sebastian troen

Dear Fellow MBA’ers,

After spending 8 months with you kicking butt and taking names, I feel like I have to point out a few things about how you use email. Why? Because although we’ve learned a ton about how to calculate net present values and when using archetypes in marketing can be effective, we’ve never been given a simple lesson in how to use email effectively (and I can’t in good conscience let you leave the program without at least trying to edumacate you about a few things):

1. Only use Reply All when you want everyone to actually receive your message. On a mailing list of 125 people, I guarantee you that not everyone needs to see your message about finding a project partner or your super witty reply intended for the initial sender. No, really… we don’t!

2. Use spell check before hitting “Send”. Even better, most email clients allow you to turn it on to check as you type. Most people are somewhat forgiving about grammar, especially with non-native speakers, but in today’s world there’s no excuse for not spell checking your emails.

3. Change your email settings so your email shows your full name. When glancing at my inbox, the goal is to know who the message is from based only on the “From” field. If I have to open the message, or worse yet read the entire message, to know who it’s from then there’s a problem.

4. Subject lines are meant to be clear indicators of what the message is about and why I should read it. Be very clear and don’t be afraid to use a longer subject line. We all have widescreen monitors these days, odds are that you’ll run out of words to put in your subject line before my screen runs out of real estate. Bonus: you can set up smart filters based on subject line keywords.

5. When replying to an email make sure the original message is quoted below so it’s clear what you are replying to. Email is supposed to facilitate communication but if I have to dig around in my sent box to see what you are replying to then there’s a problem.

Why am I writing this post? Because email is the primary communication tool that we’ll be using out there in the “real world” and none of us like having our inbox filled with useless messages. In addition, poor use of email reflects poorly on you and you didn’t rock this MBA program just to undermine yourself with poor emailing.

(Note: I’m not implying that I haven’t made these mistakes myself, but I do try to follow these best practices as much as possible.)

Thanks to Seth Godin for his thoughts on the subject.

What email practices do you dislike or would like to see improved?

Those of you who are slowly switching all your online communications from email to Facebook messages (like I have), take note. Facebook has been caught censoring messages. And not unauthorized spam either, but rather messages from one user to another that includes a link to torrent files.

Now it gets tricky for Facebook because torrent files aren’t actually illegal in and of themselves, in fact they are often used for the sharing of legal information (as well as lots of sharing of illegal content), but Facebook claims to have the right to sniff out links that it finds to be dubious.

Where this gets tricky is that Facebook is quickly becoming the de facto messaging standard on the web. I read somewhere awhile back that Facebook messages now account for more messages than web-based email services, such as Gmail and Hotmail. That’s dangerous if and when Facebook decides to act as ‘Big Brother’. At least with public email, I can send my friends anything I want, without worry that Google is going to block my messages.

It’s a slipper slope and it’ll be interesting to see how Facebook manages this situation. Meanwhile, don’t close that Gmail account just yet.

Facebook’s E-mail Censorship is Legally Dubious, Experts Say | Epicenter.