Use Your Email Signature to Publicize Your Social Network Connections
A colleague here in Charlottesville, Jason Hull, (Principal, OpenSource Connections) is a pioneer in using technology and a leader in our regional technology community. Last week I noticed his email signature in a message I received, and it’s a great example of how to promote your site, blog and network connections. Jason lists the URLs for his web site, blog, Google calendar page (helpful for proposing meeting times), Facebook profile page, Twitter URL, as well as e-mail, phone and fax numbers. It’s a clear demonstration of the connected world we now live in.
So… I’m following his lead. I’ve added my Facebook Profile page URL to my email signature. [Note (August, 2009): You can now have your own vanity URL in Facebook. Go to http://www.facebook.com/username/] It takes a little doing to find out what it is. Here’s how: go to your own Facebook profile and copy the URL in your brower window. Open a new window, paste the URL into it and hit “enter.” When the page loads, Facebook shortens the URL a bit, and you’ll see it in your browser bar at the top of the screen. That’s your URL. It’s long. You can shorten it by copying it, going to tinyurl.com and pasting it in the form they provide. Then type in a personalized URL. Mine is lkfacebook, and the tinyurl is http://tinyurl.com/lkfacebook. It’s a lot shorter and easier to read than the string of numbers Facebook assigns.
I haven’t changed my Facebook settings yet to allow non-members of Facebook to have access to my page. I have to investigate the ramifications of doing that. So, if you’re reading this and you aren’t on Facebook–well, time to get started! Go get yourself a page and then send me a note!
This is what my signature looks like now:
Linda Kolker
Marketing Consultant
Web Architecture/Usability/Best Practices
email: linda@lindakolker.com
Web site: http://lindakolker.com
Blog: http://lindakolker.com/WordPress/
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/lkfacebook
434-984-6619
Note: I’ve included the entire URL because some people can only receive plain-text email messages, and won’t be able to click on links available with HTML formatting.
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Linda, Great advice on the e-mail signature. We tell clients that all the time. And, thanks for the directions on getting a direct URL to one’s FB profile. I had not heard that one yet!