The Power of the Exclamation Mark

Do you do a lot of communication via the Internet? Silly me. Of course you do. It's 2016 and there is so much interaction and communication done online. Whether you talk to people for social reasons or job-related, whether it's facebook, twitter, email, texting, discussion boards, etc... we find ourselves doing a lot of written communication. It is very difficult to sense 'tone' in emails or written communication in general. We could be in a great mood! yet the email might come off crass or blunt. We could be simply saying something matter of factly, but the unintentional tone of the communication might be rude or short or indifferent. So with so much communication in the form of writing, we must think through not only WHAT we say, but HOW we say it. You can craft an email in a way that your tone is clear and that is with two things: Exclamation points and emoji's! The power of the exclamation point is so strong. It is the single best weapon in trying to not only convey your happy tone, but also in building relationships because the more exclamation points you use, the better the recipient feels and then is more likely to have good feelings/thoughts about you and it will snowball from there into a great relationship. 

Scenario #1:  A person does something nice for you and you respond with "thanks." Now, that person might think, "oh wow, what a jerk. that's all I get?" It comes off as a very unmeaningful showing of half-hearted gratitude. BUT, if you respond with "Thanks!!!" then we have a whole different situation on our hands. That person sees those three exclamation points and immediately knows you are saying that with a lot of appreciation and a big ol' smile on your face. That makes the person feel good. And to think, all it took was hitting shift + 1 three times. We go from the person basically hating you for being rude, to loving you for being so nice and appreciative. 

Scenario #2: You are texting back and forth with someone and even though you don't think something is very funny, you send a bunch of crying-laughing face emoji's because you know that will make the recipient feel good and that you are really crackin' up over their jokes. There's no such thing as using "too many emojis." Use as many as you can! The more the better. There are tons of examples of people building great relationships solely based on emoji's.  Huge companies have merged to make a great joint company through wide-grin emoji's and the thumb's up emoji. Think about it in your own life: how good do you feel when you see that chocolate pudding smiley face and start laughing because you know it's not actually chocolate pudding? Exactly. Probably all the time. 

So pick a favorite emoji!!! Use them liberally!!! Start leveling up your written communication!!! 

bye (see? doesn't that seem rude or like the person doesn't care?)
Bye!!! (that's better. This person is clearly excited to leave you.)