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FollowMobile Signature Makes One-Line Email Socially Acceptable
In the depths of email overload desperation last week, I wished email messages had an 140-character limit like Twitter updates do. In response, two people recommended doing what Kevin Rose does: Set your desktop email signature to "Sent from my mobile phone."
It's a white lie that makes you look less rude for being short. It's annoying to have to fib (and embarrassing if you get caught somehow--of course all of Kevin's friends now know his "secret"). But for someone who gets more than 100 messages per day, this technique may be a matter of survival versus just saving time. Haven't set this up myself yet, but if I wind up at the bottom of another email mountain getting ready for a processing marathon, I just might.
Love it!
Sent from my mobile phone.
Mar 10 09 at 1:15 pm
That would only work for people who don’t know you well enough to know you have no intention of buying an iPhone.
Mar 10 09 at 1:21 pm
Make sure to set your email format to ‘text only’ to make it look more authentic, especially if you use Outlook or similar as a mail client.
Mar 10 09 at 1:34 pm
Make sure to set your email format to ‘text only’ to make it look more authentic, especially if you use Outlook or similar as a mail client.
Ohhh, great pointer, thanks.
Mar 10 09 at 1:44 pm
Clever.
Although, I personally have no problem appearing rude.
Mar 10 09 at 3:24 pm
I’ll give it clever props.
Make sure ALL the reply-to’s are accurate, however: I know people who try and pass off emails as “sent from work” (at 3am or whatnot) when the formation of the reply-to et al clearly indicates it was created outside the system.
Oops?
Mar 10 09 at 3:43 pm
Well,
I consider it my freedom to decide on how I answer to emails – long or short.
I consider it as well my freedom to decide when I answer to an email. Email is by nature asynchronous, but people often think they can missuse it as IM.
It is just a matter of stating your position and habits.
Greetings!
Mar 11 09 at 12:55 am
Have a look at 19:25 of this video for another approach to managing your email replies.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/david_pogue_says_simplicity_sells.html
You can be as rude as you like in the privacy of your own office, and no-one need know.
Mar 11 09 at 6:10 am
I don’t view short e-mails as rude at all – I send them all the time, haven’t gotten any complaints.
Mar 11 09 at 10:13 am
Paraphrasing something I heard at a journalism seminar a long time ago: Maybe the Internet needs fewer three-paragraph, formal, businesslike e-mails, and more 1-3 word e-mails, and long, chatty e-mails that go on for pages?
Mar 12 09 at 2:05 pm