Meet Super Signature; Steve Sims

Hey, this is Steve Sims from The Art of Making Things Happen podcast, and I have got a brilliant guest. Now everyone says, whenever a guest comes on, “This one’s brilliant,” but this one quite simply is a superhero.

It doesn’t fly through the air. It doesn’t have a cape, but I would like to introduce you to the super signature. And what the hell is that? Do you know, it’s amazing, whenever I go out and I see companies and I get contacted by different people, I quite often will get different signatures. Here’s a test for you. Pick up your iPad, look at your computer, look at your iPhone or your Android. And look at the signature you have at the bottom of your email. You’ll be surprised, as time goes by, you’ve tweaked it, you’ve changed it, but not on all platforms. So every signature’s different.

The super signature is a single signature that gets the message across. Why? Because you don’t want to confuse your people. Now, this was actually brought to my attention by a friend of mine called Ari Meisel and it actually works on something that I look at, when I look at continuity within your social platforms. We’ll go into that in a couple of seconds. But the bottom line of it is, when you’re reaching out to people, friends, vendors, partners, business investors or potential joint venture people, you want to make sure that you confuse as little as possible and you keep the continuity.

On that super signature, you should have your name, contact details, but also your boast. You should have on there, your media page. You should have on there, latest article written by. You should have on there, interested in a question and then a link to something that they can go and learn a bit more.

Just having the old days of your name, your email address and your phone number and your facsimile machine. Those aren’t working anymore. You’ve got to put a bit more into it.

If you think you want to put that into a single block picture, because it looks fantastic, then I urge you do not do that. Why? Because a lot of computers and a lot of phones can be set to be text only. And when it’s text only, pictures don’t come through. Plus the fact, if you want to phone the person and you’re clicking on that picture to be able to hit the phone number, it doesn’t work. So why do something that does not work?

So don’t put the banners on the bottom, unless it’s underneath those details. But make sure you have the same email on every platform and then make sure that everyone within your organization does the exact same.

Now let’s transfer that continuity over to your social platforms. I’m very amazed that when you look at LinkedIn, you’ve got everyone up there with their business shirt on and everyone’s looking professional because hey, it’s LinkedIn. Yet they go over on to Facebook and it’s girls gone wild.

Why do that? Why confuse the message? Why have one tone of voice with someone you’re talking to on Facebook or Twitter and have a completely different one on LinkedIn? You don’t think they’re going to notice? The second biggest search engine outside of Google is social platforms.

You’re going to employ someone, you look at the resume, which is literally just text that you want me to read. You give me your website, which again is copy that you want me to read? No, no, no. I’m going to search all the places you don’t want me looking. I’m going to find out if you’re on LinkedIn, I’m going to find out if you’re on Twitter, I’m going to find out if you’re kicking seals on Facebook. Those are the search engines, that while they say, “Oh, you shouldn’t be looking on it because they’re social.” If you don’t make it private, everyone’s going to be looking at them.

So I urge you, whatever your message and tone of voice is on LinkedIn, make sure the continuity goes through on Facebook and Twitter. Make sure your super signature acknowledges your social so you can proudly go, “Hey, if you want to learn a bit more about me, here’s my LinkedIn profile. Here’s Facebook, here’s Twitter.” And when they see all three of those are actually carrying the same message, it’s continuity.

I actually do recall a boss of mine once, years ago, when I was in England, wouldn’t take someone on because they had a brown belt and black shoes. And he said to me, “If they can’t pay attention to the small details, by having a pair of shoes and belt match, how can they work in my company?” Don’t confuse your clients as to who you are. Don’t confuse your clients and your friends as to what message and what tone and what you actually stand for.

So look at all three of your platforms, make sure they say the same message. You can have slightly different pictures, of course you can, but don’t pretend that you’re someone different on LinkedIn, that you are on Facebook and then relay those onto your social platforms, onto your super signature to not confuse your clients. Because no one does business with anyone that’s confused.

IMPORTANT LINKS:

https://simsdistillery.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/stevedsims/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sdsims/