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.
October 10th, 2008
9 Comments at "What Does Your E-Mail Signature Say About You?"
I have a link to my website. It’s a way for people who don’t know me well to find out more about me. It also seems to remind my non-feed-reader friends to check out the latest happenings.
I have 6 different signatures, because it really depends on who I’m emailing what I need to have in my signature.
I’m a member of quite a few organizations, so I typically have to put my office name and org name in my email signature, along with my phone number.
My work email signature has my name, office #, fax # and cell #.
I don’t bother with an email signature.
That doesn’t mean that I am important… Maybe that means I’m just lazy
[...] photos to your sig, and Geek with Laptop adds that the more stuff you have in your signature, the lower on the corporate food chain you seem to be. (In fact, he suggests going just with a name and phone [...]
I used to do email sigs. Now I don’t, for two reasons:
1. Laziness, and
2. Unnecessary added text.
On personal stuff, no signature. For business, 1 line that has phone. Followups, 1 line, just my name (because with threading, figuring out whose reply it is can be a bit difficult).
I tend to stick with the basics … my name. Other than that when I send an email from my mobile I make sure that I mention that so people forgive the mistakes.
If I’m emailing a company for review material or something to that effect I’ll make sure they have a link to the website I’m doing the piece for…
I don’t give out my number unless they need it - I’m easier to get by email anyway.
I use an email signature because my company mandates it.
I put this one on my emails for all the treelovers out there!!!
No trees were killed in the sending of this message. However a large number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced
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