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Email Etiquette
by Annette Ramsey

The majority of business emails I receive are suitably business-like, however the odd one comes through that indicates to me that the person has no idea how to present themselves. Just as you would dress appropriately to attend a business event in person, consider how you present yourself in business communication over the internet.

When communicating person-to-person with someone in relation to your business, what would be the general etiquette 'rules'?

• Be polite and friendly
• Be presentable
• Be aware of non-verbal cues
• Speak clearly - don't mumble

.... and so on.

Now, let's look at email communication. What would the equivalent email etiquette be?

• Be polite and friendly. Not overly so - we are not having a gossip over the back fence. On the other hand, no need to maintain a stiff upper lip at all times! Best way to test how 'friendly' your email appears is to read it aloud - pretend you are having a conversation. Putting across your own style is okay. Don't forget basic courtesy. Please and thank you are still considered good manners, online and offline.
  


• Be presentable. Spell-check and read over what you have written before hitting the send button. If the message is *very* important, have someone else proof-read it for you.
  


• Be aware of non-verbal cues. Ahh, easy to run into problems here. We don't have facial expressions and tone of voice to represent what we mean. In email what we write is taken literally. So use the accepted forms of netiquette:
  

• A word *placed* between asterisks gives that word emphasis.
  


• Use emoticons to indicate the *feeling* that goes with the sentence. The most widely used emoticons are:

:-)
;-)
:-(

(to understand these symbols, turn your head counter-clockwise and look at them sideways. You should see little faces).

• ALL CAPS means that you are shouting or yelling (If you do write an email in haste and anger, finish it, then leave it and go back to check it later).

A few more hints for effective business communication on the internet:

• Use an effective email signature.
  


• Have an appropriate email address for business correspondence - superchick@freeemailaddress.com may not provide the most appropriate business presence and neither would abj4294857@freeemailaddress.com. The second address will simply get your email suspected as Spam and deleted before being opened.
  


• Use appropriate grammar and sentences. i know that email spawned the use of all lower case and no punctuation no sentence structure like the whole email message just all ran into one big long rambling message was increasingly more and more difficult to read but like real easy for a person to type - Please - this is business!

For more detailed information about email etiquette, check these links -

http://www.mapnp.org/library/commskls/netiquet/netiquet.htm

http://www.emailreplies.com/

http://www.emailreplies.com/Email-ettiquette-links.htm

Cheers,
Annette Ramsey

Annette Ramsey is an Internet Marketer and Editor of the Industry Update, a free weekly internet marketing newsletter. To subscribe, send a blank email to industryupdates@infogeneratorpro.com. If I can help you in any way regarding setting up and running Your Own Internet Based Home Business, please let me know. Send email to:annette@powerwomancentral.com.

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