{"id":737,"date":"2012-11-13T15:31:14","date_gmt":"2012-11-13T14:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.moveadminister.co.uk\/?p=737"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:23:24","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T09:23:24","slug":"lets-set-some-ground-rules-for-email-signatures-shall-we","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.moveadminister.co.uk\/?p=737","title":{"rendered":"Let’s set some ground rules for email signatures, shall we?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"emails\"I came across this posting on Twitter last night and thought I’d share it with everyone, but credit to Boris at The Next Web for the posting.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear person emailing me,<\/strong><\/p>\n

Email signatures are weird. Seriously. The header of an email already contains your name and email address, but still a lot of people insist in replicating them below the message too. Signatures are often six or seven lines long. I just received an email from someone that contained just one word (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122) but also 20 lines of signature.<\/p>\n

Now I know that email signatures aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t melting the poles or crashing the internets. But regardless of that, I still see most of them as waste. Sending me your phone number, in every email we exchange? Really? Is that necessary? Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t we just exchange vCards when we first get to know each other? Or wait until I ask you?<\/p>\n

How about images and logos in signatures? Often my email will interpret the signature picture as an attachment. Now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m anxious to find out what the attachment is going to be! But of course there is no attachment, just a pixelated logo that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t add value to the message.<\/p>\n

How many links is enough? One? Do you need to include your LinkedIn and Twitter URL too? How about just one link to a page that contains all your info? Get an About.me<\/a> page or something!<\/p>\n

How about vertical space? How many white lines do you need to separate all those URLs you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve included? How long, literally, can a signature be?<\/p>\n

Moving on to divider lines. Some people put them directly above their signature so it becomes clear that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153HERE STARTS THE SIGNATURE\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Yep, got it. I can read. Not needed.<\/p>\n

Then that totally irrelevant and too politically correct \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcPlease consider the environment when printing this email\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 line. Stop it already. People aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t printing out emails anymore and if they are, they are lost anyway. Your signature isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t saving trees. Snap out of it.<\/p>\n

Lets end with the absolute worst part of signatures. The legalese, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153if I screwed up and mailed this to the wrong Boris you should delete this message and prepare to get sued,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d messages. Seriously, if you are a lawyer this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make you appear smart. It makes it seem like you are regularly emailing random people sensitive information and it has happened so often that you are now ordered to include that statement by a judge who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s simply had it with your shit.<\/p>\n

My ground rules for email signatures are simple: at the most 3 lines. You can include your name if you want and one URL, but not three. No dividers and no logos. Keep it simple and efficient.<\/p>\n

\n

Sincerely,<\/span><\/p>\n

Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-founder The Next Web, Twitter Counter and some other stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Follow me on Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Follow me on Linkedin<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The views expressed in this post are personal and may not necessarily reflect those of The Next Web, unless explicitly stated otherwise. This post, and any files transmitted with it, are confidential and intended solely for the individual or entity to whom they are addressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you have received this post by error, please notify me immediately. If you are not the intended recipient of this post, you should not copy it for any purpose, or disclose its contents to any other person.<\/span><\/p>\n

Please consider the environment when printing this post.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

Image Credit: NICHOLAS KAMM\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I came across this posting on Twitter last night and thought I’d share it with everyone, but credit to Boris at The Next Web for the posting.   Dear person emailing me, Email signatures are weird. Seriously. The header of an email already contains your name and email address, but still a lot of people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t