Netiquette 101: The Twenty Commandments of Email

Every form of social engagement has unwritten rules. Many of these rules we follow without even realizing it: No one would show up to a meeting in their pajamas, though the No-PJ rule isn't listed anywhere. But many of these rules are not only unwritten but also unclear. These are challenging social waters to navigate, and failure to navigate well can at least lead to embarrassment and worst lead to the rule breaker being ostracized.

Online social engagement is no different. There are obvious carry-over rules from our face-to-face lives - meeting in PJs not amongst them - but there are new and emerging rules unique to each medium, be it email, Facebook, blogs, Twitter, e-auction sites, etc.

For this issue of "B-Sides," we will concentrate on email. But look for netiquette covering other areas of our cyber lives in future issues.

Twenty Commandments of Email

1. Compose your emails using written-word conventions like paragraphs and sentences, punctuation and appropriate capitalization. Seems obvious, but it isn't. Long paragraphs of unpunctuated, lower-cased, run-on sentences on the screen fatigue readers and inhibit comprehension.
2. If you are using company email, they literally own your emails and can keyword filter or all-out read any correspondence. Don't forget that. Ever.
3. Never, ever send chain emails. They are strictly forbidden. And be sure those receiving your joke emails actually want to receive them. And there's no need to inform the universe about the virus threat. You're not the only one that knows.
4. Don't send large files (a megabyte or more) unsolicited. And when you do send large files, compress them first. In fact, reconsider attaching anything not needed by the receiver.
5. Use TO, CC and BCC correctly. When sending a broadcast email, place recipients in BCC. But avoid using BCC unless it is clear to your recipient audience you have done so.
6. Accidentally using "Reply All" with snarky comments intended for one recipient can be devastating. But it happens far more often than it should.
7. Using email to avoid social interaction is lazy. Using it to deliver bad news is inconsiderate and cowardly.
8. Re-read your email before hitting "send." Again, re-read your email before hitting "send."
9. Email has none of the nuances that can convey subtle tones like sarcasm. So, avoid it. But emoticons can be great signals for joking. I know, it makes you feel childish. Get over yourself. :-P
10. Do not edit forwarded copy. It is permitted to respond within the original copy, but be sure to clearly differentiate between the original and response. Italics, bold or even another color text works well.
11. Writing in the sixteen-point, pink Comic Sans font is actually obnoxious, not cute.
12. Be sure the subject of the email relates to the body.
13. Never send abusive or heated emails. If you are upset, wait 24 hours before shooting off an email. If you receive an angry email, just ignore it for at least 24 hours.
14. If your emails are automatically appended with a signature, keep it to six lines of 70 characters.
15. If you subscribe to a listserv and leave town, thus turning on auto-reply, exclude the listserv from the auto-reply.
16. Replying to an old email, rather than starting a new one, when you want to contact someone is not the best idea.
17. Really, really, really think about it before you turn on the feature that allows you to see when people have opened or read your emails.
18. Wrapping URLs in angle texts is preferable for email tidiness. <www.likethis.com/seehowcleanitlooks.html>
19. Respond promptly to emails. But if you don't get the same courtesy, don't start nagging. "Did you get my email?" emails will likely not get a response. Try calling.
20. Do not read people's private emails. I hope this one is obvious.

A-Train Update

The dog days of summer have been busy ones for us. In July, A-Train staff volunteered at the Education & Life Training Center's Pack2School. Our art czarina, Susanna Dominguez, painted the faces of school children, while the rest of us helped outfit K-9 students with backpacks and all the supplies needed to confidently board the bus on the first day. Seeing all the smiles reminded us how truly exciting a notebook can be.

Also in July, Ryan and Gretchen celebrated their 10-year anniversary, and our account manager, James, welcomed a son into the world - a big one. Gabriel James Gurley was born on July 26, weighing in at a whopping 10 lbs 11 oz.

Looking ahead, A-Train will have a booth at Northern Colorado Business Report's Bixpo 2009 at the Embassy Suites in Loveland on September 17. We're not releasing details, but it's going to be a great show, nothing at Bixpo will beat it. So, come down to the A-Train Bixpo booth and tune in to what we're up to.
Case study
Washouse

Creative Campaign Concept and Integrated Marketing Communications

The Challenge:

The brainchild of a local entrepreneur/business consultant husband and wife team, Greg & Joy Fuhrman, the Washouse was conceived as a customer- friendly reinvention of the outmoded self-service laundry. Still in its final design phase, the venture promised an inviting atmosphere, Starbucks® coffee, industry-leading, high-efficiency equipment, and one- stop coinless convenience for self-service and drop-off wash & fold laundry and dry cleaning services.

With less than three months before the Washouse was slated to open its doors, the Fuhrmans came to A-Train with the questions, "How do we make our main college student market understand how great the Washouse will be?" and "How can we make our marketing activities all work together to create a strong brand?"

The Solution:

• Develop a creative campaign concept that takes market-appropriate risks to generate buzz among a student population.
• Engage local university students in a focus group, using outcomes to further define core audiences and create audience-specific brand messaging within a 12-month marketing plan.
• Develop and execute an integrated marketing communications strategy to reach each audience segment and also promote a unified Washouse brand.
• Conduct public relations and advertising campaigns to generate brand awareness and promote the Washouse's grand opening.

The Results:

• Delivered a budget conscious marketing plan focused on grand opening promotions and driving first-time customer traffic to the Washouse.
• Designed a logo and an integrated series of marketing materials, including print advertising, online, collateral materials, targeted indoor display advertising, and more to communicate the Washouse message on an audience-specific level, while using common design elements to create a consistent, memorable brand identity.
• Conceived and implemented a successful, audience-relevant campaign concept that brought a playful approach through advertising hooks such as "Like a quickie ...for your laundry," "Like your mom, only easier," and "Your clothes won't want to go home."
• Strategized a highly successful on-site photo shoot/focus group that brought members of the public to the Washouse to take part in a modeling contest for photos to be used in future advertising.
• Acquired coverage by multiple media channels through targeted media relations pitches.

Reference: Greg Fuhrman, Owner / 970-267-9274


In The Know

Kate Hawthorne has had a long, storied career in journalism. It's truly impressive, but you wouldn't gather that from how she describes it.

"I've been trashing around the edges of Denver journalism for 30 years," she says.

This statement says more about her sense of humor than her experience. And if she truly was "around the edges" before, she is now in the center of Northern Colorado media as the editor of Northern Colorado Business Report.

Hawthorne graduated with a degree in journalism from Ohio University in the mid-'70s, a time when newspapers' relevance was not in question and most journalists were still society's watchdogs, not celebrity muckrakers and conveyers of political talking points. In other words, Hawthorne is old school, an approach, she says, she takes with NCBR.

"We do it old school, if you will. Part of that is the phenomenal reporters we have," she says. "I have never had a substantial complaint about accuracy."

Hawthorne took the editorial helm of NCBR this past spring, when longtime, on-and-off editor Tom Hacker departed. Previously, she had worked under Hacker as the business journal's managing editor, a position with little recognition but lots of influence on the paper's content. But her connections to NCBR, as with handfuls of the area's most prominent publications, go way back.

When Hawthorne graduated college, times were similar to what they are now: College grads couldn't find work in their field. So, she bought a Greyhound Ameripass celebrating the bicentennial and escaped her East Coast roots to "ecotopia" in Oregon, passing through Denver for a sunburn in March that lasted if only in her mind. She soon returned.

After various jobs including a stint at the University of Denver, Hawthorne finally found what she was looking for at King Soopers. No, not in the produce department, in a newsstand out front. The alt-weekly Westword had recently launched, and Hawthorne recalls an in-house ad that struck her.

"I thought, 'These guys are crazy,'" she recalls. "I wrote the first fan letter, ever."

She began freelancing for the paper, which lead to her copy editing and proofreading, essentially as an associate editor.

Her pathway from then to now is a maze of names, dates and publications, many of which no longer exist. (She says she has had a habit of changing employers every two years, until now.) Hearing her tell the tale, you gain a sense of Hawthorne's encyclopedic mind, capturing stories and connections that ultimately show the interconnectedness of the folks working in Colorado media.

Somewhere along that maze, however, is a stop at the Denver Business Journal. At the time, Chris Wood was managing editor and Jeff Nuttall was in sales. Fifteen years ago, the duo left to launch Northern Colorado Business Report.

Wood is now at the Boulder Business Report and Nuttall is publisher at NCBR. The paper is now controlled by Ohio-based Brown Publishing Company.

Kate says that for newspapers to survive in a world that seems determined to shut them down, they have to increase their local relevance. And not in a "citizen journalist" way, which she calls B.S. Instead, they must take the approach that NCBR takes, by covering local people, local organizations and local issues, from a local's perspective.

"Our editorial staff is local," she says. "These folks are really intimate with the community. I don't want to read about growing tomatoes in Memphis."

For those interested in getting coverage in NCBR, she has some advice and some questions:

Advice for pitching your story to NCBR:

1. Remember, the paper is business to business, not consumer oriented.
2. Award notices, calendar items, announcements and the like should go to Noah Guillaume, nguillaume@ncbr.com.
3. Emails are good. Following up to check if email was received is not good.

Three questions to ask yourself before you call or email:

1. Is your business plan different?
2. Are you making money where others aren't?
3. Have you solved a business problem?