More Reasons for Caution!

For some time I've encouraged the avoidance of ! in social media posts based both on research (see my Match.com image -- a staple in my social media presentations) and personal preference.  Today, a couple of new items supporting the sparing use of ! -- but also one meme that is promoting it.

Like the use of more than two hash tags, spam filters are looking for the use of ! to replace "i" in subject lines, and may catch your enthusiasm as well.  They are really looking for the multiples as this column on how to avoid the spam filter notes (irony: of the 10 bullet points, three of them used an exclamation point).

A little Australian flair to stress the downside of the multiple marks, and another on PR writing technique (see item four) that using them along with all caps undercuts credibility.

No less than the New York Times weighed in against the exclamation in emails back in 2011 -- no surprise for the stuffy Old Gray Lady -- but gives me a great new piece of ammunition courtesy of Mark Twain.  America's storyteller brings it all home:

One should never use exclamation points in writing. It is like laughing at your own joke.

The judicious use of the mark, however, may be something we have to consider.  Arguing a similar line of thought that I preach -- that digital communication strips off all the context, Drake Braer points out they can be useful to take the harsh off a cold read.  Then again, the friendly in this example gets to the point of sounding like you're yelling at me:

This infographic and it's back-up research tends to support the idea that adding them gets you retweets -- so is this a platform specific plus?  Reading into the article to me affirms the my original position.  For all the good an exclamation may bring in a retweet, it has the same deleterious effect on click through rate.  I want you to read something or see something -- and the ! has demonstrated negative impact.