When it comes to personal branding, I am always on the lookout for helpful tools and strategies that enhance the process.

If you are using Google Apps, Gmail or Yahoo email clients combined with Google’s Chrome browser, there is a browser extension that allows you to personalize you email signature.

It’s called Autopen and it has a great list of features which extend the capabilities of the Chrome browser by customizing your signature and installing your social profile icons into email. This may not sound like much, but a closer look shows you the power of this extension.

Features include;

• Unlimited signatures
• Insert any of the created signatures in replies and forwards
• Full-featured rich text editor
• Name each signature for easy location
• Synchronize the signatures with unlimited computers
• Automatically update all Google Apps and Gmail screens
• And many other features.

Once you’ve created your signatures synching up is a breeze.

Have a look at the video below.

So how can you obtain and install this extension?

As mentioned above this only works with Gmail and Yahoo mail accounts and you must use the Chrome browser. Using Chrome, you can get the Autopen extension here. Simply click the “Install” button.

If you have your toolbar showing, it will place an icon there. Click the icon, otherwise click on the wrench in the upper right corner and select “Set up sync…”.

Next, login to your Google account. You will land in the rich text editor where you can create your signatures.

Set your preferences and create your signatures. Any signature designated as default will be automatically inserted in your email when composing, replying or forwarding.

If you know some basic html, you can add in your social profile icons. In the upper left corner of the rich text editor’s toolbar, click on “HTML” to enter the html source editor where you will enter the appropriate coding. This will be a three-step process for each icon.

1. Upload your icon image to your WordPress Media area. If you plan to upload several, do them all at once.
2. Enter the code that points to the icon’s image
3. Enter the code that points to the icon’s destination

Your code should look similar to this.

Simply copy the code above into the html source editor, replacing the highlighted code for yours.

Repeat the process for each icon you want to include. The results will be similar to this next image.

Save and sync your input and you’re all set!

You have now added a little spice and some additional functionality to you email. This provides another means of being sociable, providing links to your profiles to your email recipients.

Anything that you can do to enhance your brand and do a little more than most others is a positive, so dare to be different.

Did you find this helpful?

If so, please share with others.

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