Do you ever really look at people’s e-mail signatures? I don’t usually, but I was looking for contact information for a colleague recently, which led me to scrutinize his signature.
It was a museum of 20th Century communications: The streetmail address and fax number was in there, but no instant-message ID or Skype account.
That got me to thinking about e-mail signatures and I started scanning my in-box looking at how people signed their mail. I’ve made the following observations:
Important people don’t bother with e-mail sigs.
Your e-mail signature reflects how powerful you are. If you were profiled on MSNBC, you don’t need an e-mail signature.
The primary purpose of an e-mail sig is to let people know who you are and how to contact you. If you’re really, really important, your e-mail recipients had better already know that.
The longer your e-mail signature, the lower down the food chain you are.
Some people put a whole novel in their e-mail signature:
- Their full name, including “Jr.” or “Sr.”
- Job title, which generally includes both the words “deputy” and assistant.
- Streetmail address with mail stop.
- Business phone number, with different versions for people dialing from the internal corporate PBX vs. people dialing from outside.
- E-mail address. ‘Cuz it’s not like it’s in the “From:” line of every e-mail or anything.
- And finish it off with an inspirational quote from Battlestar Galactica.
If that’s a description of your signature, then you’re a flunky. Time for a Starbucks run, Commander Starbuck.
So Geek With Laptop readers, what do you think people should put in their e-mail signatures? What do you have in yours?
As for my own e-mail signature, I have two versions depending on who I’m e-mailing. One with just my name and the other with my name and contact number.
