bizMe

Email is an absolute necessity in business — but if used incorrectly it could cost you your job. Too many times I receive emails and wonder, “what was this person thinking?” Do you need a refresher on email etiquette? With my experience of sending out thousands of emails a week, I have learned some basic do’s and don’t. Follow these rules and you will protect yourself, and your job.

1. Use email to schedule meetings, not conduct them

Emails are great because they are quick and easy — unfortunately meetings are not always that way. Trying to conduct a meeting through email only ends up with confusion and wasted time. Use email to set up a time to meet or speak on the phone, save yourself the headache.

2. Avoid abbreviations and emoticons

Not everyone understands the abbreviations you do — so know your audience. Abbreviations such as LOL, BRB, and BTW come across as unprofessional and have no place in business email Most people can type over 60 words/min so take the few seconds and write things out. If writing ‘laughing out loud’  instead of  ’LOL’ seems out of place, it probably doesn’t belong. Also save the emoticons such as . . . . . . for the chat rooms, text messaging, and your personal email.

3. Mind your subject line

Remember subject lines are what most people search through emails with. For this reason avoid subjects such as, “Hey I forgot to tell you. . . . . This tells the recipient nothing about the content and will likely get lost in their inbox. Also be aware of your company’s flagging criteria. A subject line of  ”Shelly is a threat to drop the bomb on this assignment” will likely get quarantined and looked at by your HR department. A proper subject should give the recipient an idea of what the message is about. For example, “Regarding the budget 1/1/06 — 12/31/06″

4. TURN CAPS OFF

Too often people think writing in capital letters is a catchy way of getting people to read their emails. It comes across as yelling and frankly, is very difficult to read. SO DON’T DO IT!! Although you may think I was just emphasizing the don’t do it part, I was actually yelling don’t do it!

5. Use the reply-all and cc . . . sparingly

A quick way to annoy your coworkers is to include them on every insignificant email. If you decide to send an email to someone, let them be clear why you chose to do so. Merely mentioning their name in the body of the text does not warrant you to notify them.

6. Avoid gossip and inappropriate language

No one has ever said email is private, and your HR department will likely agree with me. Messages sent through your work server are completely traceable, so think before you speak. Do not write a message if you wouldn’t mind your boss reading it over — that does happen. Too often gossip emails circulate and somehow circle back to the person being talked about. Emails do stand up in court so best to avoid putting yourself in that situation.

7. Use spell check

It still surprises me how many emails I receive that have spelling and grammatical errors. Sending a message with misspelled words sends the wrong message, literally. Take a few seconds and read your message over before sending it.

8. Attach only what is needed

Email attachments are a great way to spread viruses and clog inboxes. To minimize your chance of infecting others try to limit the unnecessary files. If you are sending someone a file that is accessible over the internet — just send the link!

9. Have a clean, concise signature

We have all seen the over the top signatures which make us roll our eyes — don’t be one of those people! A rule of thumb I use for signatures is limiting the information to what is found on your business card. There is no place for extraneous information such as home address, personal quote, or my favorite — random pictures. Keep it simple!

10. It’s an email, not a novel — keep it short

If it takes you longer than 10 minutes to write an email, chances are a phone call would have been a better use of your time. Keep the information concise — as my father always said, “say more write less .”  People are much more susceptible to not reading something more than a few paragraphs long. Shoot for one or two paragraphs to say what you need to say. If you need more than that pick up the phone.

Email Etiquette 101 exam notes:

The golden rule for email etiquette is that email should be considered a convenience and not a replacement for maintaining good manners and proper decorum. Do not shorten names without permission. If your name were Ashley, would you like to read “Hi A?” What does this indicate about you, the writer? To the recipient that you either do not remember his/her name, that you were too lazy to continue typing the remaining letters, or that you are taking liberties when none were extended. Respect must still be evident in emails.

Refrain from flaming — similar to the all caps messages — let me provide an example of flaming and how you could better the message: “This project sucks and I’m sick of working weekends to complete HIS work. He’s so incompetent and always makes us do senseless dumb projects that no one looks at anyway. He needs to get a life!” How about revising to read: “This project came at an already overloaded work schedule. I wasn’t expecting this much work to complete in just a few days. I can’t wait for this project to be done!” Your point is still made, you’ve had a chance to vent your frustration, and no one is the wiser that you think your supervisor is an incompetent micromanager!

And one last thought, what about salutations? Should you begin each message with a Dear Jim or Hi Judie? If you think of email as a conversation or dialogue, then the first time you send a message definitely include a friendly salutation. However you would address the person you are sending the message to in a face-to-face or phone conversation, is how you should greet him/her in an email. As emails are exchanged regarding this same topic it becomes socially acceptable to forego the salutation each time you write. Even though you may feel like there’s something missing as an opening to your email, remember you would never continuously say “hi” during an ongoing discussion.