It may be time to change the way we think about corporate networking.

In the old days, sales and marketing professionals would go to trade shows and other events for networking opportunities and share business cards. Ambitious professionals would walk away with a sizeable volume of cards to bring back to their desk to call or email. While that practice worked for years, it's terribly inefficient by today's standards.

The entire process has been streamlined with the help of mobile technology. Now, professionals can share data via their mobile phones, which cuts down on excessive paper use and improves networking efficiency. Trade show attendees can gather a long list of contacts just on their mobile phones, instead of passing around paper cards that could easily be misplaced.

An article in Small Biz Trends suggests that some SMS services could take the place of the traditional business card. Chris Hamilton, the author of the article, says that it's much more practical to send text messages containing all the data that would be featured on a business card than it is to hand out the actual cards.

"How many times have you been without a card and you really want to give someone your contact information?" Hamilton writes. "Use your name and have it hooked up to a virtual card that someone can download. This way you will never be without a business card."

In addition to using SMS to share info, individuals who receive contacts in that format can then use them to fuel their own text message marketing efforts. All pertinent contact info will be stored electronically anyway, making it exceptionally simple to launch a mobile marketing campaign.

Swift SMS Gateway offers the tools organizations need to orchestrate all successful text message marketing initiatives.