Email Etiquette - What You Should Be Doing

Email is becoming more and more popular. More people worldwide have access to computers and people seem to be busier nowadays than ever before.

Email is a very fast, easy way to communicate instantly with people all over the world.

Well, as long as you aren’t still on dial-up…

In fact, you have probably seen a coworker email a person sitting two cubicles down instead of getting up and walking a few feet to their desk!

You may even be guilty of doing this yourself. Try not to use email when you can have a personal discussion with someone.

Regardless of your email habits, you need to be familiar with some common email etiquette, and what not to do when sending an email.

DO:

We often receive so many emails that we may become overwhelmed. By the time you scan down and notice the 458th message in your inbox, you may start to panic!

Sometimes you have to sort through subject lines of the messages to see which ones you should read first.

Therefore, it’s very important that you include a detailed subject line. For example, instead of typing “report”, type “August 2007 Financial Report” as the subject line.

This will give the reader a much better idea about the content of the email before he or she even reads your message.

This will also signal you to read this business email before the messages your friends sent you with the subject line “cute animal photos.”

Identify Yourself Clearly As The Sender

Because we are often bombarded with annoying spam, many of the messages we receive may go straight to our recycle bin or “deleted items” folder. This is why it’s very important to clearly identify yourself as the sender.

Sending an email from your new hotmail account using the clever nickname “really_hot_man” probably isn’t a good idea.

There is a good chance your message will automatically be deleted. The recipients will take one look at the sender’s name and assume they have just received yet another invite to join a pornography site.

Assume Everyone Will Read Your Message

In today’s world, many companies monitor all of their employee’s emails. Even if you send an email message from home, you can never be sure exactly who will end up seeing what you wrote.

Therefore, make sure you’re very careful about what you write in your messages. Don’t include anything in an email that could incriminate you later. Someone can always print out an email message and use it as proof against you if you say something you may later regret.

During the US antitrust trial against Microsoft, I’m sure Bill Gates would love to be able to take back the following email message:

“Do we have a clear plan on what we want Apple to do to undermine Sun?"

If you want to complain about your new boss, save the discussion for your lunch break. Don’t discuss it in an email message that may end up on your boss’ desk!

Make Sure All Links Work Properly

You may want to include some links to interesting or relevant links in your email messages. This is completely acceptable as long as they actually work!

Make sure you test all of them before you send the message. It is very frustrating to have to email or phone a person to ask them to about the links because they are no longer valid or have been typed incorrectly.

Double check the exact URL or web address of each link you including in your message. Make sure that they still point to valid sites before you send your email.

Set Up An Auto-Reply If You Are Away

If you’re going to be away on business or vacation, you should set up an automatic response that will let everyone know.

During very busy times, you can also set up an auto-reply. Include a brief message that advises recipients that you’re busier than normal, but will reply as soon as possible. This lets people know you aren’t just ignoring their messages.

This will also save you valuable time. You won’t have to reply to 5 emails from the same person asking where the heck you’ve been for the past 2 days.

Instead, you can devote your time to actually dealing with your backlog!

What You Shouldn't Do When Sending an Email