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When the big ball dropped in Times Square at midnight, we were all supposed to toss away our 2010 calendars and replace them with the latest and greatest. For well over a century, shopkeepers, business executives, mechanics and, yes, even New York’s taxi drivers, have relied on “freebie” promotional calendars for that ever-so-basic bit of information.

But as this increasingly digital age continues to take hold, the idea of a physical calendar – a booklet, a page-a-day or even a magnet ready to be attached to a refrigerator – is becoming more and more archaic. Paper calendars are beginning to feel like something out of the past, a relic of an era where typewriters and secretaries got things done, where going on vacation truly meant you were impossible to reach and where airport security was a breeze.

But several factors have killed the ubiquitous promotional calendar, a tool that was, until as recently as a year ago, so useful for getting your message out on a daily basis to your clients, your potential clients or even just your friends.

The digital edge

Synchronizing calendars on work computers, home computers and mobile phones used to be such a laborious effort that it was best left for computer geeks. The latest innovations – especially Google’s tremendous degree of integration – have made synchronization a no-sweat job hardly worthy of being called an “effort.”

With one Google profile, a user can schedule a meeting on his Android-powered Smartphone that will automatically show up on any computer or Smartphone he signs into. “The cloud” is hard to imagine, but we can all agree that it rocks.

Apple takes a slightly different approach, but its system is just as intuitive – and that’s something that more businesses are realizing as the Cupertino California, tech giant continues to lure businesses into its web.

Smartphones are so intelligent these days that some will automatically link to a car’s infotainment system to store calendar and email data. Integration is so simple on cars with Ford’s much-ballyhooed Sync system or BMW’s advanced Blackberry-supporting system that it’s almost impossible to be uninformed for long.

Going green

International compliance efforts are putting companies on the green track in an effort to reduce consumption of the earth’s limited resources. As a result, many companies seeking various degrees of ISO certification levels take an aggressive stance against paper products.

Limited printing from a corporate-owned printer is only half of the battle; some of the most cutting edge firms are limiting the number of non-essential paper products entering their offices.

A promotional calendar suddenly seems less than forward-looking.

Cost cutters

Everyone is looking for every way to trim costs in this economy, and promotional tools without an obvious way to track their effectiveness are the first on the list.

As a result, these promotional calendars are being replaced by totally different, often less expensive campaigns.

What this means to you

Sometimes it’s good to get back to basics with a simple promotional tool that doesn’t cost much to make but reaches a wide audience. Promotional calendars aren’t dead, but they’re on their way out.

What will be the next obvious choice for daily exposure marketing devices?

Pundits have rarely been so wrong. Once a hallmark of a successful businessperson, the calling card was predicted to die out in this increasingly digital age. Instead, business cards have evolved – but not necessarily in the exclusively bits and bytes manner one might expect.

Dating back to the Ming Dynasty in China, business cards have long been the primary means of contact information distribution from businesses to businesses or companies to consumers. The “visiting card,” as it was known then, made its way to Europe’s strict societies, which emphasized etiquette. Eventually, lithographers expanded the practice to a burgeoning 19th century middle class before cards took hold in the United States. Our entrepreneurial society latched onto the idea of spreading information and the card has evolved ever since.

Material goods
Odds are, your business cards are printed on card stock in two or three colors. They might have information on both sides and a stylized logo, as well as basic facts like your name, position, address, phone and fax numbers, as well as your email and your company’s website. You could even have a slogan or a few basic company facts.

Your cards might follow the same basic pattern found elsewhere, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop there.

Think about materials you can use for cards.

Recycled paper and eco-friendly ink is environmentally conscious, which helps meet ISO standard and resonates with clients. Maybe a high-tech appearance is a better bet; cards printed on thin steel, leather, cloth, carbon fiber or aluminum won’t cost substantially more, but they’ll stand out.

Regardless of the material, these unique cards are designed to make an impact, both to prospective accounts and to remind existing clients of your innovative approach.

Going digital
Critics said that business cards would die when smartphones took over. The Blackberry didn’t kill them and iPhones and Androids helped evolve them.

The prevailing idea just a few years ago was that “bump” apps would be the ideal way of transferring information from one device to another. Bumping isn’t a lost concept, but it hasn’t reshaped business cards.

Perhaps the biggest advancement to the traditional business card model is the integration of QR (“quick response”) codes, small matrix barcodes designed to be read by a mobile phone’s camera. A simple wave of a smartphone over a QR barcode reveals significantly more information than before.

QR codes might have hit their Zenith at the South by Southwest festival earlier this year in Austin, Texas. Appearing on business cards, credentials, signage, flyers and giveaways, QR codes instantly linked recipients to a plethora of information – social media pages, websites, product information pages and way more.

But a QR code might be just the beginning for many. For one, they’re not necessarily appropriate everywhere. Many businesses ban mobile phone cameras in order to prevent sensitive information from escaping, while some business card transactions and reviews occur 35,000 feet above the air. Yep, you’ve probably passed out your card at least once on an airplane.

PlugYourBrand.com has an innovative – although costly – solution. USB business cards shaped and sized about like a thick credit card can plug right into computers to provide recipients with pre-loaded information, including product information or capability portfolios. At around $3 each when bought in bulk, they aren’t a mass market concept yet, but they do provide a sophisticated way of showing off capabilities.

USB sticks (thumb drives) are cheaper, but they offer packaging real estate for little more than a logo.

A paper card might suffice for now, but staying on the cutting edge dictates adding more to your standard business card. You don’t want to be playing catch up, do you?

Journalists know better than anyone that words are, well, just words. They’re to be taken at face value – unless, of course, they mean something else.

Confused? You have the right to be, especially if you’ve ever been asked a question “off the record” only to find out that what you said is circulating around the public. What you said was meant to stay between you and the reporter, but it didn’t stop there.

What’s going on here and why doesn’t “off the record” mean what it seems like it should?

Good cop, bad cop
During a TV cop drama, a detective will grill his suspect or witness using the “off the record” trick to reveal a detailed, informative answer. He can’t use the response in a court, but, like any good dramatized officer, he’ll utilize his newfound knowledge to get to the bottom of things by circumventing traditional methods.

Minus the built-in drama and flashy graphics, real life reporters also use this trick. By engaging in friendly conversation without a notebook or recorder in hand, a journalist might casually ask a question “off the record.”

The reporter is looking for you to confirm a query or a suspicion that he will verify elsewhere, often simply as an “anonymous” source. You probably won’t find your words published verbatim, but you might find out that trade secrets or future product information you’ve only discussed with one reporter show up in his outlet.

Many major newspapers’ style guides and codes of ethics limit their reporters from quoting anonymous sources, especially in the wake of troubling accounts like the Washington Post’s Jason Blair, who famously made up sources and fabricated quotes.

But just because they won’t use this shortcut doesn’t mean that reporters won’t go behind your back to find someone else to whom they can attribute the information. Speaking with another representative of your firm, a reporter will indicate that he knows something that shouldn’t be made public. This other representative might share even more details since he thinks that the reporter is privy only to information you want to be “on the record.”

Manipulating “off the record” comments is a journalism trick that will help net an “exclusive,” so you can’t blame a reporter for trying. Instead, take a holistic approach to the way you word your interview responses and “off the record” discussions.

Solutions
Your best bet is simply to not share information that you don’t want getting out to the public. Deception isn’t your friend, but it is often necessary to keep certain things private for a period of time. Keep quiet and say that you “can’t share those details at this time.”

There are mutually ways to work around the “off the record” situation. If you know the journalist well and are on a friendly basis with them, you might want to consider sharing “off the record” information while explaining the reason you don’t want what you’ve said to show up in print or online. In addition to keeping the information private, this dialog between you and the reporter might further solidify a relationship, and it will help the reporter reach a more in-depth understanding of your perspective.

Alternatively, many companies take advantage of product information embargoes to ensure that classified information doesn’t leak out early. Inviting journalists to a detailed technical presentation or even a light preview gives them insider details, but asking them to sign a waiver – isn’t even really legally binding – can benefit everyone. Reporters get an even playing field while they feel like embedded members of the media and you get the timing you want on the information the public needs – if not quite yet.

A wise marketing guru once said, “Facebook is for the people you know while Twitter is for those you want to know.”

Facebook’s entire platform is based on the premise that you can connect or reconnect with people that you already know.  People you’d want to share photos with of your dogs, family vacays and any other important moments. It was designed with a more personal aim in mind.

Twitter, on the other hand, was designed for strangers who want to share their common interests and news with one another.  It’s socially acceptable to “follow” someone, even if you’ve never met them before.  Twitter’s platform is a catalyst for information exchange.

According to eMarketer, surveys showed that 37% of respondents were more likely to purchase from a brand after following them on Twitter as opposed to only 17% of those that “like” a brand on Facebook.

This isn’t to say that Facebook is a useless marketing tool considering that Mark Zuckerberg is one of the wealthiest people in the U.S. at only age of 26.  However, there’s clearly value in having both Twitter and Facebook in a company’s social media strategy to maximize results and increase the bottom line.  The only way to do that is to target the “followers” that will respond to your company’s marketing message.

Let’s not forget marketing’s primary mathematical expression: behavior > awareness.