Tips for Efficient and Effective Online Communication
© 2005 Linda Stacy
If you market your business online you likely spend a lot of time communicating
with customers and prospects via e-mail. You may also spend time networking
on message boards and other online groups. Here are a few tips to help
save time and to help make sure the message you want to send is the
message that is received.
1. Use meaningful subject lines.
You want to convey the content of the message. Make sure your subject
line is as specific as it can be in a few words. “I have a question”
doesn’t offer any clue to the content, but “question about
shipping” does. You may think that the subject line isn’t
that important since your question will be in the message, but a recipient
who may receive a hundred emails a day will prioritize by subject line
and the more specific subjects will likely be read first.
You also want to choose email subject lines that are less likely to
be blocked by a spam filter. Avoid spam filter trigger words like “free,”
“info you requested,” and “save”.
When posting on message boards and news groups you want your subject
line to attract the people who can answer your question or who are interested
in the topic. Many message board participants have limited time and
they only open the topics of interest. If your subject line simply reads,
“help me” the experts may skip over it. But “need help
with search engine optimization” will likely get the attention
of someone with more experience on the topic.
Don’t change the subject line in your reply unless you are completely
changing the topic of the message.
2. Your message should be concise, but complete. Get to your point
early in your message and make sure you provide all the necessary information.
Some people still pay an hourly rate for Internet access and others
are limited in the amount of information they can download. Unnecessarily
long messages may be ignored or deleted by those individuals and unnecessarily
long email messages add to an already overburdened email system.
By providing complete information in your first message you can often
get your request taken care of right away. For example, if you email
a website to ask for a change to your ad or your reciprocal link, don’t
just ask, “how can I change my ad,” but include the changes
you want to make. Often, changes are made by email so if you include
the information in your first email the change will be made right away.
3. When replying to e-mail, be sure to include enough of the original
message to convey the context of the reply.
The person you’re corresponding with may receive hundreds of messages
a week and your message will be answered sooner and more accurately
if the rest of the correspondence is included.
An exception should be made when you’ve written back and forth
quite a few times and the email message starts to get very large. In
that case, delete some of the earlier messages that are no longer necessary.
Additionally, if you are emailing a newsgroup that offers daily “digest”
be sure to remove most of the original message. It becomes very difficult
to read the digest when every response includes the entire original
message.
On threaded message boards it’s not necessary to quote the original
post in your reply as most visitors are following along the entire thread
and know the context. Use a quoted reply only to highlight and refer
to a particular section of the original.
4. When sending e-mail to multiple recipients, be sure to use the blind
CC address line. Do not reveal all the e-mail addresses to all the recipients.
In most cases you shouldn’t be sending messages to multiple recipients
unless it’s a mailing list (in which case you should be using a
mailing list program that individually addresses the messages to your
list). But if you sometimes find the need to send one message to multiple
recipients, be extremely careful to use the blind CC. Leaving everyone’s
email address visible to all the recipients will anger many and lead
the rest to mistrust that you’ll safeguard any of their personal
information.
5. Make sure your business email can get through to you.
In your effort to reduce the amount of spam you receive, make sure
your aren’t eliminating business email. Avoid e-mail accounts that
filter spam for and find your own effective spam filter that lets you
decide what is and isn’t spam. You need to make sure your business
email gets through. In many cases your ISP email or one of the popular
free email services will likely be heavily filtered at the server. If
you don’t have a website that includes several email addresses
consider purchasing another domain name and hosting service for your
business email and make sure the hosting company allows you to turn
off all filtering at the server level.
Those are just a few tips to help you communicate more efficiently
online. If you’re new to the Internet you’ll want to do a
little research on “netiquette.” You’ll find tips about
online shorthand and emoticons (icons that indicate expressions like
smiling and frowning), information on “flaming” (angry or
insulting personal attacks), and simple conventions like typing in all
caps is considered shouting.
Communicating online is very different from communicating in person.
With just a little effort your online communication can become efficient
and effective.
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This article is available for reprint as long as the entire resource box is included
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About the author: Linda Stacy owns and manages a unique service connecting
network marketing business owners with potential team members through
instant online chats. Visit
iRepNetwork.com for tips and tools to help you generate leads and build
your team.
http://www.irepnetwork.com
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