{"id":1485,"date":"2010-02-12T12:41:30","date_gmt":"2010-02-12T17:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2014-10-06T19:08:44","modified_gmt":"2014-10-06T19:08:44","slug":"your-email-address","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/archives\/your-email-address","title":{"rendered":"What Does Your Email Address Say About You?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1489\" src=\"http:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/email-icon300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/>Are you using a social email address for business <span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;\">correspondence<\/span>? Over the last couple of weeks or so, I&#8217;ve noticed a trend in the use of email addresses that were clearly set-up for social purposes. You know the kind I mean. The ones where you &#8220;let your hair down&#8221; and go for it.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s a few examples (altered to protect the innocent):<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" align=\"center\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>greatlegs@hotmail.comlooking4mrRight@gmail.comhotluvin@yahoo.com<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>While these racy, descriptive\u00a0email addresses\u00a0are fun with friends, on dating sites or on\u00a0message boards, they just plain look strange on a professional website.\u00a0 I know that some people have special email addresses set-up for junk mail, and I&#8217;m sure more than a few have used those addresses to register for this site.<\/p>\n<p>However, when you are communicating on matters directly related to your business and profession, you need to present your business face.<\/p>\n<p>Whether you like it or not, opinions are formed and judgements are made.\u00a0 After all, your choice of an email address is a reflection of <em>your<\/em> judgement.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not likely that I am going to refer one of my clients to an attorney whose email address is HotHipsLarry@gmail.com.\u00a0 He might be one of the best divorce attorneys around, but is my client really going to want to have to deal with\u00a0the image she conjurs up of Mr. &#8220;hot hips&#8221; at a time like this?\u00a0 And, do I want to have to sooth her concerns when I make the referral?<\/p>\n<p>Come on, folks.\u00a0 It&#8217;s your brand we&#8217;re talking about here. Your email address is a client touch point for your practice.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t take your touch points serioiusly, why should prospective clients and referral sources take <strong>you<\/strong> seriously?<\/p>\n<p>Reserve the racy email address for your personal life and use your business address for business communications.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you like having a separate email address for professional newsletters and memberships, set-up one that doesn&#8217;t make you look silly&#8230;or worse, desperate.<\/p>\n<p>Like the one I just got today from &#8220;single-stilllooking@___.com&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Good grief!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Are you using a social email address for business correspondence? Over the last couple of weeks or so, I&#8217;ve noticed a trend in the use of email addresses that were clearly set-up for social purposes. <\/p>\n<p>Your email address is part of your branding and it&#8217;s also a touch-point for potential referral sources.  Don&#8217;t treat it lightly&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[26,47],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-business-etiquette","tag-musings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2999,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/2999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatepracticemarketingroundtable.com\/ppmr-members\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}