Earlier this morning, I received an email that had signature that was simply quite amazing. Not only it had this person’s name and contact information, it had a massive disclosure text. What made it stand out was the sheer number of icons touting this person’s social network profiles and other achievements. (See picture, actual size.) Only thing that was missing — cat pictures.

In comparison, my signature is three things — my name (obviously), a link to my about.me page and a simple message for PR people, which many disregard anyway. I understand we all have different styles and different motivations, but pushing unnecessary icons and information just doesn’t make sense and is actually counterproductive. Thoughts?