Almost anyone with any sort of decency knows the value in having good manners; things like holding the door for the person behind you, taking small bites at meals, not chewing or speaking with your mouth full of food, etc, etc.  But remembering your manners isn’t just for the dinner table and social setting anymore.  It now applies to Internet usage as well.  Especially if you’re a business owner who conducts a lot of online correspondence, a little net-quette can go a long way.  Here are some useful suggestions:

1. Check & Respond.  Hardly anyone opens up forwarded email or junk email.  However, if you do receive a message from someone, regardless if it’s an old friend or a potential client, alway respond and respond promptly.  Even if you send an email to the person to say that you don’t have time to talk at that moment, something is better than nothing.
2. Be Selective.  Clicking “send to all” can be tricky at times.  There’s nothing worse than getting a mass email saying “hello” that has been sent to a bunch of other people.  It makes the recipient feel less important and can be interpreted negatively.  Sending work messages can be sent this way, but private messages should remain private.
3. Keep it Professional.  If you’re at work, try to avoid sending emails or messages that aren’t work-related.  If you absolutely need to send a personal email to your spouse, friend or family  member, try to wait until lunch time or whenever you take a scheduled break.  Some companies will view checking and sending personal emails on company time as grounds for dismissal.
4. Regularity.  If you’re the kind of person who checks their email 500 times a day, great. On the other hand, if you’re the type who only checks your email once a month, make sure others know that.  Nothing irks people more than sending an email (especially if it is semi-important) and then not hearing anything back.
5. Addresses Galore!  When you send out an email to a bunch of people, consider using an address function that doesn’t list EVERYONE’S email addresses in the “to” header.  The reason for this is twofold: a) it’s annoying to have to scroll through a long list of addresses to actually get to the text and b) some people may not want their email information displayed to others.
6. Choose carefully. When sending an email out, make sure you put a relevant subject heading in the subject line.  Something that is going to grab the reader’s attention will more than likely get them to read the email versus something like, “Re:”.  This goes both for business purposes as well as personal.

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Tags: Blogging, Business Building, Business Networking //