Communicating on the net is just like other forms of communication – there are rules that govern polite behaviour. If you slip up and unwittingly breach one of the rules, you instantly brand yourself (and your business) as gauche, lacking business sense and generally not someone to do business with.
Here are the top ten netiquette rules to help you present a professional email appearance.
Subject Lines- Watch Your Words
The subject line of your email is the headline for the content. The worst breach of netiquette is to leave the subject line blank, closely followed by misspelling the words in the subject line.
People scan the subject lines to see if they should open the email – make sure your subject is interesting, personal (include the person's first name in it if possible) and does not include the words "free, special offer, earn $, 50% off, double your income" and a whole host of other spam trigger words. If you include the wrong words in your subject line you can expect your email to get caught in the spam filter.
Addresses Are Important
The netiquette rule here is – if you have more than one address, then put all the addresses into the BCC (which stands for Blind Carbon Copy) field of your email. NEVER put a long list into the To or cc fields.
The reason is if one person on your list has a virus on their computer, then the computer picks up the addresses of everyone on the email and blasts the virus out to all of their computers (not a great way to win business!).
The other thing that happens is the address lists can end up in the hand of spammers who sell the lists to other spammers, and you end up with thousands of offers for Viagra in your in-box.
Watch How You Forward Emails
If you receive an email and you want to forward it on to other people the polite way to do this is to delete all of the names and addresses of people who received the email before you.
You also should remove the letters "FW" in the subject line.
Another netiquette essential is to only forward the email from the page you are reading (and not the email you receive). The reason being that if the email has done the rounds and people haven't deleted all the previous addresses, you are sending an email that takes about 9 pages to click through to get to the page you want to read.
Hidden Spam
Spam comes in many forms. The petition emails encouraging people to save whales or stop putting refugees in detention centres are a form of spam. What happens is people who genuinely believe in the issue put their name and email address on the list and then forward it on to their friends (as requested). The problem is professional spammers end up with the list of valid names and addresses and use the list to generate more spam to your in-box.
Netiquette is to never forward petitions via email.
Chain Letters – Still Travelling After All These Years
If ever you get an email asking you to send it on you will get good/bad luck, then this is a chain letter. They were banned in the traditional postal system decades ago. Just hit delete and don't be tempted to send them on.
If you really find the content essential to forward, then delete the bad luck/good luck bit and keep the humourous sections.
In a business setting, chain letters should never be forwarded.
Warnings – Not All They Are Cracked Up To Be
Many businesses read about warnings over potential computer viruses, new ways to stop women being attacked or emails suggesting if you click here money will be magically donated to charity.
99.9% of all of these emails are urban myths. Check out www.hoax-slayer.com before you send on any warnings.
Flaming Emails
We've all done it or heard about it – somebody who was really ticked off and sent an angry email on to someone (who forwarded it to the world).
This also goes for receiving an angry email and responding in kind. If you hit "reply all" you can pretty much guarantee that the person BCC'd in other people to your email, so you are broadcasting what you are really thinking.
Netiquette is to never send an angry email – always have those conversations in person.
The best tip to save yourself is to set your email to only send and receive when you click the send/receive button, or at the least every 10 minutes. This gives you time to rethink the click.
Don't Stalk After Networking Events
After attending a networking event, many networking hunters send out an email promoting their product or service to people who attended the event. The netiquette problem comes when the people start out with "It was great to meet you at the event" – when they didn't meet you and the closest they came was picking up your card from a trade table or email list. Watch your language!
If you did connect with someone, make a point of mentioning something you talked about in the conversation.
Generally it is not polite to launch into pushing your products at the first email after the event – it is like asking someone to sleep with you on the first date (you may get lucky, but generally you will get a metaphorical slap in the face).
Make Sure All The Links Work
If your email includes a link to a webpage, test it before you send it to make sure it works. Receiving a dud link is not great for your marketing.
Check Your Details Are 100% Correct
Lastly, make sure all of your signature block details are correct. That means the correct phone numbers, fax numbers and website addresses.
Many people don't see the mistakes in their own signature blocks – but clients do!
HR Tip - Dealing with a flaming email
Employees need to be taught the essentials of email netiquette as part of their induction process, but what should you do if someone sends a flaming email to the whole office?
Ring your IT (if you have one) and try and get the emails recalled from your server so that people who have not opened it will not receive it.
Call the person who sent the email to your office and ask them their side of the story first. Document the meeting. Don't commit to any resolution at this point.
Call the person the target of the email to your office to find out their reaction and what they want to have happen. Do they want an open email apology to be sent out, to pursue the matter as a grievance or do they want to let the matter rest? They are the person who has been abused, so their wishes must be taken into account.
Take appropriate action after being informed by the wishes of the person on the receiving end. This may include things such as mediation, formal discipline process, reprimand or a formal apology.
If you have kids, you will know that many of them have dreams of acting stardom. Others just want to have a lot of fun acting and trying on different personalities for size.
There are lots of places where kids can go for drama lessons, but the Australian Acting Academy does this with a very unique twist.
The underpinning philosophy of the Australian Acting Academy is what they call the "safety net" philosophy. Basically it means that while you are in the class you are in a space of safety, where there is no paying out, no rubbishing and no running down. It is a space where it is safe and expected you will take a risk and try something new.
This philosophy is amazing. Teenagers struggling with not only regular teenage angst, but also trauma most adults would find challenging, find a safe place to be supported. They gain confidence and self esteem that may have been battered through the school system and home environment.
The other part is the curriculum is exceptional - with many of the kids going on to bigger things (this is where the Veronicas came from).
The Australian Acting Academy are business of the week because not only is their product (the curriculum) great, how they deliver it is exceptional.
As a business the lessons you can learn from the Academy are it is not just what you do, but how you do it that is important.
This week I spent some time with corporate photographers -FullFrame Photographics, and learnt more about what it takes to make brilliant corporate portraits and images.
Next Week ...
Great lines to hook your reader's interest and force them to keep reading
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