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RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

MeganKeane — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 05:42:00 GMT

TechSoup blog reports on an email characteristic to be aware of: font. There's a recent study that looks at how people perceive different types of font in email messages. The font you choose can make a big difference in terms of how others interpret your message.

I think the report makes a good point. I would argue that the color of the font also matters a good deal.

--Megan

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

brina1300 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:27:00 GMT

I am hoping someone can tell me if this is the new way of doing email or just bad manners.

Members of our company have started to attached documents to their email with no text in the body of the message. The email message is either: open attachment or simply their standard signature. I finally blew a gasket one day and replied:

Why!

I don't understand why I need to download a document to my computer, open it, and have to read it to determine if this is something I want to read or need to react to. Half the time it isn't even something related to me or my work.

Thanks for giving me a place to air this pet peeve.

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

marquisgt — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:39:00 GMT

The biggest DON'T for me are:

- users who respond to an either/or question with a vauge "yes"
- users who answer only one question in a message where multiple questions are asked
- when people follow up in person with you immediately after they sent you an email... like literally right afterwards. They send me a message, then walk to my office and ask the same question. That's not respectful of anyone's time.. I take it as an insult.

DO's:

- realize that emotions simply CANNOT be conveyed accurately through written communication alone, no matter how wordy or emoticon-packed your message is
- answer emails requiring simple answers immediately after you receive them... no reason to spend more time organizing emails than it takes to actually respond to them! I think this would solve a lot of "volume" problems people have with their inboxes. Most emails can be responded to in less than a minute, even if some limited information has to be gathered, or your calendar needs to be checked.

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

mdjukic — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:19:00 GMT

Here's an interesting idea: use the subject line to your advantage. Since it's the one of the first things a recipient will read, it can become a very useful tool. Devise your own system to rank e-mail importance beyond the generic "urgency" or "flagged" messages sent from everyone.

For example, in all e-mails within your org, use something like L1, L2, and L3 to rank importance. L1 can mean "very important, reply ASAP." L2 can mean "reply within the next day or two." L3 can mean "fyi, no response needed."

Soon enough, you should be able to better organize your e-mail inbox, and hopefully it will help everyone think more carefully about the content of their message.

Best,
--
Mizel

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Fresh — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:37:00 GMT

Thanks so much for your reply Megan. I'm not sure why I didn't find this link myself and so I'm glad for your communication.

I'll be sure to pass it on to my group.

Peace,

Fresh!

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

MeganKeane — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:21:00 GMT

This is a really interesting question and one that I asked some others about. The consensus I found from a listserv discussion and my own research online seemed to be that email is copyrighted material, even if it isn't explicitly stated. How successful a person can be to enforce that to protect their ideas, I'm not sure. Here's a link to US copyright information.

Let us know how it goes. Hopefully, this person can protect their ideas, however, in any case, it's a good thing to be aware of when working in collaboration (and maybe something to always spell out ahead of time).

--Megan

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Fresh — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 19:08:00 GMT

Hello,

I'm working with a group of folks, some of which are sharing ideas online and they'd like to know, what if any rights they have in regards to protecting their email. Someone who has received an email from the group and wants to use some of the text in a book he is working on.

Can he just pull text from the email and use it in his book. I don't believe the sender created an agreement (unfortunately) before their conversation, that stated she didn't want her words shared.

Thanks for any information you can send me,

Fresh!

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Christian_SEO — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:34:00 GMT

Emails without a subject.
Emails with a confusing subject.
Emails with just a RE:.
Emails that have a RE:, but I never sent them anything for them to reply to...?

But my biggest peeve is when people send me a test email to see if it's working and write.

Hi,

I have been having some problems with my email, so I wanted to send you this test. Can you please let me know if you don't get it?

Thanks,
Wally

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

DenverAl-Anon — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:39:00 GMT

One of my email pet peeves is receiving those forwarded urban legend, bogus virus warning, or chain mail messages, especially at work (where I have told people not to send personal messages), and especially with none of the old headers or previous messages trimmed off.

I also hate it when I receive such messages with a whole string of bandwith-eating embedded pictures.

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Ashvana — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 13:44:00 GMT

I have two pet peeves related to emails:
People who reply (to all) on listserves, and
people who refuse to use capital letters and punctuation. We've already taken the penmanship out of writers' hands!

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Susan_Tenby — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:20:00 GMT

I have a favorite pet peeve which is when you get mysteriously dropped into a long, monster-thread with absolutely no context and no call to action. You are then forced to wade through dozens of emails and try to decipher how you may vaguely fit into this situation. I would prefer (and I am not hinting to anyone in particular, yeah, right!) if there were an initial paragraph opener, synopsizing the issue beneath (in the thread) and explaining to me where I fit in and what is needed from me. It sure beats being just plopped into a cc: line and given a weak FYI... and then being sent out on your own to deal with the consequences and implications. (just noticed this was related to Amit's number 9 in the article. It happens all the time around here! :wink2;

But I got a million of them, so let me think onthis a little more and get back to you.

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Sasha — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 16:12:00 GMT

Colorful backgrounds and pictures are definitely my least favorite email thing... especially when you can't even read the text due to the dark blue, etc, background and have to highlight the whole thing.

My favorite thing are Good Subject Lines. I love it when I can actually tell what will be in the email from a well written subject line. Good to begin with, and good later if I decide to save the email.

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

Amit_Asaravala — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:52:00 GMT

johnmacek,

Not sure if you've already tried this, but if you're using Outlook you can configure it to "never send a response" when someone requests an email read receipt.

To do it in Outlook 2003, go to Tools > Options, then on the Preferences tab select the "E-mail Options" button, then the "Tracking Options" button. You should see read receipt options below.

Hope that helps. Good luck,
--Amit

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

donc — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 19:51:00 GMT

A Blackberry is also a mobile phone, SMS device, Web Browser and PIM (Personal Information Manager). I carry a Blackberry, but it's deffinately not for the reason that I feel a need to instantly reply to every Email I receive!!

I think this thread is as much about personal time management as it is about Email management - People who manage time well, also manage Email well...

Don

RE: Share your email do's and don'ts

smilee101 — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:12:00 GMT

So my next question stemming from this discussion is how does email etiquette tie into blackberry use and the feeling of being constantly connected and people wanting a reply ASAP, hence the reason for carrying a blackberry?