The Social Media Email Signature
By Tom Pick at September 18, 2008 19 Comments|
A growing number of Web 2.0-savvy executives, however, are breaking out of the old mold and creatively integrating social networking into their email sign-off. After all, the two purposes of an email signature are to tell the recipient a little about yourself (e.g., your title, company and location) and to give them different ways to contact you. Social networking sites are simply an extension of those two functions, giving other people more information about yourself and additionalways to interact. Based on my informal research, here are the most popular social media elements people are adding to their Web 2.0 email signatures: Twitter page, LinkedIn profile and blog link: these are the most popular social networking elements, used in about half of Web 2.0 signatures. Skype ID and Facebook page: these are used in a quarter of the signatures I looked at. YouTube, StumbleUpon, Technorati and Second Life: about 20% of Web 2.0 email signatures include buttons for StumbleUpon or “add this blog to my favorites” on Technorati, links to a company’s online videos, and/or the sender’s Second Life name. Social media email signatures can also include elements like AIM name, Digg page, Sphinn profile and Ning group. Here are a few notable examples of Web 2.0 email signatures (used with permission): Jon Rognerud (BTW, Jon has really got the reputation management thing nailed, as a Google search on his name quickly reveals.) Christina L. Greene David Loshin’s Online Business Card (http://www.davidloshin.info/) Dr. Richard D. Hackathorn giovanni gallucci (yes, his name is lowercase in his actual email signature) Included in the email signature of a contact from London-based search engine marketing agency Accuracast is: Brian Critchfield Terra Andersen
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In the old days, email signatures pretty much just mirrored business card information: name, company, title, phone, fax (gotta love that 80’s technology still hanging on!) and email address. For most people, that’s still the only information their email signature provides.
Tags:
Social Media
19 Comments
Great article, i just wanted to let you know that adding social networks to your email signatures became so much easier now with http://www.wisestamp.com
check it out!
I hate the clutter this creates, so I simply posted my social networks on a page and link to it, like this:
Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo and Facebook
http://responsiblemarketing.com/connect
It’s funny that you wrote this post now. About 3 months ago, I changed my e-mail signature to include my Skype, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Naymz profiles. It is all about connections these days and it goes beyond one way communications (e-mail) once you are connected, you can interact much more frequently and easily.
Good post, but I’ve seen so many email signatures balloon in size lately, longer than the message body in some cases. I like Patrick Byers’ idea of directing people to one page that lists or links to all your social media profiles.
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]
[...] • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]
Thanks for the ideas.
Just updated my e-mail signature.
BTW, I also had contact page at my blog w/ the links to all social networks I’m in.
Greetings from Macedonia!
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]
[...] The Social Media Email Signature [...]
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for yoursocial media email signature [...]
[...] Add your Social Media Signature to your emails, LinkedIn and Facebook profiles and bios – Include your Twitter handle in your blog [...]
For all the people with Outlook, here is a real simple solution to get the LinkedIn Badge on your email signature:
1. After you login to LinkedIn, look to your left bar and click “Edit My Profile” link
2. Just under the 2nd Blue box, look for “Promote your profile with customized buttons” and click “customized buttons”
3. Drag and Drop any of the Button Images (Badges) you like to your desktop – this should save a copy and easy to find
4. In Outlook (I am using Outlook 2007) go to “tools” and then “options” from the menu bar
5. From the dialogue box, select the tab “Mail Format”
6. Toward the bottom, select the button “Signatures”
7. Select your Signature (or create a new one)
8. Place your mouse wherever you want the LinkedIn button (Badge) to appear in the edit window below
9. Look for the icon just above the window you are in for “picture” and click on that
10. Go to your desktop where you saved the LinkedIn button (Badge) and select that
11. You should see the LinkedIn button (Badge) in your signature window now
12. Select the LinkedIn button (Badge) and click the icon just to the right of the “Picture” icon called “insert hyperlink”
13. In this window look on the left and select the “Existing File or Webpage” icon
14. Go back to your page you copied the LinkedIn button from, your LinkedIn Profile, and select on the left the “View My Profile”
15. In the URL Address Bar of your browser, highlight and copy this url
16. Go back to Outlook and past this url in the window and white box labeled as: “Address”
17. Save the Signature and hit ok until you are back in the main Outlook window
18. Test your email signature before using by sending yourself an email and click the LinkedIn button (Badge) AFTER the email arrives to see if your profile is accurate
NOTE: If you test only with an email that you start as “New Message” in Outlook, you will need to hold the control key down and select the LinkedIn button (Badge)
Good Luck.
Best,
Dean Holmes
CSO at Selling At The TOP
Retaggr do an online business card onto which you can add absolutely any online networks you’re involved with. That can be displayed on websites and the like but quite handily you can get a small version which you can attach as your email signature. Very easy, very clean I like it! Get it from retaggr.com
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]
Thaks for the post. I’ve just gotten on this bandwagon. Published a quick “how-to” to shorten the sigs using tiny url on my blog at http://lindakolker.com/WordPress/use-your-email-signature-to-publicize-your-network-connections/04/2009/
This is a very helpful posting. I plan to redo my email signature right away, plus check out Retaggr and Linda Kolker’s blog. Great article.
[...] should really read this article- The Social Media Email Signature Share and [...]
[...] A few opportunities to pimp out your Twitter ID: • Add under your name when you comment on a blog • If you friend someone on another social network, add a personal message which includes your ID • Include a “follow me on Twitter” signature on all of your email accounts or for your social media email signature [...]