Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 21, 2010
ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE REACTS TO LIMBAUGH SLUR
ADL: RUSH LIMBAUGH REACHES NEW LOW WITH
“BORDERLINE ANTI-SEMITIC” REMARKS ABOUT JEWS
New York, NY, January 21, 2010 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with “borderline anti-Semitic comments” on his radio show, in which he raised the possibility that liberal Jews were having “buyer’s remorse” with President Obama in light of the outcome of the Senate election in Massachusetts.
Limbaugh told his listeners: “To some people, banker is a code word for Jewish; and guess who Obama is assaulting? He’s assaulting bankers. He’s assaulting money people. And a lot of those people on Wall Street are Jewish. So I wonder if there’s – if there’s starting to be some buyer’s remorse there.”
Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:
Rush Limbaugh reached a new low with his borderline anti-Semitic comments about Jews as bankers, their supposed influence on Wall Street, and how they vote.
Limbaugh’s references to Jews and money in a discussion of Massachusetts politics were offensive and inappropriate. While the age-old stereotype about Jews and money has a long and sordid history, it also remains one of the main pillars of anti-Semitism and is widely accepted by many Americans. His notion that Jews vote based on their religion, rather than on their interests as Americans, plays into the hands of anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
When he comes to understand why his words were so offensive and unacceptable, Limbaugh should apologize.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Untitled
Remembering Teddy Pendegrass solo http://ping.fm/B9qyQ and fronting Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes http://ping.fm/Pybrg RIP.
via Ping.fm
Remembering Teddy Pendegrass solo http://ping.fm/B9qyQ and fronting Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes http://ping.fm/Pybrg RIP.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Michael P. Skarzynski resigns as Arbitron CEO/Chicago Tribune Tower Ticker
« CBS' David Letterman on NBC's Jay Leno-Conan O'Brien bungle: 'Once again, I did not get "The Tonight Show" ' | Main
January 11, 2010
Michael P. Skarzynski resigns as Arbitron CEO
Michael P. Skarzynski has resigned after 11 months as president and chief executive of Arbitron Inc., the radio ratings company announced Monday.Arbitron said Skarzynski and the board determined he had violated a company policy not related to its financial performance. William T. Kerr, a company director, was named his successor.
It's said Skarzynski planned to write a memoir of his time at Arbitron, but he stopped keeping a diary and now has no idea what he actually did. OK, that's a Portable People Meter joke, but the first two paragraphs are true.
Comments
Verify your Comment
Previewing your Comment
Posted by: |
This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another commentThe letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.
As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.
Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.
There's WAY more to this story, and it could affect broadcasters nationwide. Give it a few days and the truth will come out. All I can say is "Oy".
Thursday, January 07, 2010
A Vision Of What A Radio Can Be-Via Tom Webster/The Infinite Dial
I first saw a Pure Sensia radio on a trip to a client in the UK. While we have seen some kinds of versions of an Internet radio for at least a decade, this is the first I have seen to elegantly combine both 'Internet Radio' in any form with the touch-screen functionality of today's mobile phones and to leverage other Internet assets. With so many homes now having WiFi, this is an example of a well-thought-out radio that would truly make someone say: "Wow cool what's that" if they saw it in your living room.
The biggest problem in the short term is the price tag -- at $349 it is unlikely to find many customers, no matter how nice looking it is. That said, radio people should check it out for a vision of where our medium could go if those on the programming side started to also consider the hardware that is used to consume radio.
One can access the press release on the Pure Sensia here
Tom Webster is one of he really 'smart guys" in the radio world, and he has he vision to see what radio can be in the future. Few have the gift that he does for seeing the potential and the reality of radio. This post from his blog is a perfect example of Tom's understanding of what the future can hold.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
The worst case of short-sightedness by anyone in 2009
Category: Technology Author : Steven Hodson Posted: December 26, 2009
Tags : amazon, audiobooks, Authors Guild, kindleThe worst case of short-sightedness by anyone in 2009
There have been a number of reactions by media and entertainment industries right across the board that showed how short-sighted they can be when it comes to the changes that new technology brings to the table. In my opinion though we can go right back to February of 2009 for what has to be the worst case.
Back then I wrote here about how the Authors Guild was getting all up in arms about how Amazon’s Kindle was going to have text-to-speech enabled by default. As I wrote then
What it boils down to is that this Guild; which is suppose to be acting on behalf of it’s member authors, says that by creating an audio version of a book you are in fact creating a whole new product that is totally based on a copyrighted book. In other reports on this the Guild has even gone to the point of suggesting that any verbal or audio reproduction of a book is and infringement on a copyright and there for illegal.
In the end Amazon capitulated and shipped the Kindle with text-to-speech disabled as well as providing publishers with the option to totally disable the feature. Of course this was a great feature that would have been a boon to visually impaired people and maybe even have encouraged more sales of the e-reader.
However the Guild had its way and Amazon scampered back to its corner licking its balls wounds. Instead of seeing this as a way to encourage additional sales, and not just to the visually impaired the Guild decided that being able to double dip on sales was more preferable to providing added value that would benefit everyone.
Short-sighted and dumb.
via inquisitr.com
Amazon and the Authors Guild did a major disservice to the visually impaired community, many of who would have bought the Kindle and he books that fwent on it. Shame on Amazon and the Guild for denying those who can't read normal books the ability to enjoy and learn from Authors Guild members.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
The Christmas Song Of The Year
Merry Swiftmas (Even Though I Celebrate Chanukah) by Evan Taubenfeld
Download now or listen on posterous
01 Merry Swiftmas (Even Though I Cel.mp3 (4092 KB) Download now or listen on posterous
I love Christmas music. I love the standards, the songs I grew up on, the original tunes from my favorite artists, and a good novelty Christmas song too. Its only December 12th, and I'm declaring the winner in the Christmas Song Of The Year race. AndImagine that, its kind of a novelty song.
For your listening pleasure (just listen, if you like it BUY it for goshsakes) Mr. Evan Taubenfeld and Merry Swiftmas (Even Though I Celebrate Chanukkah). Not bad for the son of the owners of a Kosher catering company.
No matter what you celebrate, enjoy!
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Arbitron’s ‘little gadget’ causes major static |Robert Feder blogs.vocalo.org
Luis Gutierrez, the Chicago Democrat, surprised fellow members of Congress earlier this year with the revelation that he and his wife were participants in an Arbitron ratings survey. They’d been chosen to carry Portable People Meters, which are compact devices that monitor radio listening electronically.
What Inside Radio called Gutierrez’s “shocking announcement” not only ignored Arbitron strictures against survey panelists disclosing their participation, it also underscored why the PPM system — which replaced the old paper-and-pencil diary method — has not yet gained full acceptance by the industry or federal regulators.
“It really is very burdensome technology,” Gutierrez said of his experience during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on minority broadcast ownership. “My wife’s dresses sometimes did not accommodate the little gadget.” While joking about the five-dollar fee he received as a Hispanic participant, he said it was a struggle to remember to carry the pager-like device each day: “I barely take my medicine when I’m supposed to, and I forget about my glasses. . . . I can’t see an auto mechanic using this. If you’re a nurse or a doctor, are you really going to walk around with this pager all day long?”
Even more controversial than the technology is the sampling Arbitron has been using to gather its data. As stations aimed at minorities have seen their ratings decline (by one estimate they’ve dropped between 40 and 60 percent nationwide since PPM kicked in), Congress has been holding Arbitron’s feet to the fire. As recently as last week, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform grilled Arbitron CEO Michael Skarzynski, who declared: “We share the concern regarding the health of minority broadcasting, and are certain that PPM is not the cause of its problems.” According to a summary by Radio Business Report, Skarzynski said his company had spent more than $100 million to develop technology that produces valid and reliable audience estimates.
So what happens when a minority-targeted station does well in the ratings? Consider Clear Channel Radio’s urban adult-contemporary WVAZ-FM (102.7), which finished first among all listeners between the ages of 25 and 54 (the “money demo” coveted by advertisers) in the PPM survey for November. That achievement prompted the Sun-Times to ask in a headline: “Is Arbitron cooking ratings numbers?” Citing unnamed radio execs, columnist Lewis Lazare had them “wondering whether Arbitron, to avert any unwanted action by Congress, might in recent months have been reallocating its [PPMs] — and/or weighting the data from those meters — in a way that skews the results more heavily in favor of minority-oriented formats.”
The allegation drew a strong denial from Arbitron — and a sharp rebuke this week from Sean Ross, the highly respected executive editor of music and programming for Radio-Info.com and vice president of music and programming for Edison Research, who wrote:
“Even if Arbitron were showing greater diligence at hitting its ethnic targets in Chicago or any other market, well, that’s what a ratings provider is supposed to be doing, particularly now. Describing that as ‘cooking ratings numbers’ in a major daily suggests naiveté about the vicissitudes of the sampling process and broadcasters’ rhetoric on the topic — every month, the station that goes back up in the ratings thinks it’s because they raised hell with Arbitron about the sample the month before.”
In this market, the effect of the new ratings system is most evident in sweeping talent changes over the past year or two. Everyone from Steve Dahl, Melissa Forman, Ed Volkman and Joe Bohannon to Jonathon Brandmeier, Ramsey Lewis, Kathy O’Malley and Judy Markey can blame their predicaments on PPM numbers that were lower than the ratings they delivered under Arbitron’s old method.
Even so, to make Arbitron a scapegoat for all of radio’s ills is more than naïve or simplistic. It overlooks the double-digit declines in advertising revenue brought about by the economic downturn and competing media — especially the Internet. It disregards the impact of iPods, online streaming and satellite radio. And it ignores the crushing debt loads that threaten the very survival of many radio companies.
But then again, in troubled times, it’s always been easiest to blame the messenger.
via blogs.vocalo.org
Great story and analysis from the Dean of media writers, Robert Feder. I'll save my own comments and present this "as is" for your reading pleasure.
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Friday, December 04, 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
A Glimmer Of Hope For St. Louis Public Transit
For the next few months, you'll be seeing me write about the public transit situation in St. Louis and the need to pass a modest tax increase in order to continue to provide even bare bones service to the area. This is a topic that's critically important to me as I rely on mass transit to get around (due to a visual handicap) but its also one of the key things that will determine how the St. Louis area develops. Without an effective public transit system, the region will atrophy and ultimately lose even more jobs and residents.
I found a piece of what could be great news today in regards to the upcoming ballot issue, thanks to my co-workers at KMOX Radio.
I found a piece of what could be great news today in regards to the upcoming ballot issue, thanks to my co-workers at KMOX Radio.
Posted: Wednesday, 02 December 2009 4:25AM
Metro sales tax officially resurrected; message in focus
Michael Calhoun Reporting
mrcalhoun@cbs.com
CLAYTON (KMOX) -- Last spring, Chesterfield opened its wallet to prevent transit cuts in west county. Now, the
town's mayor is heading up efforts to find permanent funding for Metro.
"After what happened this year, people are now very aware public transportation and the cuts and what it meant to the region," John Nations says.
St. Louis County Councilmembers Tuesday officially resurrected that half-cent sales tax to fund Metro and introduced it for consideration. A tentative vote will happen next week.
Nations says there's little federal help and no state funding, so it's all on Saint Louisans.
"A lot of people rely on businesses which rely on public transpiration even though they themselves don't ride it," he says of the message to come ahead of April's election.
The half-cent sales tax would generate about $80-million each
year.
Look at the campaign finance reports, he says, and you'll find
both Republicans and Democrats agreeing on that.
In the face of $45-million deficit, Metro earlier this year slashed service to parts of the region. A state bail-out helped restore some of those routes.
Copyright KMOX Radio
Why is this good news? Four words. JOHN NATIONS GETS IT. 
In a region where so few politicians and their stooges have no appreciation for mass transit, Mayor Nations has distinguished himself as someone who understands why transit in St. Louis is important, not only to people like me who use it, but to everyone in the region.
After the disastrous campaign to get more money for Metro, the St. Louis transit agency, in November of 2008, a monkey could run a better effort for the upcoming ballot question. The people behind the measure went a quantum leap over that and got one of the region's most visionary leaders to lead the charge and hopefully convince enough people to spring for the half cent tax to fund mass transit in St. Louis.
This isn't a partisan thing, its about what's right for the region as a whole and the patrons of mass transit as well. I hope to share objective information about how the campaign is run, the chances of passing the ballot measure, and call out the creeps should they rear their ugly heads. If you're not from St. Louis, please bear with me as this is an important issue. If you are from St. Louis, watch this space for updates.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
The Associated Press: Signal fading on radio traffic reports
Signal fading on radio traffic reportsBy DAISY NGUYEN (AP) – 1 day ago
CORONA, Calif. — For more than 20 years, Mike Nolan was known to radio listeners as the "eye in the sky." He flew over Southern California freeways in his single-engine plane, reporting on the nation's worst traffic.
These days, he broadcasts about traffic snarls and lurking gridlock without leaving the ground — without even leaving his home in this Los Angeles suburb. Sitting in a chair behind computer monitors and a television, Nolan gathers traffic data and broadcasts live on two radio stations a day.
"What I'm best suited to do is look out the airplane window and tell people what I see," Nolan, 60, said. "When I was grounded, that world changed considerably so I had to reinvent myself."
His return to earth reflects the evolution of the traffic reporting business as a faltering economy forces news operation cutbacks, technology displaces traditional reporters and motorists increasingly rely on cell phones and GPS to monitor live traffic.
Most traffic news is now generated by reporters on the ground monitoring police reports, live highway cameras, data from ground sensors that can detect traffic speed and tips from drivers.
Reporters can be hundreds of miles away away from the scene and detail the latest traffic jams to three or four radio stations in the same hour, sometimes using aliases. Rebecca Campbell might report at the top of the hour for the Fox sports station using her own name, then 20 minutes later appear as Toni Jordan on an alternative rock station. For a station popular with Latino listeners, she goes by the name Lena Macias.
Even as traffic reporters have had their wings clipped in recent years, the airwaves ahead appear even more bumpy.
Music stations competing for listeners have been cutting back on disc jockey banter, and some industry veterans believe traffic reports could fade altogether.
"A number of years ago it'd be unheard of to have an FM station in L.A. without traffic reports," said Don Bastida, vice president of operations for Airwatch, one of the nation's largest traffic-reporting services. "Now traffic reports on the music stations become just an interruption that gives the listener an opportunity to hit the button and move on to the next station."
He said traffic reports will remain on the AM dial, but they'll decline to the point that they'll only be offered as part of a news story when a major incident happens.
The region's top-rated pop station, KISS-FM, recently dropped afternoon traffic reports after AMP-FM, a new Top 40 station received higher ratings without traffic updates.
Metro Traffic, a division of Westwood One Inc., began consolidating its 60 traffic reporting operations around the nation last year to just 13. As a result, reporters in the Washington D.C. hub also cover traffic news for Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina. Some plane and helicopter reporting flights were cut as part of cost reductions that will amount to $55 million to $63 million annually.
Airwatch, a subsidiary of radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc., has 60 reporters and producers working around the clock to provide traffic updates to more than 40 Southern California stations. They sit side by side in a small studio overlooking an Orange County freeway, staring at computer monitors and TV screens as they speak into the microphones, sometimes talking over each other as they file live reports.
Airwatch's revenue grew each year for nearly 10 years. But in late 2007, seven reporters lost their jobs when Clear Channel downsized the operation.
Nolan was one of them. He took a substantial pay cut to work from the ground. He chose to work from home rather than commute 40 miles roundtrip to the Airwatch studio in Santa Ana.
He now takes a few steps from his bedroom to his study to start his split shifts, from 5 to 9 a.m. then 3 to 7 p.m. He puts on a headset, turns on the stopwatch application on his iPhone, and pulls up a half-dozen Web pages to gather traffic information.
When it's his turn to come on at the top of the hour, 20 minutes past and bottom of the hour on KFI-AM and twice per hour on KOST-FM, Nolan rattles off a list of congested freeways in 40 second to one minute bursts.
Growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the early 1960s, Nolan saw freeways expand deeper into suburbs. Flying over Southern California day in and day out gave him an understanding of traffic patterns that enhance his reports from the ground.
When he reads traffic maps on the computer, he can picture every tunnel, hill and curve and knows when drivers should be slowing down. He can suggest alternate routes and knows what type of incident is likely to cause more misery.
He said that kind of knowledge can't be replaced by GPS-equipped gadgets.
"The radio reporter is going to tell you what's going on where you're going to be in addition to where you are," Nolan said.
Bastida at Airwatch predicts that in a few years, motorists will steer further away from the radio as carmakers add even more navigation systems and Internet-access equipment to vehicles. Airwatch has a growing service providing traffic updates directly to navigational units in vehicles.
"There will be jobs for people gathering and inputting the traffic data, but jobs for broadcasters will be going away," Bastida said.
Not everyone has a bleak outlook.
John Frawley, executive vice president of broadcast operations for Metro Traffic, said traffic news remains a big draw on news and talk stations. He says a device may tell drivers where the traffic jams are and how far the backup is, but it doesn't explain the cause.
"When our people come on, people pay attention," Frawley said. "They're interested that somebody else is suffering in traffic, too."
Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
via google.com
While I program two radio stations with traffic reports, its kind of hard to argue with the facts in the story. If you haven't seen the live traffic on Google Maps, especially on a mobile device, you'll see why traffic reporting is about to become a personal choice as opposed to something that's pushed via radio or TV.
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
As God As My Witness, I Thought Turkeys Could Fly
I miss WKRP in Cincinnati.
I miss radio the way it used to be. I miss Jennifer Marlowe.
But every Thanksgiving, I'm reminded of the great show Hugh Wilson and Bill Dial wrote about an old school radio stunt gone bad. If you haven't seen it, take the 21 minutes and enjoy.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Glenn Beck-Political Organizer. Wait, Didn't That Obama Guy Do Something Like That?
Glenn Beck is coming to your neighborhood to teach you how to be a "political force". Here's his theme song! http://ping.fm/GJSO9
Details are in the New York Times
Glenn Beck Stakes Out a More Activist Role in Politics
Glenn Beck, the popular and outspoken Fox News host, says he wants to go beyond broadcasting his opinions and start rallying his political base — formerly known as his audience — to take action.
To do so, Mr. Beck is styling himself as a political organizer. In an interview, he said he would promote voter registration drives and sponsor a series of seven conventions across the country featuring what he described as libertarian speakers.
On Saturday he held a festive campaign-style rally in The Villages in Florida, north of Orlando, in which he promoted his recently released book, “Arguing With Idiots,” and announced another book to come next August filled with right-leaning policy proposals gathered from the conventions.
Mr. Beck provided few details about his plans for the tour, making it unclear if he truly intends to prod his audience of millions into political action or merely burnish his media brand ahead of a book release.
Mr. Beck did say the conventions would resemble educational seminars, and he emphasized that while candidates may align themselves with the values and principles that he espouses, he would not take the next step to endorse them.
In describing the conventions, he told the crowd on Saturday: “You’re going to learn about finance. You’re going to learn about community organizing. You’re going to learn everything we need to know if you want to be a politician.”
His staff would not say whether particular candidates for office in the 2010 midterm elections would be invited to speak at the conventions or the August rally.
As for the question of Mr. Beck’s intentions, “He might just be trying to sell books, but there are much simpler ways to sell books,” said Ari Rabin-Havt, a vice president at Media Matters, the liberal media monitoring group. He said Mr. Beck sounded more like a presidential candidate than a pundit.
Mr. Beck, having used his television and radio pulpit to lay out his list of the country’s impending problems — deficit spending, health care legislation that will “destroy” the economy, a dearth of “personal responsibility” — says he now wants to also provide solutions.
In the interview, Mr. Beck, a frequent critic of President Obama, chose his words carefully but made clear that he intended to help elect politicians aligned with his limited-government world view. “We’ll be looking for ways to get people involved in politics,” he said.
Mr. Beck is not the only media firebrand trying to mobilize Americans disaffected with a Democratic-controlled government. The radio host Laura Ingraham is inviting candidates to sign a 10-point pledge on her Web site. Sean Hannity, on his afternoon radio show and prime-time Fox News program, is promoting “Conservative Victory 2010,” his name for the map on his site that will spell out questions for candidates.
And the former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who has a show on Fox News, has steered viewers to his Web site, where they can contribute money to his political action committee in support of conservative candidates.
Pundits have used their media stages to encourage political action before, but people like Mr. Beck and Mr. Hannity are taking on outsize roles now, political experts and conservative commentators say. One reason, they say, is the weakened state of the Republican Party.
The media figures’ roles may exacerbate the ideological feuds that are already roiling the party. For the diffuse tea party movement that taps into anti-government sentiments, “the media guys are the closest things we even have to a leader,” said Adam Brandon, the vice president for communications at FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group.
These efforts are reminiscent of the Contract With America pledge made by conservatives during the 1994 elections, though some Republicans who are uncomfortable with media personalities taking on new political roles note that that effort originated with lawmakers.
When asked about Mr. Beck at a conference last month, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said: “Here’s what I worry about. How many people in my business are going to be controlled by what’s said on the radio or in a TV commercial?”
It was not lost on Mr. Beck’s fans that the Saturday rally and book signing were held in Florida, where the Republican governor, Charlie Crist, has been sharply criticized by conservatives as he runs for an open seat in the United States Senate. Mr. Crist’s challenger, Marco Rubio, has already signed the pledge on Ms. Ingraham’s Web site, as have a smattering of other conservative candidates.
Already, Mr. Beck’s page on FoxNews.com features what it calls “In or Out 2010,” a “simple challenge” for lawmakers. It includes a pledge to back a freeze in government spending; oppose all tax increases “until our economy has rebounded”; and support stricter immigration enforcement.
Amy Green contributed reporting.
My favorite quote is on Newser.com I have begun meeting with some of the best minds in the country that believe in limited government, maximum freedom and the values of our Founders. I am developing a 100-year plan.- Glenn Beck
I have to go read the First Amendment now to remind myself that the whole free speech thing is actually good, and not evil. And I have to go watch the epic film "Network". I do believe Howard Beale is coming to life and he wants to be President.
And should you not know the work of Mr. Beck, please enjoy this snippet from his Fox News show, wontcha...
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Email Signature Etiquette | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer
This week on Digital Life I did a segment about Email Signature Etiquette. It generated a bit of buzz, so I thought I’d share it with you.
Almost every email program lets you automatically add a signature to the emails you send. I’m sure you seen all kinds of interesting ones: flowery ones, very dense ones, and the horrifying and aesthetically offensive ones. What should yours look like? Here are a few simple guidelines:
First, every single email you send should have a signature. It should be plain text, so that it will look the same no matter what device or software is used to read it. When I say plain text, I mean just type (for geeks, ASCII text), no pictures, no logos, no html code, nothing but text.
Why? More than half the corporate world uses BlackBerrys to communicate. Depending on the vintage, they handle HTML over a wide range from, very poorly to marginally poorly. The operating word here is “poorly,” so why set up a signature that’s guaranteed to torture a large number of corporate users. Overly ornate signatures will produce highly unexpected, and possibly unreadable, results on a BlackBerry. This is also true for the body copy of the email. Tabs, bullets, any kind of alignment is all thrown out the window and HTML looks like jumbled computer code when it is displayed as text.
Another, and possibly more important, reason to use plain text is the wide range of spam filters that are currently deployed. Many of these filters look at the ratio of text to graphics as a test. If you’re email is already in HTML format, a logo or a combination of logo and your picture may kick your email into the corporate trash.
Like I said, signatures should be simple, complete and in plain text.
What should you include in your email signature? If it’s your personal signature: your name, email and the phone number(s) that are most relevant to your average recipients. Yes, your email address is in the “from” field at the top of the email. And, yes, they can reply to you by simply clicking “reply.” But what if they want to copy your information into a document or the notes field of a database or an address book program? The goal is to make contacting you and storing your information convenient.
If you have a business account, your signature should include all of your contact data. Name, title, company, office address, your email, your phone numbers and the company website. All text and all neatly stacked flush left.
Why include everything? How many times have you wanted to call someone about an email they sent and, because their phone number wasn’t in the email, you had to stop what you were doing to go look it up. Putting all your contact info into your email communication shows a world of respect for the one thing that everyone needs and has way too little of, their time.
One last thing, it is completely OK to leave the line, “Sent from my blackberry” or “Sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of a mobile email. It lets the recipient know that you are answering their email from your mobile device and that may get you a pass on some small typos and spelling errors. However, do everyone a favor and lose the, “Typing with my thumbs” line. It’s the 21st century; everyone types with their thumbs.
Set up some plain text email signatures and use them. It’s the right thing to do. For more help with your digital life, come visit me at shellypalmer.com
Shelly Palmer is the host of "Digital Life with Shelly Palmer," a weekly half-hour television show about living and working in a digital world which can be seen on WNBC-TV’s NY Nonstop Tuesdays at 10p Eastern and online, and the host of "MediaBytes," a daily news show that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and the President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). Mr. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press) and the upcoming, Get Digital: Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21st Century Economy (2009, Lake House Press). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net For information visit www.shellypalmer.com
A tip o' the hat to the great Shelly Palmer for some common sense advice on e mail signatures. I'm cleaning mine up now, say goodbye to the cute little pictures that look like typos on a Blackberry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)