De-Coding Email Signatures

August 20, 2007

As soon as I saw "What does your email signature say about you?" on lifehacker, I knew I'd be just as entertained as with Yumsugar's Starbucks Oracle. The good news? According to this analysis by Mitch Wagner at Information Week, important people don't bother with e-mail signatures, so I'm guessing my signature - or lack thereof for my personal email - means I'm super cool?! That or I'm just super lazy for not creating one. My work signature is a tad more intricate with contact info and all that jazz, so I may not be a lost cause. Read on to see what yours apparently says about you!

Billionaires are most likely to write emails in lower-case and sign it with one-syllable nickname you had in prep school.
The longer your e-mail signature, the lower down the food chain you are.
Your e-mail signature reflects how powerful you are. For instance, if you were profiled on "60 Minutes," you don't need no e-mail signature.
Some people's signatures are way too long. Ex: including name, job title, street mail address, business phone number, three instant message IDs, email, URLs for two sites, and Second Life avatar name.
Marketing people have company slogans in their e-mail.

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14 Comments

Hoaxerz 5 years 38 weeks

My signature lists my two business websites, purely to draw traffic to them.As far as colors and smileys, I am always amused by the emails my little sister sends me, because she always uses every text modification available to her. However, she is only sixteen. I do throw in the occasionally (basic) smiley myself, but only because I'm so sarcastic that sometimes I need to show that I am genuinely happy or excited.

Hoaxerz 5 years 38 weeks

My signature lists my two business websites, purely to draw traffic to them. As far as colors and smileys, I am always amused by the emails my little sister sends me, because she always uses every text modification available to her. However, she is only sixteen. I do throw in the occasionally (basic) smiley myself, but only because I'm so sarcastic that sometimes I need to show that I am genuinely happy or excited.

redsugar 5 years 39 weeks

My company email signatures are set up per company policy, but I only use my first name on personal emails.

tdamji 5 years 39 weeks

so true Yum! there's a place for smileys and that place is not in a professional letter even if it is directed towards your co-workers! i type in lowercase a lot because i am lazy and pressing shift too often hurts my fingers. i'm not a billionaire. :D

Three Eyed Fish 5 years 39 weeks

Yum I couldn't agree with you more, nothing screams unprofessional then a multicolored font scheme with any type of smiley unless its a simple text smiley at the end.

POPSUGAR Food 5 years 39 weeks

does it say anything about color and added smileys? I hope I'm not offending anyone, but anyone who sends me work-related professional emails with a bunch of animated rotfl smileys in their signature automatically gets put into my "to deal with later" folder.

JenBrett 5 years 39 weeks

my work signature has to give all my info, personal account doesn't have one. where's my billion?

cyrizzle 5 years 39 weeks

i guess i'm pretty powerful because i don't have a signature....

c0rkie 5 years 39 weeks

this is GREAT! loli'll be sure to shorten mine ^^

c0rkie 5 years 39 weeks

this is GREAT! lol i'll be sure to shorten mine ^^

LuciLu 5 years 39 weeks

hmmm i have name, company name, address, phone #, and email.... i guess the email part is pretty stupid eh? haha

staceyleeroberts 5 years 39 weeks

Mine are always short n sweet with usually just initials. I hate when e-mails end with a signature that has a graphic or vcard attached.

br0wneyed9irl00 5 years 39 weeks

oh man, i must be destined to be a billionaire. ~carol

steen 5 years 39 weeks

Hmm. My work e-mail signature perfectly matches everyone else's, per company policy --- I'm not even kidding --- so I guess it accurately reflects that I work in a sterile corporate environment. :)

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