This is part 5 in my Using Your "SEND" Glands? arc. This arc deals with some NextStage and related research on the signature files people place at the end of their emails. Part 1 gave some examples of typical signature files and part 2 introduced the concept of psycho-social distance between sender and receiver of an email. Part 3 expanded on the concept of psycho-social distance as the "Six Degrees of Separation".
Part 4 introduced my business signature file as a working model going forward. Here we start analyzing how the research's findings explain what's in my and others' signature files.
It turns out that most people use signature files, images, etc., in much the same way an animal will use its scent glands -- to mark something, to show ownership, territory, boundaries, dominance, submission, equality and acceptance among other things. This aspect of signature files is non-conscious and non-intentional. In all things done by humans there's a non-conscious and conscious component. NextStage's value proposition comes from being able to synchronize those components because they're often in conflict without people knowing it. An example of this conflict and its resolution is given in Site-Penetration Up 225%, Time-On-Site Up 300%, Conversions Up 20% in Four Months.
I had to laugh when I read that as a result of this research was that people and businesses mark their emails via signature files much the same way animals spoor their territory. Long, long ago (in internet time), one of my assistants likened blogging to dogs marking their territories in Where's my Social Network?: The Reluctant Blogger, Part 3. The research goes a little further than suggesting signature files are animals marking their territories, though, and one of the places it goes made me laugh. A lot of companies put what they think is important on their websites, not what their prospects and clients think is important.
It turns out the same is true with signature files. Most people put what they think is important in their signature files, not what people reading the sender's email might find important. This aspect of signature files is conscious and intentional.
This offered, let's analyze the signature file given in Part 4 piece by piece.
The sender has a somewhat large signature file at fifteen lines (counting blank lines but not counting word wraps). It contains a lot of information. However, the signature file uses a smaller font than the message. (I'm smiling as I share this analysis, by the way...)
The smaller font indicates that the sender (that's me, remember?) believes they are not as important as the message they're sending, something like "Spare the messenger for the message's sake" applied to email exchanges.
However, the size of the signature file in lines (or the size of the graphic for image-based signature files, or space taken up by any combination of the two) indicates that the sender believes they're someone of some achievement (I wrote before that I had a healthy ego. Ouch!).
We haven't even analyzed the content yet. We've only gotten to the layout and we've learned that the sender believes the message is more important than the messenger and that the messenger is pretty important, too. Note that both of these items are at the non-conscious, non-intentional level.
Okay, I'm going to rest and lick my wounds before I get to the actual content of my signature file.
More to follow...
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- Online Anthropology blog posts
- Online Identity blog posts
- Online Privacy blog posts
- Online Trust blog posts
- The Using Your "SEND" Glands? arc
I'll be speaking at the San Francisco April '07 Emetrics Summit on Quantifying and Optimizing the Human Side of Online Marketing on May 7, 2007. Come on by and say hello.
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