Keeping it Simple (KISBYTO): email

Showing posts with label email. Show all posts

Monday, June 10, 2013

National Email Week Update 2013

By Terry Orr

Building upon last years article (http://kisbyto.blogspot.com/2012/06/national-email-week.html) there are a couple additions to add: first some dos and don’t from renowned network manner’s from Julie Spira and second the importance of using email in your daily activities.

Julie Spira is a netiquette expert and author of “The Rules of Netiquette: How to Mind Your Manners on the Web” provides these excellent Dos and Don’t for email etiquette:

DO use spell check and proof-read your emails for accuracy.

DON’T correct someone’s spelling or grammar unless they’ve asked for a critique.

DO send yourself a draft of an important email before pushing the send button to see how it will be received.

DON’T push the send button in an email when you’re upset, angry or over-tired. Chances are you’ll feel different about it in the morning.

DO keep your email correspondence brief and to the point if you’d like a reply.

DON’T write a novel, as typically only the first third of the email will get read.

DO include a signature block in your emails.

DON’T assume someone will recognize your email address, especially if you’ve just met.

DO remember that SPAM is a four-letter word.

DON’T add someone to your email list for your newsletter without their permission.

DO remember that all emails can be forwarded.

DON’T include emoticons and acronyms in your sign-offs in business emails.

DO be specific in your subject line.

DON’T send an email with “no subject” listed.

At the end of the digital day, when in doubt, don’t send an email if you aren’t sure it will be received properly.

Importance of using email to communicate with others – a lesson learned the hard way. If you rely on verbal communications as your primary means of communicating with others – follow up with an email recapping those discussion to ensure all parties are in agreement. This is also a good practice when several email, social media, verbal and other means of communication have taken place – it is simply a best business practice! For us Baby Boomers – it is even more important!

So keep those emails moving right along – remember to save those that could be important!

(Images from Google)

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Being Green

Sharing an Email/Facebook Post

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the older woman, that she should bring her own grocery bags because plastic bags weren't good for the environment.

The woman apologized and explained, "We didn't have this green thing back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

She was right -- our generation didn't have the green thing in its day.

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were truly recycled.

But we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things, most memorable besides household garbage bags, was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our schoolbooks. This was to ensure that public property, (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribbling’s. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags.

But too bad we didn't do the green thing back then.

We walked up stairs, because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the green thing in our day.

Back then, we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throwaway kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts -- wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the green thing back in our day.

Back then, we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen, we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the green thing back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the green thing back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service. We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the green thing back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smartass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

National Email Week

(Google Image)

By Terry Orr

Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the same time, in common with instant messaging. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need connect only briefly, typically to an email server, for as long as it takes to send or receive messages.

(Google Image)

I was and am a strong supporter of using email as a means of communicating in business and personal application. Like many things in life – there are some rules of the road that need to be followed. Here are some good ones.

(Google Image)

9 Keys to Email Etiquette by Dave Johnson that I like and make good sense.

Reply -- No matter what. Acknowledge promptly that you received a message. If no particular response is required, just say "thanks." If you own an "action item" but can't get to it for a while, let the sender know you saw the message and estimate when you expect to reply. But don't let mail pile up in your inbox without acknowledging its receipt.
If you're on the CC line, don't reply. There are exceptions to the rule, of course, but you're on the CC line for a reason -- and that reason is "for information only." Let the folks on the "to" line do their job, unless someone specifically invites you into the conversation.
Don't forget the attachments. Sure, everyone makes mistakes, but you shouldn't be "that guy" who always forgets to include attachments, fails to spell-check the email, or omits the subject line. Indeed, you might want to use a tool that makes sure your emails always have subject lines and attachments when you write something like "attachment enclosed."
Answer all questions. A favorite email trick is to cherry-pick a long email and only respond to the easy questions, or the issues you want to deal with, as if the sender will somehow forget that there are other questions left unresolved. Deal with each question or issue, even if it means acknowledging you don't know the answer. But don't make people re-ask the same questions over and over because you chose to ignore half the email.
Bottom line up front. I have mentioned the BLUF method many times, and it bears repeating -- don't waste your recipient's time. Be direct and clear about the point of the email right away, then give additional context. Don't make people wade through 300 words of back-story before they reach the action item or primary request.
Keep the subject line current. If an email's subject diverges over the course of a long thread from the original topic, it's okay to change the subject line. Indeed, the other recipients will silently thank you for your thoughtfulness.
Be careful about your tone. It's hard to read tone in an email, which is why emoticons were invented. Be careful not to inject attitude or sarcasm into your replies, and give emails that you think have "an attitude" the benefit of the doubt. Also be really careful when trying to be funny -- it's easy to misinterpret humor in email. Bottom line: No matter how you feel about the people you're communicating with or the contents of the message go out of your way to always be upbeat and polite.
Lose the emoticons. Likewise, most business email shouldn't have little smileys in them. They make you look goofy and unprofessional.
Know the specific cultural mores at your company. Everything I've suggested here has exceptions. Learn the specific etiquette of your own company -- ask your boss or a co-worker if you're new and not sure. Some businesses want to minimize email and frown on one-line "thanks!" emails, for example. Others like a lighter tone and encourage emoticons. There's no one-size fits all guidance for how to communicate in email.