Good manners, good email

Consider the tone of your message.  Tone is the relationship the writer sets up with the reader.  Even though email is a friendly medium, it’s tough to make humor (especially humor clothed in sarcasm) or tongue-in-cheek comments work in email, and it’s best to avoid them.  Also avoid personal comments about others, or knee-jerk emotional responses – email is no place for sarcasm, hostility, cynicism, or whining.

Remain professional at all times.  Consider waiting a bit before emailing a “sensitive” message.  Avoid “venting,” vulgarity, or certainly, any kind of profanity.  Think about your corporate culture, or prevailing attitude – which can be especially critical for emails to co-workers.

And the subject is…

“But if you don’t use a subject line, people will be so curious they’ll be sure to open it.”  Would you believe a lot of people have believed this old nonsense – much to their dismay?  The truth is that a bad, or absent subject line is far more likely to result in a trashed email than in curiosity.

Avoid email disaster

The job of effective business mail is (1) to get read, (2) to get results, and (3) to avoid disaster – not necessarily in that order! Let’s begin with a few ideas for avoiding disaster…

Overcoming Email Irritants

If I were to ask you what are the things about your incoming email that are most likely to drive you right over the edge some day, what would you say?

Here are the most common, perhaps not-so-surprising answers most often given at my email workshops across the country:

1.  Emails sent “reply all,” or to an entire emailing list, rather than just to those few who really have a need for the information