Familiarity in email correspondence

 

Extended business correspondence or interaction might become

friendlier and less formal over time. These business friendships lend

themselves to bits of personal information being exchanged. Such relationships

and the knowledge they bring can be very useful in building

rapport, trust, and better business success. Netiquette certainly includes

asking and conveying niceties, some more specific than others. Emails

conveying a good balance are preferable and typically more effective.

There are inherent pitfalls in writing about personal topics. One of

the most obvious of these is depicting personal information not known

to other recipients, some of whom may be total strangers. Another

drawback is that any third party might be uncomfortable, or deem unprofessional,

having anything but business tone and content. Yet one

further drawback to conveyance of personal information is “too much

information,” where the personal content overshadows the business at

hand.

Care should be taken to minimize personal small talk when topics

are in an emergency or crisis mode as well, for such chitchat may be

viewed as deflecting or minimizing the real purpose of the communication.

The same holds true for topics such as financial negotiations,

and legal, medical, or job emails. Once more serious conditions are

removed or settled, it is far more appropriate to continue with a better-balanced

tone and content. Essentially, the more serious or complex

the central issue, the less time and attention should be given to personal

or peripheral information.

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Watch for the forthcoming book by Paul Babicki "NetiquetteIQ, A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". There will also be a product to test one's Netiquette "IQ". The website is at www.netiquetteiq.com. Register for coupons of the IQ test and the book.

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An exciting announcement - my book's Table of Contents is posted on our website!

#netiquette

We have just posted (thanks to my partner, Serkan Gecmen) the table of contents for my soon to be published book "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". Visit the site and register for a discount if you wish to purchase the book. We will have additional exciting announcements shortly. Stay tuned!
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Happy emailing and good Netiquette

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of an email which we cannot see - tone (taken from a previus post)

Many of the Netiquette blog entries produced here are focused upon the tangible elements within an email. These would include fields, spelling, attachments and many more. Collectively, all of these contribute to the quality, readability and clarity of our emails.

However, no matter how perfect an email may be structurally, if the tone is not conveyed or interpreted correctly, an email might produce negative results.
 

Perhaps the best insight into this was described by Nicholas Epley (University of Chicago) and Prof. Justin Kruger (New York University) in a study published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 2005.

Epley and Kruger discovered that not only were the receivers of the e-mails overconfident about their understanding of the message's tone, but the senders were as well. About 78% of the senders thought that the receiver would correctly interpret the tone of their e-mail message. Some of professor Epley's other conclusions were "People in our study were convinced they've accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance (58%)." and "People often think the tone or emotion in their messages is obvious because they 'hear' the tone they intend in their head as they write." The research also maintained that recipients believe they've correctly interpreted the tone 90% of the time!

We should all be careful of our tone and do everything possible to accomplish the delivery and effect we intend. This particularly is true for those writing to others outside their, demographics, country or culture. Future blogs will elaborate upon optimizing the accuracy of tone for each message an email sender composes.

Watch for the forthcoming book by Paul Babicki "NetiquetteIQ, A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". There will also be a product to test one's Netiquette "IQ". The website is at www.netiquetteiq.com. Register for coupons of the IQ test and the book.

#netiquette
#paulbabicki