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I received an e mail from a woman at the UK-based management company Harrison Parrott this morning, and this was under her title/phone number/address in her auto signature:

News Flash: The BBC Symphony Orchestra have just announced Oliver Knussen as their new Artist in Association, the three-year appointment consolidating his long relationship with them as a composer and conductor. Full press release >> More news >>

I assume everyone at Harrison Parrott changes their signature as news about their artists comes in, and I think that’s fantastic. IMG Artists, my former place of employ, has news items right on their homepage, which is also useful, CAMI has a press release section, which is not as useful, and Opus 3 Artists (formerly ICM) has a column of news items on their homepage. Opus 3 is the big winner of the three, because they offer the option to subscribe to an RSS Feed of their news posts.

I’m wondering if it will come across as arrogant if I add artists’ news items to my auto signature. It might be a bit much from a publicist (or, is that where it’s actually most appropriate?), but it certainly works for a management company, and would be fitting for an orchestra or presenting organization as well.

It’s a war out there! Get exposure where you can!

Yvonne says

February 12, 2009 at 5:37 am

Hmm. I really dislike the visual clutter that comes with email signatures. First you get the person’s own signature – which is handy, especially if you need to respond with a phone call, and which can be very compact (although it often isn’t). Then you get the promo blurb (say, for a concert coming up), which is usually longer than needs be and can be a downright nuisance if it contains a graphical element that requires you to download before you can reply. And finally there’s the inevitable legal blurb about the email being subject to copyright and no responsibility being taken for viruses and please advise if you have received this email in error…
Put all this together and it’s an unwieldy mess. Sometimes it’s longer than the message itself. And for the most part, if the actual message ends at the bottom of the screen with the person’s name, I’m not going scroll down to read their various signature items.
Preference aside, there’s the issue of who’s receiving these signatures? Most of the time people in the arts are writing to other people in the arts. These messages (especially concert/event promos, which is what I see mostly) aren’t necessarily being sent to people who are interested. Or rather, the messages are being couched as if for a ticket-buying audience but are mainly being sent to industry insiders. So the wording of the message is off even if the interest might be there.
But to answer your question, I wouldn’t see it as arrogant to be adding artist news to your signature. I’d say, yes, it’s probably where it is indeed most appropriate. And I can imagine that such news might be of genuine interest to your base of correspondents. I’d just say make it really short.
As far as orchestras go. I’m not sure that promoting the upcoming concert is the most imaginative or useful way to use the signature function. In my case I know that such a message would either be off or redundant for 90% of my correspondents. But perhaps there is other news (tiny one-liner stuff) that an orchestra could share that would work in this context. I guess I’m saying genuine news flashes such as you give in your examples are going to be more effective than overt advertising of, say, a concert event.

Comments

Yvonne says

February 12, 2009 at 5:37 am

Hmm. I really dislike the visual clutter that comes with email signatures. First you get the person’s own signature – which is handy, especially if you need to respond with a phone call, and which can be very compact (although it often isn’t). Then you get the promo blurb (say, for a concert coming up), which is usually longer than needs be and can be a downright nuisance if it contains a graphical element that requires you to download before you can reply. And finally there’s the inevitable legal blurb about the email being subject to copyright and no responsibility being taken for viruses and please advise if you have received this email in error…
Put all this together and it’s an unwieldy mess. Sometimes it’s longer than the message itself. And for the most part, if the actual message ends at the bottom of the screen with the person’s name, I’m not going scroll down to read their various signature items.
Preference aside, there’s the issue of who’s receiving these signatures? Most of the time people in the arts are writing to other people in the arts. These messages (especially concert/event promos, which is what I see mostly) aren’t necessarily being sent to people who are interested. Or rather, the messages are being couched as if for a ticket-buying audience but are mainly being sent to industry insiders. So the wording of the message is off even if the interest might be there.
But to answer your question, I wouldn’t see it as arrogant to be adding artist news to your signature. I’d say, yes, it’s probably where it is indeed most appropriate. And I can imagine that such news might be of genuine interest to your base of correspondents. I’d just say make it really short.
As far as orchestras go. I’m not sure that promoting the upcoming concert is the most imaginative or useful way to use the signature function. In my case I know that such a message would either be off or redundant for 90% of my correspondents. But perhaps there is other news (tiny one-liner stuff) that an orchestra could share that would work in this context. I guess I’m saying genuine news flashes such as you give in your examples are going to be more effective than overt advertising of, say, a concert event.