‘Socialize’ your email…

No, I’m not talking about a plan for government to provide free email for all — that’s Google’s job! What I’m talking about is using your email to drive people to your home base or social media outposts. I advertise where I hang out online, what chat channels I use and what my latest blog post is with every email and all it takes is one, maybe two, free tools…

The first one is called Retaggr. Mashable says…

“What’s great about Retaggr is that it acts as the ultimate business card 2.0 for internet users who want to let people know who they are on the web as well as expand their personal brand. Likewise, Retaggr works as an ideal tool for bloggers who want their community of readers to get to know each other and participate more frequently.

With Retaggr, there is context around the comments on any given site. Names now become links that expand the Profile Card widget and showcase each owner’s virtual information without ever having to leave the site. Plus, blogs and sites that use Retaggr also get the photo tagging functionality which is similar to Facebook and Flickr, but takes it further by letting you see the names and Profile Cards of people in a picture all at one time.” Source: Retaggr: Stepping Up Online Activity with Super Business Card 2.0

Now here’s the cool part. Once you enter all your information into your ‘Super Business Card 2.0’, Retaggr gives you the embed code to create a cool signature file for every email client you use — Windows, Mac, Linux — makes no difference!

I have tested it with Office 2003, 2007, Thunderbird and Google mail — both Google Apps and Gmail — and it works like a charm. One catch, however, Google’s products don’t support html signatures so you need the second free tool which is a free Firefox addon called WiseStamp. The developer says…

“WiseStamp Firefox extension empowers your email signature on any webmail service (Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL, Hotmail, Google Apps…) Easily customize, Include IM & Social profiles, Automatically share your Blog posts, Quotes, News, Bookmarks and more… Enhance your personal and business email interactions” Source: Drive Traffic to Your Blog Simply by Using Your email Signature | WiseStamp Email Goodies

Using this approach not only makes it easy to reach me but also drives people to my social media outposts and ultimately draws them into my home base. Question is, why aren’t you ‘socializing’ your email?