Thursday, August 15, 2013

Netiquette in forewarding invitations - avoid taking this for granted!



Netiquette in forwarding invitations


Considerable care and thought should always be given to forwarding invitations. Core etiquette and Netiquette principles maintain almost sacrosanct adherence to avoid misusing the privacy of communications. If a situation is presented where an invitee wishes to add someone to a private meeting, social event, or other gathering, there are a number of steps that should be taken:


1. Seek permission of the inviter (original sender).

2. Determine who should be on the distribution list.

3. Copy the original invitee.

4. Remove unnecessary threads, but keep confidentiality clauses and disclaimers.

5. Identify that this is a forwarded document.

6. Ask the recipient not to forward the document, or attach a legal notice, if necessary.
 7. Never assume a sender will approve of forwarding correspondence.

8. Do not forward documents if under nondisclosure or confidentiality agreements.
9. Never add controversial, discriminatory, or derogatory comments
to the basic text.
10. Explain briefly and clearly to the recipient why the invitation is
being forwarded. One should be mindful that some people will be offended because they were not original invitees.
11. One may be selective in showing a full list of invitees, depending on any number of reasons, including size of the list, possible effect on attendance, specific instructions, or any number of other reasons.

Hello:
This meeting invitation is being forwarded to you with permission of (invitee). We both agreed you were inadvertently omitted from the initial list. Kindly excuse this oversight.
 
Sincerely,

Paul J. Babicki
Tabula Rosa Systems
609 8181802 office
609 462 8031 cell
www.tabularosa.net 

 ====================

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


In addition to this blog, I maintain a radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.



I am the president of Tabula Rosa Systems, a “best of breed” reseller of products for communications, email, network management software, security products and professional services.  Also, I am the president of Netiquette IQ. We are currently developing an email IQ rating system, Netiquette IQ, which promotes the fundamentals outlined in my book.



Over the past twenty-five years, I have enjoyed a dynamic and successful career and have attained an extensive background in IT and electronic communications by selling and marketing within the information technology marketplace.Anyone who would like to review the book and have it posted on my blog or website, please contact me paul@netiquetteiq.com.

If you have not already done so, please view the trailer for my book below. 

Monday, August 12, 2013

International Netiquette - What everyone should know



International email


        Billions of email users are generating a volume of more than 500 billion messages per day in 2013. Clearly a significant percentage of these are international. Netiquette considerations within a country are expanded when communicating globally. These considerations include the following:

  1. Time zones
  2. Terms of address
  3. Holidays and holy days
  4. Acronyms, idioms, colloquialisms, and special names (slang)
  5. Translations
  6. Culture
  7. Politics, humor sensitivities
  8. Censoring
  9. Formats of date and time
Many particulars in communication are far harder or nearly impossible to convey via email. With foreign emails, these subtleties and differences are more numerous. What may be standard knowledge or normal behavior in one country is unacceptable, confusing, or even insulting in others.

Time zones

Although most recipients understand that differences in time dictate when a message will be received, delays will typically be more numerous and pronounced. If immediate answers are required, the sender and recipient should accommodate time-zone differences.

        For example, the time difference between London and New York is five hours. If a sender in New York wishes to send a message and receive a same-day reply, this action should be taken early in the morning. The closer to early afternoon an email is sent, the less likely a full-cycle email transaction can take place.

Therefore, if the New York emailer sends a message at 1:00 p.m. EST, on a Friday, it is reasonable to assume he will not read the reply until Monday afternoon (or Tuesday afternoon, if the Monday is a holiday). If an email, such as a videoconference invitation, is sent to several different international invitees, it should be done so with probably two days’ notice in order to allow for ample time for everyone to reply.

        One should also be mindful of religious and national holidays in the country where the message is being sent. Additionally, one should make the recipient aware if a holiday is going to fall in the sender’s country when time issues are important. There are numerous lists of international holidays available. Microsoft Outlook provides one, and two Internet sources are www.cftech.com and when-is.com.

        Acronyms can be doubly confusing to out-of-country contacts. When using any acronyms with an overseas recipient, it is critical to identify what the acronym stands for, particularly if it involves a technical entity or domestic organization.
 ====================

Remember you can subscribe to receiving
notifications when new blogs are posted:
http://netiquetteiq.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
 
If you found value in this blog, please reference it in your social media network!

We will be publishing a book on Netiquette shortly entitled "NetiquetteIQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". 
Also there will be an email "IQ" test on our website:

#Paul Babicki
#Serkan Gecmen
serkan@netiquetteiq.com

Happy emailing and good Netiquette!
 #email