Womenlines is delighted to share about Anjalika, an IITTI (CANADA) certified professional Image Branding & Lifestyle Consultant, as an Influencer for Image Branding at Womenlines. Yes womenfolk, gear up to learn the tips and tricks to carry yourself with excellence and make excellence your brand. In her sharing for this month, Anjalika is talking about certain etiquettes for Techno-Correspondence-
I was speaking at an event a few days ago, when the constant sounds of mobile phones once or twice, disrupted my chain of thoughts, not to mention the attention of the rest of the delegates. In this current world, we live in, people are running their lives with their techno-gadgets. That said, even on the run, correspondence etiquette or what I always refer as techno-correspondence etiquette should never be dismissed.
With the rapid increase use of technology such as tablets, smartphones, social media and email correspondences, face-to-face meet-ups have been made, not quite redundant,
however, way lesser than what it used to be. Professionals most time do not see the person they are dealing with physically. This is all well and dandy, but manners and etiquette still need to be kept especially while dealing with professional correspondences. If anything else,
communicating online needs more effort to ensure whatever that is being said will not be misinterpreted or misunderstood.
e-correspondence netiquette :
Brevity
Have you ever received an email that is so long-winded that you lost track of what the sender actually wanted to say? I had and it was not fun; reading and re-reading the same email until I
get the gist of it. The thing about online communication is that brevity is expected; it needs to be on-point and straight forward. Having said that, make sure sentences are written in full.
Avoid a “yes”, “no” or one-word answers; this might come across as curt.
Language
Professional language and style need to be used when sending business email and texts.
Avoid casual language, fancy fonts, emoticons and anything that conveys a relaxed style. Be careful with humour which may be misunderstood especially across various cultures.
Offensive language should never be used at all time; even if you are pally to the person you are sending the email to.
Attachments; only send with permission
It is always a good idea to ask before sending an attachment, especially if it is a large one.
Some companies may even have policies against opening unsolicited attachments.
Response time
In general, emails or correspondences should be replied within the same business day. Of course, you might have other pressing matters to attend to first or in some cases, immediate reply to an email might not be necessary.
Reply all
Respecting the privacy of your contacts is really important. Be aware when clicking on the ‘reply all’ function. Each email needs to be handled consciously. In many situations, you need to only send a reply to the sender; not the rest on the list. Imagine if you have clicked on “reply all” rather confidential or personal information.
Use BCC feature
Whenever there is a need not to divulge the email addresses of entire recipients of your mailing list, use the BCC (blind carbon copy) feature. This way, only the address of the main sendee will appear on the email.
A clear, direct subject line
Examples of the good subject line, “Change of Meeting Venue” or “Suggestions for Your Presentation”.
If you are anything like me, I open my emails based on subject lines; choose one that lets readers know you are addressing their concerns.
Out of office
Before you go away for an extended period, put up messages on your emails and phone
systems indicating your absence and your return date and who should be contacted during
your absence.
Proofread every message
Your mistakes will certainly be noticed by your recipients. Do not rely on spell-checkers; read and re-read your emails before sending them off.
So there you go, tips that are so easy to overlook yet so basic in keeping up with etiquette of communications in the cyberworld.
Zu Anjalika Kamis Gunnulfsen is the Editor (Singapore) for Marketing In Asia and certified Image Branding & Lifestyle Consultant. She was also crowned Mrs Singapore Globe 2017. Born in Singapore and blessed to have lived in a couple of other amazing cities in the world, Anjalika is currently expatriating in Kuala Lumpur. Follow her on LinkedIn, Instagram and blog
LinkedIn –https://www.linkedin.com/in/zuanjalika/
