From the first message sent back in late 1971 email, instant messaging and social networking use has exploded! It’s used by friends and family keeping in touch with each other and by huge corporations for their daily business. In fact, it has overtaken phone calls as the main mode of communication.
To understand just how popular these modes of communication have become, take a look at the following statistics prepared by the Radicati group for 2010:
• 2.8 million emails were sent every second, totalling an estimated 294 billion emails each day, adding up to approximately 90 trillion emails sent throughout the year
• amazingly, an estimated 90% of these emails were spam
• there were 2.9 billion email accounts – this is predicted to increase to 3.8 billion by 2014
• 25% of all accounts belong to corporate users with the remaining 75% belonging to individual consumers
• corporate users typically send and receive 110 messages on a daily basis
• instant messaging (IM) is also on the increase with an estimated 2.4 billion consumer and corporate accounts already in use
• similarly social networking has risen in popularity with just over an estimated 2.2 billion social networking accounts for both consumers and corporations
So, no matter what position you take in the world of work, it is likely that you will have to communicate with colleagues and customers using email, IM or social networking on a daily basis. This being the case it is prudent that you learn how to use these media effectively and appropriately and this involves learning ‘netiquette’ – the etiquette of the internet.
‘Netiquette’
Working in a distance learning college, that receives hundreds of emails per day, it’s pretty obvious what mistakes people make on a regular basis. Of course, we know you’re still learning and don’t worry too much about your errors. However, when you are trying to impress an employer it is vital that your messages are professional and accurate. Follow the ten tips below and you won’t go far wrong.
I have only mentioned email in the following guidelines, however, the same applies to IM and social networking messages.
1. Answer all messages quickly. The beauty of the internet is that we can communicate with people on the other side of the world in a matter of seconds. However, this does also mean that the sender will expect a timely response. Nowadays the standard response time for messages is 24-48 hours.
2. Don’t be sloppy. Email may seem like an informal way to communicate, and when you are emailing your friends text speak (c u l8tr) and abbreviations (LOL) are fine. But, when you are sending messages to or on behalf of a company it is important that you are professional. The messages you send reflect on you and your company so make sure that you use correct layout, spelling, grammar and punctuation.
3. Make sure you use the correct case. All lower case looks like you simply cannot be bothered and UPPER CASE LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE SHOUTING. If you want to emphasise something use bold.
4. Don’t embed lots of graphics into the body of emails. Many systems will not allow them to be displayed and may even prevent the email from landing in the inbox at all.
5. Do get up and speak to people where appropriate. It’s easy to fall into the habit of messaging people, when you really should be talking to them. Don’t use messaging as a way to avoid making personal contact with people, to cover up mistakes or avoid uncomfortable situations.
6. Be brief and to the point. How many times have you received a message that has several paragraphs of guff in it before you actually get to the point of the message? Frustrating isn’t it? Where possible, try to keep to one subject per message.
7. Remember that most messaging services, even email, are not private. Think of it like this – don’t put anything in an email that you would not put on a postcard. And remember that there have been occasions when people have forwarded messages to people they were not intended for, leading to embarrassment. Be safe by always keeping it professional.
8. Don’t forward on chain messages, junk mail or virus warnings. They annoy people and can cause damage to the recipient’s system – enough said!
9. Be careful with your tone. Remember, your tone can be easily misinterpreted in an email. Sarcasm can prompt all kinds of unintended feedback from recipients. And emoticons, although useful for conveying the meaning of the message, do not look professional!
10. Use the subject line, courtesy copy (CC) and blind courtesy copy (BCC) appropriately. When using email, make sure you make it clear in the subject line what the mail is about so that its importance is immediately obvious to the recipient. If you are sending an email to a large group of people, it is useful to use the BCC function to keep the list of email addresses private from the other recipients in the group. It also prevents them having to see a huge list of email addresses when they open the message. Make sure you only CC in people who are directly involved.
