E-mail Etiquette John Slatem Oakleigh Computers East Dorset Business Club Canford Magna Golf Club Tuesday, 2nd February

1. E-mail Etiquette John Slatem Oakleigh Computers East Dorset Business Club Canford Magna Golf Club Tuesday, 2nd February 2010 www.ocs.me.uk

2. E-mail Etiquette • Why should we consider Etiquette in this informal world? • E-mail affords the opportunity for quick, simple, easy, direct to the point communication, so why is Etiquette so important or necessary and what are the rules? • Meaning of the word • Oxford Dictionary:- the code of polite behaviour in a society • Wikipedia:- is a code of behaviour that delineates expectations for social behaviour according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group • Netiquette:- A huge amount of content and links. • Etiquette and it’s application in relation to e-mail and technology

3. General comments on e-mail addresses Companies have still not realised how important e-mail communications are. Your company spends a great deal of money creating an image and first impressions count, e-mail is no different. This impression extends to the “domain” name that you chose for your e-mail address. You wouldn’t expect to see Marks and Spencer , BusinessLink or your suppliers use a Vodafone, Tiscali or BT Internet address so why try and save £50 per year? If you had the choice of buying from pete@psp-plumbing.co.uk or pete.smith@yahoo.com, which one would you choose?

4. So why do we need e-mail etiquette? Many companies send e-mail replies late or not at all, or send replies that do not actually answer the questions you asked. If your company is able to deal professionally with e-mail, this will provide you with that all important competitive edge. Moreover by educating employees as to what can and cannot be said in an e-mail, you can protect your company. 'By requiring employees to use appropriate, businesslike language in all electronic communications, employers can limit their liability risks and improve the overall effectiveness of the organization's e-mail and Internet copy in the process' - Excerpt from 'Writing Effective E-mail', by Nancy Flynn and Tom Flynn . “People use e-mails in a careless way” - Prof John Beddington, UK Gov Chief Scientific Advisor Thursday 29th January 2010 Setting a code of practice within your business sends out a message to your customers and partners, sets the rules for your employees and therefore improves productivity and gives you a competitive edge.

5. What are the Etiquette rules? 1. Always use the Subject line, make it meaningful and relevant There are many Etiquette guides and many different rules. Some will differ according to the nature of your business and the corporate culture. Below I list what I consider as the most important e-mail Etiquette rules (but not in any order) If you reply to the e-mail then change the subject line to match the content of your reply.

6. Be careful of your Subject line content. Some systems will filter or block. This was from a major supplier

7. 2. Use proper spelling, grammar & punctuation and read it before sending! Hi.Everyone, I hope you dont mind me contacting you again. I am hoping you are all aware of the new version of NotifySync For Blackberry version 4.7, which has many enhancements. Many of our resellers have purchased and the feedback, is very encouraging. Please click on the Link below.  This is from a very satisfied reseller, who have now put a Blog on there website. They explain, the difficulties they have been having with BES, and how NotifySync the trusted alternative, has come to the rescue, and enhanced there portfolio. They mention three main factors, which are, cost savings over BES,Easier to Install and Manage,and UK Support.  To take a free 14 Day trial of Version 4.7,please click on the Link below. Enhancements include Sharing of Blackberry Calenders and Lots More. I am your main contact at London Web, if I can be of any further assistance to yourselves, please do not hestitite to contact me.

8. 3. Do not write in Capitals It implies you are shouting 4. Add disclaimers to your e-mails It is important to add disclaimers to your internal and external mails, since this can help protect your company from liability. Include a sentence that says that the recipient must check each e-mail for viruses and that it cannot be held liable for any transmitted viruses. If your company has an e-mail policy in place and adds an e-mail disclaimer to every mail that states that employees are expressly required not to make defamatory statements then you have a good case of proving that you did everything you could to prevent offensive e-mails should the need arise plus the ability to take action against the employee. Create a text file, save it to your server and ensure that all users in the Company use the same data or purchase a bespoke template created especially for you.

9. 5. Be succinct and to the point Try to keep your sentences to a maximum of 15-20 words. E-mail is meant to be a quick medium and requires a different kind of writing than letters. Also take care not to send e-mails that are too long. If a person receives an e-mail that looks like a dissertation, chances are that they will not even attempt to read it! 6. Then read the e-mail again before you send it You’ll be sirprised at the number of grammatical and speeling errors I receive from comanystrying to sell to me! Never “bash off “a quick reply without pausing for thought. The written word can be misinterpreted because the reader cannot hear the expression in your voice. I have heard of someone who sets their e-mail only to send hourly to avoid a rash, heat of the moment, reply

10. 7. The use of the CC: and BCC: fields In 2007, the United States Department of Homeland Security used large CC lists in place of a mailing list to broadcast messages to several hundred users. Misuse of the "reply to all" caused the number of responses to that message to quickly expand to some 2 million messages, bringing down their mail server. Try not to use the cc: field unless the recipient in the cc: field knows why they are receiving a copy of the message. Using the cc: field can be confusing since the recipients might not know who is supposed to act on the message. Also, when responding to a cc: message, should you include the other recipient in the cc: field as well? This will depend on the situation. In general, do not include the person in the cc: field unless you have a particular reason for wanting this person to see your response. Again, make sure that this person will know why they are receiving a copy. More importantly the cc: field can be seen by all recipients and can be copied and used without your knowledge or permission. Placing them into the bcc: box avoids this.

11. 8. Do not over use “Reply to All” In fact try not to use it at all Think about whom you want to include in your reply and select them or manually type their names. Here is a good example of the correct use of To:, CC: and Bcc:. Note that I was a recipient but you can’t see my name But here are some bad examples...

12. Here, the sender(s) have simply clicked Forward without thought of the consequences.

13. Here is the result of a number of recipients clicking on Reply to All. Until it ended up with this!

15. 9. Mailings – use the bcc: field When sending an e-mail mailing, some people place all the e-mail addresses in the To: field. There are several drawbacks to this practice: (1) the recipient knows that you have sent the same message to a large number of recipients, (2) you are publicising someone else's e-mail address without their permission, (3) some spamcheckers or ISP’s block this kind of mailing. One way to get round this is to place all addresses in the Bcc: field and send the To: to yourself. If you have Microsoft Outlook and Word you can do a mail merge and create one message for each recipient. There are very good Mail programmes available on the Net. If you cannot see the Bcc box, depending on your version of software click View and choose All Headers, Show Bcc or simply click the CC box and select your recipients

16. 10.Take care with abbreviations and emoticons • In business e-mails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). The recipient might not be aware of the meanings of the abbreviations and in business e-mails these are generally not appropriate. The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley :-). If you are not sure whether your recipient knows what it means, it is better not to use it. 11. Be careful with formatting Remember that when you use formatting in your e-mails, the sender might not be able to view formatting, or might see different fonts than you had intended. When using colours, use a colour that is easy to read on the background. Incredimail is a classic for creating hard to read e-mails. 12.Take care with Rich Text and HTML messages Be aware that when you send an e-mail in rich text or HTML format, the sender might only be able to receive plain text e-mails. If this is the case, the recipient will receive your message as a .txt attachment. Most e-mail clients however, including Microsoft Outlook, are able to receive HTML and rich text messages. At present, plain text messages can’t contain viruses. 13. Do not forward chain letters We can safely say that all of them are hoaxes. Just delete the letters as soon as you receive them. It is very easy to checkout their validity.

17. 14. Do not request delivery and read receipts This will almost always annoy your recipient before he or she has even read your message. Besides, it usually does not work anyway since the recipient could have blocked that function, or his/her software might not support it, so what is the use of using it? If you want to know whether an e-mail was received it is better to ask the recipient to let you know if it was received. 15. Do not ask to recall a message Best chances are that your message has already been delivered and read. A recall request would look very silly in that case wouldn't it? It is better just to send an e-mail to say that you have made a mistake. This will look much more honest than trying to recall a message. 16. Avoid using URGENT, IMPORTANT and HIGH PRIORITY This irritates the reader and attempts to control their work schedule thus “turning them off”. Some “anti spam checkers will often remove your e-mail at source so don’t risk it

18. 17. Don't forward virus hoaxes and chain letters There are sites on the web for checking these 18. Don't reply to spam By replying to spam or by unsubscribing, you are confirming that your e-mail address is 'live'. Confirming this will only generate even more spam. Therefore, just hit the delete button or use e-mail software to remove spam automatically. Oakleigh can help here

19. 19. Attachments Beware of what you attach – they can host viruses. By sending large attachments you can annoy customers and even bring down their e-mail system. Wherever possible try to compress attachments (“zipping”) and only send attachments when they are productive. Moreover, you need to have a good virus scanner in place since your customers will not be very happy if you send them documents full of viruses! The size of the attachments – generally accept 5mb as the maximum. Remember that a typical picture can be over 2Mb!

20. 20. e-mail signatures, corporate statement and disclaimers Oakleigh Computer Services 8 Brabourne AveFerndown Dorset. BH22 9EJ(Callers by appointment only)Tel: 01202 875224. Mob: 07889 137155 www.oakleighcomputers.co.uk"Work smarter not harder with Oakleigh Computers Help Desk Support" Oakleigh Computer Services is the trading name of Oakleigh Computer Consultancy Ltd. Registered in England No.4608890. Email DisclaimerThe information in this email is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Oakleigh Computers have a strict policy of using up-to-date virus and malware checkers but due to the nature of the Internet you are advised to run your own checks.

21. Thank you John Slatem Oakleigh Computers