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Didn't you get my email - part 2This continues the column from the 13th 2. Remember that the message may not get read for a while. Just because you have nothing to do except sit at a desk and read and write emails all day doesn't mean that they have the same sweet gig. Even though email gets there instantly (well, sort of), don't assume that your reader is hovering over their computer, constantly checking email and waiting for yours to arrive. They might be on vacation, they might be having trouble logging into their computer, the network might be down, or they might be out of the office. Or they just might be trying to get some real work done. I personally try to make it a rule never to do email between 9am and 4pm. So getting a same day response from me is a dicey proposition. Similarly, I avoid expecting an email answer in less than 48 hours. Do not consider email to be a form of instant communication. It is merely a form of paperless memo writing that gets prepared and delivered faster and more efficiently. It doesn't mean it gets read faster. It can save a tremendous amount of time (unless you're getting 100 messages a day), but it is not the only form of communication available. If you're looking for instant communication, and you don't need the cover-your-butt documentation that email provides, there is this little device on your desk - you may remember it - it's called a telephone. 3. Subscribe to a couple of newsletter services or email lists. Even if you don't read them, they can be a useful test of your Internet provider. If you miss a day, you might have a problem and you can investigate. But if you don't have a regular source of emails that you expect every day, you may miss several days worth of email messages without even realizing it. 4. Avoid having your message get lost in the noise. You might think this means using a subject that includes "Read this!" or "Hi from your old buddy!" Nope. These are actual subject lines from spam that I've received. And I hit the delete key before I even read them. I did look at the sender's email address and didn't recognize it, so I felt pretty safe. Create a subject that really describes the subject of your message and send it from an email address that they're familiar with. If you've decided that, from now on you're going to use Hotmail for personal email, instead of "mary.jones@jones.com", then make it recognizable. Don't make it "jones999a45b@hotmail.com". Would your recipient recognize it as you if your subject was "Hi there!"? Trust me, it'll get deleted. Instead, you might use "maryjones5@hotmail.com" with a subject of "Jim - I've changed my email address." 5. Beware of generic email addresses, like info@gadwall.com or webmaster@joeblow.net. You should try to find a specific address for a specific individual. Sometimes generic addresses are checked - but sometimes they get stale. If you're looking at a web page and that is the only address you have, use it. But also call the 800 number if you really need to get in touch. Or write them a letter. If they don't give you a number or a postal address, I wouldn't do business with the company anyway. 6. Avoid putting too much information into one message. I've made this mistake many times, and still make it. Email must have been invented in the land of the people-with-short-attention-spans. By its very nature, people tend to think of email as delivering little, digestible packets of information. They're not expecting tomes and they're not expecting any additional topics besides what you put in your subject line. So, if you've got lots to say and multiple topics to cover, consider separate messages. I've had people, more than once, bury an important point in an otherwise pretty worthless email message that I just skimmed. If you've got something important to say, give the subject its own "packet." Remember that there are other forms of communication. I saw a posting on an email list the other day asking for the email address of a company, so that the poster could contact them. Uh, there are other ways to communicate. There's the phone, fax and that old reliable - the US Mail. Don't focus on only the online modes of communication. They aren't reliable and, in many cases, there are faster ways of getting in touch.
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