The following is a guest article by Alexandra Bideaua. Alexandra is multi-lingual, multi-talented, and wrote this article from her home country of Romania. Read much more from her on her personal blog.
Nowadays, personal branding and differentiation are crucial to success and, most often, the key to finding opportunities and jobs. In order to make a name for yourself, no matter what your area of expertise is, you need to invest a little time in the persona you present online – via your online profiles, your personal blog, or personal website. There is another aspect you can use to your advantage: a signature within the e-mail you send every day.
There are many add-ons that you can download and use for free (Wise Stamp, for example) in order to create your personal signature. The best part about them, aside from being very user-friendly, is the wide range of options they give you. You can add a picture, phone number, job titles and links to your sites, profiles on Facebook, Flickr and much more, all in your desired colors, size and font.
Another important aspect is that you can create multiple signatures for different purposes. You can have one for your job (where you may not go public with the links for your personal profiles or blog), another one for your family and even one for friends. It is very easy and all you need to do is change the signature you add with just two clicks. It’s just as if every time you send an email, you attach your card to it. But remember, the key word for your virtual identity should be consistency. Make sure that all the data you give is correct and it adds up to build the image of a great professional.
By using a complex signature for your emails, you can gain these great benefits, which might just be the solution to the “What’s his name?” problem:
- Personalization: If you have multiple email exchanges with different people, you can make sure that each one of them will associate a face, a job or a punch line with your face.
- Professionalism: By taking the time to develop a complex email signature to represent you, you can show your clients or collaborators that you are truly interested in what you do.
- A rise in traffic for the sites you link to: Even if you emphasize your company’s site, your twitter account or your personal blog, the ones who receive your emails will be curious to explore the resources that you consider important enough to be mentioned every time you push “send”.
- It transforms itself into your virtual business card: Every time you send out a business proposal or try to close a deal, your signature will transform into a business card, helping you to transmit a great amount of information in just a couple of lines.
So make a change for the better for your personal brand and promote yourself and the services you have to offer every time you e-mail. Everyone will appreciate your commitment and the interested you show in building a complex online identity. Stop being that John Doe who e-mails!
Alexandra Bideaua is a 20 year old Communication and Public Relations student from Romania, Europe. A social media enthusiastic, she’s training to become a PR Specialist. Follow her at http://twitter.com/28Alexandra and find out more.
GMail photo by rovlls.
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