Email Etiquette
Written by Jeff Wilson on March 9, 2013 – 2:50 pm -Out of all the Internet activities that people do, email is probably the most important yet undervalued resource at your disposal. Close to 88% of all Internet users in the U.S. use email. This statistic comes from a UCLA Internet Report. This same survey states that 90% of those use it for business purposes.
Out of all of the years I have been in this business, I have found most people, not all, but most could improve on their email skills or email Etiquette. Unfortunately there is no “written guide” or “book of laws” that govern the use of email, if there was then we would not have spam – wouldn’t that be nice? But there are a number of things to keep in mind when emailing for business.
- Use a business email address. If you get an email from sexymom.isp.com, would you take it serious? Enough said.
- STOP!! Turn your ‘caps lock’ off! YOU DON’T WANT TO SOUND LIKE YOUR SHOUTING.
- Keep it short and clean. Don’t go on and on and on and on, (eh sorry) and not get to the point, most people are not reading a book, just a message so get to the point. Your email will be more readily read if you keep it concise yet descriptive but remember to be polite at the same time.
- Be Polite. Make use of the most powerful 3 words in the business – “Thank You” and “Please”. They a greatly under rated and more importantly under used and goes a long way with emails
- Were you joking? It is important to remember that your email does not reflect your tone of voice or facial expressions so choose your words carefully and make sure you don’t offend someone.
- HUH? Don’t use shorthand or whatever people call it. Business is business and it is important to convey professionalism so don’t use ” Can U plz send.. “ in the place of “Can you please send..”. Don’t assume everyone understands this shorthand just because you do.
- Proof Read. Make sure you don’t have glaring errors or poor grammer, although I have never been known for mine. Just double check your wording and spelling quickly BEFORE clicking the send button – it’s a little late to do it after the fact.
- Did you get my email? I can’t tell you how many times I have emailed a client or colleague and never received a response. Now I am not saying that every email requires a response, though anything important should. I would email a vendor with a problem and never get a response yet the problem did get fixed. The issue here is NOT that there was a problem, but there was no one on the other end to let me know they were working on it. If find that my clients respond well to problems if they know I am working on it. So let people know that something is happening with their request.
I am not stating that I am a certified expert on this topic, but I am conveying my findings of years using the Internet and email. Keep common sense when using your email and use good manners and you will find your emails will be much more effective for you.
>>Jeff Wilson is a web developer with SBM Systems since 1998 based in Birmingham Alabama.
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Would you want this TV?
Written by chuck on March 2, 2013 – 12:26 pm -Click here to see a very large outdoor TV!
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How does the Internet work?
Written by chuck on February 23, 2013 – 3:38 pm -There and Back Again: A Packet’s Tale – How does the Internet work?
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Six hamburgers a minute
Written by chuck on January 27, 2013 – 7:00 pm -Less employees and less health insurance to pay!
A San Francisco based company called Momentum Machines have developed a new type of robotic assembly line that can produce approximately 360 hamburgers every hour.
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Meet the world’s lightest metal
Written by Ed on November 18, 2012 – 11:05 pm -World’s Lightest Material
The microlattice is the lightest metal ever created and could lead to the development of new Boeing products and the way those products are manufactured (Boeing photo).
It’s 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and a thousand times thinner than a human hair, yet amazingly strong and rigid.
Called the metallic microlattice, it is the lightest metal ever created, and its discovery could be as important as the laser or the semiconductor.
Scientists in Malibu, California, at HRL Laboratories, jointly owned by Boeing and General Motors, created the material and process, which they believe could revolutionize the way airplanes, cars and even buildings are constructed.
This month, Popular Mechanics magazine named the microlattice as one of 10 World-Changing Innovations for 2012.
“We’re creating the next-generation of lightweight materials, and what we’re trying to do is incorporate design into the material itself,” said Alan Jacobsen, Microlattice inventor and Sr. Scientist, HRL Labs. “So just like you’d design a skyscraper or the frame of the 787, here we’re designing the material. You decide what properties you want, and then you design the materials for the particular properties.”
According Jacobsen, the creation of the microlattice allows for deliberate manipulation of base materials to achieve customized, bulk properties in ways never imagined. In other words, it allows for architecting materials currently available to make them more useful resulting in better products.
The ultra light metallic microlattice is formed from a plastic-like polymer template that’s thinly coated with a substance, such as nickel. Once coated, the lattice is chemically dissolved away leaving a hollow metal tube structure that has the properties of nickel but is extraordinarily lightweight.
According to Bill Carter, Architected Materials manager at HRL Labs, the process to produce the microlattice template is neither complicated nor time consuming.
Researchers begin with a bath of resin that can be hardened using ultraviolet (UV) light. A mask with small holes is placed over the bath, where each hole is able to allow light to pass. Ultraviolet light is then shone on the mask. Where it passes through each hole the liquid underneath hardens. Researchers can shine UV light through holes at different angles to create unique lattice structures with desired properties.
Because the resulting lattice material is hollow, liquid can be run through it to give it additional thermal properties.
For Boeing, the creation of the ultra-light metallic microlattice, from a polymer template, opens the door for numerous potential uses, including lightweight airplane construction, acoustic management and thermal absorption.
“This invention may allow us to construct a one-piece, single structure unmanned aerial vehicle,” said Gail Taylor-Smith, Boeing HRL technical director. “With mechanical properties that allow the substance to flex, we might one day be able to compress space systems to reduce deployed volume, but once in orbit could be expanded to normal size, like a pop-up satellite.”
Additionally, because the microlattice can be manipulated and produced and reproduced quickly, it’s optimal for rapid manufacturing.
“We could also have mass customization with this material and fabricate directly on the line,” Taylor-Smith said. “It will be easy and low cost to make adjustments on the fly. It’s amazing.”
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Great Facebook url-links
Written by chuck on October 8, 2012 – 11:04 am -Click here for: Useful Facebook URLs or Links that Your Should Bookmark
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Corning Glass – The end of the computers as we know it
Written by chuck on September 16, 2012 – 9:02 am -This is a very interesting video and may soon be very true. But there is a major mistake in the video that would never happen. Do you see it?
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High-Speed Amphibious All-Terrain Vehicle: The Scamander
Written by Ed on June 17, 2012 – 10:49 pm -Posted in Technology | No Comments »
This is amazing. Segway look out….!
Written by Ed on June 3, 2012 – 11:04 pm -Honda’s going to make a fortune with this!
<http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=cuIJRsAuCHQ>
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Levitating car announced in China
Written by Ed on May 12, 2012 – 2:00 pm -Posted in Technology | No Comments »