The Internet has revolutionised how we communicate, but with each method of communication comes a different type of acceptable etiquette.
Many conventions were set by early adopters of the Internet, and still form the basis of net etiquette – or ‘netiquette’ – we have today.
Join us as we take a look at email etiquette and how you can avoid falling foul of the unspoken rules of the Web.
Email is perhaps the most pervasive revolution in Internet communication, with messages immediately appearing directly in the ‘inbox’ of the intended recipient.
This article covers email as a day-to-day communication tool; sending mass email shots requires considerable additional consideration.
Your message isn’t private
Don’t assume that only the intended recipient will view your email.
- Some email addresses will forward messages to multiple mailboxes. For example, contact@yourcompany.com might be forwarded to several key recipients.
- Mail administrators can (and do) access user email as part of general server maintenance and support.
- Not even the most securely configured servers can be guaranteed as hacker-safe
- Emails can be printed, saved in a central location and forwarded to other recipients with ease.
- It could be stored ad infinitum – by the recipient, the company the recipient works for, your company and the various ISPs involved in the email’s transit.
With this in mind, you should not use email to send highly confidential or sensitive information.
Your email isn’t guaranteed delivery
Regardless of what priority flag you give to your message, emails are not guaranteed to be delivered.
There are many reasons why your message might not be delivered, from a misconfiguration of an email server to it being caught in an over-zealous spam filter.
These barriers to email delivery do not discriminate between ‘Normal’ and ‘Urgent’ priority. If your message is important, ensure you follow it up with another method of communication to confirm delivery.
Always check the recipient list!
It’s happened to us all. Perhaps you’ve drafted a reply to an email which you sent to a colleague for review, or simply wanted to forward a message with comments. Instead of forwarding the email, you inadvertently replied to the original sender.
At best, this can be a little embarrassing. At worst, you may have revealed your hand in a delicate negotiation exercise, or even insulted the recipient.
Email clients often have an ‘auto complete’ feature which suggests an email address from a list of previously emailed recipients based on the first few characters you enter. So make sure that when you want to email accounts@yourcompany.co.uk you don’t inadvertently email accounts@yourkeyclient.co.uk.
Understanding the recipients – TO:, CC: and BCC:
Addresses entered into the TO: field of an email are the intended primary recipients of the message.
Addresses entered into the CC: field (Carbon Copy) of an email will receive the email, although the message is not specifically addressed to them. CC: fields are typically used on a “for your information” basis.
BCC: (or blind carbon copies) addresses receive the email, but those listed in the TO: and CC: fields do not know about this. This practice is generally counter to the culture of open communication and should be discouraged.
Subject Lines
Your email subject line should be concise yet descriptive.
There is often limited display space for subject lines in email clients, so they cannot be too long. However, they are an invaluable time-saving device for email users, who are more likely to open your email if they have a good idea of the contents within.
Resist the temptation to remove “RE:” or “(FWD)” labels from subject lines, which provide a useful glance into how the message fits into the chain of emails.
Attachments
Although attaching documents and other files to emails can be very useful, think about whether email is the most appropriate method of transit.
Email is a relatively primitive system which has not been radically overhauled since the first message was sent in the early 1970s. It isn’t designed to transmit large files, and it’s hardly surprising when it struggles to cope with attachments the size of an operating system installation!
Aside from the transit issues, large attachments can slow down the download of email considerably. As a rule of thumb, files larger than 1-2MB generally shouldn’t be sent via email.
A variety of other methods of transit are available such as FTP or HTTP delivery – contact Fish.Net for more details.
If you deem that email is the most appropriate method of transit for a file, consider how you can limit the size of the file. For example, most files can be compressed in ZIP format. Image files could be resized and optimised prior to transit.
Generally, recipients should be aware that you are sending a large attachment, either by prior agreement or by a courtesy email before sending the attachment.
If sending to multiple recipients, consider whether they all should receive the attachment. If not, send an email with the attached files just to those who need it, and then forward the message without attachment to everybody else.
Finally, if sending multiple attachments, consider breaking these down into several emails. Deliverability is likely to be increased if 5 emails of 1MB in size are sent, rather than a single email with 5 attachments weighing in at 5MB.
Language
Emails are typically informal in style, although you should always maintain a professional politeness.
Remember that it’s difficult to convey the emotion that voice inflections and body language would convey offline, so a relaxed writing style can help avoid coming across as too stuffy.
Emails are generally functional and should be kept concise. Ideally, the content should reflect the subject line – there’s nothing worse than having to search for an archived email with an inappropriate subject line!
Emoticons/Smilies
Emoticons – simple textual representations of facial expressions and gestures – can be used to add personality and convey emotive cues to the recipient in the absence of body language.
Many email senders – including staff at Fish.Net – make liberal use of emoticons in emails.
The most common emoticon is the smiley face:
:-)
Turn your head 90 degrees to the left to see the face – the eyes are a colon, the nose a hyphen and the grinning mouth a closing bracket!
Other common emoticons include:
:-) Smiley Face
:-( Sad Face
;-) Wink (slightly sarcastic!)
:-| ‘Meh’/Indifferent
:-p Cheeky Face
:-* Drunk
(Obviously, we don’t condone the use of the last emoticon at work!)
THERE’S NO NEED TO SHOUT!
TYPING IN ALL-CAPS IS CONSIDERED SHOUTING ON THE WEB, AND SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS!
OK, SO NOT AT ALL COSTS – IT CAN BE USEFUL IF YOU NEED TO STRONGLY EMPHASIS SOMETHING – BUT YOU SHOULD LIMIT WHEN YOU DO. WRITING IN CAPITAL LETTERS CHANGES THE SHAPE OF WORDS, THUS MAKING YOUR MESSAGE DIFFICULT TO READ.
TAKE PARTICULAR CARE IF YOU USE AN INDUTRY-SPECIFIC APPLICATION WHICH REQUIRED THAT YOU TYPE IN CAPITAL LETTERS ONLY. IT’S EASY TO FORGET TO TURN OFF THE CAPS LOCK!
Avoid txt spk
Abbreviations have existed as a time and resource saving device since the Internet’s formative days. Although acceptable to use in email, caution should be taken.
If technical in nature, consider abbreviations as jargon and only use if you know the recipient will understand them.
It’s acceptable to use common day-to-day abbreviations such as “FYI” and “TIA”, but don’t overdo them, otherwise you’ll risk alienating your recipient.
txt spk, howevR, iz not acceptable n Biz emails. Email lngth iz not limited n d sAm way az SMS msgz, & emails R normLlE composed on a full size [abc].
ther iz n excuse 4 omitting vowLz, & it’s not considRD gr8 2 replAc siLabLz by #z. txt spk iz a chore 2 decipher 4 d majority of email usrz.
Translation:
Text speak, however, is not acceptable in business emails. Email length is not limited in the same way as SMS messages, and emails are normally composed on a full size keyboard.
There is no excuse for omitting vowels, and it’s not considered great to replace syllables by numbers. Text speak is a chore to decipher for the majority of email users.
And finally…
There are no written rules when it comes to email etiquette, and applying general consideration and courtesy to writing will steer you clear of committing a faux pas.
Bear in mind that whilst the guidelines in this article may be useful when composing emails, it doesn’t touch upon many other considerations businesses should make, such as acceptable use, how to deal with spam and chain emails and how to improve deliverability.
Contact us to find out how Fish.Net can help you shape, implement and enforce your email policies.
Tags: email, email etiquette, netiquette