E-Mail Etiquette for Wireless
Devices: 7 Tips
by Christopher
Elliott
Reprinted with permission from the Microsoft
Small Business Center
This
isn't another lecture about minding your e-mail manners. This is a story
about a new subset of e-mail etiquette. Call it wireless politeness.
An increasing number of e-mail
messages are being received on small, wireless devices with limited screen
space — devices such as Windows Mobile-based Smartphones. Being polite is
still important. But so are a number of other considerations, including
brevity, diction and consideration for bandwidth.
Reader Terri Thornton aptly
sums up the frustration with today's wireless transmissions. "I hate
checking my e-mail and having the subject line be so long that it scrolls
forever until I can figure out what the topic is, or whether it's
important," says Thornton, a Cincinnati marketing executive. "Worse is the
one-word subject line that says nothing and you have to open it to find
out what it is and discover it's 30 lines of nothing."
So what is the etiquette for
sending e-mail messages to and from wireless devices? Here are seven tips.
1. First, determine if
you're sending to a wireless device.
How do you do that? Easy.
Look for telltale signs, such as abbreviated words, emoticons, or the
ever-helpful "Sent from my BlackBerry Handheld." When you see that, you
can be relatively sure that when you reply, you're shooting a message
through the air to a device that doesn't have a lot of room, both in terms
of the display screen space and in terms of bandwidth. That's when you
have to watch your wireless manners.
2. Don't overabrvt.
Getting to the point quickly is good, but don't over-abbreviate
your words and sentences until your recipient doesn't understand what
you're saying. I mean, what's the harm in writing, "I sent the files you
requested yesterday," rather than, "Sent fls u rqd ystrdy." Think I'm
exaggerating? I have dozens of e-mails sent to me from wireless devices
that were almost incomprehensible. Why return the favor? Be brief, but
also be clear. It sure beats having to resend the message in order to
clarify.
3. The subject line isn't
everything, but it should often be the only thing.
Want to make a
wireless e-mail recipient really happy? Then keep your message so short
and to the point that opening the actual message is unnecessary. For
example, instead of a message header "call me, please," you should say
"problem: pls call (your number)." This makes it far easier to process the
information, and far less taxing on valuable air time. If your message is
longer, be sure to give and appropriate header that's concise and can't be
confused for spam. Otherwise, it could be ignored.
4. Put yourself in the
receiver's shoes.
If you violate any of these rules, be prepared
to have your message ignored. "I always have longer messages or messages
with lowered importance sent to my regular work account," says Samir
Bhatnagar, a finance manager in Arlington, Va. And then, of course, there
are spam guards that can be set so that e-mail that is legitimate but too
wordy or containing too much HTML code can be summarily discarded. Do you
really want that happening to your important messages?
5. Ask before you tell your
life story.
Graduates of the e-mail etiquette school already know
this one. Before you send a big attachment, find out if the receiver can
handle the file. With wireless e-mail, take that a step further. If you're
thinking of sending more than a paragraph, check first to make sure the
recipient can deal with the information. I once got chewed out by a client
for sending a brief e-mail to an account that was being checked wirelessly
through a satellite phone (he was at sea). I won't make that mistake
again.
6. Cut the funny stuff.
E-mails that contain animation, graphics, or anything else that
might challenge the bandwidth-starved should be avoided at all costs.
Evelyn Fine, who travels with a Palm Tungsten W, got so tired of the
gibberish that she set her PDA to disregard the bells and whistles. "I
have friends who send e-mail with smiley faces, animations and other
useless additives," says Fine, president of a market research company in
Daytona Beach, Fla. "My Palm immediately truncates the e-mail, assuming
it's all garbage."
7. Skip your John Hancock.
Signatures tend to get so big and lofty that they clog up the
pipeline. It isn't just the name, phone number, address and several e-mail
addresses. Now it seems as if every signature is also followed by lengthy
legal disclaimers "This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for
the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and
privileged information." Puh-leeze. No one needs to see that disclaimer
when space is at a premium. And there's no easier way to strain a business
relationship than to bog a wireless message down with that kind of
gobbledygook.
Bottom line: keep it short and
sweet — and remember that if you don't, you'll get ignored or worse, incur
the wrath of a customer.
But relax. There's a way to at
least heighten your awareness of the fact that you're dealing with
wireless recipients. In Outlook 2003, scroll
over to the Navigation
Pane, click Mail. Then on the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts. You can
create a rule to move messages from a user who you know is on a wireless
account, or based on keywords such as "Blackberry," to a designated
folder.
That way, at least you know
when you have to be on your best behavior.
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