Email Etiquette

Today is Thursday, so this post is on communication skills.

As you know, all successful people have mastered three types of communication skills:

• Successful people are excellent conversationalists.
• Successful people write in a clear, concise manner.
• Successful people are good presenters – to audiences of two or 100.

Today, I’d like to focus on writing skills – specifically e mail skills.  All too often people who spend a lot of time writing and editing their letters and reports, dash off e mails and hit “send” without much thought.  This is not a common sense approach to communication.  E mail is one of the primary forms of written business communication today – and e mails live forever.  Therefore, it makes sense to pay close attention to how you write your e mails.

Recently, I read a great book called Email Etiquette by Diane Craig, President of Corporate Class Inc. In Email Etiquette, Ms. Craig tells you everything you need to know about how to make the most effective use of e mail in your communications.

She covers such topics as:

• The e mail address
• The e mail recipient
• The importance of the subject line
• Sending attachments
• E mail length
• The proper way to reply to an e mail
• Taking advantage of e mail signatures
• Grammar and spelling
• E mail tone
• E mail effectiveness
• When and how to use the high priority option
• Disclaimers
• Chain letters and jokes

In other words, this is the single most comprehensive piece on e mail success that I’ve ever seen.  If you’re interested in building a successful career, I think that Email Etiquette should be in your library – and it should be one of the books to which you refer very frequently.

You can purchase a hard copy or download a .pdf by going to the Corporate Class website www.corporateclassinc.com.

Buy this book, and use the common sense advice within.  You’ll be glad you did.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.