Social Media, Email, and Etiquette

By Grovo Learning Inc. on March 5, 2012

Since the inception of Facebook and Twitter, online communication has changed dramatically. Interaction between users has become much more informal, and the ease of access to large numbers of people has never been easier.

The result? Skyrocketing concerns over Internet privacy, and plummeting Internet etiquette. Here’s a quick look at the history of social media.

However, throughout history, communication platforms have grown to develop rules of etiquette as users have adopted them. For social media platforms, the push and pull of privacy settings and Internet etiquette has yet to find common ground. And unfortunately, that trend is carrying over into other aspects of our digital lives.

Etiquette is defined as the customary code of polite behavior in society, or among members of a particular profession or group. The same definition applies to Internet etiquette, or netiquette, as well.

Twitter and Facebook have arguably created the largest society the world has ever seen, and this group interacts in short bursts of conversation without much awareness of audience.

Image uploaded to Flickr by Gavin Llewellyn

Because of the ease of communication and encouragement to be impulsive, posts and messages are rarely edited and are often the result of an emotional response or urge. Comments tend to travel in packs and tweet subjects catch fire, only to fizzle out within a day.

This trend carries over, most detrimentally, to email. I say most detrimentally because the contacts that are most important to your professional career expect a certain level of etiquette when it comes to communication. Trends in social media toward a more casual, quick conversation make it easy to lose track of our email etiquette.

Below is a list of email etiquette tips to help you avoid a potentially embarrassing slip in your next professional email.

  1. Clear language with no typos: This one may be a no-brainer, but it needs to come up front. Clear, flawless language is essential to email etiquette, but sometimes the hardest to execute.  The key is to take your time with important emails. Step away from the computer for a period of time to clear your mind. Save a draft, and come back later. Of course, you don’t always have the time for that.  The good news is that professionals look for concise, to-the-point emails that don’t waste their time. Say what you need in the fewest amount of words possible.
  1. Learn When to CC: Communication on Twitter and Facebook is the equivalent of CCing everyone you know on an email. While emails are more direct, it’s important to understand when to loop someone into a conversation, and when to leave them out. Notify the right people, but keep in mind that not everybody wants to hear what you have to say. For tweeters, this is tough to hear. Good thing your tweets are helping you be more direct.
  1. Relevant Subject Lines: People want clear, concise information. They don’t want to spend time decoding emails, and they’re certainly not going to spend time considering a strange or indirect subject line. Use your subject to grab your intended recipient and quickly explain why he or she should spend time reading your email. Again, be direct.
  1. Response Time: This piece of etiquette applies to any platform, but much more so for emails. Everyone likes a response to a message as quickly as possible, but the information conveyed on Twitter or Facebook is not as time-sensitive as emails from colleagues. Keep on top of your emails to keep your contacts happy; don’t wait too long to respond. Here’s a video How-To for making Gmail more efficient:
  1. Introductions: Meeting someone through email is obviously much different than clicking “Add as Friend” or “Follow.”  Introduction emails need to be professional and contain as much information about yourself as possible, without being exhaustive.  Let your contact know who you are, why you are contacting them and how to follow up with you. This is your first impression,  and it doesn’t come with a smiling profile picture to back it up: keep it short, sweet and professional.

This is a guest post from Daniel Levine of Grovo.com, a field guide to the Internet where users can learn about how to use everything from Facebook Timeline to Pinterest.


For more information about Grovo, follow this link.

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