I never seem able to settle on an email signature (what we used to refer to as a “.sig” file back in the day. I’m always chopping and changing, and in this broadband age we are generally no longer worried about “wasting bandwidth”. Sometimes I use my full address, phone, website and all social media links, sometimes I include just my name and number or a single landing page. What do you think are the essentials and what should I leave out?

Erica Friedman a “Social Media Optimizer”, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon says that the essentials are your name and contact info. But adds that there’s a good case for having different sigs for different purposes. “For the longest time I signed off here with a full signature file, but after a while, decided it wasn’t really meaningful,” she told me. “Each email I have has a different signature, since I use them for different purposes. So, I guess I’m saying there is no one right way. Chopping and changing won’t hurt, as long as you have your name, and a way to contact you.”

Long-time friend of the blog Ari Herzog is a policy and communications specialist and writes, teach, and consults on new marketing/media strategies. He points out that, “Mobile friendliness is huge, because you can’t assume (and may never know unless the recipient tells you) who will see the signature. If it’s forwarded, all the more reason. And because an email could be forwarded, make it easy to understand for the new recipient.” He confesses that his own sig changes a lot but generally includes his name, specialism, phone number, email and a web link.

Jo Brodie a Science Information Officer at Diabetes UK, confesses that she cheats and has several signatures for different purposes. “This is largely because I have two entirely separate jobs and don’t always need to include reference to the second job in either, but sometimes I do. As a fairly speedy typist I often just rustle them up while typing the email as well!”

Web designer and strategist Heidi Cool agrees that the sig you use should depend on the type of people you are e-mailing most often, and what info they are most likely to need. “If people need to come to your office or send you documents, then the full address is important,” she explains. “If you would prefer they contact via e-mail or a particular social media service, then include that. I keep mine pretty streamlined.” She adds that that if you wanted people to see the breadth of your social media spaces, you could also include a link to your Google profile, or a link to a page on your site where you list these. “If you can get into the heads of your typical recipients and think about their needs, that should put you on track,” she adds.

Gita Iyer a Small Business Webdesigner puts it most succinctly: “Make it as easy as possible for someone to contact you.” Bek De Cruz self-described Shaolin Webmonkey says “Mine is a mobile number and website in that order. Most people I deal with will either call or email, the inclusion of the website is shameless self promotion.”

Sue Cohen, a learning and development professional tells me that she includes contact information, including LinkedIn profile, a disclaimer and company and FSB numbers for information but no physical address. “If someone wants to get hold of me then phone, email or LinkedIn will get me a lot more often than “snail mail”,” she says. “I’ve seen some with photos and lots of other information but they sometimes get blocked or changed into plain text.”

Alberta recruiter Steven Davidson says that speaking from experience, “I can tell you that the longer ‘hyperlinked’ signatures are becoming less useful. They sometimes are blocked and quite often are too big to display on mobile devices. I’m all for pretty, but if it doesn’t show up…I have had good success attaching a Vcard to my email, and it never gets blocked, and actually prompts the user to download my info into their contacts.” He agrees that different sigs for different purposes can be useful as can doing the “seasonal thing”. In the final analysis, he suggests using what you would like to see from other people, but the possibilities are endless.”