With more than 40,000 direct professional contacts on LinkedIn, Steven Burda wants to ensure he always has up-to-date information to maintain his network. He couldn’t resist signing up for a digital business card, where users’ information is constantly updated and spread across multiple platforms. That means no more outdated phone numbers or lost business cards.

“The keyword here is real time,” Burda says. “If I go to a networking event and exchange business cards … in a month from now that person might switch jobs, switch positions, leave the company altogether, go on a special assignment. His contact information might change.”

Burda uses BusinessCard2, one of many digital business cards where users can deliver their information to contacts through mobile technologies across smart phones, text messages or e-mails directly to an online address book. Users can choose which information they want to include, whether it’s their LinkedIn username or cell phone number, and never worry about losing or forgetting someone’s contact information.

Often, it’s unnecessary for the person on the other end to use the same program as long as they have a smart phone, or with BusinessCard2, which can post information as ads on Web sites, access to the Internet.

According to a survey by business BPM Forum, a performance management group, about 80 percent of leads are typically lost, ignored or discarded, which hurts revenue growth. In BPM’s study, “Gauging the Cost of What’s Lost,” 73 percent of respondents say their company has no process for digging up lost business leads.

Still, VistaPrint Ltd., a small-business focused printing company, saw a 24 percent increase in customers compared to the year-ago period.

“We’re seeing a lot of crossover between physical and digital,” says VistaPrint Chief Marketing Officer Trynka Shineman. “I don’t see business cards going away; I think the electronic forms will be a complement.”

She also stressed the personal aspect of handing over a business card, and cited business-card growth despite new media applications.

“On the small-business side, I think it’d be harder for someone to subscribe or link to your plumber,” she says.

Swapping electronically comes in a range of forms and services, but entering information and starting up is usually free. Many companies have short codes that people use to translate their information, typically through a text message or e-mail. For example, with Contxts, texting the code 50500 to a contact will send your information digitally and update on the receiver’s phone address book.

Some companies, such as DubMeNow, work across platforms on iPhones, BlackBerrys, Windows Mobiles and Androids as opposed to iPhone- or BlackBerry-specific applications for digital data exchange.

Chris Hopkinson, Dub’s head of business development and marketing, says the company found the biggest challenge when swapping contact information boiled down to actually entering data.

Jared Hendler, chief investment officer for the Indian billionaire Bajaj family, uses Dub because people pitch different investments to him daily and he has to follow up. Instead of throwing a card in a drawer or searching through a pile of papers, Hendler, 32, says he “shoots them a Dub (and) they hit me back … it automatically updates in my Blackberry.”

Many companies bridge partnerships or string together relationships with smart-phone companies or social networking sites to optimize their use. Dub has affiliated partnerships with Research in Motion’s Blackberry and LinkedIn.

BusinessCard2, which has thousands of users internationally, is in talks with Best Buy. The card works with a single control panel to update or change information, and users can opt to pay between 10 cents and $5 based on how often others interact with their information or contact them after it is delivered as an ad on targeted high-traffic Web sites, says founder Lief Larson.