This newsletter was sent out over a year ago and we received numerous ugly and defiant responses from individuals who felt they had the right to communicate the way they wanted to in an email and did not appreciate my ‘elitist’ directions.
I’m far from an elitist but I stand by netiquette. Messages are sent to me that are frankly unnerving in their incivility. There is a sacredness in the written word, even in emails, and we should strive for awareness in what and how we speak online. After all, isn’t there enough narcissism and coarseness in the world?
Our staff receives hundreds of emails daily and it can be a daunting task to sift through them and respond accordingly. We are continually dismayed at the lack of common sense that is frequently used in these communications, whether they are from clients, job seekers, friends, business associates, sales persons or marketers. Please allow us to reiterate basic email etiquette and do our small part to make the world a little more palatable. Remember, once you’ve hit the send button you won’t have another chance.
These guidelines have been gleamed from dozens of sites around the web.
- Your name matters. Consider your email address and what it reveals about you. Are you a ‘suckup@isp.com” ? Do you really want a colleague or prospective employer to consider the image this provokes? Consider getting a more formal address. If you are in business and you are using an AOL, Hotmail, EarthLink or Yahoo address it is difficult to take you seriously. We suggest acquiring an inexpensive business card website with an email account using your business domain.
- Take care with upper case letters. Don’t leave your Caps on. Upper case letters imply you are screaming at someone. The last thing the world needs right now is another angry word or screaming match.
- Be cognizant of your tone. Your recipient cannot hear or see you. Your words need to reveal basic civility, respect and friendliness. Begin your message with a personal greeting.
- Brevity is a good thing. You are not writing a novel. Get to your point as quickly as you can, but please don’t leave out necessary details.
- Spelling and grammar reveals who you are. If you cannot incorporate basic capitalization, sentence structure and correct spelling your message may not be well received by your recipient. Use spell checker, but remember to keep a dictionary close by so that you don’t use the wrong word for the meaning you are trying to convey. ‘Patience” and “patient” are quite different.
- Compose a meaningful Subject line. Leave it empty or write it poorly and it ends up in the Junk mail. Your subject line should clarify your message.
- Don’t overdue attachments. With the rash of horrible viruses, most folks won’t open an attachment unless they know the sender and trust them.
- Be informal with colleagues but not slipshod. Your email can become part of written history so use caution in all circumstances.
- Use the blind copy and courtesy copy appropriately. Don’t use BCC to keep others from seeing who you copied; it shows confidence when you directly CC anyone receiving a copy. Do use BCC, however, when sending to a large distribution list, so recipients won’t have to see a huge list of names, especially since some people do not want their email addresses shared. Be cautious with your use of CC; overuse clutters inboxes. Copy only people who are directly involved.
- Email is not private. It may be company property and it can be retrieved and used against you in a court of law. Assume that email on the internet is not secure and it can always come back to haunt you. It can be forwarded and used in ways far outside of your intentions.
- Don’t send junk mail or chain letters.
- Keep politics and religion out of your business email accounts unless your business is politics or religion. Your boss, customer or employee may not wish to know how you feel about personal issues.
- Use Signatures wisely. Include a signature with your full name, mailing address, website and phone number. Make it easy for people to contact you.
- Don’t change anything if you forward a message.
- Don’t send or forward emails containing libelous, defamatory, offensive, racist or obscene remarks. Please don’t add to the hate in the world. Remember, you can also be sued or fired.
- Email is like Haiku. It is brief and simple. In the end it should respect a larger ecology.
- Don’t send out group messages with all of the email addresses visible. Learn how to properly send a group email so that you do not disclose email addresses. Always provide opt-out options for people who do not want to receive group emails.