Today is Thursday, so this post is on communication skills.
I have been gathering a lot of information about e mail lately. This post is devoted to a list of e mail success tips...
E Mail Success
- Use e mail only when necessary. Face to face communication is much richer and more complete. The telephone is the next best thing to a face to face conversation.
- Everyone suffers from e mail overload these days. Send e mail only to people who actually need the information.
- Think about how the recipient of the e mail will react to your message and words. Ask yourself if you would use the same words in a face to face conversation; then write accordingly.
- Never respond to an e mail when you are angry or upset. Wait a few hours. Calm down and then respond.
- Avoid e mailing chain letters and jokes.
- Never write anything in an e mail that you would not want to have forwarded.
- Read what you’ve written before you send it.
- Be careful of cultural differences. Choose your words carefully. Make sure they are not unintentionally offensive.
- Assume any e mail you send is permanent. Some people will keep e mail messages in private files. Most companies maintain e mail archives.
- This goes without saying, but it bares mentioning here. Never use e mail for illegal or unethical purposes.
- There is no such thing as confidential or private e mail. What you write can be made available to lots of people in lots of places.
- Your subject line should be clear and specific and descriptive of the message’s content. Give people a reason to open your e mails.
- Use questions in the subject line to save time and clarify the purpose of the message; e.g. “Are you available to meet in your office at 2:00 Wednesday, June 12?”
- Specify if the message is urgent, requires action of informational in your subject line.
- Write short, clear and concise e mail messages. Long e mail messages are generally less effective than short ones.
- Use bullet points to clarify your messages and to shorten your e mail messages.
- Use shared folders and websites for attachments. Large attachments often cause laptops to crash.
- Remember that visual and verbal cues present in face to face communication are absent in e mail.
- Be business like in your e mail messages. Your e mails are documents that represent you and your company. They become a business record that can be reviewed by people outside of your company – the press, regulators and lawyers involved in litigation.
- Be clear. Avoid language that could be misinterpreted and become the focus of an attack on your company.
- E mail messages do not lend themselves to sarcasm, humor and irony. Someone who doesn’t know you or your sense of humor may not get it, and be offended.
- Use the spell check feature, but read your message before sending it. Spell check misses things like the difference between “your” and “you’re”.
- 10 point Arial font is the most common and best e mail font.
- Avoid borders and animation in your e mails. They take time to download and frustrate viewers.
- Create a signature for your e mail template that includes your name, title, phone (office and mobile) and mailing address.
- AVOID USING ALL CAPS. This is visual shouting and rude.
- Use blue or black for your text. Avoid green and red; color blind people can’t distinguish these colors.
- Save only the necessary e mails. Create folders to help you easily locate e mails you may want to find later.
- Create an “action” folder for messages on which you must follow up.
- Treat your e mail box like your home mail box. Empty it everyday. Toss the unimportant and junk stuff. Act on things that need your immediate attention. Put the other messages into your action folder.
- Save attachments to your hard drive and then delete the messages that came with them.
- Use your folders for temporary storage and your archives for long-term storage.
I have been compiling this list for several months. I will add to it as I find other good ideas about managing e mail. Please feel free to send me your good ideas for managing e mail.
That’s it for today. Thanks for reading. Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense. Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.
I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.
Bud
PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open. Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.
Comment Preview