This little unassuming yellow sticky note has done so much. I am looking at my screen and surrounding it are about 8 post it notes at this time. It really is the perfect invention you can’t add to it and you can’t take anything away from it. What do I use a post it note for, well it has been used as a reminder for my passwords (and no post-it note is not my password), making little stickman cartoons and leaving messages. I have used about 500 post it notes to tell my wife that I love her (the walls looked kinda neat). What have others used post-its for? When there’s no Scotch tape, cut the sticky edge from a Post-it to use as fake tape. Well check this little video out Stick Note Fun . The possibilities are really endless. 
No matter what you use them for they are so much more persuasive then you might think. A study done at Sam Houston State University by Randy Garner has asked that very question. He wanted to find out just how persuasive this little yellow square was. He sent out surveys and would record the response rates. He mailed 150 surveys out, some with post it notes (Post-it group) on the post it written was a request that the survey be completed. The second group had the same message just written (written only) on a cover page and the last group it was just the survey (no message). The results speak for themselves take a look.
The surveys with the post it notes not only have a higher % of surveys completed. The time taken to complete the survey was shorter. So was is it just the little neon sticker? Is it just “ooh ahh” a mini fireworks show? Randy Garner conducted another study to find out the true reason. Was it just the novelty of the yellow post it or was there a deeper reason ?
The same parameters in this study, three groups first group post it with a message (Post-it with message group) survey with just a fresh post it (blank post-it) and a control group just the survey (No-post-it).
The results found something interesting a personalized message was the trigger, the key to this puzzle. So what to make of this information? What conclusions should we draw? The underlining principal in this study is what? Garner offered this explanation, although the effort required to place a personalized post it note is not much its still extra effort. People recognize that and feel compiled to reciprocate that extra effort.
The conclusion is this is an exercise in reciprocity,and post it notes are just the tip of the ice-burgh. The relationship, the social aspect, that is what is 
important to take away which is the true discovery in this study. The old proverb can be rewritten “an ounce of personalized extra effort is worth a pound of persuasion”. An even closer look discovered the more personal the message the higher the response and the faster the survey was returned.
The simple act of placing a personalized post it note on our correspondence is worth so much. We will not only gain the timeliness and quality of compliance with each request, but the social aspect, the relationship will have improved. So try it next time you send something out, stick a post it note on it say something personal and just watch the results, just might surprise you.
