Your E-mail IS You!

September 3, 2009 by Judith

Funny how so many want to trivialize e-mail proper practices. E-mail is informal (very), e-mail is just a tool, why take e-mail so darned seriously?

Whenever I kindly correct someone or point out something that they need to be aware of so that they are perceived positively, which is more important with business e-mails, I always get an excuse…

“I know you — those details don’t matter!” Hmmm… You’ve just basically told me that I am not worth the very little, minuscule effort to communicate with clarity and courtesy. Nice. So showing courtesy and ensuring your tone is not terse is only for strangers?

“You’re being nit-picky! A greeting doesn’t make a hill of beans of a difference!” Well, a greeting does make a difference. It sets the tone and shows courtesy for the person you are communicating with.

“I don’t want to have to resize photo attachments — that’s a hassle!” Yikes! Because you don’t want to learn something as easy as resizing photos, the rest of us have to deal with your multi-meg attachments? Sheesh! One has to wonder about folks who are unwilling to improve their skills and take the time to learn new things.

The above are reactions sent to me in just the last week. All the issues mentioned only required just a bit of extra effort. Extra effort that takes negligible time but reflects an immense understanding of how to use e-mail properly while reflecting courtesy for those one communicates with.

Your e-mail is you! It speaks volumes of who you are, what you feel is important and the effort you are willing to make for others. Choose to not show courtesy; choose to not use technology properly; choose to remain ignorant when it comes to the skills that are required to participate in an arena you are obviously underestimating, and all the excuses in the world will not change how your are perceived.

Online, perception is the only reality!

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Filed Under: Email Etiquette Blog
Tagged: email attachments, email etiquette, email greetings

Comments

3 Responses to “Your E-mail IS You!”

Ron Karr - America’s Business Transformation Expert on September 3rd, 2009 8:45 pm

[...] Your E-mail IS You! | Email Etiquette Discussions, Tips and Proper … [...]
Rodney on September 13th, 2009 12:42 am

A while ago I got great insight from Judith’s reply to a post similar to the above, that a disregard for Netiquette can be reflected in everyday offline life. Which on reflection I found absolutely true, and posted about it.
Now I’ve found further, that a disregard, sometimes even contempt, for Netiquette can be an advance warning about a person. They may have enough ‘social skills’ to cover up their self-centred personalities in a face-to-face situation, but this ‘slips’ when in the comfort of solitude behind a keyboard. So they can reveal their true self by openly disregarding and even boasting about their lack of regard for netiquette. They are unintentionally warning in far advance they are not to be associated with!
I don’t mean romantic or business contacts, just ‘friends’!
Thankyou Judith: I wish I’d thought through on your wisdom earlier!
Judith on September 14th, 2009 10:49 am

Hey, Rodney!

I wish I could say that your conclusion was not true. But in over 15 years of e-mailing with thousands of folks across the globe, I’ve yet to find anyone to disprove exactly what you’ve stated. Our actions or lack thereof, regardless of where or when, in fact are a reflection about what are our values and priorities.

If someone isn’t willing to integrate basic knowledge, courtesy and understanding in e-mail — it is indicative of other things. These folks typically don’t make simple efforts in other important areas that are even more important to their off-line life or online success. I know in my WordPress Consulting business, if someone doesn’t want to embrace the basics of Business E-mail Etiquette, I can count on that client to disregard other important advice that can affect their online success (and coincidentally these are the least profitable type of client as well).

What a shame to … E-mail Etiquette really takes very little effort. For the most part it’s just a matter of thinking about how your actions and word will be perceived by the other side and using the education you acquired in grade school!