Here is information you need to
make you an Internet e-mail professional:
Use it
E-mail has quickly become a valued way to communicate. Tired
of playing phone tag, many people now use e-mail to conduct
their day-to-day business. If you are a small business owner
without this tool, you are losing business to your
competition.
Advertise your company name
Register a domain name so that your e-mail address is you@yourcompany.com
instead of you2356@aol.com. Using anything other than your
domain name as your email address shows that you are not
keeping up with technology. An AOL address screams "I am not a
professional". For as little as $6 a month you can do this.
Read it twice
Read all business e-mails in their entirety before clicking
Send. Better yet, have someone else read them too. We tend to
type like we speak and what we mean is sometimes, even often,
misinterpreted. Remember that in an e-mail the person doesn't
know you are smiling, and your words may come across as mean
or angry when you were trying to be funny.
Remember English class?
Use correspondence style case, punctuation and grammar. DID
YOU KNOW THAT ALL CAPS MEANS I AM YELLING AT YOU? It is in
very bad form to use all one case. E-mail is still a form of
communication and should be treated with respect.
Spellcheck is your friend
Use the spell checker on your e-mail software. Remember that
sometimes the recipient of your e-mail has software that shows
them what you have spelled incorrectly by underlining the word
in red. It's bad enough when the person catches your
misspellings, it's worse when the computer points it out to
them.
It's important
Check your e-mail at least twice a day during the week. More
often as your customers get used to communicating with you via
e-mail. You can no longer get away with "I forgot to check my
e-mail" and still look like you know what you are doing.
The curiosity trap
Don't check your mail more than once an hour, unless you are
waiting for something important. One of the often heard
complaints from employers is that they think e-mail is a
time-waster. It isn't the e-mail that wastes time, of course,
it's the person at the keyboard.
Touch it once
Just as the time management people recommend touching a piece
of paper only once, try to deal with the e-mail the first time
you look at it. Can you delete it? File it? Answer it right
now? Get it out of your inbox as quickly as possible. Just
like snail mail, magazines and faxes, e-mails have a tendency
to pile up.
Copy and Paste
In Windows you can copy and paste information rather than
retype it:
*Highlight what you want to copy
*Ctrl-C to copy
*Click where you want the information to go
*Ctrl-V to paste
*Or better yet, right click and choose copy or paste
Sick of typing your name?
Add a signature line to the bottom of your email to ensure
that every message you send out has all the information
someone needs to contact you. Your name, company name, phone
numbers and web site address.
What's in an attachment?
Do not open attachments. That's the easy answer. But once you
start using the Internet as a tool you will be sending and
receiving attachments. So then you need to know what to open
and what not to open. Here are some guidelines:
*Run an anti-virus program.
*Keep your anti-virus program up-to-date.
*Do not open attachments from people you don't know.
*Only open attachments that you are expecting.
*Look at the name of the attachment. If it ends in .vbs, don't
open it, ever.
Carbon Copy
Just like paper correspondence, you can - and should - use the
CC feature of your e-mail. Carbon copy is when you send a copy
of the e-mail to someone just for their information. A
letter/e-mail goes out to a client with a CC to your partner.
Blind Carbon Copy
BCC is when you want to send a copy of the e-mail to someone
but not tell the main recipient. On the Internet it is mostly
used so that everyone doesn't see everyone else's email
address. You can send the main e-mail to yourself and use BCC
to hide everyone else's address.
And here is some information for all of you who are new to
the Internet and email.
There is a process that people go through as they start using
email and the Internet. Yes, we all once did these things and
we're sharing them with you so you can learn and maybe bypass
some of the mistakes.
1. You get an email address and give it to everyone you know.
2. Everyone you know starts sending you email.
3. You sign up for every list, newsletter, joke of the day,
story of the week and "free" offer you run across (innocently
not knowing what's about to happen).
4. You get mail. You start seeing funny or interesting emails
that you think your sister would like, so you forward them to
her.
5. She likes them, or more likely, doesn't ask you to stop
because she knows you are new and this is fun for you and hey,
she's your sister and she knows you mean well. And you know
her so well you know what would offend her and don't even
think about your choices. You start sending them to more
people.
6. And more people.
7. And so you get more.
8. And you send more. Because after all, isn't it fun to get
mail! Hey "You've got mail!" and you just want to share the
fun.
9. Then someone sends you something that you think is funny or
cute or whatever and you send it out to 30 people and someone
finally emails you back and says "please stop".
10. And you think "what a crab!" and you don't stop.
11. This goes on and on until one day you send out that
funny/sad/sharply witted missive and you offend someone...and
offend them in a BIG way. And they let you know it. They may
even let the whole LIST know it. And you are shamed into going
into a corner and licking your wounds. But next time...if you
have half a brain, and WE all are blessed with whole
ones...next time you THINK before you send something.
12. OR maybe you are the one who is offended. And you say so.
And then you don't feel good about being so righteous when
three of your friends email you back, yelling at you for
flaming someone else when you have been guilty too. We've ALL
done it, we may not know it, but we have.
13. You go back to sending things to your sister and your best
friend and maybe, once in a while, when something is very,
very APPROPRIATE, you share it with a few other people.
Think of any email you feel like sending out to a group of
people as if you are at an annual cocktail party. People you
see once in a while but don't know very well. Maybe some
colleagues from your industry are there too. We know those
rules without thinking: No politics, no religion, no bathroom
humor.
So stop and think before you forward that cookie recipe. Your
reputation is on the line. Don't be the one with the lampshade
on her head.
See Dr. Ivan Misner's blog for more about inappropriate
online behavior.
Read more
about Internet truths by clicking here.
Beth M.
Anderson is an entrepreneur, a founding partner in
OrgTrack.com, and an internationally recognized expert in
word-of-mouth referral networking. Beth is an active
participant in several on-line networking communities, and
credits her success to the lessons learned through her
participation in the world’s largest organization of weekly
face-to-face meetings,
BNI, Business Network Int’l. She is an avid sailor and
makes her home in
Pepin, Wisconsin. Visit her on the web at
www.BethMAnderson.com.
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