Tag: signature

Do Not Use Your Brand Name to Sign Comments [en]

Never use your brand name to sign comments. You are a person, not a brand.

How do you want to be perceived?

As a person?

Or as “advertising-disguised-as-conversation”?

There’s nothing wrong with representing a brand. You can even sign “Judy Smith (MyGreatBrand)” if it’s important to you — but be aware that it will make you sound like a commentor-for-hire or a “community manager” (note the quotes and the lowercase, not to be confused with the Community Manager, reserved for people who “get it” and usually occupy a senior position).

Signing with your brand name is also the surest way of being identified as spam — whether you really are spam or not.

You don’t want to make things difficult for the blogger who is deciding whether to approve or trash your comment: identify yourself clearly as a human being. Whether you use a name or a stable, recognizable nickname is not a big issue (at least for me). But using your brand as your nickname is so… cheesy.

And also impolite. You know who I am. Your comment is an open door to a conversation. Why would I not be allowed to know who you are? Even the robots who answer the phone in the worst of customer service call centres tell you their name.

Don’t be a ghost, hiding under the big white sheet of your brand.

Please do not sign comments with your brand name. Be a human being. Give me a name.

I’m toying the idea of replacing brand names with something witty (“Insert Brand Name Here”, or preferably something better I’ll think of under the shower tomorrow morning) and making them link to this article when people try signing comments with them. What do you think?

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Lettre signature: pas d'accusé de réception [fr]

[en] I just learned that the signature lettre I sent to France (a client who isn't paying me) will not allow me to know if it's been received or not: tracking stops at the border. I should have sent a letter with a delivery receipt. Guess all I have to do now is send the letter again.

Vilaine surprise tout à l’heure à la poste: une lettre signature, envoyée vers la France, ne me donne pas la possibilité de savoir si le destinataire a signé pour la recevoir. (J’ai un client français qui ne paie pas et reste muet face à mes mails, donc avant de sortir l’artillerie lourde je désire quand même avoir l’assurance qu’il a bien eu de mes nouvelles.)

Une lettre signature, en Suisse, permet maintenant de savoir si elle a été reçue par le destinataire. Si le destinataire est en France, par contre, le suivi s’arrête à la frontière. J’étais un peu surprise: le principe de la lettre signature n’est-il pas de pouvoir savoir si le destinataire l’a effectivement reçue? Eh non. La lettre signature permet simplement de faire des recherches si elle n’arrive pas à destination.

Pour être certain que votre mauvais payeur hors de Suisse a bien reçu votre ultime sommation, il vous faut donc demander un accusé de réception, qui coûte trois francs de plus.

Super. Je vais pouvoir aller renvoyer ma lettre.

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