Is Social Media redefining how we exchange contact information? Will it push traditional business cards out of the picture? Contxts hopes so. Contxts is a new service that uses text messages to share your contact information with others. I learned about this service while chatting with fellow speaker Shannon Paul at Automation Alley’s Social Media Boot Camp.  Shannon recently began using the Contxts service and suggested I give it a try (word of mouth marketing at work!). While not perfect (Contxts is still an alpha service), it is a useful and very convenient way to share info via your mobile device if you are away from your computer.

Basically, Contxts works two ways. You can PUSH info directly to someone, or they can PULL your info through an SMS request.

The PUSH method works like so:

You send a text message to Contxt service in this format:

send *recipient_phone_number* 50500

So, if I want to send my contact info to friend Adam Cohen, assuming his phone number is 555-555-1234, the text message to Contxts would look like:

send 5555551234 50500

This would trigger Contxts to send the info, which I provided during the account setup earlier, and Adam would receive a text message that contains:

The PULL method works similarly.  Anyone can send a request to 50500 and retrieve your contact info, as long as they supply the correct username. The format for a PULL text message is:

username 50500

So, if I wanted to pull down the contact info of someone I met at a conference, Tweetup, etc.. but didn’t get to exchange business cards with, and I knew his/her username on Contxt, I would send:

johndoe 50500

This type of Digital exchange could be extremely handy if you’ve run out of business cards, at an event where you meet a large number of people, or simply prefer to manage your contacts info digitally like I do.

The recipient ONLY gets the info that you want them to. You can control this using the edit info screen after you register.

There is a potential down side that I see already. Like many popular social media services out there,  someone can request your info without prior approval. There is an option that you can check to alert you when someone does pull your info, but there isn’t anything you can do to filter who can/can’t or protect it. For many people this won’t be a concern, but for others, it may make them uncomfortable. I suggest being careful what information you make available via Contxts if you’re in the latter category. Remember, it is a free, public public service, so treat it as such when it comes to privacy.

That said, it’s fast, convienent, eco-friendly (no paper) and could ultimately be the beginning of another change in our Digital behavior.  Goodbye business cards. Hello Contxts!

If you need my info, feel free to retrieve it by sending this SMS message: kenburbary 50500