What Does Your Netiquette Say About You? WLN-August 26, 2008

Various Communication Business communication You only have one chance to make that first impression. Impression that you are professional, smart and courteous whether in person or in .

1. Managing the Inbox First-Organized Sort to find quickly Respond in a timely fashion Notifications if you will be out of the office >24 hours Read entire threads before responding. File manager-folders

2. What My Kids Taught Me! Thx for the IView! I Wud ♥ to Work 4 U!! ;) com/ .html com/ .html

2. Smilies/Emoticons

3. What I Taught My Kids. ABC’s of Writing Accuracy Complete sentences. Plain English please. Brevity Say what needs to be said. Sentence case; DON’T SHOUT USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Clarity Use spell check and proofread messages. Bold.

4. Level of Formality Trap-Assumption that allows you to be informal. Letter Only time and relationship building change the tone. Common courtesy Formal in business Thank you, sincerely, best regards… Time-Hi, Greetings!

5. Writing Effective Subject Lines Highlight the main point to summarize the entire . Use sentence case. No Hijacking Perception of laziness Difficult to reference later

6. Using CC and BCC Carbon copy; CC when others need the same information. Blind carbon copy; BCC sparingly Reply to all rarely

7. Forwarding Etiquette Forward messages only when necessary. Use caution when forwarding sensitive or confidential information. Don’t react on impulses. Strip all extraneous information.

8. Extinguishing a Flame War Flame wars have no place in professional communication. Choose not to respond to avoid further provoking heated threads. Leverage in-person communication to resolve the issue.

9. Before Sending Double check the address Reread Never send a message when you are angry. Type it send to yourself and reread the next day, then decide. Refrain from sending too many high priority s to avoid appearing too aggressive.

10. Items to Avoid in Don’t include any information you wouldn’t want published on the front page of the newspaper. Don’t confidential, sensitive, or classified information.

When Not to Use For jokes and chain messages. For arguments or flame wars. For subjects too complicated to easily explain in , use meetings instead. Avoid when the topic requires interactive conversation.

Final Thoughts Are there any other annoyances? Questions? When it comes to business, regardless of mode of communication, professionalism and courtesy never go out of style!