12 May Why I use emoticons in my emails
I’m a friendly sort of person – at least I like to think so.
© Kitsen | Dreamstime Stock Photos
Hugs or handshakes are dispensed as appropriate – but everyone gets a smile (unless I’m having a particularly bad day).
So when I write an email and get to the sign off, I want to do the same thing… which is where business protocol and I fall out.
It’s not ‘professional’ to use emoticons. Positively frowned upon in fact. So why do I feel rude or detached if I don’t add one after my name? I feel as though I’ve walked out of a meeting without saying goodbye.
Admittedly, a more formal, or brand new, connection is unlikely to get the smiley treatment – but if we build up rapport and get on well, as I am fortunate enough to do with pretty much all of my clients, then I do start to feel unnaturally cold just ending with my name.
Finding a ‘smiley’ solution
Maybe I need to develop a footer image that conveys a smile in a less ‘cartoony’ way. Perhaps I should even put a picture of myself there – but that feels a bit OTT, not to say cheesy, to be honest. Plus I don’t want to go putting people off their lunch.
Until I come up with something, then I will just have to go on adding an emoticon to convey the fact that I’m smiling as I say ‘goodbye’, ‘hello’ or ‘turned out nice again’.
Hopefully, everyone will find it in their hearts to forgive my natural informality. I never was going to be ‘corporate’ material, let’s face it!
😉
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