I got to upgrade to Msoffice 2007, and during configuration I set it to Kiswahili, now this is one of those things I should not have done, so you can image what has been happening, my emails have not been spelled checked in a while! I dont even want to imagine the impression I have left on most of my contacts, so yes email can be a nightmare and can end up countering something I call your personal brand .
“Some people hit the send button and they destroy their career and reputation in the process– Even in email we have first impressions…. So make it count.”
Well, this rules for email can be found on the internet, use them to get more organizedThe first one is Reply within 24 Hours – Email is active not passive, you should reply within 24 hours, if people wanted to wait a week, they would have sent a snail mail through post office ? , so lets keep it within it 24 hours, if you have no answer.. give short reply and promise to give one soon- This will put the customer’s mind at rest and usually customers will then be very patient!
Be concise and to the point. – Reading emails can be taxing, so make it short and to the point, people can be discouraged, especially if it’s a marketing email.
Preempt further questions by answering all of them. – Impress your boss or customers with preempting all relevant questions.
Spelling Spelling Spelling & grammar. – Bad grammar and spelling gives a bad impression of you or your company, again, emails that have no paragraphs or full stops. I say no more, use a spell checker, I personally like using word document and copy pasting to email. – In business emails, try not to use abbreviations such as BTW (by the way) and LOL (laugh out loud). This is not appropriate, and your recipient might not know this, The same goes for emoticons, such as the smiley . – a good bet is not to use them. Subject to be relevant. – if it’s a new email, make your subject relevant, if it’s a reply include the original email, this is good for follow up, don’t start a new topic on an old subject, it becomes hard to follow espec ially for those who receive many emails – also your emails get priority based on the subject, so don’t use URGENT, High Priority if its not.
CAPITAL LETTERS & punctuation – IF YOU WRITE IN CAPITALS IT SEEMS AS IF YOU ARE SHOUTING. This can be highly annoying and might trigger an unwanted response in the form of a flame mail. Also when you put exclamation marks! , use it only to emphasize a point and I would suggest you don’t send it to your boss. ?, Use of colors.. and funny fonts, Your recipient might not have that font..
Attachments – Avoid heavy 10MB long i.e videos, is costly (safaricom or zein)… can be annoying to customers, it blocks their other emails, so – compress your attachment especially photos, as for permissions, scan for viruses otherwise if it’s a 20 page word document there is no other reason for it to be 5MB other than virus.
Save in a format that is acceptable – If you are going to send an attachment and you are using MS Office 2007 you can be sure very few people can open that, so save your attachments as RTF (rich text format) or Compatible MS Office 2003 or PDF.
Read it twice before you send it. – A lot of people don’t bother to read an email before they send it out, as can be seen from the many spelling and grammar mistakes contained in emails. Apart from this, reading your email through the eyes of the recipient will help you send a more effective message and avoid misunderstandings and inappropriate comments.
Do not overuse Reply to All. – Only use Reply to All if you really need your message to be seen by each person who received the original message.
To , CC, BCC: - To is for the person you are sending email to, CC means Carbon Copy, someone who needs an update, BCC, is Blind Carbon copy, Someone you want to receive the email but you don’t want TO or CC to know. – Avoid sending those chain letters and copying everybody’s email address…. Don’t publicize peoples email sending bulk email without their permission.
Chain letters. – We all have received them, if you don’t send within 7 days, or send to 5 people and get blessed, others are to donate to charity or sick people, others are warning of viruses, etc … Do not forward chain letters or hoaxes. As a tech can safely say that all of them are hoaxes. . , and that most of them spread viruses and are used to track your email activity including collecting your email addresses for spam mail. – If you have time Google and get information if it’s a hoax or not, if you are busy. Trash it.
What has been your experience with email? How do you write a job application email?
