would force the person to decide, and some will not.

A 40 second script for a general card

Read it aloud once before you record, then put the paper down.

Hi, I'm [your name]. I [one plain sentence on what you do and for whom].

I'm sending this because [where you met, or why you are writing]. The short version of what I do is in that one sentence, and the longer version is a conversation.

If you want to talk, the button under this video goes to my calendar. If you would rather reply by email, the address is in the note. Good to meet you.

Forty seconds, give or take. The last paragraph matters more than it looks, because it tells the person how to respond without making them hunt for it.

When to record a fresh hi for a specific person instead

This is the caution. hi.video is built around a named recipient. A general card has to fill that line with something generic, and you lose the moment where a person sees their own name at the top and knows the video is for them.

My rule is simple: if the person matters, record a fresh one.

A fresh one takes a couple of minutes, and you can mention the thing you talked about, the role they posted, or the page on their site you read. A card is what you send when you cannot do that, like a link in a signature that four hundred people will see.

A fresh hi also lets you make a specific ask. "Can we talk on Thursday about the hiring plan" is a sentence a card cannot say.

Where a general card earns its place

A link in your email signature lets people who write to you put a face to the name. A QR code on the last slide of a talk gives thirty people a way to follow up without queueing to shake your hand. A reply in a group introduction thread, where recording twelve separate videos would be odd, is another good fit.

In each of those the card works because the alternative is nothing at all. Keep it current, which on hi.video means recording a new one and sending the new link. Old links keep working after you change your custom username, so a card in a signature does not break.

If you want the link itself to carry your name, Pro gives you a custom username. Pro is $14.99 USD a month and raises the limits to ten minute videos, 100 published minutes a month and 500 stored minutes.

The free plan covers five published videos a month at up to a minute each, with five stored, and that is enough for a card plus a handful of fresh ones. Both plans are on the pricing page.

How to record yours

Open the recorder, add the recipient line and a note, choose camera or screen plus camera, and record. Retake until you like it, trim the start if you fumbled, and publish. Add captions so it still makes sense with the sound off.

Copy the link into your signature or send it to the person you just met. Then record your first hi for someone specific and see how it feels to say their name.

For the structure of the video itself, how to introduce yourself in a video and the 60 second introduction video script are the two to read. What a personal video introduction is covers the wider idea.