How to make a good first impression in business, according to researchers

Over the past half century, virtual interactions have become a mainstay of contemporary organizations, whether used for formal job interviews or day-to-day communication. 

Despite this central role, there is a lack of a holistic understanding of how employees make and manage impressions in these virtual contexts. 

First impressions usually remain etched in a person’s mind and can impact a professional career in significant and unintended ways. 

Making first impressions in an age of technology

Today, because initial business contacts often happen online -- via an emailed intro, a phone text, or a Zoomed teleconference – many people form first impressions through these media.

Management Prof. Andrew Brodsky at Texas McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin, with Hayley Blunden of American University in Washington, D.C., have conducted a meta-analysis of 124 studies on virtual impressions and how people make them. He offers a wealth of research-based suggestions on how to put one’s digital best foot forward.

They published their study in the Journal of Management under the title “A Review of Virtual Impression Management Behaviors and Outcomes.” 

First impressions can be really sticky. When you first meet someone, you form a variety of impressions: “How smart are they? They seem like a hard worker. They seem like someone you’re going to like. Are they a good leader or not?”

Very frequently, these initial impressions can last for a long time and color how you view someone’s behavior later. If you have a negative first impression, you might see something they do later in a more negative light, because your brain works to confirm its preexisting thought.

First impressions in business contexts are particularly important. Interviews are first impressions. When you reach out to a potential customer or client, they’re going to get first impressions that help determine whether they respond to your email or whether they decide to buy your product.

The new study, said the authors, could help people be more objective in how they evaluate their employees. Often, people evaluate each other’s performance based on: “Do I want to have a beer with this person? Do I like this person?”

Since we don’t realize that we’re making those biased evaluations, one of the things researchers can do is help employers or managers or executives understand how they are forming impressions and why those impressions are biased.

Second, for those employers who are interested in training and helping employees improve, this is a good framework for providing guidance about how to make a better impression with customers and co-workers, the authors said.

When someone's working virtually or remotely, the only way their boss gets to see them or observe them is through their online interaction. 

That impression you create, through how you communicate and what you communicate, becomes that much more important.

But now, nearly every employee communicates initially online, whether they’re in the office or not. Even employees in a café or supermarket are often get schedules via email or via text, or they communicate with their bosses via text message. So, the idea of virtual workplace communication is not limited to office jobs anymore.

As for emoticons, they often increase feelings of warmth and likeability, but when it comes to perceptions of intelligence, they could be negative because it can make the person seem less intelligent. 

A less obvious source of virtual impressions is the time people take to reply to an email. Timely responses matter, and being slow to reply usually minimize perceptions of trust and competence.

Nevertheless, research also shows that people overestimate how quickly they need to respond to messages. The message to employees who want to succeed is that they should aim for a happy medium.