By now most of you have either adopted the new Facebook Timeline to your account or have at least seen the layout on your friends’ pages. That’s all fine and well for illustrating the details of your personal to the people who are already within your online social network, but now you can let your Timeline off the leash so it can frolic among in the pastures of the physical world thanks to Moo.
As part of a new service, Moo, an award-winning online print business that customizes business cards and postcards, is letting Facebookers take their Timeline offline with Facebook Cards. The concept incorporates images from your Facebook Timeline that you can couple with choice quotes and statements in order to create fun business cards you can hand out to people. From their press release that they shared with WebProNews:
Each of the cards, designed and personalized by each individual, can feature a different photo image on the front of the cards together with a favorite quote or saying on the reverse. Instead of every business card having the same look and feel, with MOO.COM’s Printfinity feature people can pair just the right images for the right business or social occasions.
The integration will give Facebook users the ability to leverage the content they’re adding to their Timelines for their own Facebook Card. People will now be able to take snapshots of their lives from their Timelines and bring them into their offline social and business networking experience with the Facebook Card.
I spoke with a representative from Moo’s PR firm who assured me that you don’t have to actually use these for any specific business purposes, either – anyone can sign up for the cards, so you don’t have to be a professional to have rad business cards. Give’em to friends. Put’em on the windshield wipers of cars in your apartment’s parking lot to introduce yourself to your neighbors. Slip one to your bartender (it sure beats the hell out of the dopey practice of leaving your scribbled phone number on your receipt). Need an intro for that story you love to tell about how you fell off a boat in Patagonia last spring? Introduce the tale with a card created from your Timeline about the event. Show off your science however you please.
Pretty fun stuff, really. But here’s the best part: starting today at 12PM EST, Moo is giving away bundles of 50 Facebook Cards for free to the first 200,000 people to sign up for the service. One small detail to note, though: you will have to have the Timeline enabled on your Facebook account to create your cards; otherwise, you’ll be prompted to head back to the Facebook page to make the switch.
But even if you miss the promotion, the Facebook Cards will remain available to everyone on Moo’s website only then you’ll have to pay for them like normal people.
Think of these cards as the old school method of friend requests when you actually had to approach somebody in person and talk to them while sharing information about yourself. Facebook Cards consolidate a little of bit of that awkward exchange by giving you a fun way to offer up some of your info. As a sample, here’s what mine looks like.
The front:
And the back:
Once you’re ready to start designing your Facebook Cards, you can customize your name (if you should want to) and add a brief statement along with your website. On the flip side of the Facebook Cards, you can customize quotes as well as include your phone number and email address (a link to your Facebook profile is already included in the info). So head on over to Moo’s page to start fixing up your Facebook Cards before the freebies are gone.