Control Your Emoticons in Your E-mails
January 4, 2008
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, what’s an emoticon worth? Something as simple as a 
, 
or 
can be complicated, especially when you’re talking about business e-mails.
E-mail software provider IncrediMail found that nearly 90 percent of 10,000 survey respondents have used an emoticon, smiley face or animated character to enhance an e-mail. For some, emoticons are still the mark of an unprofessional, lazy e-mailer. “It’s like wearing shorts to a business meeting,” says Jeremy Brandt, founder of FastHomeOffer.com, a marketing and lead-generation firm for residential real estate investors. “If you’re lazy in your e-mails, are you going to be lazy in your business dealings, too?”
Others take a situational tack: The propriety depends on the relationship between e-mailer and e-mailee. Thirty-five-year-old Jared Smith, co-founder of Tempe, Arizona-based BlueMedia, a vehicle wrap and large-format graphics firm with 2007 sales of about $5.8 million, finds that with some work relationships, emoticons make sense: “We have clients who want to have lunch and know how your kids are doing. I’ve found myself putting a smiley face at the end of [an] e-mail to convey the emotion necessary to build that rapport.” But he’s careful to keep it all business with more formal contacts.
By Laura Tiffany | Entrepreneur Magazine – January 2008
