LISTEN UP!! Email Etiquette - A Must Read!

The chances of me ACTUALLY READING YOUR EMAILS would rise significantly if you REMOVED the "FWD" from the subject line AND "BCC"ed ALL the email addresses it is being forwarded to INCLUDING MINE!! I'm sure the chances of your emails being read by ANYBODY would significantly improve just by following a few SIMPLE emailing COURTESIES!!

A few important ones to remember can be FOUND here

Never expose your contact’s addresses to strangers! USE THE "ADD BCC:" field!

"On those RARE occasions where it is necessary to send a group of people the very same email, as a courtesy to those you are sending to, please list all of the recipients email addresses in the BCC: field. (Blind Carbon Copy – from the old days when typewriters used carbon paper to create identical copies of a document when it was being typed.)

When an email address is designated in the Blind Carbon Copy field, the recipient will get a copy of the email while their email address remains invisible and protected from the view of the other recipients of the email – some of whom they may or may not know."


Long lists of email addresses at the beginning of any email is an immediate sign that the sender is either a novice/Newbie, LAZY – or doesn’t care to respect others' privacy. None of which, as I am sure you’ll agree, are complimentary perceptions!
Email addresses are like phone numbers.
Only the owner of the email address or phone number is the one to authorize who they want to have it and make it public to.
By listing handfuls of email addresses in the email headers for all to see is inconsiderate of each recipient’s right to privacy.

***In addition, many of these emails are actually hoaxes or downright bogus.***
Before you forward an email that appears good intentioned with an incredible story that instructs you to “read and share” with everyone you know, first check Snopes.com to see if the story is even legit in the first place and not a hoax. Not doing so can have you eating crow when everyone you email is informed you just forwarded a hoax and didn’t know any better.
Do not forward virus warnings! - most of these are actually virus and/or "phishing" emails to begin with.


Don’t Brush Off Email Privacy!!

Do you show a blatant disregard for your contact’s privacy? How would you feel if your contacts whether business or personal, decided to take your phone number and give it out to strangers? Strangers who you don’t know! Strangers who may use your phone number to contact you about something you’re not interested in or worse yet, who may sell your phone number to telemarketing companies to do the same.

The same thing happens with email addresses every single day. We’ve all had this happen to us and it’s not O.K. Each day we receive messages or forwarded email from well intentioned onliners listing all those they are sending to in the To: field. And by doing so they are visibly displaying their contact’s email addresses to strangers!

If you do this and are thinking “no big deal” you are so wrong! If the only thing all the folks you are sending to have in common is you, you have breached your contact’s privacy by publicizing their emails to people they don’t know. Talk about showing a complete disregard for their privacy not to mention your lack of tech savvy!

Whenever you are sending to a group of onliners, put your email address in the To: field and everyone else's email addresses in the Bcc: field and protect their email addresses from unnecessary exposure.


MORE TO READ:
With E-mail; Lazy is as Lazy Does
Don’t Kid Yourself: E-mail Etiquette = Courtesy

So In Short follow these simple Email Etiquette Rules:

1. As the comic above illustrates, use BCC instead of CC to keep other email addresses private.
2. Be wary of any kind of attachment – even if it comes from someone you know.
3. If a file you wish to send is larger than 2MB, think twice before sending it.
4. HTML stationery is annoying; if you don’t need to use it, don’t.
5. NEVER TYPE IN ALL CAPS. THAT’S LIKE SCREAMING. REALLY!
6. Don’t delete relevant information when you reply to someone.
7. If you can’t spell well, remmemmberr to run a spell check before sending.
8. Try to keep your messages as short as possible – you’re not writing a novel.
9. Check Snopes.com BEFORE forwarding info that sounds too good to be true.
10. Never send emails when you’re mad – wait until you calm down first. Trust me.
11. Triple-check that you’re not sending a message to someone who shouldn’t see it.
12. Remember that when you send something electronically, it has the potential of “living” forever.
13. Before you forward an email joke, make sure it’s funny first. Please?

Take The Email Etiquette Pledge