Netiquette (a portmanteau of “network etiquette” or “internet etiquette”) is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from social media, to emails, to blogs and forums. Like me, you probably rarely get letters any more. Even phone calls are less common. But you get scores of email messages every day. So, isn’t it surprising how people often misuse this medium? This ignorance needs to be addressed and everyone in your company, who is using email, needs to be aware of netiquette. You cannot afford the risk of untrained staff sending emails that impact your bottom line. Today, I’d like to share two common mistakes made when sending and replying to emails. Let’s take Key Steps this week to…
Walk the Netiquette Talk
1.Don’t overuse ‘reply to all’. Last week I heard a client tell a story about receiving an email from marketing asking for his shirt-size for a upcoming golf tournament. The email was sent out to about 12 people. There was no problem with that. However, some of the recipients, hit the “reply all” key
(out of habit, I am sure) and sent their shirt size to everyone on the list. This, of course, just adds more clutter to everyone’s already unwieldy inbox. Your default response should be to reply only to the sender. Before you reply to everyone, make sure that everyone needs to know.
2.Don’t CC as a means of coercion. It’s one thing to copy someone’s boss as a courtesy. This can be useful when you assign a task to someone who is not a direct report. (It prevents their boss thinking you are going around them without bogging down communication with ‘red tape’.) But it is not a good idea to do this as a subtle — or not so subtle — form of coercion. You may be tempted to do this when you don’t get a response to an earlier request. But I would suggest that you’ll be better served by picking up the phone and calling the person. If they are not responding to your emails, try a different communication strategy. Always put yourself in your reader’s shoes as best as you can and…
