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Effective Email - Tips & Tricks
Having used email for several years now and having given talks
on using email effectively, I've made and seen enough mistakes
and discovered enough gadgets and techniques to offer some suggestions.
Don't Ask for a Return Receipt Every Time. When you ask
for a return receipt, every time you send an email, the recipient
may have to make an extra click to agree. That's silly. Return
receipts should be reserved for special situations - such as when
you're not sure whether someone's on vacation. Otherwise, you're
communicating a kind insecurity by insisting on them.
Spell Check. You're thinking everyone knows this. Wrong.
Not long ago I disabled my spell check because I was forwarding
some complicated emails with attachments, and later on, promptly
embarrassed myself by sending out emails with stupid typos. I'd
forgotten to turn spell check back on. So please, spare us your
typos and yourself the embarrassment and have your email program
automatically check your spelling.
Always attach documents before your write your message.
That way you won't automatically click on send before you forget
to attach the document you promised.
Reply or Reply To All, That is the Question. Know and
act on the difference between Reply and Reply to All. If you want
to reply to what's obviously a mass email, don't accidentally
press 'Reply To All' and tell all 297 of us, that "Yes, you'll
attend the meeting," or worse, share a personal comment with all
of us. If you're not sure how to avoid this problem, just send
an original email in order to RSVP.
When You Reply, Change the Subject Line. Clicking on reply
is great, and including the original message is generally an expected
practice, but a message that bounces back and forth four times
often evolves into something different from the original subject.
Note that and change the subject line accordingly.
When You're Angry, "Send Later." Ann Landers used to advise
readers that if they were writing an angry letter, a good practice
was to finish it off and stick it in a drawer for at least 24
hours. Then sit down and reread it. Email has the unhappy disadvantage,
in the case of the angry writer, of instantaneously transferring
the emotion of the moment to the recipient. The results can be
disastrous. So if you're mad, click on "Draft" or "Send Later"
and reconsider when you've cooled off.
Please, Don't Forward Jokes, News Tidbits or Other Goodies.
All of us have experienced someone who insists on forwarding jokes
they've been emailed, typically forwarded to them by someone who
forwarded the joke from someone -- you get the idea. So after
we get past 133 lines of email info about how old the joke is,
we get the joke itself, which doesn't seem very funny by then.
If you want to use email to share jokes, news or resources, then
at least cut and paste that info into your own original email
and send it that way.
Use Email Filters. I know a guy who filters out all the
emails from a past client and friend of his. Why? She sends him
20-30 emails a week, the flotsam and jetsam that has arrived in
her email box. After he read the first 300 and found not a single
line that addressed him personally, he deduced, correctly, that
he could successfully filter out all her emails. She's never noticed.
Get a Real Email Address. The minimal level of an acceptable
email address is one associated with AOL, Earthlink, or some other
ISP, including local ones. Email addresses at Yahoo!, Hotmail,
or similar free services communicate a lack of commitment, permanence
or money. We call these, "throw-away accounts." The best email
address is 'yourname@yourorganization'sname.com' (or .org). By
the way, you don't have to launch your Website to use your domain
name. You can just park the domain name or better yet, just put
up a one-page, business card type Website.
Now It's Your Turn. Please, email me with your biggest
email gripes or best email advice. If you are perfectly happy,
email me that, too. I'll collect all of the feedback I get and
thank you in a future column.
This article first appeared as a column written
by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for Inside Tucson
Business and/or the New Mexico Business Weekly.
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