E-mail Etiquette

Upon sending out what I thought was a rather interesting "forward" email to 5 friends, what I got was many reply-all e-mails! Sometimes we forget that some people are a lot more vocal in their opinions than others. Some will shake their head or frown in disagreement and hit delete, and some will start an all out war with their responses, especially when they do the ultimate no-no- press the "reply all" button.

I thought it was time to shed some light on e-mail etiquette.

Here are a Ten rules when e-mail your colleagues, friends and family to not offend or annoy anyone:

1. Never e-mail anyone using all capital letters. This is seen as yelling and is considered very rude.

2. Don't spam people that don't know you very well with your "forward messages" be very selective in whom you send these to if anyone at all.

3. If you find yourself receiving an email and you would like to reply, do not reply to a group rather reply to the individual sender only. This will save embarrassment on both ends and not annoy all the other recipients and clog up their inbox.

4. When e-mailing anyone, it is considered a sign of disrespect to start an email without addressing the person you are writing. If you are replying to a note this is fine. However that first initiated email must be addressed to who you are sending it to.

5. Always put a subject in the "subject" line so that the recipients can determine which to read first.

6. Use proper spelling and grammar! With spell check and online dictionaries these days there is absolutely no excuse for it. It just looks really unprofessional and polished regardless of who you are sending it to.

7. Do not forward chain letters, junk mail or warnings. This is annoying to anyone receiving it and a huge time waster!

8. Use the 'Bcc' blind carbon copy feature to send a message to a large group of people who don't necessarily know each other. It protects their email information.

9. Do use proper sentence structure. Don't lump every sentence into one large paragraph, this is very difficult to read.

10. Use a signature that includes your contact information. This is most important with colleagues and or clients.

These are the ten biggest e-mail issues I see on a daily basis. I hope you have found this helpful.